Lynn leaned against the lab bench, watching Tony emerge from the MK2, drenched in sweat but grinning like a child who had just finished taking a toy apart.
JARVIS rattled off a string of flight parameters. Lynn did not understand all of them, but judging by Tony's expression, the test flight had not disappointed him.
"All right." Lynn straightened up from the lab bench. "The test flight's over. I'm heading back."
Tony was scrolling through the flight logs on a tablet. He did not even look up, merely lifting a finger in farewell. Yinsen rose from his chair, still wearing a trace of the smile the test flight had left him with. "Mr. Lynn," Yinsen called out to him.
Lynn had just raised his hand to open a portal. He turned at the sound.
Yinsen looked toward Tony. "Tony, I'd still like to stay at the Sanctum. It's quiet at Master Wong's place, and I've gotten used to it. Here, the robotic arms in your lab move around all day. Even when I take a nap, I feel like something's watching me."
Tony finally lifted his eyes from the tablet and glanced at Yinsen. He did not try to keep him, only nodded. "Sure. Call if you need anything. I've got Pepper working on locations for the school and hospital. I'll let you know when there's news."
"All right."
Lynn raised his hand and traced open a portal. Orange sparks blossomed in the laboratory's temperature-controlled air, revealing the warm yellow lighting of the Sanctum's hall on the other side.
Yinsen followed him through. Tony swiped a finger across his tablet, muttering, "The intake heating module still needs adjusting."
The portal closed. All that remained in the laboratory were the soft sounds of robotic arms returning to position and JARVIS's occasionally blinking indicator lights.
Life at the Sanctum was so quiet it felt like another world.
Every morning, Lynn got up and went to the dining room to eat.
Yinsen always rose earlier than he did. Every day, he sat on the sofa in the hall reading, sometimes medical journals, sometimes books on basic magical theory borrowed from the Sanctum's library. He regarded these things with a gentle curiosity, but never took the initiative to ask about them.
When Lynn asked why he was reading that, Yinsen smiled. "I'm curious about everything I don't understand."
Whenever he had nothing to do, Lynn liked chatting with Yinsen. Their conversations covered all sorts of subjects, sometimes the details of the cave in Afghanistan. Yinsen spoke of those first two days after Tony had been brought in as a captive, with a mass of shrapnel embedded in his chest. Sometimes they talked about Gemira. Yinsen described its mountains and villages, saying the children there grew up never having seen a syringe, and even vaccinations depended on veterinarians visiting the countryside.
Lynn listened, occasionally adding a few words, but mostly just listening quietly.
He continued recording his own abnormalities.
He had filled several more pages of his notebook, tabulating the time each episode occurred, how long it lasted, and the physical sensations that accompanied it. He had much more data than before, but no pattern had emerged.
Still, the frequency of the episodes seemed to have stabilized somewhat lately. At least he had not suddenly blacked out in a corridor again, but his memory was getting worse and worse.
Besides his own problems, he had felt uneasy throughout this period.
That unease had begun the night the MK2's test flight ended. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, he kept feeling that he had overlooked something. He went through his memories of this part of the plot from beginning to end, but could never find the problem.
Over the next few days, that feeling surfaced from time to time, but he suppressed it each time. His approach was that if he could not remember, he could not remember; chasing after it would only make him more agitated. Maybe it was nothing important. Maybe it would come back to him on its own in a few days.
As it turned out, waiting for it to surface on its own was the worst possible choice.
One evening, half a month later, Lynn sat on the sofa in the hall. Beside him, Yinsen was leafing through an old book borrowed from the library, its pages yellowed and the lettering on its cover already blurred. Wong was on the second floor, leaning against the railing and reading as usual.
The hall was so quiet that only the rustle of turning pages could be heard. His phone rang. Lynn picked it up from the coffee table. Tony Stark's name flashed on the screen. He answered casually. "Hey, how does a busy man like you have time to-"
"Mr. Lynn." It was JARVIS's voice on the other end. That perpetually steady, polite, unhurried voice now carried an undertone of urgency Lynn had never heard before. "This is JARVIS. Mr. Stark's life is under threat. None of the emergency response options available under current conditions can reach him quickly."
Lynn's head buzzed. "Explain." He stood up from the sofa, his voice extremely low.
"Obadiah Stane attacked Mr. Stark and removed the Arc Reactor from his chest." JARVIS spoke nearly twice as fast as usual. "Mr. Stark's vital signs are currently extremely unstable. He has very little time left. I have analyzed every available rescue option. Only your teleportation ability can allow intervention quickly enough."
Lynn's fingers tightened sharply around his phone.
Obadiah. Stealing the reactor. Tony Stark dying on the basement floor, his chest caved in, his face ashen, clutching that old reactor and using the last of his strength to push it into his chest.
Fuck. He finally knew what he had forgotten. "I'll be right there." Lynn hung up and raised his hand to trace open a portal.
Orange sparks appeared in the Sanctum's hall. Startled, Yinsen sprang to his feet, nearly dropping his book. Wong leaned over the second-floor railing, his expression grave.
Lynn had no time to explain. He stepped straight through the portal.
On the other side was Tony Stark's private laboratory. It was nothing like his last visit, far messier.
Lynn rushed into the laboratory, his mind going blank for an instant. Where was it?
Damn it, where was it kept?
His gaze swept frantically over the cluttered worktops until it landed on an inconspicuous transparent display case in a corner. The old reactor lay inside. Pepper Potts had put it here, with the inscription, "Proof that Tony has a heart."
He snatched up the display case, turned, and charged up the stairs.
Tony Stark lay slumped in the middle of the living room, in an utterly bedraggled state.
The Arc Reactor in his chest was gone, leaving only a charred, empty socket. His face was ashen, and he was slowly dragging himself toward the stairs, his destination clear.
Hearing footsteps, Tony struggled to raise his head. He recognized Lynn. His lips moved, forcing out a single hoarse word. "...Hurry."
Lynn dropped to his knees beside the sofa, smashed the display case, and took out the old reactor. Its edges were rough. Compared with the precision-engineered Arc Reactor in Tony's chest, it was a relic dug out of a scrap heap.
But right now, it was Tony Stark's life. "JARVIS." Lynn's hands never stopped moving. "Tell me how to install it."
"The old reactor's connector is compatible with the current housing. Simply insert it. Please ensure the contact points are fully aligned, or the power output will be unstable."
JARVIS's voice came from the ceiling, still steady, though he continued speaking at an emergency pace.
Lynn drew a deep breath, gripped both sides of the reactor, lined it up with the socket in Tony's chest, and pressed down hard.
The instant the metal made contact, a low electromagnetic hum came from the reactor. Blue-white light shone again inside the glass tubes, going from dim to steady in less than half a second.
Tony's body jerked upward, and a heavy gasp burst from his chest, like a drowning man breaking the surface.
His face visibly went from ashen to pale, then regained a hint of color. He gulped down air, his fingers releasing the edge of the sofa. Raising a hand, he touched the old reactor glowing in his chest again.
"...Damn." Eyes closed, Tony Stark summed up everything he felt at that moment with that word.
Lynn slumped onto the floor beside the sofa, his back against the coffee table, and let out a long breath. His heart was still racing, and his hands trembled slightly, but he pressed them against his knees so Tony would not see.