Ethan Returns

Chen Xiao sprawled over the workbench, a half-finished blueprint spread out before him.

The lines were crooked, the proportions were off, and the Stick he had drawn looked like a sugarcane stalk crushed in a door. He stared at it for five seconds and came to a conclusion: he really had no talent for drawing.

Daniel passed by, glanced at it, and said, "Ask Wang to draw it for you. His handwriting is good, and his magic circles are neater than yours."

"No. My Stick has to be drawn by me."

"Can the Dwarf King even understand whatever that is?"

"If he can't, he can ask."

"Ask who?"

Chen Xiao thought for a moment. "...Thor."

Daniel fell silent for two seconds. "Then you should probably draw it yourself."

Chen Xiao rolled his eyes and continued wrestling with the blueprint.

His phone vibrated.

He ignored it. It vibrated again. Then a third time. He picked it up and glanced at it—not a call, but a message from JARVIS.

"Mr. Chen, Mr. Stark's condition is not good. If it is convenient, please come over."

Chen Xiao stared at the screen for two seconds. JARVIS never sent messages on its own initiative.

He stood, rubbed his face, and swiped his right hand through the air. Blue arcs exploded in the middle of the living room as a portal unfolded. On the other side was Malibu at night, sea wind carrying the scent of salt as it rushed in and sent the blueprints on the table fluttering.

Daniel poked his head out from the stairwell. "Where are you going?"

"To meddle in someone else's business."

The portal closed.

Chen Xiao had visited the Malibu mansion several times. Whether it was the first time he had gotten to know Tony, accompanying him on test flights, or coming over to mooch a meal and poke at his armor. Every time he came, the place had been as brightly lit as the lobby of a five-star hotel.

But today was different.

The lights were on, but dim. Several lamps were dead. The room was a complete mess, as though a battle had just taken place, and liquor bottles lay scattered across the coffee table—whiskey, vodka, champagne, some empty and some half-full.

The air reeked of alcohol, along with something indescribable—the stench of defeat.

Chen Xiao frowned. He crossed the living room, went down the stairs, and headed for the basement.

Tony was in the lab.

No, more precisely, Tony was sitting on the laboratory floor with his back against the workbench. His black T-shirt was wrinkled, and the circular Arc Reactor on his chest gave off a faint blue glow. His hair was a disaster, his beard was untrimmed, and dark circles hung beneath his eyes as though he had not slept in days.

He was not wearing armor. The armor rack stood empty, while several disassembled components sat on the nearby workbench with wiring exposed and screws scattered everywhere.

Chen Xiao stood at the top of the stairs, taking in the scene.

"...Did you get robbed?"

Tony looked up at him. The corner of his mouth twitched as though he wanted to smile, but he could not manage it.

"Rhodey took Mark Two." His voice was hoarse, like he had drunk too much and still not enough.

Chen Xiao walked over, looked at the empty armor rack, then at Tony's face, which practically screamed, "I don't want to live anymore."

"He took it?"

"He took it. Flew off wearing it." Tony lifted the whiskey bottle in his hand and took a swig. "He said I was crazy. He said I didn't deserve to wear that armor. He said—"

He stopped. He lowered the bottle and stared at the floor.

"He was right."

Chen Xiao crouched down.

In the dim light, he saw black veins spreading up Tony's neck—from beneath his collar, crawling along the side of his throat all the way to his jaw. Dense, dark lines like roots, like spiderwebs, like something was slowly eating him alive.

Chen Xiao's gaze sharpened.

"You're poisoned?"

Tony lifted the hem of his T-shirt, revealing his side. The patterns there were denser and darker, radiating out from the Arc Reactor as though black lightning had struck him.

"Palladium." Tony said it as casually as if he were discussing the weather. "My body is slowly absorbing it. In a few months, this stuff will kill me."

Chen Xiao stared at the markings and fell silent for a moment.

"What percentage?"

Tony did not look at him. He picked up the bottle and took another swig.

"Seventy-three percent."

He put the bottle down, leaned against the table leg, and looked up at the ceiling. The light fell across his face, illuminating every trace of exhaustion, despair, and self-destruction.

"A few weeks left."

Chen Xiao's pupils contracted slightly.

This was not right. He remembered that in the original story, Tony had been poisoned for a long time and held on until he found the New Element. Seventy-three percent—at this rate, he would be dead before he found a cure.

He said nothing. He stood up.

"Do you know what I've been thinking?" Tony's voice drifted from the floor, very quiet.

Chen Xiao looked down at him.

"Sometimes I think it would've been better if I'd died in that cave. At least back then, I thought everything I did—was worth it."

Chen Xiao looked at him without speaking.

"Pepper won't answer my calls either." Tony's voice dropped even lower. "She blocked me—not just put me on a blacklist. When I call, it rings once, then goes to voicemail. Do you know what that means? She sees my number, then hits decline—every single time, on purpose."

Chen Xiao said nothing.

