Disclaimer: All characters other than some friendly nurses don't belong to me.
Warnings: I don't know for sure yet but there might be some swearing in the next few chapters so I'm rating it to be sure.
This fanfiction will be set in the Iron Man 1 movie, I hope I find the inspiration to continue it through the second movie and the avengers. If there are things unclear don't hesitate to ask me about them in a review, I'll always try to answer them.
So I now proudly present Life isn't always fair! Chapter 11
"Tony!" yelled the father trying to reach the kid, but a gun to both his head and Alan's made him stop. "Let my son go." Begged the billionair. "He's ill, he needs oxygen or he dies."
The leader said something and Alan's face was pushed under water. After ten seconds he was pulled up for air only to be pushed under again.
"Tell him I do everything he ask, just leave my son out of it." Tony begged and the other man translated. Alan was thrown at him and he cradled him in his arms. Two man pulled Tony up and bound his hands together. The sack was placed over his head again and the last thing he saw was the other prisoner lifting Alan up, looking him over for injuries.
They walked through caves he couldn't see, Tony could only hold on to his battery as he was pushed and dragged at the same time.
The bag was removed and he had to blink a few time to get used to the light. The other prisoner handed him Alan and took the battery from Tony so he was carrying both batteries of father and son. Alan was softly sobbing and Tony started bouncing him up and down. "I'll try with everything I can to get you out of here alive. Okay, you just hold on. You'll get out of here." He whispered in Alan's ear.
The leader stopped and said something.
"He wants to know what you think." Translated his fellow prisoner.
"I think you got a lot of my weapons." Mumbled Tony, keeping Alan pressed against him.
The man walked around him babbling what could have been nonsense but the other translated it again. "He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make the list of materials. He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you and you're son free."
The leader held out his hand and smiled. Tony smiled back, accepting the handshake. "No, he won't."
"No, he won't." agreed the translator.
The leader couldn't understand him and only smiled. Tony looked around, seeing all the guards armed with his weapons.
Back in their large cell, the other prisoner made a fire while Tony looked Alan over. Alan had a same sort magnet in his chest and several cuts that required stiches. "They made my lungs better daddy." Yawned Alan sleepy. "I don't need my superman pack."
"I repaired them," nodded the other prisoner. "It was difficult but I believe I repaired the heart walls and removed the tissue damage on the lungs. I wonder why they didn't remove the scar tissue before. It might be a dangerous operation but he wouldn't have to be on oxygen constantly."
"Hmm." Hummed Alan leaning to his father and closing his eyes.
"Thank you." Mumbled Tony, looking down on Alan's face, relaxed and innocent in his sleep.
The prisoner came closer now Alan was asleep. "I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers. No son to remember you as the man you really are, you'll be remembered by the weapons you made. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?"
"Why should I do anything?" asked Tony, he bundled Alan into a blanket, tracing the pale cheek with his fingers. "They're going to kill me, you, my son, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week."
"Well, then, this is a very important week for you, isn't it?"
Tony started making demands the next morning. People were walking in and out, carrying supplies and furniture in. "If this is going to be my work station, I want it well-lit. I want these up. I need welding gear. I don't care if it's acetylene or propane. I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I'm gonna need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools. And most important I wand some toys, a book and even more important a bed for my son." Tony demanded, keeping Alan on his hip. The prisoner had trouble translating everything Tony said because of the rapid list.
An hour after lunch, everything was build and ready. Alan was placed on a bed with and school book for Afghanis children to learn English, so he could learn new languages. There were blocks and colouring books too where he could play with but he was content with learning.
Tony was focused on the missile and since there was no music to distract him he tried to hold a conversation. "How many languages do you speak?"
"A lot. But apparently, not enough for this place." Said the other. "They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian."
"Who are these people?" asked Tony pulling out the mechanism from the other.
"They are your loyal customers, sir." The other said. Tony raised an eyebrow. "They call themselves the Ten Rings."
They felled back into silence, fully aware that they were being watched.
"You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process." The other said.
Tony hummed pulling another mechanism from the rocket. With a small tweezers he pulled out what he needed throwing the remaining of the mechanism away. "Okay, we don't need this."
"What is that?" asked the other.
"That's palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 3.2, so why don't you go break down the other 22?"
"Can I help daddy?" Alan's nose barely reached the top of the table and his fingers were just over the edge of the top.
"You need to stay with your battery Tony 2." Said Tony, "But you can mix this for me and place it in the two shapes I'll hand you so I can help the other man."
"Okay." Said Alan happy to help.
