Title: Iron Man Alone

Fandom: The Avengers (movie) and Iron Man 1&2 (movies)

Summary: When Tony Stark comes back from Afghanistan he's missing his daemon (or that's how it seems). This, more than his new status as Iron Man, is what captures everyone's attention. Can a man who abandoned part of his own soul be a trustworthy hero?

Characters: Tony Stark (Iron Man), Pepper Potts, Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Steve Rogers (Captain America), Dr. Bruce Banner (the Hulk), Thor, Natasha Romanov (Black Widow), JARVIS, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, James Rhodes, Happy Hogan, DUMMI (Don't Underestimate My Machine's Intelligence), Obadiah Stane, Justin Hammer, Ivan Vanko, and everybody's daemons who are clearly OCs.

Pairing(s): None yet, besides blatantly stated movie canon pairings, but my usual warning applies. I'm a shipper of female/female, male/male, and male/female pairings, so leave now if you're at all homophobic or heterophobic.

WARNING: has separation from ones daemon, Post Traumatic Stress and mentions being held captive and tortured.

Disclaimer: Daemons are not my own creation and the idea definitely doesn't belong to me. None of the Avengers nor Iron Man, movies or otherwise, belong to me either, and I'm basing this solely off the movies. Also, you'll notice I stole a lot of dialogue directly from the Avengers and Iron Man movies; it's purposeful and not mine.

None of this is Betaed by anyone but me so sorry for any mistakes.

Iron Man Alone

Chapter 1: Through the Desert

When he's hit, his own missile explodes on him, they recognize that the last thing they saw was Rhodey going down. Whoever the hostile force is they've won. But being a genius Tony thinks of a plan, in the few moments where he's bleeding but before they can pass out, he tells Meeshka to hide. She crawls under a large pile of rocks a few feet away and they hope that when the people shooting at them come to check they'll assume he's already dead without his daemon in sight. It works a little too well. He's fading in and out of consciousness as these men drag him into the back of their truck and drive away, he can feel Meeshka getting farther and farther away for all she tries to crawl after them across the desert.

It's a surprise to everyone, him and his captors, that he's still alive when they finally stop up in the mountains somewhere. Their rough handling of his limp body forces a groan of pain out. Suddenly it's a flurry of activity and yelling in languages he doesn't know. He manages to keep himself conscious through the long and painful surgery they do on his chest. Still there's the knowledge in the back of his head that Meeshka is slowly getting closer and closer to him. She's all he can think of and while they can stand short distances, Obie says she sometimes makes the board members nervous so she spends most of those boring meetings dozing a few feet away on the other side of the door, right now she's too far away. The digging and cutting and removing things from his chest really doesn't help, and it's painful too.

He doesn't remember his fever dreams or the times he wakes up in agonizing pain too well because all he's focused on is how long he can stay conscious and how much closer Meeshka can get in that time. Eventually he wakes with a gasp and a tube up his nose. Meeshka is just outside the cave he's being held in, probably, she's as close as she's been since these men took him away from her but she's not moving any closer and he knows that now she must be hiding from his captors. She is a part of him and they know each other perfectly, he's pretty sure that as much as it hurts to be separated they are both in agreement that it would be worse if these men caught her too. Neither of them likes the idea of being caged.

Tony's been called cold, emotionless, and heartless before, but now he's soulless. Although his captors seem puzzled by his lack of a daemon at first they quickly decide it doesn't effect to their plans. The torture these terrorists inflict on him is nothing, it barely registers past the pain of the separation from his daemon. When he starts hearing Meeshka's voice faintly in his head he thinks he's going crazy. She tells him it's been 74 days since they last saw each other, last touched or spoke. He agrees to build their missile. Almost two weeks later, 13 more days to be exact, the leader Raza, with his savage looking hyena daemon, comes in and drags Yinsen's kind badger daemon close enough to the fire to singe her fur. Yinsen, from where he shakes in pain on his knees as their captors hold him back and let their boss manhandle his daemon, claims they're working on the Jericho missile even as his daemon is threatened with hot coals. Tony, as he desperately thanks whatever god of luck has kept Meeshka hidden from these men, steps forward and promises they'll finish the missile by tomorrow.

They finish the suit that night and he escapes the next day. Yinsen dies to buy him more time and before his eyes the man breathes his last and Hypcrie, his daemon, turns to dust beside him. Tony can't contain the rage and sorrow at seeing this man die for him, he's already half crazy from separation and he's hearing his daemon's voice in his head, he's not completely sure it's really her and not just a wishful auditory hallucination. He storms out of the cave and he burns everything in his path, men, daemons, and weapons alike. A lucky bullet hits the gears on the leg and he goes down to one knee, it's time to fly away but he's still missing Meeshka. Then her familiar black form, looking as thin and ragged as he feels, bounds through the flames and latches onto his back. He flicks the boot jets on and they rocket away from the burning cave.

