I have NO clue how many chapters are left to go. But...here's another one! :)


Chapter Eleven

Tony's eyes snapped open. He was somewhere dark with small lights coming through tiny holes everywhere, and he could hear talking all around him. He finally focused his eyes on what was immediately in front of him. His head was in a woven bag. 'Great.' He thought sarcastically.

He could feel that his hands and legs were bound to what he was sitting on, apparently a chair. He could feel someone tugging on the bag down by his neck, and the next moment, his eyes were plagued with an extremely bright light. He squinted and looked around in a daze. Tony could just make out a video camera in front of him. He glanced to his left and right, finding men in disguises and pointing very large guns at him.

Realization hit him and his eyes widened. They were holding him ransom and sending this video back to Stark Industries. Obadiah would get it and find him for sure! Pepper would see it and-Pepper would see it.

'Oh man...I don't want Pepper to see this.' He thought miserably. He turned his eyes heavenward, giving a silent plea that someone from Stark Industries would receive this and pay the ransom.

The red light on the video camera turned off, signaling that they were done. Someone next to him shifted toward him and shoved a cloth with some kind of chemical on it right over his mouth and nose. He tried to hold his breath, and not breathe in whatever it was, but his sight grew fuzzy and he started to lose consciousness very quickly.

Tony woke up hours later, the first thing he could see was a bumpy, rocky looking ceiling. He turned over on his left side and felt something tug.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He heard a voice say. He turned back over and looked to his right. He could see some kind of box thing with a couple cords coming out of it. He grabbed one of the cords and followed it to where it led.

"When was the last time you charged that thing?" The man asked.

Tony was still staring at the box. "What the hell did you do to me?" He asked, his anger rising.

The man stopped shaving his face and flicked off the cream. "What I did? What I did was to save your life." He said.

He paused, turning toward Stark and making eye contact with him. "Your heart was failing you. Apparently that reactor in your chest wasn't doing its job."

Tony was puzzled. How did he know it was an arc reactor? He finally took a long look at the man standing over him. He recognized him from somewhere. But before he could say anything, there was pounding on the door.

"Stand up." He hissed, grabbing Tony's arm and pulling him upward. "Just do as I do." He looked at Tony, "Come on, put your hands up."

They both put their arms over their heads and the man next to him remained quiet as they entered the room.

The minute they entered, Tony remembered the missile that had landed only yards away from him back out on the road, and how it had said, "Stark Industries" on it. He squinted through the bad lighting and darkness at the guns they were holding.

"Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?" Tony asked blatantly.

"Do you understand me? Do as I do." The man next to him hissed again.

The men with guns stopped a few feet in front of them and started talking. Tony couldn't even understand what they were saying. He looked to the guy next to him in confusion.

"He says, 'Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer, in the history of America.' He is honored...he wants you to build the missile." The head guard handed the man next to Tony a picture. "The Jericho missile that you demonstrated."

Tony's mind was reeling. Where were they when he demonstrated this? Were they watching them the whole time? How did they know where they were demonstrating? Questions were buzzing through his head.

"I refuse." Was all Tony could say. No, of course he wasn't going to build that missile for them. They would destroy the entire United States of America.

The second he uttered his answer, the group of men grabbed him and dragged him away. The box that was connected to his arc reactor snapped off. He could feel a tug right above his heart, and then things seemed to slow down. He could no longer carry himself, he could barely use his own arms.

They hauled him over to a basin of water. His eyes widened, they were going to torture him until he said yes.

They shoved his face down in the water, and then when he thought he could no longer hold his breath, they pulled him out. They yelled something at him, something that seemed to end in a question. He knew what they were asking.

"No." He said. They forced him back down into the water and this time, more of his body went into the basin. Water lapped up against the arc reactor embedded in his chest. Normally, it wouldn't have effected him, since it was waterproof, but because the wires powering it had snapped off, it revealed two exposed circuits.

A spark went through the water, electrifying the basin. Tony could feel all the breath whoosh right out of him, then unintentionally sucked up water. He was going to die. He was going to drown in this stupid basin of water. "Tony!" He heard a voice. It sounded like Pepper. Was she in trouble? Was she here? Did he die and she was with him?

He woke up only moments later. They were yelling at him again. They yanked him off the ground and put some sort of bag over his head, leading him somewhere. As they walked, Tony counted their steps and kept track of the directions they took.

They ripped the woven bag off of his head and blinding light assaulted his eyes. He stumbled forward for a moment before his eyes finally adjusted. He looked around him, seeing the man that was with him in the cave near him. He saw all the crates of weapons and supplies, the men walking about, then he looked out over a wide valley. A crater. A very large crater, slowly being filled with windblown sand. An image of Gene flashed through his mind.

The man he was imprisoned with tapped his shoulder, "He wants to know what you think."

Tony took a deep breath, "I think you got a lot of my weapons." He said, trying to keep his anger down.

"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile." The man next to him translated. "He wants you to make the list of materials. He says for you to start working immediately." He paused, "And when you're done, he will set you free."

