(beta'd as of 7/11)
*hides from lawyers yelling and throwing papers* "I don't own anything you recognize! Go bother someone else!"
Death was there once again, staring down at me, his eyes flashing between dark black and silvery grey in concern. I realized that it was he who brought me crashing back to reality.
Bald was gone, though there was a bit of blood where he had landed against the wall. I could feel that my core, while still dying, was no longer spiking uncontrollable and my sparks were back under my control.
I winced as I lifted my head, my broken arm was wrapped in a bandage torn from my shirt. Death held out a jacket, one I recognized from being one of the guard's. His cold hands slowly helped me sit up and wherever he touched, the pain faded, it was like a soothing pain killer that felt like ice.
From Death's expression I knew he was dying (no pun intended) to tell me something, and was frustrated about not being able to speak.
"W…when we g…get ba…ck," I choked, my throat dry and sore, "…learning… sign language." I managed to say, causing Death to smile lightly.
With his help (a lot of his magic pain relief) I managed to stand up and slowly made my way towards the heavy metal door. My eyebrows connected in confusion as I noticed the sound of gunfire.
I cast a look over at Death, silently asking for an explanation, 'Tony' he mouthed back, causing me to smile lightly, though that smile turned into a grimace quickly as my broken arm twitched.
With Death's help I opened the large metal door and slowly walked down the deserted hallway.
'Well, at least my legs are working.'
The sound of gunfire stopped, though I could hear a large thumping and my face twisted into a large grin, the suit was done. I rounded the corner ahead of me, leaning on the wall for support, bright light blinded my eyes and my heart leapt at the sight of the entrance.
My eyes widened as I quickly took in the scene, Yinsen was bleeding out on sacks of what I assumed was food, by the left wall a few feet in front of me. Tony, in the suit, was currently looking at Yinsen and had yet to notice Bald standing right across from us with what looked like a small rocket launcher.
"Yinsen!" Tony shouted his voice deepened and muffled by the suit just as Bald went to fire.
"Watch out!" Yinsen shouted weakly just as the mini missile sped towards Tony.
The shot missed Tony and hit the wall behind him and close to me, showering us with sparks and dust. Before anyone had time to react, my good hand shot out in front of me, my eyes locked on Bald, and fueled by the anger of everything that he had done, a large blue bolt of lightning flew free from my fingertips.
It arched with deathly grace across the cavern, shooting between Yinsen and Tony, and hitting Bald with deadly accuracy. He crashed into the stone behind him and fell to the ground, buried beneath rock.
Yinsen and Tony's faces both twisted round to my own, and my gut clenched at Yinsen's horrified expression and I wondered just how horrible I looked. I was covered in muck, dirt, dried blood, and most likely looked as if I just crawled out of a hole… which in some ways I did.
"We need to talk," was Tony's only reply, and I knew we would talk about it and everything once we were out of here.
Death vanished from my sight but I still felt his presence beside me, helping me stay on my feet and keeping the pain at bay. Tony reached Yinsen faster than I did; only a few steps in that giant metal monster and Tony had already thrown a sack off of him.
"Stark," Yinsen breathed as I limped forward, his eyes were half closed and I could feel him fading, I wasn't sure how, I just could sense it.
"Come on, we got to go," Tony said lifting up his face plate. "Move for me, come on. We got a plan, we're gonna stick to it."
I finally managed to get by Yinsen's side, I was still leaning on the wall, which Tony took notice of out of the corner of his eye.
"This was always the plan, Stark." Yinsen said, his eyes struggling to stay open.
"Come on, you're gonna go see your family. Get up." Tony tried to coax his friend, and I could see the pain in his eyes. A tear slid down my cheek; Yinsen had become like an uncle to me in the short time we had known him, and a dear friend to my father.
"My family is dead." Yinsen told us, and I felt my eyes watering, after everything he had done for us, he never planned on leaving here alive. "I'm going to see them now, Stark."
