Iron man 3 [MCU x OC] [Book 3 of the Stephanie Stark Series]

Chapter 7

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With Tony

When Tony woke up he was tied to an old bed frame that was stood up straight. He had tried to infiltrate the AIM base in Miami to get the Mandarin but it turns out he was a drugged-up fraud.

Across from him, sitting at a desk, was Maya. "Just like old times, right?"

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

"It wasn't my idea."

"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." Maya got up from her stool and started walking over to him.

"Yeah?" she sighed.

"Lot's happened Tony, but I'm close. Extremis is practically stable."

"I'm telling you it isn't!" Tony huffed. "I'm on the street. People are going bang and painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself."

"Then help me fix it." She holds us an old name tag card. It reads 'You know who I am' and on the back of it some equations.

"Did I do that?" She drops the card.

"Yes."

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

"You don't remember?" She sounds heartbroken. Tony can't find it within himself to feel sorry.

"I can't help you. You used to have moral psychology, ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up with someone who..." he lets out a breath, "Still has a soul." She looks at him in disbelief. "Get me out of here, come on." She walks away.

"You know what my old man used to say to me?" Killian's voice comes in. He comes into the room and down some stairs to stand in front of Tony. "One of his of many sayings... 'The bird gets the worm, but the mouse gets the cheese.'"

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

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

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

"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." Killian goes to sit down at a desk, setting down a briefcase.

"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"