The head guard stuck his hand out to shake with Tony's, "No he won't." Tony said with a smile one his face. There was no way that Tony would make it out of here alive if he just gave them what they wanted.

"No he won't." His fellow prisoner repeated, also smiling.


Tony sat in the dank, dark dungeon of the cave. He had re-plugged the car battery into the arc reactor, which was now only working on half capacity, since it had been zapped in the water basin. This was going to be difficult.

"What's your name, anyway?" Tony asked.

"Yinsen." He replied.

"Thanks for keeping me alive." He said quietly, motioning toward the car battery.

"I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains."

A silence passed between them for a few moments before Yinsen looked back up at him, "Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work, in the hands of those...murderers! 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? They're going to kill me, you, either way." Tony was feeling horribly depressed with all the events of the day piling up on him. "And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week." Tony tapped his arc reactor. It was barely lit, and the energy capacity was slowly depleting, even with the car battery.

"Well then, this is a very important week for you, isn't it?" Yinsen said with a small smile on his face.

Maybe Tony and his new friend could make it out of this after all.

After telling the guards and other 'terrorists' what he needed to make the Jericho missile, he and Yinsen sat down for a break.

"How many languages do you speak?" Tony asked.

"A lot." He responded, "But apparently, not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian..."

"Who are these people?" Tony asked incredulously.

"They....are your loyal customers, sir." Yinsen said with a tight smile.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, who would be providing them with his weapons?

"They call themselves the Ten Rings." Yinsen said, just throwing that piece of information in sent Tony reeling.

"Excuse me?" Tony almost yelled.

Yinsen was genuinely surprised. "I said, they call themselves the Ten Rings..." He repeated, thinking Tony had misheard him.

"Are you sure?" Tony asked, his eyes wide.

"Yes, I am quite positive." Yinsen said with a nod.

"Why? Do you know why?"

Yinsen thought for a moment, "Well...I've heard bits and pieces of a silly legend of some kind, Ten Rings of power...apparently they claim they existed, but when they were all put together, the wearer, their leader, was killed by the intense power..." He trailed off, wearing a small smile on his face. "I'm not so sure I believe it. They claim it was at least ten years ago that this happened."

Tony put his face in his hands. He could not believe how ironic this was. "The Rings were real..." Tony whispered.

Yinsen's eyebrows went up in a high arc, creating wrinkles and lines on his forehead. "And you know that...how?" He asked skeptically.

"Because I was there when it happened." Tony said, feeling the pain of regret and remorse filling him.

Yinsen had no idea what to say, "You were there? What happened?" He was clearly surprised and extremely curious.

Tony proceeded to tell him his story, starting when he was sixteen.


Pepper had slept from seven in the morning until two in the afternoon. She awoke abruptly. "Tony!" She yelled, looking around.

No Tony.

Tears started to form in her eyes. No Tony. That meant that what she thought was a horrifying dream, was actually reality.

The tears spilled over as she laid back down on the couch that she had fallen asleep on and cried.

This was Pepper's routine for quite awhile, she would wake up in the morning and call Tony's name, but no answer. She would cry, get off the couch, eat something small, turn on the TV, take a nap, eat something little again, and go to bed.

Her bed was the couch. She ate eggs for breakfast and a mish-mash of something for dinner, skipping lunch. She only stayed in either the living room, or the kitchen. Never anywhere else. She didn't have the courage to venture the places Tony spent most of his time in the house just yet.

Today, after eating her small breakfast and washing off her dishes, she sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"It has been almost two months since Tony Stark went missing. There is little hope that he will be found. Alive or not." Pepper clenched her jaw, trying to keep the information from really getting to her. She knew she was just torturing herself by listening to the News everyday. She knew she would be the first to hear the news regarding anything Tony from Rhodes.

The words rang through her mind. 'Almost two months since Tony Stark went missing...'

She hadn't even heard from Stane yet. "I wonder if he's happy..." She said, largely joking. "Now he's in charge." She rolled her eyes. She would be high-tailing it back to New York if Obadiah were back in charge. There was something about him that she didn't want anything to do with.

She got up from the couch and actually decided to take a shower there at the mansion. Pepper headed to the guest room where a lot of her clothes still were from when she had gotten in the car wreck and stayed there with Tony. She sifted through the drawer and was surprised to see those old sweats. She had borrowed Tony's sweats all those years ago after they had come back from Afghanistan. After Gene had died...

She pulled them out with some undergarments and headed for the bathroom, stepping into the warm shower.

After she was finished, she towel dried her hair and went back to the living room for a nap, continuing her routine.

She stepped into the living room, "Hello Pepper." A low voice sounded. Pepper was so surprised she jumped and yelped.

"Oh! Obadiah. Hi, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you come in. I was...in the shower." Pepper said, pointing to the hallway behind her.

"You're still here?" Obadiah asked. "I thought you would have been back at your apartment." He said, warily.