It doesn't matter that they crash land in the middle of the desert and they've been gone for three months now so who knows if anyone's still looking for them, he's got his daemon back. Still they trudge on together and he doesn't let his hand separate from Meeshka even when Rhodey, with Skira his great blue heron daemon flapping around in distress, jumps out of the helicopter and hugs him. On the ride home he's quiet, Meeshka and him talk softly in their minds about shutting down Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing sections, and he barely notices Skira combing her beak through Meeshka's fur to untangle the knots and pick out the clumps of dirt. They're too absorbed in finally being back together.

When Happy stops by the burger joint they silently agree that if Tony is going to make the announcement now he needs to look strong and sure of himself. Unfortunately Meeshka looks like she has mange and was starved for the last three months, a testament to how battered his spirit is after their ordeal. It doesn't strike him as odd that he and Meeshka are still talking telepathically until Pepper comments on his silence. He shrugs and can't decide whether to tell her he and Meeshka don't need to speak out loud any more before Meeshka climbs into the trunk and curls up while he heads into the press conference. They lasted three months apart and now he's pretty sure they're broken because even fifty feet and a few walls doesn't feel like too much.

"Mr. Stark, where is Meeshka?" A pretty brunette reporter opens with. His beautiful, graceful companion would usually be right up front preening with all the attention to her but now she's nowhere to be seen.

This question he's almost not sure how to answer, most of him wants to build a suit of armor for her before letting anyone else near her again. "We were, separated, by my captors," he admits hesitantly. Then he continues to make a little speech about his father, doubts, and accountability as a lead in.

"Mr. Stark!" The reporters scramble to ask him questions.

"Hey, Ben." He nods to a familiar face; Ben is from an actual newspaper and he usually asks pertinent questions and doesn't stray into the more personal stuff tabloids tend to focus on.

"What happened over there?"

"I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be. What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well."

He announces the shut down of weapon manufacturing and goes to wait for Obie in the ARC Reactor building. Meeshka stretches and leaps out of the trunk to follow him in. He's already thinking of ways to improve the armored suit's design for better flight capabilities while he waits and Meeshka rubs against his legs and lets out a rumbling purr. "If you get a flying suit I want one of my own," she sends her thoughts to him.

"A flying panther suit?" He shoots back as he smirks, "I was already planning on it."

"Good, I don't like feeling so vulnerable," she informs him as she squeezes between the railing and his body. Both of them feel unsafe out in the open, it may have something to do with how the men snatched him away from her when he was lying out in the open or it could stem from her being stuck out on a mountain hiding from those same men for three months before they could be reunited. They both have memories that the other doesn't, it's disturbing to think that Meeshka only knows Yinsen through what Tony shared with her, she never met the man who saved their lives and shared a cave with Tony for three months. Now as they wait for Obadiah and Eziral, Obie's large grey boar daemon, he can feel her anxiousness at being open to attack even in his own factory.

Eventually he breaks the silence, but only in their minds, "You know, I think most of the people at the press conference assumed you were still lost to me."

"Perfect, I don't want anyone but you touching me, even other daemons," she sounds both smug and anxious at the same time. For a moment he's afraid that his own trauma has bled over into her and that's why she suddenly has an irrational dislike of physical contact, then he scoffs at the thought because she is him, she is a physical representation of his soul so of course his fears affect her. He's struck by an image, an idea, from her.

"You want to hide? Pretend you aren't here anymore? You want me to tell the world we're damaged? People without a daemon are broken, lost, it's, that's unnatural," he protests because he can see her thoughts and she's very serious about hiding, it's crazy that he understands. A huge part of him also wants to keep her safe away from the world. They both want to lock the other away in a tower.

"You're Tony Stark, I think they'll believe that if you wanted to survive without a daemon you'd find a way." Slipping away and around to the other side of the giant reactor she sounds almost giddy with her next comment. "Build me an armored suit and we'll let the world think you built a robot to replace me. I can be safe and by your side at the same time."

The idea has merit, because right now it feels like the only way he'll ever be safe again is hidden behind a protection he builds himself. Most people would balk at the thought of covering their daemon up with metal, regular physical contact with one's daemon is pretty much the rule, but he and Meeshka are so close it doesn't feel like an issue anymore. Sure when they're alone in the workshop she'll weave her way in circles around his legs like she did before and when they sleep he'll probably end up using her as a pillow as he so often used to, but now their minds are always touching.

As an impossible act of desperation they, or maybe it was all on him, forced their usual bond to become something different, stronger in some ways and lacking in others. They don't need physical contact because no matter how far away they forged an unprecedented bond that keeps their minds in contact. But now there is no more pull to be near one another. Form this new type of connection or go crazy and die from being separated. It shouldn't have been possible, even just a few days of separation from their daemon was enough to drive most grown men to their knees in desperation, three months should have driven both Tony and Meeshka completely insane. Somehow they've survived.