"Are you certain it's wise to let someone so young help?" whispered the other.
"He helps a lot in the workshop at home." Said Tony proud. "He gets that from me."
"I thought he was adopted."
"Yes, but I believe he was always meant for me." Said Tony looking back. "Fate works in mysterious ways."
After dinner and Alan was sleeping, they started to melt the chemicals in the fire.
"Careful." Mumbled Tony, "Careful, we only get one shot at this."
The other smiled. "Relax. I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?" He poured the palladium in the mix Alan made before grabbing the other from the fire and repeating it with another.
"What do I call you?" asked Tony. "I can't keep calling you fellow prisoner or the other."
"My name is Yinsen."
"Yinsen. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too." Smiled Yinsen. With the tweezers Tony pulled the new formed ring of palladium. Tony kept working the whole night, not wanting Alan close to these chemicals.
It was getting close to the morning when Tony sat starring to two blue circled lights. "That doesn't look like a Jericho missile." Said Yinsen
"That's because it's a miniaturized arc reactor. I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart, and make sure Alan Anthony's heart keeps beating."
"But what could it generate?"
"If my math is right, and it always is," bragged Tony. "Both are good for three gigajoules per second."
"That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes." Said Yinsen in awe.
"Yeah. Or something big for 15 minutes." Tony pulled out some thin papers, laid over each other under a light, one large machine became visible. "This is our ticket out of here."
Yinsen looked through narrowed eyes. "What is it?
"Flatten them out and look." There was a clear robot now.
"Oh, wow. Impressive." Mumbled Yinsen.
Tony demanded that they would test the new arc-reactor on him first. In case it went wrong, Yinsen promised to look after Alan and bring him home to Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Everything worked out and Tony softly woke Alan for breakfast and placed the second reactor on the small chest himself.
"It's kind of cool, even better than my superman pack." Announced Alan looking at his glowing chest. Even through his shirt they could see the blue light. "So I don't have to go through surgery anymore?"
"No, this can keep your heart beating until you're older than Obie." Grinned Tony.
"I don't want to be that old." Said Alan with his nose wrinkled. "I don't want to lose my hair."
Tony pulled Alan close, tickling the soft sides. "But what if I'm still there?"
"Well maybe." Said Alan. "But you have to promise you're there."
"I will."
During the day, the trio worked on the machine. Alan loved his job of getting stuff the others needed and looking at his dad who explained what ad why he was doing something.
After dinner, Tony either made up a story or softly sang Alan to sleep. Then they worked on dangerous tasks, after they were done the adults played a game of Backgammon.
"Good roll. Good roll." Complimented Yinsen.
Tony smiled moving his stones. "You still haven't told me where you're from."
"I'm from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place." Yinsen said picking up the dices.
"Got a family?"
"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here." Yinsen smiled. "And you, Stark? Is there a mother in Alan Anthony's life?"
"No, it's just me and my boy." Answered Tony, looking around to see the peaceful sleeping child.
"No? what about his aunt and uncles he talks so much about?"
"They work for me, before I got Alan I wasn't the best person in the world. They only like me now I've changed into Alan Anthony's father figure. If he dies, I'll be alone again."
"You don't give them much credit. Maybe if you changed now, you can be this man without Alan Anthony."
"The only reason I've changed is because my son. It's really hard, not drinking, walking past woman, return home on time. I love my son more than anything in the world so I don't mind, but if I lose him, I'll be completely alone."
"So you're a man who has everything and nothing."
The work continued and soon there was a basic form of the suit.
One afternoon the door opened, Alan quickly hid under the bed as he had promised his dad when people entered their room.
The man walking forward was not the leader they had seen the other day. "Relax." The man said in English. He walked forward and traced Tony's arc reactor with his fingers. "The bow and arrow once was the pinnacle of weapons technology. It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire. But today, whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands. And soon, it will be my turn." He switched to another language and Yinsen answered. Yinsen was pushed to his knees. The leader pulled out a burning hot iron and said something to Yinsen.
"What does he want?" asked Tony painfully aware that his almost seven year old was watching from under the bed and had a good understanding of the language.
He was ignored and Yinsen's head was placed on an altar. The leader was yelling while Yinsen was repeating the same sentence.
"What do you want? A delivery date?" Tony took a step to the man and was immediately met with several guns aimed at him. "I need him. Good assistant."
The iron was placed near Yinsen's mouth. "You have till tomorrow to assemble my missile."
The group left and Alan raced up to Tony when the door closed. Burying his face in his father's neck while Yinsen sat back trying to control his breathing.