"Howard—my dad—the things he left behind, I still don't understand them. He was smarter than me, better than me, better with people than me. If he saw what I'm like now—"

He stopped. He put the bottle on the floor and kicked it. The bottle rolled away and struck a table leg.

"Forget it."

Chen Xiao looked at him.

"Wait here."

Tony turned his head and watched Chen Xiao open a portal, blue arcs exploding through the laboratory. Chen Xiao stepped through, and the portal closed.

"...Where are you going?"

There was no answer. Only the faint hum of the Arc Reactor remained in the empty lab.

Tony waited for a while. Then he picked up the bottle again and tipped it back for another drink.

The portal opened again.

Chen Xiao stepped out, followed by someone else.

The man was in his fifties, with graying hair and a scar on his face. The wound had healed well, but it had left behind a deep old mark. He wore a dark gray coat over a cotton shirt. He looked clean and composed, but there was something in his eyes—the calm of someone who had endured too much.

Tony's bottle froze halfway to his lips.

His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed, as though he needed to make sure he had not drunk too much.

"...Ethan?"

Ethan stood beside the portal, looking at Tony sitting on the floor. That appearance—disheveled hair, dark circles, bottles all over the ground, black veins crawling across his neck.

His expression held no anger, no shock.

Only...disappointment. Deep, profound disappointment.

"Stark." Ethan's voice was not loud, but it was steady. His English carried a slight accent, but every word was clear.

"You're sitting on the floor, drinking yourself senseless, waiting to die?"

Tony opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Ethan walked over, stopped in front of Tony, and crouched down. His knees cracked—it was not an easy movement for a man in his fifties.

"Do you remember that cave?"

Tony remained silent.

"You were lying there with a hole in your chest, shrapnel drifting through your blood vessels, ready to kill you at any moment." Ethan spoke without hurry, as though telling a story from long ago. "I asked you what you needed me to do. You said, 'Find me a light. I'm going to give them a taste of genius.'"

Tony's lips moved slightly.

"You built it," Ethan said. "With a pile of scrap metal, you built the first Iron Man suit in the world. When you walked out of that cave, I thought this man would change the world someday."

He paused.

"But now you're sitting on the floor, waiting to die."

The fingers gripping Tony's bottle slowly turned white.

"You don't deserve it." Ethan's voice finally wavered slightly. It was not anger, but heartbreak. "You don't deserve to wear the armor you built in that cave. You don't deserve to make Pepper Potts cry for you. You don't deserve to let James Rhodes take bullets for you. And you especially don't deserve to make Master Chen save you."

He stood and took a step back, looking down at Tony.

"If you want to die, go ahead. But don't die wearing the Stark name."

Silence. The lab was so quiet that the faint hum of the Arc Reactor could be heard.

Tony lowered his head, gripping the bottle. As he held it, his hand began to shake.

Chen Xiao stood by the stairs, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall. He said nothing.

After a long time, Tony set the bottle on the floor. The movement was slow, as if he were putting something down.

"Ethan."

"Mm."

"How are you...still alive?"

Ethan turned to glance at Chen Xiao. Chen Xiao's face remained expressionless.

"Someone meddled in my business," Ethan said.

The corner of Chen Xiao's mouth twitched.

Tony looked up at Ethan. His eyes were red, but he did not cry. He took one deep breath, then another, and pushed himself up with the workbench. His legs trembled, but he remained standing.

He looked at the bottles on the floor, the empty armor rack, and his own hands.

"Rhodey was right," he said. "I was crazy."

Ethan said nothing.

"Pepper was right too." Tony continued, his voice still hoarse but steadier than before. "I'm an asshole."

Chen Xiao added from behind, "You're surprisingly accurate when insulting yourself."

Tony ignored him. He walked to the workbench, gathered the disassembled parts together, picked up a screw, examined it, then set it down. His movements were slow, as though he was not sure what he could still do.

"Ethan."

"Mm."

"Will you...stay?"

Ethan fell silent for a moment. He looked at Tony's back—the young man who had created a miracle with a welding torch in that cave. His shoulders were still trembling, but he was standing.

"I'm not leaving," Ethan said.

"Can you handle it?"

"I built an Arc Reactor before. In a cave. With scrap metal."

Tony fell silent for a second, then handed him a pen.

"Then don't just stand there. Get to work."

Chen Xiao pushed himself off the wall and dusted off his robe.

"Alright. You two talk." He swiped his right hand through the air, opening a blue portal in the laboratory. "I still have a Stick to draw."

He stepped into the portal, but halfway through, he stopped and looked back.

Tony stood before the workbench with his head lowered, shoulders trembling slightly. Ethan stood beside him holding a wrench. He said nothing. He was simply there.

Chen Xiao looked at the scene, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Oh, right. You still owe me an autograph. The kind written on a checkbook. Don't even think about skipping out on it."

Tony did not turn around, but his shoulders shook. It was impossible to tell whether he was laughing or cursing.

Chen Xiao grinned and disappeared into the portal.