Hollow Scars

“This is, by far, the worst idea you’ve ever had, Tony.” Rhodey wasn’t sure where to start with the list of objections he had to his best friend’s latest plot. Why was he putting his career on the line again? Oh yeah. Some woman he’d never met was in trouble with a corporation that had recently been listed as a terrorist organization and now Tony was chasing after her. It was the longest, most confusing day James Rhodes had in a long time.

“Really? Worse than that time in Atlantic City? 95 I think it was?” Tony had opened a panel in the back of his Mark VII armor and was pulling at wires hastily. His speech was mumbled and stifled due to the pliers he held in his mouth as he refastened a pair of wires.

“Yes, way worse than that. What happened in Atlantic City wasn’t going to get you killed.” Rhodey was desperate to get to Tony’s location faster but there was only so much he could do with the means provided. He really should’ve brought the WarMachine in for an upgrade when Tony had offered it.

“Rhodey, that hotel room was only sixty dollars a night! How did that not almost get me killed? Do you know how often they actually clean those places?” Rhodey could be heard laughing on the other end of the line, but it faded quickly thanks to the severity of the situation. Tony was funny but it was hard to enjoy a good joke when they were constantly reminded of what was about to happen in the Russian sunset. Silence followed soon after, Tony working on reprogramming the Mark VII and Rhodey traveling in the WarMachine to provide backup as soon as he could. Unfortunately it wasn’t soon enough to ease anyone’s nerves.

“Excuse me Mr. Stark, Mr. Rhodes, but what happened in Atlantic City?” Sergei had been brought in on the phone call so that Rhodey could communicate with him when inevitably Tony was taken by MedCo and just in case Tony couldn’t keep his earpieces in after that happened. Scott was relentlessly scouring every available hiding place nearby in search of him and yelling insanely outside of the abandoned factory in the process. Tony and his cohorts knew it was only a matter of time before they were found out. It was simple. They had to distract him before he reached the warehouse.

He planned on approaching Scott before their hiding place was found out and leaving his armor behind and ready to be remotely controlled by Jarvis via the earpieces he was wore. Hopefully they would remain hidden in his ears from those at MedCo or at least he would be able to get to them one way or another after he was taken prisoner. Tony had introduced Sergei to Rhodey and the Colonel had immediately objected to the arrangement that had been proposed as Tony had known he would. That was why Tony had gotten a head start on the process. Rhodey had to get his complaints out of his system before he finally agreed to the plan put before him.

“It’s a long story, Sergei and if you and I get out of this alive I will personally buy you a White Russian or whatever it is you Russians drink and explain the whole damn story to you warts and all.”

“I prefer Vodka.” Sergei interjected, the humor apparently lost on him. Tony shook his head and sighed.

“Vodka then. I thought Russians were funny.” With a curt nod he closed up the back of his Mark VII and then exhaled deeply before approaching Sergei who was standing, armed with a group of men and women gathered behind him. “Rhodes, it can’t be worse than that time I got drunk and flew the suit around Manhattan and set off fireworks.”

“Tony… We’re not having this discussion.” Rhodey began. He knew that Tony coped with stress by using humor but it only succeeded in making James worry about his wellbeing. If Tony died before Rhodey got to him, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. He’d already almost lost his friend once when he’d gone missing after the weapons display in Afghanistan. That experience had changed his life forever. Rhodey didn’t want to take that risk a second time and definitely not because of a woman who Tony could possibly be over in a month or two. Faith in Tony Stark’s relationships was something Rhodey did not have.

“Rhodey, if you have a better plan then I’d like to hear it.” Tony finally spoke seriously. There was very little time left to linger. Of course he was scared! Why wouldn’t he be? For all he knew Scott was planning to shoot him right between the eyes as soon as he walked out to meet him. But Tony couldn’t risk that any further harm would befall Scarlett if he delayed. And he knew that he’d never be able to sneak into the MedCo building without causing a distraction. What was a better distraction than him pissing off the already insanely pissed off guy?

“Can’t you buy time until I get there? At least then you’ll have some back up.”

“There is no time left to wait, Rhodey!”

“Only because you’re thinking about her. If it was anyone else, would you find a different solution?”

