"So, what is it this time, if we don't pass this test we get sucked into the ocean and drown before we can reach the surface?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"Yes." Gene said nonchalantly as he walked through the temple to examine his surroundings. Tony swallowed in nervousness. There were no mistakes this time.

"So, who's that?" Tony pointed to Chaoxiang.

"My father." Gene said, not bothering to turn away from the statues surrounding the temple.

"Good to know…" Tony muttered.

By the looks of the temple, the theme here was water. Tony knew about the immense power of water, and that made him nervous. Especially with the level of anger boiling inside Gene. This should be…interesting…

Except this time was different. The test didn't begin with someone activating it. The test had begun when they entered the temple, and Tony could tell by the fact that the water was pushing at the walls and the walls weren't going to stay up for very long.

"How do we pass the test this time?" Tony asked, trying to ignore the water seeping through small cracks in the walls.

"We have to find the ring before we drown," Gene explained calmly.

"Ahh. Well now that it's out in the open, maybe we should, I don't know…start looking for the ring?" Tony suggested, trying not to sound angry.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Gene said calmly.

"Well it doesn't look like you're trying very hard!" Tony complained.

"It never does look like I'm trying, does it?" Gene taunted, with a smile teetering on his lips. He enjoyed teasing the young genius; but Tony, however, wasn't appreciating it considering the circumstances.

Tony just pushed the thoughts aside and continued searching for the ring.

~…~

Chao, however, hadn't payed attention to the two teens' squabbling. He hadn't the time to waste listening to adolescent boys arguing over useless things such as what they were now.

Besides, he had the location of the ring and he needn't delay picking it up and leaving.

Yet, the same thought echoed through his head. I will allow you to assist me in finding the last ring, but don't believe this means you've gained my trust, old man. The boy had only been fooling himself, Chao thought. He trusts me whether he likes it or not…so why am I betraying it?

He ignored the thought and found a door. He recalled a 'riddle' he had been told a while back and smiled. He pressed his hand onto the inscription aside the door and moments later, the door opened. Inside the room was poorly lit and damp from the water seeping in quickly. Chao pushed through the quickly-rising water and followed the light emanating from the ring.

Once he reached the stand, he picked up the ring, placed it on his finger and transported himself out.

~…~

"Hey, Tony, I think I forgot my—" Pepper began to explain, walking back into the armory. She was stopped by the sight of a man sitting on the floor of the armory, looking frail and weak. Pepper covered her mouth to prevent the sound of gasping.

"Oh my gosh," Pepper whispered to herself. She didn't linger for long. Pepper ran to Howard's side and helped him to his feet.

"Mr. Stark, are you okay?" Pepper asked.

"I-I think so…" Howard answered weakly, "who are you?" He knew that she must be a friend of Tony's, but considering she knew about a whole large armory full of Iron Man armors, Howard was guessing that Tony didn't freely give away his secrets to just any strangers.

"I'm Tony's friend," Pepper explained, trying not to sigh in disappointment. Howard caught her disappointment and smiled. "are you sure you don't want me to take you to the hospital or something?" Pepper continued.

"N-no, I should be fine…maybe just a glass of water or something," Howard said. After months of small portions only two times a day, he just wanted a good long drink of water and then to sit down and catch up on things.

"Umm, sure, let me just get that…" Pepper went to find Rhodey.

~…~

The search for the tenth ring continued, and the water level was rising quickly. It was practically up to his knees by now, and his armor wasn't going to withstand the water for very long. Besides, the more water there was the smaller the space was—in simpler words, the walls were moving in which didn't help the water level to decrease.

"Where is the stupid thing?" Tony exclaimed out of anger.

"Watch your mouth, Stark!" Gene exclaimed.

"Oh, is that supposed to be a threat? Am I supposed to be scared or something?" Tony taunted. He honestly didn't care for Gene's threats anymore.