Tony didn't know what to say, and I could see his mask breaking as he realized his friend never wanted to leave alive.
"It's okay," Yinsen said, seeing Tony's face. "I want this, I want this."
Tears were falling from my eyes and I barely managed to choke back a sob. I just couldn't believe it.
Tony finally managed to give Yinsen a small half smile and said, "Thank you for saving me."
"For everything," I added on, my voice soft enough that they didn't notice the dryness.
"Don't waste it." Yinsen muttered, "Don't waste your life. Family is everything Stark," Yinsen started coughing, and I noticed Death becoming visible to me on his other side.
"Take care… of each other…" with a gasp, Yinsen's head stilled and eyes closed. Death put a hand to Yinsen's still chest, and when he pulled it back, a silvery white orb that was Yinsen's soul rested in it.
Nodding to me, Death vanished in a swirl of shadows, taking Yinsen's spirit with him.
Tony and I looked at each other, and Tony said, "Stay close to me, I don't want you to get shot"
I smirked at him, pausing a moment to shove the pain to the farthest, darkest corner of my mind before touching a power line running long the wall. I felt my core thrum happily as I absorbed the electricity from whatever source that was powering the caves, and sucked it dry. Every electronic in the cave died instantly.
"Oh," I said with my voice like ice as sparks danced between my fingers. "That won't be a problem."
Tony raised an eyebrow in question as a shield appeared around me, and I vanished from view. Stealing the electricity had given me a huge power boost, but it wouldn't last long.
His eyes widened a fraction in surprise before he flipped the face plate closed. "Stay behind me," was all he said as he marched out of the cave.
"Let's fry these buggers!" I stated as we stalked out into the sun.
The Ten Rings numerous goons were frozen in shock at the sight of Tony's suit for a moment before they opened fire; all of the bullets bouncing harmlessly off of Tony's armor and my shield. I winced as my shield became strained under the open fire, this was the first time I had used it against anything other than fire and I prayed that it would hold.
"My turn." Tony stated his voice mechanical and cold because of the suit. I could feel Tony pouring all of his fury over what had happened during our 'stay' into his actions as Tony revealed the double fire blasters attached to his arms.
"Fry these buggers!" I repeated my past statement with a smirk. I wasn't sure if Tony heard me but I didn't care. The large tongues of fire whipped across the campsite, burning everything it touched, brought a feeling of smug satisfaction. This felt like justice for what they had done.
I followed my father closely as we stalked through the campsite; Tony was torching everything and everyone, determined to destroy everything, including his weapons that had fallen into the wrong hands.
I flinched as gun shots started up again and bullets rained down; I crept even closer to Tony, ignoring the blazing heat coming from the nearby flames, which wasn't helping the desert heat.
I ducked my head down and strengthened my shield as bullets and sparks rocketed off of Tony's suit. My shield fluxuated as bullets pelted into the energetic boundary, and with a gasp I dropped to the ground to avoided more gunfire when a well-placed shot hit the mechanics of Tony's right left and brought him to his knees.
After a moment of regaining his senses Tony aimed his blaster towards the shooters and the encampment caught fire and exploded. With wide eyes I realized that between the fire and all of the explosives we were standing on top of a giant bomb.
The gunfire stopped as more and more explosions occurred around us, the weaponry becoming unstable in the heat.
The remaining goons fled the flames as Tony yelled through the mayhem;
"GET ON MY BACK, HOLD ON!"
I quickly complied, jumping onto the suit's back and positioning my hands so they had a tight grip on the metal as Tony climbed to his feet.
"I'M ON!" I yelled my face not a foot from the helmet.
With a slight nod Tony lifted up part of his suit's arm and flipped a big red switch before punching the button beneath.
With an earsplitting roar, crude rockets flared to life beneath our feet. My eyes squeezed tight as we blasted into the air just as everything around us exploded.