“No, that’s not just it. I’m not thinking with the wrong head here!” Tony nervously ran his fingers over his jaw and then held his hand up to silence Sergei who stood behind him and was obviously going to ask further about the woman who was being held inside the MedCo building. “I gave her a hard time about this place and about MedCo in general for a long time. But she was right, Rhodes. They have to be stopped and yeah, cal me selfish, I don’t want her to die. To be perfectly honest I don’t…” Tony drifted off and didn’t bother completing the sentence. He didn’t know what he’d do if Scarlett died. The very idea made his head spin and his stomach churn uncomfortably. His throat suddenly felt tight and his breathing became restricted. But Sergei’s hand clasped his shoulder and Tony was brought back to reality, in fact he welcomed it.

“What is so wrong with Stark going in after this woman?” Sergei spoke up and both Rhodey and Tony silenced, though Tony looked back at him with surprising emotion behind his eyes. “MedCo destroys lives. That man out there destroys lives. They must be stopped and no life is less precious than anyone else’s. Are you saying, Mr. American soldier, that any life is less valuable than that of your friend? I thought you men were the ‘nobody left behind’ sort. Tony,” Sergei looked to him thoughtfully, “it is the best option we have per the moment. You must do it. We must.”

“He’s right,” Tony sighed and offered a smile to the surprisingly thoughtful Russian commando. “Sergei, you’ll take your men and sneak into the facility while you can. I’m going to have Jarvis hack into their computers, he’s already working on it. I won’t disable anything but I’ll have the security cameras run in a loop and jam communications to throw them off. That’ll give you and your men a chance to get in unseen. Evacuate prisoners, get the evidence you need and raise hell.”

“Tony, I’ll be there in just a couple of hours, if you could wait, I could lead men in and the government could take them down. You wouldn’t have to get your hands dirty and we could still save her.”

“You said it yourself, Rhodes.” Tony interrupted with a wave of his hand even if Rhodey couldn’t see him. “Getting United States troops past the Russians will take days not hours and we don’t have either to spare. Scott’s going to be here any second and everyone is in jeopardy. I’ve come too far to back down now. The only other option I can see is to pull out and you know I’m not that kind of guy. Once I’m inside you’ll still be in my ear, hopefully. I’m tough, I can do this. Have some faith in me.”

“You’re not as tough as you think you are.”

“You keep doing this thing where you ruin the illusion and it’s so not okay.” Grunting, Tony patted himself down to make sure he didn’t have any weapons left on him. It was scary being out of his suit and walking straight into danger. Now that he thought about it, it was a new experience unlike anything he’d dealt with in the past. Social situations were a breeze, parties were a delight, mundane things that people usually feared Tony Stark was particularly adept at. And he was tough, that hadn’t been a lie. Just a couple of months prior he’d tested for his blue belt and had gotten it. But it was a far cry from a black belt and he had only ever used his skills in the ring or from behind his suit of armor.

Scott wasn’t an opponent that would stop when Tony had enough. Thankfully fighting wasn’t something Tony planned on doing. If there was one thing Tony Stark wasn’t, it was a fool. Sometimes he was an idiot, he was too quick to react, often said things without considering the repercussions and he was even selfish, but Tony was no fool. When it really counted, he made the right choices and if there was one thing he was also sure of at the moment it was that fighting MedCo was a stupid, stupid plan. He had little to no advantages. In fact he had every disadvantage he could think of.

That was why Tony planned on playing the defensive for the time being and getting inside the building before going on the offensive. Sergei and his team would do the footwork from there and when the time was right, he would call in the reinforcement of the Mark VII if he could. It wasn’t a guarantee that he’d be able to use the suit once he’d been taken captive.

“I’m going to buy time from the inside the best I can. When you get here, Rhodey you better be ready to blow shit up.” Greased up hands ran through Tony’s already messed up hair. He was usually meticulous about his looks, but it didn’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of things. How was one supposed to prepare themselves for a punch to the face and possibly a broken nose? There was no proper way so Tony hoped that he was too pretty to damage. Why couldn’t Scott be a beautiful woman and Scarlett have had a sexy lesbian curiosity phase before him?

“I’m ready to blow things up right now but I can’t very well do it from so far away, can I?” Rhodey finally relented to the plan even though he was still sure it was the worst idea he’d heard in a long time. When it came down to it, he knew that Tony was right even if everything in his being was telling him not to let Tony go through with it. What was he realistically supposed to do? Rhodey couldn’t tell Tony to leave Scarlett behind. Even if it had been Rhodey in Tony’s shoes, he wouldn’t have left the woman to suffer at the hands of the malevolent corporation that hunted her.