"Oh, I couldn't leave...I've been here for the two months. I go home every now and then to get clothes and some other things, but for the most part, I stay here." She folded her arms and headed for the couch.

Obadiah stood with two fingers, rubbing his chin. "I see..." He headed for the couch and sat down near Pepper. "I am very sorry that this has happened. I've always seen Tony as kind of...invincible. Like nothing could ever harm him. But I guess he's just as human as the rest of us..." He pondered.

Pepper nodded, "Yes...I guess so." She didn't really feel like talking about this at the moment, and especially not with Obadiah.

"Maybe the Colonel will find him. Don't worry too much, Pepper." Obadiah said, taking in the sight of Pepper.

She felt weird under Obadiah's gaze. Her mind flashed back to the day they graduated so long ago when she felt Gene's eyes on her as he circled around her. She felt that same feeling as Obadiah seemed to be sizing her up.

"Have you lost some weight?" He asked.

What an odd question. "Um...I guess. I'm not sure. I haven't been able to eat very much since Tony disappeared."

"Ah, I see. Well, take care of yourself, Pepper." Obadiah placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it gently. Pepper felt a shiver move down her spine.

"I'll try." She forced a smile.

Obadiah got up off of the couch and headed for the door, "You know Pepper," he said as he turned to look at her, "he may not come back. I would assume he doesn't." There was absolutely no emotion on his face as he said that.

Pepper's mouth fell open and her eyebrows knitted together. Shock was the only word to describe it. Obadiah turned back around, opened the door, and left the house.

How could someone just not care? Tears began to form in her eyes. She was still staring at the door, where Obadiah had been standing. Something was wrong about him, but before she could think anymore of it, the phone rang. She picked it up and answered, it was Rhodey again. No news of Tony.


Tony stood, hunched over a table in the corner of the cave. He had to get out of here. They had brought in everything he would need to build the Jericho missile, but he had also requested a few other things that they had no clue about. His intention was not to build the missile, but to build the best Iron Man suit he could out of what he was given.

He used some tracing paper to sketch out his primitive Iron Man suit. This would definitely not be like the suit back at home, that was for sure.

"Home..." He whispered, putting a hand to his forehead. "Pepper." He squeezed his eyes shut. He wondered if she had seen the ransom video, or if they were keeping it from her. Someone had to know he was still alive. Someone.

He spaced out the different sections of his designs on different papers so that no one could see exactly what it was unless you laid them out on top of each other and flattened them out under the light.

He had been in this cave for almost two months, creating random pieces that looked like they went to the Jericho missile, and other pieces that really went with his design. He was trying to make them believe that he was doing what they wanted.

Yinsen made his way over to Tony. "Our lunch is ready."

"This is our ticket out of here." Tony said very quietly.

Yinsen peered over his shoulder, moving around him toward the desk. "What is it?" He asked.

"Flatten them out and look." Yinsen did so and was surprised to see the primitive version of the Iron Man armor.

"Oh wow. Impressive." He nodded his head, "Aspiring to be like the real Iron Man?" Yinsen laughed.

Tony chuckled and stared at Yinsen intensely for a moment, "You're looking at him."

Yinsen's mouth hung open. "Of course....I should have seen this long before. You're the only one really capable of creating the real Iron Man armor. Well, this all makes sense now then!" He laughed to himself.

Tony and Yinsen worked diligently on the bigger pieces of the 'primitive' suit during the dead of night, so that there was less chance that someone was watching them and the weird pieces of metal that obviously did not match up with the Jericho missile plans.


Another entire month went by, Tony was completely surprised that his arc reactor was still working. The car battery was going a long way, though, he wouldn't survive long without it. His mind flashed back to when he was on the plane with his dad, on that ill-fated day so many years ago. He had been in a small storage room in the back of the jet plane where he kept the Iron Man armor, he was about to take it out to show his dad, but unbeknownst to him, Gene had shown up and completely destroyed the plane, taking Tony's father with him. The shrapnel in Tony's body from the plane explosion was slowly making its way toward his heart, he would have been dead in a week if his own "smart-computer" had not been able to perform surgery, construct, and implant the device that now kept Tony alive.

Tony snapped out of it and found that he had unconsciously been rubbing the skin around the arc reactor on his chest. He groaned inwardly as his thoughts went back to Pepper. Where was she? What was she thinking about? Did she know that he was alive? He shook his head and rested his elbows on the table he was working at, covering his face in his hands.


Arash stood behind his men, peering over their shoulders at the TV's. They were watching Stark and Yinsen work diligently, trying to make out the different shapes of steel that Tony was creating.

"That doesn't look like the Jericho missile..." One said in a different language.

Another looked at him and back at a photo he was holding. "We're just looking at it backwards. Turn the photo around."

Arash squinted at the screens. He didn't like what was going on. After watching them for almost three months and not seeing the general form of the Jericho missile, something was definitely off.


Well...there's another one down! I hope you're still liking the story. Reviews would be greatly appreciated!