Battle Scars {An Iron Man FanFic}

Chapter 41: Rescued

A/n: This is dedicated to @natabratz! Amazing reader and commenter :) Hope you like this update :D

. : ☼ : .

Chapter 41: Rescued

Andy POV

"I didn't know..." I managed to murmur in the middle of the night. I hadn't been able to sleep, but only feel Tony's heavy hand on my arm, protectively.

"What happened?" he asked, and it was only then did I realize he hadn't been sleeping either. I took in a breath and shut my eyes, trying to recap without reliving the memories.

"I'm fine," I started in a low voice, "They just, just wanted to know, they wanted to know where I learned about the Extremis project."

"Extremis?" he asked in a low voice although to me he might as well be screaming.

"Shh!" I whispered loudly, paranoid. "It's, it's this project," I turned to him, "it can regenerate limbs, it can create a super solider, one that is very very very hard to kill. There is a fire that runs through their veins; it's what regrows their limbs. My dad, my dad... he lost his hand apparently. He was already helping them, but I'm sure he had no idea what they were planning. He was helping them, found a select group of flora that would be substantial to the actual serum. They tested it on him and well, it didn't work.

"But you said the combination he found did" his face was dark, shadowed by the surrounding night. Nevertheless, I could still see that crease of worry on his forehead, just barely through flitting eyelids.

"Well apparently not, its unstable, people... people tend to explode" I said in a heavy tone.

"So you're saying your dad..." he trailed off and I shut my eyes again.

"I'm only 50% sure. What I would do to find out.... but I'm not going back over there. I'm, I'm not going to-"

"Shh you don't have to, they're not taking you away again, okay? Rhodey should be on his way, we'll be safe soon."

"Okay" I agreed in a small voice.

"Andy, what did they do?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Nothing... just... Well, I'm sure my pacemaker is at its optimum charge. They just tried to scare me a bit, don't worry, I'm fine."

"I want to know what they did to you" he said in a forceful tone and his hand fell to my stomach. I flinched and he noticed. He said my name warningly and I felt tears begin to prick at my eyes. I shook my head, forcibly, trying to rid of the pain now at the forefront of my mind.

"I swear to God I'm going to kill them!" I heard Tony say. I reopened my eyes, my mind desperately debating whether I should show him or not, when they came. In the following seconds, Tony called out loudly, cursing and fighting around. In the darkness, I could only see the shadows of around four men. I rolled over to help him but suddenly someone was near me, forcing my head down onto the sunken mattress and squeezing the flesh of my stomach painfully. I squirmed in his grip and tried to call out Tony's name.

"The suit!" he called out amidst the scuffle. He said no more, he couldn't. Something was thrown over his head, my mind imagined a burlap sack, and I heard him let out a guttural sound of true panic. I tried fighting against my restraints again but the man only leaned in more, applying more pressure to my stomach.

                Before I could even try catching my breath, the man was off me and the door was closed; Tony was gone. I sat on the mattress, feeling the tears well up. I lifted up the edges of my shirt slowly and gently tried to massage the mark on my stomach. Near my hip bone was an angry red area, a black image burned into the center. I traced my fingers around the encircling band and then edged them towards the phoenix I knew was there.