“You are such a Debbie downer right now.” Tony was readying himself to leave even if he didn’t want to admit it. Going out to meet Scott head on scared the hell out of him but he couldn’t see any other options. Part of him had hoped that Rhodey actually had a backup plan that would be better than Tony’s sacrifice play but they hadn’t gotten so lucky.

“Just don’t do anything too stupid while you’re in there, okay? The odds are bad enough already.”

“You know me.”

“That’s the problem. Don’t say anything to make him any angrier than he already is.”

“Have you listened to anything I’ve told you about this guy? He’s a nutcase! Like… John Cusack in Identity crazy. I could pay him a compliment and he’d take it the wrong way.” Tony grunted. Even his pop culture references were suffering.

“You know what I meant, Tony. You’re dealing with a seriously disturbed individual. You look at him the wrong way and he could…”

“Yeah, yeah Anthony Hopkins me, I got it.” Tony nodded then ignored the rest of what Rhodey was telling him on the other line. He instead turned his attention to Sergei who was ordering his troops and readying them for the next phase of their plan. “I’m going.”

“Good luck, my friend.” Sergei bowed his head respectfully and Tony did nothing to respond. Words seemed to have temporarily escaped him (which was saying something). Scott was still yelling and had resorted to destroying everything in his path. The gun he’d been shooting into the air had been discarded since he’d long run out of bullets with his manic shooting. Instead he chose to use his fists and even from as far away as they were, they could see his knuckles were bloodied.

“I know you’re out there!” He was shouting, his voice sounding raw but he persisted nonetheless. Crazy was the understatement of the year for this guy. “You cannot hide! We know you’re out here!” Tony did his best to ignore the ranting that Scott was doing. Half of what the man said wasn’t making any sense and all it did was prove to make Tony’s stomach sick. Well, sicker.

Curry was the stupidest thing he’d eaten in a long time even if it had been the day before. No more curry after this, not ever.

Holding his breath to make less noise Tony crept away from the empty warehouse and along the perimeter. He wanted to draw Scott’s gaze away from their hideout so that Sergei would have a chance to lead in his troops once Tony had successfully garnered his attention. The further away he was, the easier it would be.

Each step against the asphalt sounded like a crash and every breath he took sounded like a hiss. Over active imaginations weren’t always a blessing, they were often a curse, particularly when coupled with Tony’s genius. If nothing else, Scott was out of bullets so he wouldn’t be shot right away when he was caught. Though, now that Tony really thought about it, it was likely that there were guards outside of the facility keeping watch for people like him, particularly when Scott was outside doing his maniacal ranting. Someone had to be keeping an eye on him, right? MedCo was a vicious company and while Tony was sure that Scott thought he had some leeway with them, he could tell by talking to Mikhail for just those brief few seconds that they were manipulating Scott the same way they were manipulating Scarlett.

He was a tool and as long as he thought he was going to get what he wanted in the long run they wouldn’t resort to using force to control him. Scarlett had seen through the vicious company’s lies nearly immediately and rebelled so they’d gone down more violent pathways than they’d resorted to for Scott.

It was only a matter of time before Scott became a victim the same way that Scarlett had become a victim, but the only difference was that Scott couldn’t be saved. Hopefully he still had time to make sure that Scarlett was going to get away from their grip unscathed. Tony stopped near the chain link perimeter fence and froze in place. Would this be their life? Running from one enemy or another constantly? It didn’t sound like a very promising future. But Tony had enemies and Scarlett certainly had more than MedCo to make amends for. This was not the time or place to think that far into their future.

“Are you a coward, Tony Stark? I thought you were more of a man than this. I guess I was wrong.” Scott taunted, glaring around in search of his prey and then speaking into a radio. Tony hadn’t noticed that before and whispered into his headset.

“Keep his line of communication open. They need to know I’m here so they can focus on me.” The command was for Jarvis not for Sergei or Rhodey. With any luck, the others would know to stay quiet. One wrong word and he’d blow the entire mission and lose both his earpieces.

“You’re just going to let her rot in there? Do you have any idea what we’re planning to do to her? I can describe it for you in vivid detail, if you like.” There was a twisted pleasure in Scott’s voice. How could someone who had once claimed to love Scarlett now be okay with having such terrible things planned for her? Tony’s guess was that the level of screwing they’d done with Scott’s already screwed up brain had rattled the line between love and hate and blurred it into obscurity.

