Chapter 9

"Ready for a little trip, Jarvis?"

"With you, sir, always."

With the last light of dawn, Iron Man flew high into the Malibu sky.

A few lights flashed on his screen, showing him the flight path, weather conditions, wind speeds, and crossing aircraft. Tony ignored the messages. For the first time in days, he felt free.

He enjoyed the flight, passing cities, meadows, forests and rivers. Tony activated the speed and took off. The new armor was better than the old and flew even more agile and smooth. Hours passed, the sea stretched out below him. The east came closer and closer. First Tony ignored a call from Pepper, then one from Romanoff, and an hour later another from Rhodey.

By the time he reached Afghanistan, the feeling of freedom had been replaced by a sense of impending dread. Now the desert stretched beneath him, making him even more uncomfortable. But he had a mission. And he wasn't going to make it any harder than it had to be. Fly to the city, find the Ten Rings, destroy them. That's all he had to do.

He slowed down and told Jarvis to stop putting calls through when Phil Coulson's number also flashed in front of him.

And then he saw it, the city.

Gulmira.

Tony immediately noticed that not much had changed in this town.

Soldiers were driving through the streets in transport trucks, most of the houses were destroyed, and some of the little boys were already holding machine guns and patrolling the streets with the soldiers. And in the middle of it all, Iron Man landed noisily on the street.

All heads turned to him. For a moment there was dead silence. Then an incredible storm of bullets came down on him. Even though he was in the safety of his armor, he could feel each of the harder bullets denting the gold-titanium alloy. It seemed that almost everyone here had a weapon.

Tony reached out and fired his repulsor. It hit a wall that shattered loudly. Large pieces of the wall flew through the air for meters.

A warning...

Thick clouds of smoke rose into the air. Three armed men ran toward him, screaming loudly. Tony took out two of them with projectiles from his shoulder plate. The third made it to Tony and fired wildly at him with his machine gun. With a jerk, Tony hit him in the head and knocked him out. When he turned around, he just saw two tanks coming at him before their missiles flew at him as well.

"Jarvis, shield up!" he yelled just in time.

Two small projectiles came out of the front of Tony's suit and shot forward, releasing a large electromagnetic shield. The tanks' missiles slammed into the shield and exploded with a deafening bang. The shock wave knocked Tony off his feet. He activated the repulsor on his feet and landed safely a few feet away, the street in front of him completely blown away.

More shots from long range weapons landed next to him, but Tony used his aim to fire missiles at the tanks in turn. Both exploded in a huge ball of flame.

But something else was flying through the air - towards him, in fact.

Suddenly he felt as if hundreds of volts were coursing through his body. Tony heard himself cry out in pain. The signals from the armor faded one by one and it went dark. Tony could see nothing.

"Jarvis? What's going on?"

But Jarvis seemed to be shut down, too. Damn it! He had no other choice. He had to remove his helmet to see anything.

Only with great difficulty did he manage to raise his hand to his helmet - without power he got almost no support from the armor, and it was very clear now how heavy it was.

Tony pulled the helmet down. The first thing he saw was that smoke was still obscuring the battlefield. But then he noticed a little girl standing directly to his right, pointing a gun at his head. Tony's right glove, fortunately still in front of his head, blocked three shots.

His eyes slid quickly down to himself. And sure enough, there was something stuck to his leg. A small circular device, blinking red. He grabbed the device with his left hand and pulled as hard as he could.

The thing seemed to be magnetic, but Tony clenched his teeth and pulled it off with all his strength. Immediately, the feeling of electricity in his body disappeared and Jarvis seemed to slowly come back to life. Tony's muscles continued to twitch painfully.

More soldiers ran toward him, so Tony quickly put his helmet back on as shots rang out. Angrily, he grabbed the gun from the girl next to him and crushed it with ease.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" he remarked dryly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw two more of the small magnets flying toward him.

"Full power to the boots!" he yelled to Jarvis and flew up.

The magnets followed - and damn, were they fast. He flew higher and higher, breaking through the cloud cover and thinking feverishly about how to get rid of them. He didn't want to be exposed to so much electricity again. But wait, if those nasty little things were so into magnetism, they should get some.

"Jarvis, loosen the glove on my left hand and polarize it as much as possible!"

"Copy that, sir."

Tony spun around and saw the magnets approaching. He took aim and threw his glove right in the middle of the two things. It worked. Instead of continuing to chase him, they dove after the falling glove.