"I'm warning you, Stark!" Gene clenched his hands into tight fists as Tony spoke. His tolerance for such things had lowered since he reunited with his father, and by now if Tony kept saying the things he did he'd really be asking for a fight.

"Ooh, I'm so scared!" Tony pretended to tremble. Gene was even angrier; and what he didn't realize was that with his anger, his rings glowed with power. Gene wouldn't take anymore of Tony's taunting, so he used the power of all nine rings on his attack.

The attack took Tony off guard and sent him onto the floor and into the water. He knew his armor wouldn't withstand much more of this abuse; its origins from water or otherwise.

"I warned you Stark! Don't irritate me or you'll pay the price!" Gene yelled.

"You know, that's your problem Gene! You think you deserve everything in the world when really the reputation you've set for yourself says the opposite. You treat yourself like a princess when you're clearly not!" Tony said. Gene scowled and blasted Tony more.

"I warned you not to get in my way, Stark, and now you are! So shut your mouth and get out of the way of my destiny!" Gene yelled even louder this time. As Gene yelled, he became stronger and harder for Tony to fight. Tony had to concentrate on fighting Gene rather than retorting cleverly to his yelling.

Soon enough, Gene was too concentrated on finding the rings to continue beating up Iron Man.

"WHERE IS THAT RING?" Gene yelled, very angry.

Then he caught sight of a dark room in the back; Gene went to it. It was a ring chamber, just like the ones that had been in all the other temples. Except this one was ringless; and gene had noticed that Chao was gone. Gene knew what had gone on.

Chaoxiang had left with the ring.

Gene felt infuriated. From the other room, Tony heard a loud yell that he knew had come from Gene. Tony rushed over to Gene to see that a burst of energy had shot up from Gene and once it had disappeared, a pile of black armor and dimmed rings was left.

Gene was gone. Gone gone.

The power of the nine rings that he had had ended up killing him; and honestly, Tony didn't feel satisfied.

Then Tony was faced with the issue of leaving. He knew that the only way to leave was through the rings, and he didn't like it.

Tony knew there was no way he'd be able to surface in his armor alone. He knew he had no choice at all. And honestly, with all the trouble the rings had caused him, Tony just wanted to leave the rings to be destroyed by all the water pressure. But he had to leave.

So Tony put on one of the rings.

"How does this thing work anyways?" Tony wondered aloud. Soon enough he figured it out and he was at the harbor when he opened his eyes again.

His next reaction was to throw the ring back into the water and flew back to the armory.

~…~

"So…he's just gone?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah. Just like that," Tony paused, "but I actually feel kinda bad. All he really wanted was the rings. He just wanted to be powerful like he was promised, but it ended up with losing his life in the end." Tony explained.

"I guess…" Pepper said. She couldn't really see how Tony could feel bad, but he would be Tony.

Tony had explained the situation to Rhodey earlier, when he had gotten back. Pepper had been busy at her house and couldn't make it until now, when Rhodey was doing his homework.

Tony looked into Pepper's eyes and felt a warm, tingly feeling take over him. It felt weird, but he'd been feeling it whenever he saw her lately and he was getting used to it.

Tony cleared his throat before speaking again, "so, uhh, anyways, there's this girl that I know that has an electric smile and the brightest, prettiest eyes that I kinda like a lot…" Tony said with a smile. Pepper felt crushed inside at first, but then he saw his sly smile and began to play along.

"Oh really? What's she like?"

"Oh, she's always worrying about me when I'm doing dangerous stuff. But she always brightens up my day and I always look forward to her perky outlook every day." Tony explained with a smile. Pepper stood, kissed him, patted his shoulder and hung over the back of his chair and whispered into his ear,

"By the way, I love you too."

Errrggg! Why do I keep getting ideas! Now I don't know whether to cut this off here and make a sequel or continue from here. But I'm leaning more towards sequel as soon as I tie up all the loose ends in my other stories….review?