Tony Stark's Daughter [1]

Chapter 32: Extremis

Tony's POV

I groaned as I opened my eyes. I looked up and noticed I was zip tied by the wrists to a bed.... fun.

"Okay..." I looked up and saw Maya. She was sitting in a chair in front of a computer. Wow! I shook my hands, but it did nothing. I laid back with a sigh. Hope. I looked around, but she wasn't there. I panicked. Maya spun around slowly with a smug look.

"Just like old time uh?" She looked at me with her head tilted.

"Oh yeah. With zip ties, it's a ball." I remarked while shaking my head no. I glared at the woman.

"It's wasn't my idea." She spoke. I need to see Hope. I looked around the room.

"Okay, so you took Killian's card." I nodded my head. I was pissed.

"I took his money." She said.

"And here you are, 13 years later, in a dungeon. Where is Hope? How's Pepp-." I stopped. If she was here. So is Pepper. Oh no...

"Hope and Pepper are not here-." She smirked. I scoffed.

"Well I figured that." I stared at her. She sat in the chair with a smirk.

"-and your in a dungeon. I'm free to go." She smiled. I glared. I swear if he touches them. I will kill him. She sighed. She stood up and walked down a couple of steps. I tried to get out of the zip ties. "A lots happened Tony, but I'm close. Extremis is practically stabilized-."

"I'm telling you it isn't!" I cut her off loudly. She now stood in front of me. I looked down at her. "I'm out there on the street. People are going bang, their painting the walls Maya. Your kidding yourself" I tried to reason with her. She held up a oddly familiar piece of paper.

"Help me fix it." She replied. It read Bern Millennium 2000. You know who I am. I don't remember this, well not really. She flipped it over. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Did I do that?" I questioned. She looked at me with disbelief.

"Yes." She scoffed.

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

"You don't remember?" She said with glossy eyes. I shook my head.

"I can't help you." I sighed. "You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. Wanted to help people. Now look at ya. I get to wake up every morning with someone who... still has their soul."

She stared at me with a disappointed look.

"Get me out of here." I said. She looked down. "Come on."

"You know what my old man used to say to me." Killian's voice rang out as Maya walked away. I looked back. He come walking towards us. "One of his favourites of his many sayings. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse, gets the cheese."

"You're not still pissed about Switzerland are you?" I asked annoyed. He turned to me.

"How could I be pissed at you Tony? I'm here to thank you." He walked up to me. I moved around in the zip ties. "You gave me the greatest gift anybody's ever given me, desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said to meet me at the roof top, right? Well, for the first... 20 minutes, I actually thought you would show up. Then the next hour, I considered taking that one last step short cut to the lobby, if you know what I mean."

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse." I remarked while looking at him.

"But as I looked out to 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, I had Tony. Thanks to you Tony, it's been my mantra ever since, right." He looked at Maya. She smile at him. "You simply rule from behind the scenes, because the second you give evil a face, the Mandarin. You hand the people a target."