Tony fell as well. These bastards had designed weapons specifically to fight him. There was no doubt in his mind that he was in the right place. This could only be the work of the Ten Rings. And they had obviously been expecting him.

As he broke through the cloud cover again, a huge projectile hit him unexpectedly in the side and exploded. Tony fell uncontrollably, scattering some of the people who had apparently been waiting for him. He hit the ground hard.

The men were already opening fire on him again, preventing Tony from even getting to his feet.

"Jaaaaarvis!" he shouted, looking for help as a whole volley of bullets slammed into him.

Jarvis understood immediately and detonated a grenade directly at the armor. He saw a ball of fire rise before he was hurled into a ruin, struck by the force of his own weapon, but for the men near him it had been death.

Iron Man scrambled to his feet, debris and rocks crumbling from his armor. It must have looked terrifying as he emerged from the ruins with no apparent damage (except for more dents), as if nothing had happened. Most of the soldiers began to run.

Tony was furious. Iron Man raised his arm. Let no one escape.

But nothing happened.

"Sir," Jarvis reported. "No power to the repulsor. The armor is heavily damaged."

"Shit!" Tony roared, striding forward.

One of the terrorists lay on the ground, covered in blood, but alive - still.

"Where's Raza?" Tony asked, leaning ominously over him.

The terrorist just groaned and looked at him. Tony grabbed him by the neck and squeezed him hard with his hand.

"Where is he? Where is Raza?!"

But the terrorist just yelled at him in Arabic, which Tony did not understand. So he let go and looked around at the mess he had made. Half the city seemed to be in ruins.

"There is a large amount of weapons stored in the large building on your right," Jarvis informed him.

"Understood."

Tony aimed at the building and fired one of the last missiles he had left. The explosion was huge. Walls blew up and the remaining weapons in the building burned brightly. At least he had been able to destroy them.

"Sir, I have bad news. The armor is running out of power, your reactor seems to have been damaged," Jarvis said.

"My... What?!" Tony hissed in sudden panic.

His reactor?! Without it his heart would stop...

"I suggest you return home immediately... before you are no longer capable."

Oh no... no, no, no.

Tony took one last look at the badly injured terrorist lying in front of him, then got up and left.

"Try to find out what's wrong with the reactor and keep me posted," Tony said, trying not to think about what would happen if it died...

"My calculations are already running."

Pepper didn't want to calm down at all. Tony wasn't taking her calls, and Jarvis had informed her that Tony had arrived in Afghanistan before apparently blocking all further calls.

Her stomach danced a tango, and she couldn't stand still anymore. Too many hours had passed - without any sign of life from him.

"I'm sure nothing happened to him," Rhodey said for the hundredth time now.

She had called him because, as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, he might have heard something, but no. At least he had come to stand by her. Pepper was eternally grateful. What if Tony had found out where Raza was? Or the entire terror ring? Could he handle all of them alone?

"I'm sure nothing happened to him," Rhodey repeated, staring out the window with his hands in his pockets. Pepper knew he was scanning the sky for a sign. However, there was nothing. And Jarvis was no good either.

Why didn't Tony call and tell them where he was? Why didn't he take the fucking calls?! Was he in a fight, was he hurt, was he already somewhere else?

Pepper had tried to convince herself that everything was fine for a long time. That he was in this high-tech armor and knew what he was doing. But the fact that he had found out the Ten Rings were in Gulmira, and they were more dangerous than they might have imagined months ago, was as hard to ignore as that horrible smudge on the windowpane that one of the cleaners must have left.

Pepper didn't quite understand herself why she was so afraid. It hadn't been the first time Tony had flown to Afghanistan. In the few months after his public announcement of being Iron Man, he had been there constantly. He had broken up fights, tracked down and gradually destroyed the weapons that were still scattered everywhere, liberated civilians from high-risk areas, and eliminated terrorists of all kinds. The situation in Afghanistan and in other countries as well, had improved significantly, thanks to Iron Man. This was also one of the reasons why the government could not stop him, it was one of the reasons why people celebrated him so much and even wanted to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But it was also one of the reasons why such great hopes and demands were suddenly placed upon him.

However, something was different since Raza had appeared here in his house. Something about it worried Pepper so much that she couldn't think clearly anymore. She trusted in Tony's abilities. And yet, she didn't have a good feeling.

Pepper glanced at Rhodey, who had now averted his eyes from the window and was also beginning to pace. He seemed troubled, too, although there was no reason for it. Or was there?

