They slid the bag off of Tony's head and they pulled him into a dark cave. Tony looks around his surroundings. His eyes burn and he can't seem to breathe. His fingers grip into the cave's ground as he tries to get air into his lungs. He crawls around the cave's floor, bumping into the nearby objects in search of something that will help him breathe. His fingers find a brown paper bag and he yank it towards him. He puffs in and out as his breathing starts to get semi stabilized and he can feel his head getting dizzy.

later

Tony wakes up suddenly with a tube up his nose, laying on a cot in a cave. He rips out the tube and tries to pick up a cup on the table beside him, but it immediately fails. He notices a man shaving and he tries to reach further but is stopped by the wires.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man scolds Tony, for trying to rip off the tube that is currently up his nose.

"What am I connected to?" Tony asked the man.

"You are connected to a car battery, because you have that into your chest to keep you alive." The man explains to Tony.

"Who are you?" Tony asked the man.

"Yinsen, I'm a fellow prisoner here." Yinsen says.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Tony asked the man.

"What I did? What I did was to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it's headed into your atrial septum. Here want to see?" Yinsen pulls out a bottle of the shrapnel. "I have a souvenir. Take a look." Yinsen says as he tosses the bottle to Tony who caught 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 your vital organs." Yinsen explains to Tony who is nodded his head.

"What is this?" Tony asked Yinsen.

"This is an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery, and it is keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart. Hmm?" Yinsen says watching Tony slip up the jacket he's wearing and looks at the camera in the ceiling. "That's right, smile. We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Berlin, about 9 years back. Though it will probably be no shock of you remembering it." Yinsen says to Tony who slowly nods his head.

"Yeah, I don't remember." Tony says blankly.

"No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk. I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture of integrated circuits." Yinsen says.

"Where are we?" Tony asked.

Yinsen and Tony heard noises and then got up from where they were sitting.

"Come on, stand up. Stand up! Just do as I say. Come on, your hands up." Yinsen ordered Tony as he did what he was told.

After talking back and forth to the guy speaking Arabic, Tony says: "I refuse." Tony says who heavily glared at the billionaire.

The next thing that Tony knows is that he has his had his head in water. Flashes of himself and the electromagnet in his chest. Then men pull him out, put a bag over his head, and escort him out of the cave. When he gets outside, they take the bag off and Tony sees a lot of men, tents, and his weapons, specifically his guns. The same man speaking Arabic speaks again.

"He wants to know what you think." Yinsen says to Tony so he can understand what they guy was saying.

"I think you got a lot of my weapons." Tony says to the man, as Yinsen translates Tony's words in Arabic as the Arabic guy nods his head.

"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make a list of the materials." Yinsen says as the man speaks Arabic again.

"He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you free." Yinsen says to Tony.

"No, he won't." Tony says to the man.

.....

Yinsen is sitting around a small fire in the cave with Tony. "I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw this 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. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week." Tony says to Yinsen who is sitting across from him.

"Well, then, this is a very important week for you, isn't it? Hm?" Yinsen told the billionaire.

"If this is going to be my workstation, 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 soldiering station. I need helmets. I'm going to need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools." Tony tells him and Yinsen start talking apart the weapons. "How many languages do you speak?"

"A lot but apparently not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi and Russian." Yinsen tells Tony.

"Who are these people?" Tony asked.

"They are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings. You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process." Yinsen says as him and Tony are working on a TV.

"Uh-huh." Tony says as he pulls apart a missile. "Omayz, we don't need this."

"What is that?" Yinsen asked looking over Tony's shoulder.

"That palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don't you start breaking down the other 11." Tony says to Yinsen.

.....

Tony and Yinsen are working on something as Yinsen are pulling something out of the fire. "Careful. Careful, we only get one shot at this." Tony says to Yinsen.

"Relax. I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?" Yinsen fired back with some sass as Tony puts together a device. "Whoa, that doesn't look like a Jericho missile." Yinsen says to Tony.

"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." Tony says.

"But what could it generate?" Yinsen asked.

"If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second." Tony explains to Yinsen.

"That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes." Yinsen replies.

"Or something big for 15 minutes." Tony says.

......

hannah speaks!

soooo, how do you like it, so far?
this is obviously going to cover lindsey, if you haven't guessed so far.

see you in the next chapter!