I felt my invisibility and shield fail as we were flung into the air, for a moment we flew through the air away from the fiery mountain until the repulsors died.
"AHHH!" A terrified scream tore through my throat as we started free falling towards the earth. Tony's scream echoed through the air along with my own as the suit began to dismantle beneath us.
My fingers slipped as the wind wiped against me, causing me to separate from the suit.
I remember panicking, my unstable sparks coming to life and engulfing me in light and connecting with Tony, before everything went black.
'What do you mean?' my voice spoke, though it sounded not like my own.
'Though your time on this Earth has ended, your journey has just begun.'
A flash of pale blonde hair, and bright purple eyes met my own, before the mist thickened and everything faded once more.
My breathing was labored as we trekked across the hot sand. It had taken a while to untangle Tony from what remained of the suit and unbury him from the sand, and now the blazing desert sun and endless sandy sea tried to tear us down.
Tony had wrapped his outer shirt onto his head like a turban, half of it covering his face, trying to keep off the sun; while I just lifted the collar of the jacket I had taken from the guard over my head, but kept my arms concealed within the sleeves.
Whatever had happened with my sparks during the free fall, it had nearly drained me. My shield no longer sprang to life, and my invisibility only covered the top of my chest my large tank-top did not, keeping the still raw burns hidden from Tony's view.
Though it was unimaginably hot, I relished the heat and sunlight. After spending God knows how long in a dark cold cave, the heat and sun was welcomed, even if it did kill us.
"Here," I heard Tony gasp. Not one of us had spoken since the fall, each of us just keeping to our own thoughts and memories.
I glanced over at my father, my eyes squinting in the bright sunlight. He was reaching out his hand towards me and clenched in his fist was a small black cube.
"My Tablet!" I gasped, my invention completely slipping my mind during all of the chaos. I took it from Tony's hand and turned it beneath my fingers.
I looked back up at Tony, my eyes wide with appreciation as I said, "Thanks… this means a lot to me."
A small smile flickered across his face for a moment as he said, "I could tell."
We fell back into silence once again and struggled to walk straight in the heat. As we made it to the top of our current dune, a sound made me freeze in happiness.
"TONY!" I managed to shout as US military helicopters appeared overhead.
'We're saved!' I shouted to myself and relief fell over me; it felt like a burden had been lifted off my shoulders.
"HEY!" my dad started screaming and waving as a second copter flew overhead.
I raised my good arm, my other still hanging useless at my side, and copying my father's actions I yelled, "OVER HERE!"
We both just started screaming incoherently in joy, and my vision blurred as tears rolled down my face.
As the helicopter landed, Tony fell to his knees and I collapsed besides him, my core still fluttering as it sent waves of energy through my body.
I laughed tiredly as Dad held up the peace sign, and leaned my head against his arm.
My eyes were already drooping and I realized that it was Rhodes who was running towards us.
"How was the 'fun-vee'?" He asked as he reached us, his face full of relief.
Another short and tired laugh escaped my lips at his sorry excuse for a joke, and I saw Tony shoot me a look of concern.
Tony closed his eyes with a small smile on his face as Rhodes knelt down in front of us.
"Next time, you ride with me, okay?" he said and pulled Tony in for a hug, relief and shock on his face before pulling me also into the hug.
I smiled lightly as I closed my eyes, soldiers swarming around us in excitement and shock. A pair of silver eyes filled my vision as I faded off into darkness, and a whisper passed my lips,
"I'm safe."
It turned out a bit differently than I thought but hey, that's the fun in writing! I am so glad all of you like my story, and sorry for those random people who do not. But hey, that's your loss, especially if it is just about what view it's in (1stperson, 2ndperson, ect)
I know you are all wondering, (those of you who haven't guessed) when, who, and how HP plays into all of this… well… I'm not going to give anything away so tough. But it will be worth it, well, in my mind it will.
Thanks for all the reviews and favs/followings, Thanks Expecto Prongs,
I'll update soon
Cp