At that moment, they clearly heard something rumbling in the workshop.

Pepper and Rhodey froze and looked at each other.

Tony tripped over the chair in his workshop and stumbled to the floor. Breathing heavily, he ran his hands over his arc reactor. It was still intact but seemed to stop running for about a second at irregular intervals. And it felt the same way as it had months ago, when Obadiah had taken the reactor out of his chest. He was sweating and shaking violently, but he told himself the most important thing now was to stay calm and not stress his heart too much.

"You should take some fluids in the first place, sir," Jarvis suggested.

Tony looked around. He could see an opened bottle of gin and of course he had a coffee machine down here, but there was no water in sight. With difficulty he heaved himself up and dragged himself to the elevator; the stairs would have been too strenuous.

He wondered if the shrapnel was already making its way to his heart. What if the reactor failed completely? The elevator started and Tony leaned his head against the cold wall. Last time he had had a spare - thanks to Pepper, but this time he could not fall back on it. Why didn't he think of making like hundred reactors as a replacement?

The door opened and Tony froze for a moment. Rhodey and Pepper were standing in front of him in the middle of the room. They stared at him with horrified expressions. Tony wasn't excited to see them, now he had to deal with them as well.

"Tony, you…" Pepper began slowly, then suddenly looking at him almost in shock. "Wait… What happened?"

"Everything's fine," Tony said quickly and stepped out of the elevator.

He stumbled again, his legs threatening to give out on him. Rhodey rushed to help, noticing his unsteadiness on his feet, but Tony waved him away.

"Just a little out of breath," he explained at the exact moment his reactor unmistakably flared.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath.

"Tony!" Rhodey exclaimed in alarm. "What's wrong with the reactor?"

"It's misfiring," Tony pressed out.

"Shit..." Rhodey said. "What happened?"

"I tried to find Raza," Tony said.

"And you found him," Rhodey nearly whispered.

"No. But... his men. They obviously suspected I'd come eventually," Tony said, now holding onto Rhodey's shoulder to keep himself from collapsing. "They had developed weapons to fight me. I have to admit, I'm a little impressed."

"They knew you were coming?" Rhodey asked in amazement with another look at him he added: "You should sit down, Tony."

"I guess Raza sees through me better than I thought," Tony said, ignoring his friend.

"But what about the reactor?" Pepper now asked, clearly sounding anxious.

Tony briefly described how the magnetic thing had hit him and felt like electricity running through his body.

"Do you think it was some kind of electromagnetic pulse?" Rhodey asked, who of course had extensive knowledge of weapons.

Tony nodded. His knees became as soft as jelly. "Something like that. That thing crippled my armor until I removed it. It also seems to have damaged my reactor in the process. I hope this is only a temporary malfunction."

Tony wiped his wet forehead with his sleeve. His hair stuck to his head. Then he had to stop for a moment as the reactor began to flicker. His heart began to race and his chest hurt badly.

Pepper drew in a sharp breath and clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Tony, the reactor..." she cried, "it's not failing completely, but... does that mean the shrapnel can get closer to your heart?"

"The duration of the malfunction is not long enough - I think," Tony explained.

Rhodey gave him a stern look.

"...But it could be, of course..." Tony admitted. "Jarvis is checking what's going on right now."

Suddenly, he felt an incredible stabbing sensation in his chest, and as his eyes slid there, he only saw the reactor flare up and then fail completely. For a moment, his vision went black, and he realized that Rhodey was holding him. His heart began to race to compensate for the reactor's failure, hurting so badly with each beat that Tony could hear himself screaming. Then his vision cleared and the reactor lit up again. Rhodey held him upright with both arms.

"My God!" cried Pepper, staring at him in horror. Fear was clearly written on her face.

Tony allowed Rhodey to escort him to a chair and sat down in it, completely exhausted.

"What can we do?" Pepper asked.

"Jarvis?" Tony relayed the question.

"My calculations are not complete, sir," Jarvis said. "The reactor failures are too irregular; they do not follow a precise pattern. So I can only make an approximate prediction. The shrapnel is moving, though, that can be seen."

A cold shiver ran down Tony's spine. The shrapnel is moving...

"As you know, the shrapnel is designed to cut through muscle tissue as it moves. If any of it enters the bloodstream, it will rush into the heart and then pierce the walls with each beat. My prognosis, assuming a steady pace, is 0.14966 centimeters per hour of the most dangerous shrapnel approaching a blood vessel. Extrapolated over the next twelve hours, that would be 1.79588 centimeters, which would not be fatal."