“You are not as smart as you think you are! Genius? What are you now but a worm, hiding beneath the dirt and waiting for the rain to wash you out?” Scott laughed but Tony could tell he was frustrated. It was the perfect time for him to spring his plan into action. Well, maybe not perfect.

“Then why couldn’t you find me?” Tony stepped out of the shadows, hands in his pocket and staring toward Scott. The blond seemed surprised to see that Tony had emerged from the darkness and willingly at that. But he didn’t raise a weapon and no swat team came out to attack him and take him down as he had worried would happen once he’d revealed himself. Slowly Tony approached until he stood a few feet away from Scott and stared him down. He did his best to look tough but he could feel his stomach lurch and was sure he was pale.

Confidence had always been something Tony could fake even on his worst days but this was different. He wasn’t used to putting his life on the line. It was never in his nature to stand in the line of fire, not without a backup plan. The only thing he could think to do in order to spare Scarlett was for him to be more valuable and distracting than she was. If he could give her enough time to get free on her own, or allow time for Sergei to save her, then it would be well worth any pain he went through. But when it came down to actually experiencing the pain, Tony was panicked. He remembered what it felt like to be under the knife in Afghanistan and it was not something he ever wanted to relive.

“I’ve never been known for my stealth or subtlety and yet you truly had no idea if I was here or not. You just hoped I’d be.” Tony smirked confidently. Scott seemed annoyed but at the same time had a smile on his face. Twisted wasn’t the word Tony was looking for when it came to describing Scott. It was a whole different sense of insanity that he gave off. He emitted crazy vibes. In his head, Tony could hear Scarlett laughing at how incredibly ludicrous that sounded but Tony would stick by it.

“I knew you’d show up sooner or later.” Scott spat, his lip curling viciously.

“Oh yeah, and why is that?”

“Because she loves you.” The words seemed to make Scott sick to his stomach and he gagged.

“And that’s motivation enough for me to come, huh?”

“I assume you must love her too and let’s be honest are you going to give her up? Her?”

“Scarlett would really hate to hear you talking about her like this. She’s not a prize to fight over, it’s actually pretty ridiculous.” Tony grimaced. Even the thought of it made him uncomfortable. He’d tried to treat Scarlett like a prize to be won when they’d first met, then an obstacle to be conquered and neither had worked out for him very well. Instead he’d ended up meeting his match and daresay it, finding his soul mate. Now Tony felt like gagging a little.

“She was a prize.” Scott’s glare could’ve melted the snow in the tundra. “Do you know how long I fought to even get her to look at me?”

“That should’ve been your first clue that things weren’t going to work out.”

“How did you do it?” Scott scoffed. Tony was unsure what the question meant. There were at least four ways he could interpret that sentence without thinking very hard about it and none of them seemed to make any sense so he instead chose to wait for an elaboration. When none came he finally asked.

“What? Do what? You have to be less vague. I know that’s a bad guy thing… vague and cryptic, leaving it to the imagination but it would yield an answer much faster if you just asked what you really meant.” Tony’s sardonic tone was probably uncalled for and he couldn’t help but hear Rhodey in his head reminding him to avoid saying anything stupid. Well, he couldn’t say that no one had warned him.

“Tame her.” Scott wasn’t as tall as Tony but height wasn’t needed to be intimidating. It was obvious that Tony was aware of the changes Scott had physically made and the blond used them to his advantage.

“Well, I hate to brag but I’ve got some skill with a whip. Some say it was too much time spent watching Indiana Jones but that’s not it at all.”

“How did you tame her?” Scott growled, taking an aggressive step toward Tony resulting in a defensive step backwards from the billionaire. “What did you do to my Scarlett that got her to roll over and let you in? Hmm? I know it couldn’t have been your charm… or money, or good looks even. So what is it you did to win her over? Tell me.” Scott’s lip twitched and he gritted his teeth. Everything about his body language was telling Tony to back the hell off. This guy was a ticking time bomb and Tony had triggered the trip wire.

“I didn’t do anything. She hated me.” Tony decided joking around probably wasn’t the best way to go. His whip joke had done nothing but make Scott twitch unnaturally. How many horror movies had he seen where the villain twitched like that? At least a dozen. That behavior never ended well for the protagonist. Then again Tony hadn’t really seen anyone twitch like that in real life. Usually in the movies they were ghosts or demons. It didn’t bode well for Tony in either case.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to lie to me, Stark.” Scott hissed in frustration.