They had only one night to finish the suit.
The suit had two parts. The main part, build on Tony's size, and a front part for Alan. Alan's part didn't have arms or legs, he had to make himself as small as possible and sit quietly so that Tony could carry him out.
Yinsen was placing the suit on Tony at sunrise just out of sight from the camera, lifting a sleepy Alan in his box, Yinsen had sedated him to make it easier for the little one. "Okay? Can you move?" Yinsen asked, he only got a determent nod from the Stark CEO. "Okay, say it again."
"41 steps straight ahead. Then 16 steps, that's from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right." Droned Tony.
"Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!" someone was punching the door.
"Say something." Hissed Tony. "Say something back to him."
"He's speaking Hungarian. I don't..." Yinsen looked at the door.
"Then speak Hungarian."
Yinsen looked around in panic. "Okay. I know."
"What do you know?" asked Tony but Yinsen was already yelling back. The men were yelling some more until they tried to open the door. Tony had booby-trapped it and it exploded the moment they pulled.
"How'd that work?" asked Tony.
Yinsen looked and winced. "Oh, my goodness. It worked all right."
"That's what I do." Grinned Tony.
"Let me finish this." Yinsen turned back to the suit but Tony shook his head.
"Initialize the power sequence."
"Okay." Yinsen looked at the computer.
Tony heard the others coming. "Now!"
"Tell me. Tell me."
"Function 11. Tell me when you see a progress bar. It should be up right now. Talk to me. Tell me when you see it."
"I have it." said Yinsen.
"Press Control "l"."
"I. Got it."
"I. Enter." Tony repeated. "l and Enter. Come over here and button me up." The shouts were getting louder. "Every other hex bolt." Said Tony.
"They're coming!" Yinsen started to panic
"Nothing pretty, just get it done." Coached Tony. "Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?"
"We need more time." Yinsen turned around slowly. "Hey, I'm gonna go buy you some time."
"Stick to the plan!" Tony looked upset but Yinsen ran out grabbing a gun on the way and shooting in the air. "Stick to the plan! Yinsen! Yinsen!"
The bar was full and every power source fell out. Tony tested his movement and smirked when one man walked up to him. The suit was bullet prove and Tony hit the upcoming terrorists as if they were annoying flies walking out slowly.
A door was blocked but three hits and it was gone. For a moment he was stuck but one tried to shoot him only to get the bullet reflected in his own head.
At the entrance of the cave he saw Yinsen lying in a pool of his own blood. "Yinsen!"
"Watch out!" coughed the man, and Tony could just in time jump out of the way of one of the missiles.
The man sending it was blown away by the backslash of the explosion and Tony hurried over to his companion.
"Stark." Smiled Yinsen.
Tony raised the visitor. "Come on. We got to go. Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it."
"This was always the plan, Stark." Yinsen wheezed. "I lived so I could safe you and you're son."
"Come on, you're gonna go see your family. Get up." Tony couldn't bow with Alan in the way. Thank god the kid was asleep.
"My family is dead. I'm going to see them now, Stark. It's okay. I want this. I want this."
"Thank you for saving me and my son." Said Tony, realising that Yinsen spoke the truth.
"Don't waste it. Don't waste your life." Yinsen said before he took one last shuddering breath. Tony refused to let the tears fall and placed his visitor down. Feeling over Alan's box to look for damage he found none so he rose up and walked out the cave ready for the final battle. A large group of men were waiting for him and bullets rebounded from the suit as they emptied their guns. Tony didn't move, he only wrapped his arms around the box for extra protection.
When they finally noticed that it had no effect they ceased fire.
"My turn." Tony said, from his hands a fire from a few feet long hit the terrorised and burred the camp to the ground, with his weapons.
A sniper started firing again and hit a weak spot at the knee, making him fall down. Several weapons, with no resistance to fire started to explode and Tony tried everything he could to protect the box while trying to hit the red button in his elbow.
Finally he succeeded and he was fired into the air.
Behind him the last weapons exploded near the explosive making it a chain reaction. One large mushroom of fire was send in the air while Tony was flying higher and higher until his fire run out. The ground was getting nearer and nearer and Tony turned around on his back to protect Alan as much as he could from the rough landing.
Partials from the suit were getting lose and then there was the crash.
It hurt horrible and Tony laid there for a second before he started pulling of parts to free himself and Alan. When he opened the box, two scared blue eyes looked at him before he was jumped by the small boy. Alan started sobbing in Tony's chest from fright, pain and relieve and Tony only pulled him close and cried along.