He heard Pepper and Rhodey breathe a sigh of relief.

"However," Jarvis added. "This is only a projection using current data. If the intervals at which your reactor fails decrease, we must assume that the shrapnel will approach more rapidly. Moreover, the problem is not just the heart. Of far greater concern is the possibility that the shrapnel could damage other organs along the way. To the best of my knowledge, one of the shrapnel fragments could cut through the lung after 1.91836 centimeters, which would most likely be fatal. Also, it should not be ignored that the reactor could eventually fail completely, in which case -"

"Thank you, Jarvis," Tony said aloud to interrupt him.

He had heard enough. So if he couldn't come up with anything in about twelve hours, he would die. Great...

"But what can we do?" Pepper asked again. "Tony, don't you have another reactor? Can't you just replace it?"

"I don't think the reactor is the problem," Jarvis said, and everyone looked up in surprise. "I've already checked it several times on the way home. It does not show any damage. The reactor is intact and should be working fine."

"I don't understand..." Tony muttered.

The reactor was intact? No damage? Then why did it misfire? What does that mean? And wasn't the strangest part of this whole incident that Jarvis didn't know what was going on?

"Under no circumstances should you use the suit until we find a cause," Jarvis explained. "I will continue to search for the cause of the failures. However, if the reactor is down for an extended period of time, cardiac arrest will be a consequence. In that case, resuscitation would be necessary until it comes back to life."

"You've got to be kidding me," Pepper whispered. "There's nothing else we can do?! But Tony... you must be able to do something?!"

Tony looked at his assistant. "I'm sorry, Pepper. I'll think of something."

Pepper slumped down in a chair, now as pale as Tony.

What was the cause of the misfires? Tony thought hard while Rhodey put a hand on his shoulder and looked down at him worriedly. The magnet had hit him on the suit. The armor had failed as a result, including Jarvis. What if Jarvis had been affected or infected again? What if he had been infected with some kind of virus that made it impossible for him to find the cause of the reactor failures? It was not impossible. Maybe it was wise to reboot Jarvis.

Tony's eyes fell on Pepper, who was watching him fearfully from her chair. He didn't want her to see him like this. He didn't want her to worry like this at all. He had to think of something, and he had to do it fast.

What else could have happened when the magnet had hit him?

It just didn't make sense. When he had removed the thing, the electricity in his body had been gone and the armor had been working again immediately, as had Jarvis. Then why was the reactor still malfunctioning even though the thing was no longer attached to him? If only he had been able to take one of the magnets with him to examine it.

And suddenly, the scales fell from his eyes. Of course! He had removed the thing from the outside of his armor, so the armor and Jarvis had worked again. But what had happened inside his armor, to his body?

This time the pain was worse. Everything went dark. The idea of individual splinters in his body moving toward his heart was frightening as hell. Tony clutched his chest again, trying not to faint.

Pepper could hardly bear to see Tony suffer like this. She watched as Rhodey once again took hold of Tony to keep him from slipping out of the chair. Eyes narrowed, Tony was obviously struggling to suppress cries of pain. If they didn't find a solution, he was probably going to die. Damn shrapnel! What frightening thoughts that they were still in Tony's body.

Pepper kneaded her hands like dough. The next few hours would be hell for them. What could they do? Informing S.H.I.E.L.D. was the first thing that came to her mind. Maybe they knew a solution. Where had Romanoff disappeared to anyway? After she had seen Tony's research down in the workshop, she had left with a mixture of annoyance and admiration and without further explanation.

Suddenly, Pepper thought she heard a noise outside.

"Did you hear that?" she asked Rhodey.

But Rhodey just shook his head absentmindedly and looked at Tony's flickering reactor in bewilderment. Pepper stood up when she heard another dull bang.

None of the others seemed to notice anything, though. Were the agents on the property making that noise? Or the staff? The gardeners?

Pepper walked slowly to the window and looked out. But she could see nothing, no one seemed to be outside. She was about to turn around when there was another bang. Pepper jumped and her eyes fell on Rhodey again, this time he must have heard something. And indeed - Rhodey was looking at her with a strange expression on his face. Pepper suddenly knew why.

That bang had sounded an awful lot like a gunshot.

For what seemed like an eternity, everything was perfectly still and no one moved. Then a shadow came at them from behind.