“I’m not lying to you… I mean the whip thing was an exaggeration but I haven’t lied.”

“She did hate you! Do you know how many hours we spent talking about what a joke you and your company were?”

“I’m never going to hear the end of it with that, am I? Yes, I know that she hated me and yes, I know why. Oh and yes, I do know that she spent hours and hours talking about what an egotistical pain in the ass I am. If you think she didn’t make that clear you probably didn’t know her very well.” Tony rolled his eyes, fluttering his eyelashes in an expression of boredom. Again, not the smartest thing to say to a crazy man, but Tony apparently couldn’t help himself. He was going to have to work on that.

Maybe. If he remembered.

Which was unlikely.

“What was it then?” Scott was clearly losing his patience with Tony. “What did you do? You had to have done something. I need to know! I have tried everything over the years… everything.”

“That’s not how this all works, you know.” Tony knew reasoning with a man who was one belt short of a straight jacket wasn’t going to work but he was at a loss for what else to say. The longer he dragged their conversation on, the more time Sergei and his men would have to sneak into MedCo’s building across the way. With any luck, there were men keeping an eye on his conversation with Scott and they would be too distracted to notice the stealthy warriors sneaking their way past him. “Look this was not planned, I didn’t try to tame her and we butted heads and still do at every turn. I don’t know how you think this whole love thing works, but it’s got nothing to do with taming anyone. In fact, that word outside of the bedroom should be reserved for lions.”

“I tried everything.” Scott interrupted, twitching again. He turned his back on Tony and ran his fingers through his hair nervously. “Everything I could think of. Do you think this is how I wanted it to be?”

“We barely know each other… you’re… being really vague again…” Tony pursed his lips and wrung his hands together awkwardly.

“It didn’t matter how sweet I was to her or what kind of gifts I showered her with. She would never settle for me! I am a good man, why wouldn’t she love me?”

“Was… was…” Tony corrected and widened his eyes when Scott turned to glare at him. “Past tense, not such a good man anymore. Just… grammar.”

“I am a good man Mr. Stark. Better than you could ever be… you’re nothing more than a weapons dealer and a thug.”

“Wait, no… what?” Tony furrowed his brow and began objecting but was interrupted by Scott who was likely no longer listening to anything he had to say.

“I was devoted… I’m still devoted. For awhile we were happy, or I was happy. I thought she was happy too and so I proposed. She said no. What kind of a woman says no to a marriage proposal?” Ranting, Scott looked past Tony which made the genius turn around and search for what was taking his focus but saw nothing of note.

“Well, my first thought is a woman who doesn’t want to get married or isn’t ready or… a prostitute you’ve known for three hours.” Tony opened his mouth to speak more but stopped when he realized the question was rhetorical.

“It was that damn job of hers. She loved it more than me.”

“That was probably a good sign you should’ve… never mind continue.” Tony stopped when Scott shot him a look that scared him. He may not have had a gun but whatever had been done to him was definitely more than Tony had to bring to the table. More than ever he wished he was safe and sound inside of the Mark VII armor. After this he was going to buckle down and learn how to fight without the suit. He couldn’t hide in it forever and he was staring at the perfect reason as to why. If Scarlett was no match for him then Tony couldn’t hope to last ten minutes in a physical altercation. True, he could fight, but doing so in this sort of tense situation was something unfamiliar.

“She didn’t want to be my wife. She didn’t even want to be my lover. I couldn’t even get her to go on a damn vacation with me! There were so many lies in our relationship that I couldn’t tell when she was being honest anymore.” Tony bit his lip to stay quiet. He could see how things had become so disastrous for them but he wondered when something had snapped inside of Scott that had driven him to this point.

Scarlett had obviously frustrated him but normal people would have broken that kind of relationship off and moved on with their lives. No, Scott was blaming Scarlett for his transformation but something else was clearly wrong with him that had driven him to madness. Tony knew well enough that the kind of crazy Scott was couldn’t have been caused by one woman. Scarlett was definitely something else, but there was not a woman in the world that could’ve caused the massive psychotic break that Scott must have suffered.

