Second Chances

T E N

I jump up and gasp for air, I see Maya sitting on her stool. I go to move closer but my body is zip tied to an old rail.

"You conniving little bitch, I should have left you."

"I'm not after you, you and pepper are just collateral damage."

"Oh we're way more than that, my family is after me. They'll find me and I'll kill all of you myself."

"I just need Tony to come rescue you, he seems to like you an awfully lot."

"Yea well it seems to keep biting me in the ass. Now let me go so I can kill you and get Killian."

"I think you're good, I'll keep you here. Maybe even be able to get your blood."

I laugh as she walks closer to me, I smile.

"Go ahead and try."

She hits me and everything is once again black.
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Tony's POV
I wake up to see I'm in an old dungeon, Maya is sitting across from me near her plants. She turns around and smiles at me.

"Ah...Okay."

"It's just like old times, huh"

"Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball."

"It wasn't my idea."

I look around and see Alicia dangling a few feet from me. She's tied up like I am if not more.

"Okay. So you took Killian's card."

"I took his money."

"And here you are 13 years later, in a dungeon."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go."

"Yeah?"

She Sighs and walks towards me, she smirks as she runs her hand over Alicia's sleeping figure.

"Don't touch her."

"A lot has happened, Tony. But I'm close. Extremis is practically stabilised."

"I'm telling you it isn't."

I lower my voice to a softer tone.

"I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself."

"Then help me fix it."

She shows me the "You Know Who I Am" note back from 1999.

"Did I do that"

"Yes"

I glance up at her before looking at the Princess.

"I remember the night, not the morning. Is this what you've been chasing around?"

"You don't remember?"

"I can't help you. You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul. Get me out of here. Come on."

"I'm trying to fix the world."

"You can't, not like this. People are dying, it's not saving them."

"I can, with her."

We both see that she's starting to wake, I slightly smile as she lifts her head.

"How are you going to do that."

"I can use her blood, did you know that it can counter even the most dangerous chemicals."

"No I didn't, thank you."

Alicia looks at me, her eyes widen as she starts to pull at the zip ties. Maya turn to her and smiles.

"You can change the world, your blood will help us."

She backs up and start to walk away as his voice appears.
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I look at Maya and Stark, I see Killian walking down the stairs.

"You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favourite of many sayings... "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?"

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean."

He moves closer to me and Stark, I glare at the two. I can't do much because of the zip ties, I could change but it would give them a chance to kill us.

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse."

Tony looks at me as Killian moves closer, he glared at him.

"But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target."

"You're something else."

"You have met him, I assume?"

"Yes. Sir Laurence Oblivier."

"I know he's a little over the top sometimes. It's not entirely my fault. He has a tenden... He's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is. Anyway, the point is, ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety has kind of had its day.

The man looks at me and smiles, he moves his hand across my cheek. I spit in his face, he moves back.

"What's next for you in your world? It's certainly not world domination."

"Well, I wanted to repay Tony Stark, the selfsame gift that he so graciously imparted to me."

Killian rolls three balls forwards and they stop, projecting an image of Pepper. She has Extremis."

"Desperation. Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular."

He grins at me, I see the shimmer of metal.

"But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain. We haven't even talked salary yet. What kind of perk package are you thinking of? I think you should get a front view."

He looks at me and stand me in the neck with something. I groan as he pulls the needle out, I look at Tony.