Meeshka is still dancing through the shadows when Obie finally arrives. He's not happy with the way Tony just shut down most of Stark Industries International's business and Eziral snorts disdainfully at Tony when he talks about doing something else. Rhodey told Obie about the miniature ARC Reactor already so Tony unbuttons his shirt and shows it to him. Eziral crowds up against Obadiah's legs to peer at the blue light before Obie buttons his shirt back up. He promises to lay low while Obie gets the press off their backs, it won't be hard since he's already focused on thinking of ways to build a functional suit for his panther daemon. They'll want to figure it out before going out in public. Meeshka stays hidden and it's the start of the biggest lie in the history of their lives. To the world Tony Stark's daemon was separated from him and left wandering the Afghan desert, and he doesn't care enough to look for her, he claims that with their bond severed he's fine the way he is. Only Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and soon enough Obie know that he still has Meeshka.

AN: All the 'Avengers with Daemons' crossovers I've read give Tony a daemon that is small and easily kept in the suit with him. But none of them seem to me like they've really looked at the symbolism of the creature(s), they just chose something small that they liked. Tony with a hummingbird daemon? Hummingbirds represent optimism and sweetness and that really doesn't sound like Tony Stark to me. Same with a little snake that curls up around his reactor; most of the traditional symbolic characterizations of a snake don't fit Tony except the rebirth or shedding their old skin metaphors. So here's my take, and yes all the daemons in this story come with careful consideration as to their symbolism and what that means about the person I'm assigning them to, although I'm only going to take the time to explain the major ones to you guys. Please assume that unless specifically stated all daemons are the opposite gender of their human. Also some of the daemons' names have meanings, some don't, like Meeshka which was the name of Tony's black panther daemon in the dream I had that inspired this and isn't a real name that I'm aware of but I liked how it sounded and the nickname that went with it so I kept it.

Furthermore, just so you understand where I'm coming from with Tony and Meeshka's new bond, I'm establishing that people speak to their daemons out loud, sure in very quiet whispers often but still out loud. Daemons can practically read their humans' mind in predicting what they want/are thinking because they are essentially an extension of the same soul and often have the same or similar thoughts about things but it's not that defined and never a two-way telepathic link like the one I've given Tony and Meeshka. As part of their connection a daemon will feel agitated when their human does; feelings, emotions and impressions are shared but direct thoughts are not.

Tony = Meeshka = (Black) Panther: Guardian Energy, Understanding of Death, Reclaiming Ones' Power, Ability to Know the Dark and the Truth that Hides in It, Death, Rebirth, Swiftness, Cunning, Strength, Perseverance, Boldness, Beauty, Gaining Confidence, denotes caution is necessary, superior fighting courage (often in the feminine form), In the positive it has a beautiful voice and in the negative the panther's cry represents danger, it sometimes symbolizes Christ, the Panther is said to keep the diabolical dragon away (i.e. mythical being of destruction, often depicted with horns, remind you of anyone? (*cough* Loki *cough* or just the Chitari in general)), A black panther is considered especially dangerous in some cultures

Yinsen = Hypcrie (comes from Hippocrates and a doctor's Hippocratic Oath) = (Eurasian) Badger: Keeper of Stories, Bold Self-Expression, Single-Mindedness, Passion, Cunning, Revenge, Perseverance, Control, Antidote to Passivity or Victimization, Persistence in the Service of a Mission, Groundedness, Knowledge of the Earth, Wisdom, Creative Action in a Crisis, Protection of Rights and Spiritual Ideas, there is an aspect of parental care to badgers in many cultures, they are seen as a maternal, caring and protective, symbol in some cultures and a representative of paternal protectiveness in others (I was actually tempted to give Bruce Banner a badger daemon as there's also an aspect of aggressiveness to badgers but then I found something better, and Yinsen is definitely the personification of the antidote to passivity and victimization in Tony's story. The electromagnet thing to save Tony's life was creative action in a crisis, and I think we can all agree that he managed to persevere and cunningly get revenge on his captors/his family's killers through his assistance to Tony.)

Rhodey = Skira = (Great Blue) Heron: Vigilance, Quiet, Tact, Renewal, Life, Transformation, Patience, Grace (I'm sure it has taken a hell of a lot of patience, grace, and tact when smoothing ruffled feathers to survive being Tony Stark's best (and seemingly only) friend since college. Also he seems rather like the quiet sidekick to Tony's loud attention hogging persona and it couldn't have hurt to be vigilant when he was working his way up in the air force.)

Obahdiah = Eziral = (Wild or European) Boar: denotes a haughty personality, or a bore to others, an aggressive animal, a symbol of unflinching ferocity, symbol primarily of diabolical forces as in the case of tyrants, represents military strength (This one really shouldn't need any explanation as it all embodies Stane perfectly.)

Read and Review because I've got my stories already, but if someone likes one or asks for more then I will post more for them. Thank you. Yes, there is origional plot to this once I get past the Avengers movie.