“Then why are you still bothering?” Tony finally asked when Scott began to pace back and forth, muttering under his breath. The insane muttering stopped and Scott cocked his head unnaturally back toward Tony. “I mean, if she wouldn’t be with you no matter what you chose to do then why the hell are you here chasing after her? There are plenty of women out there and I know women like her are rare but… hell, you’re a handsome guy and had to have not been a violent sociopath at some point.”

“The years I put into chasing her… you think I was just going to give up without a fight? Scarlett needs me. She needs me! This destructive life she lives is going to get her killed. All the signs are there! Even torture didn’t convince her! Torture! The things they did to her were unspeakable and still she persisted.”

“Oh, really? She needs you?”

“The nightmares, you’ve seen them haven’t you? We have too.” Scott’s blue eyes were haunting. How had they known about the nightmares? What else had they seen? “You for example.”

“Me?”

“I told you she hated you and now she’s with you? That’s clearly another part of her destructive behavior! Why couldn’t she have just taken the job with MedCo that I arranged for her and done what was asked? It would’ve solved everything! Instead she had to blow the damn place up and go with you!”

“Wait, just… wait, okay?” But Scott wasn’t going to wait for anyone. In fact, Tony was positive that Scott couldn’t even hear him anymore. “This guy is so crazy, and not the good kind of fun crazy.” Wide eyed, Tony took several steps backwards so that he could stay out of harm’s way if Scott decided to randomly lash out. “This was such a bad idea, I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I was wrong. Bad idea, bad idea.”

“I realized long before then that the only way to get her to be mine was to play her game. She was so wrapped up in her job and the danger of it all… if I made things dangerous then she had no choice. Either she’d fold and realize I was more than half the man she thought I was or she’d be too weak to continue! But that didn’t work either. She thought I was dead then you came along and stole her from me.”

“Well, you were sorta dead. At least to her.”

“I was never dead!” Growling, Scott stamped his foot like a child throwing a tantrum. “You don’t understand how brilliant my plan is! You need to understand that you are not the genius! I am the genius! I played her game. I lured her into my trap! And now she’s mine.”

“You’re mad.” Tony was disgusted by the implications being made How could he treat Scarlett or anyone like that? Insanity was one thing but malevolence was another. Setting Scarlett up for torture was the most disgusting thing he’d seen another human being do.

“Some people mistake brilliance for madness yes, I can see the confusion.”

“No, I’m not confused. You’re a goddamn lunatic.” Tony started, still obviously appalled. He was tired of listening to the crazy man rant and he wasn’t going to keep his mouth shut any longer. Surely he’d given Sergei and his men enough time to get past them. He could end the confrontation with violence or make his way out and get back to his suit He was hoping for the latter if his mouth would let him get away with that. “You’re treating Scarlett like she’s the prize at the end of a game! Her life wasn’t a game. What she was doing wasn’t a game and what she’s going through right now, that’s not a game! Do you think there’s any way you get out of this with her loving you? Or without MedCo using her as they please? Look what they’ve done to you! You think that you’re winning? That you’re better than you used to be? When was the last time you did something that wasn’t for the benefit of that Russian asshole?”

“Shut up! You don’t know a damn thing!”

“You keep saying that you’re doing this for her but who are you really doing any of this for? What would it benefit her to be turned into the same kind of piece of shit monster you’ve become? She’s already remarkable so what is it that’s going to happen here?” Tony was done keeping his mouth shut despite how he could hear Rhodey in his ear telling him to cool it. “What you’re doing? That’s not out of love. It’s out of something but it ain’t love.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“I know exactly what I’m talking about!” Tony took a step toward Scott, less afraid than before. Adrenaline was a mystical thing. “You want to know how I know?”

“Shut up, I said to shut the hell up!”

“Because I love her! Because we wound up together without any of this bullshit you’re pulling and, hell, in spite of each other! In spite of her lies and her scandalous history I saw her underneath it and loved every damn thing about her without needing her to change. And she despite her preconceived notions, despite my asinine sexist remarks and childish behavior fell for me! She never asked me to change for her. That’s love… not whatever this is. I’m not really sure that’s a word for what this is.”

“She doesn’t love you! You tricked her! You did something, but you won’t tell me what it is!”

“You’re just a sick twisted fuck manipulating Scarlett to create some screwed up fantasy world you think you’re going to live in! Get your head out of the clouds, asshole!” Tony shouted. Much to his surprise Scott simply stared at him, not filled with rage as he had expected him to be. “There’s no utopia for you at the end of this! There’s just MedCo manipulating her and manipulating you. They’ll kill you once they have no use for you. That’s it. That’s all there is.”

“Tony? Tony, I’m getting some weird kind of interference are you still there?” Rhodey’s voice was cutting in and out of his ears. The transmission was garbled, turned into static and then a loud screech made Tony jump in surprise and smack at the radio transmitter in his right ear. Very suddenly he was aware of someone standing behind him and it sent chills down his spine. Slowly he turned around but only to be grabbed by something large and thrown across the pavement. Tony instantly leaned up to get a better look at what had thrown him, ignoring his scraped elbows.

“Tony? Tony!” Rhodey’s started up in his ear again once the interference had faded.

“Not a great time.” Tony scooted backwards, staring unblinking at what had thrown him. Scott stood nearby, looking far more menacing than he had even when he’d been insanely muttering under his breath while pacing back and forth. The creature behind Scott was massive. It looked like there had once been the face of a man but now it was so damaged that there was only a hole for a mouth and one bulging eye. The other looked like it had been recently sewn up. Flesh was ribbed and ruined, scarred as though recently burned.

“What’s going on Tony? You sound freaked out!” Rhodey was practically yelling through the static interference. Scooting backwards Tony kept his mouth hanging open and stared at the creature barreling down on him.

“Erick, don’t hurt him. We need him alive.” Scott stared at Tony thoughtfully but there was something behind his blue eyes that wasn’t there before. Maybe Tony’s words had made an impact. After all, Scott may have been psychotic but he wasn’t stupid.

“That thing’s name is Erick? You named the zombie? That’s a really benign name for a goddamn zombie!” Tony grumbled, shaking his head back and forth in disbelief. “Oh, zombies… didn’t expect zombies.”

“What is it Tony?” Rhodey was panicking in Tony’s ear. “Should I come in guns blazing? I’m still far away but I can let Sergei know to get started.” Erick stood drooling over Tony. His body was covered in scars and he stared down at Tony blankly. Nothing was going on in his head, nothing except for following orders. What was this monster and how many of them were there? Sure, MedCo had been experimenting in biological warfare but this was the last thing that Tony had expected to find when he went to meet up with Scott. “Tony, you’ve got to talk to me! I need to hear your voice now or I’m sending Sergei in.”

“Whoa!” Tony yelped as he dodged one massive burned arm as it reached to grab him.

“Oh, don’t put up a fight, Stark. We both know you’re no match for us.” Scott folded his arms over his chest and watched Tony with mild amusement. “And take out that earpiece, you’re not fooling anyone.” Scampering to his feet, Tony took surprised steps away but knew that Scott was right. What was he supposed to do? Run away and leave Scarlett to whatever the hell they were planning for her? Leave her to Scott? Leave her to the zombie named Erick?

Erick grabbed Tony’s arm and pulled him swiftly until he had both arms of the billionaire behind his back. The creature was stronger than Tony had expected.

“Ow, ow! Careful!” Tony pouted, though he knew that no one was going to be careful with him after the trouble he’d caused. Scott walked in front of Tony and cocked his head to the side.

“Stark, you may be a genius but even you can’t get out of this one. Give up.”

“Tony, what do you want me to do?” The earpiece buzzed again. The one in his left ear seemed to have given out from whatever was causing the static interference.

“No changes, Rhodes.” Tony spoke as Scott smacked the side of his head, looking for the earpiece Tony was using. “Well, except zombies. Zombies, Rhodes. Prepare for zombies. Shoot them in the head, I think… unless every pop culture reference ever is wrong. Call S.T.A.R.S. if you can. S.H.I.E.L.D. would be okay too though.” Tony yelled as Scott pulled the earpiece free of his right ear and then threw it on the ground. With a stomp, the connection was cut off. Erick dragged Tony toward the MedCo building with Scott leading the way. Tony prayed that the second piece in his other ear would be left alone so he could rig it to work again. But the horrible squealing continued in his left ear as they got closer to the building.

Despite the appearance of the monster named Erick, Tony thought his exchange with Scott had gone rather well. He’d suffered a few minor scrapes when he’d been thrown about but other than that no one had caused him any physical damage. With any luck once he got inside the building, he’d be able to sneak his way out and then find Scarlett. Either that or Sergei would find her first. It didn’t matter who found her as long as she was found and brought to safety. Then he’d worry about how to save his own skin.