The deadline for the missile had moved up. They were getting suspicious that they were building something else. So they had a day.

               They had to move quick and they worked through the night. Tony was now strapped in to this metal suit when some of the Ten Rings members starting knocking on the doors.

          They had rigged it with explosives, though, so when they opened it well...they weren't really around anymore but the explosion now alerted the others as it would've echoed through the cave.

             "Now we need to initialize the power sequence," Tony advised while Yinsen bolted the suit together. "Snow."

             "What do I do?" she asked as she stared at the computer.

           "Function 11," he told her she hit the buttons. "Tell me when you see a progress bar. It should be up right now."

             "I see it!"

           "Press Control I then Enter."

            "I got it," Snow answered. "It's loading."

              She turned to help Yinsen drill more of the bolts. But they started to hear footsteps coming through the cave.

          Yinsen looked at the monitor to see the power sequence was only halfway, "They're coming."

           "Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you both follow me out, okay?" Tony said.

         "We need more time," Yinsen said in realization. "Hey, I'm gonna go buy you some time."

           "Yinsen, no!" she called as Tony shouted as well. "Stick to the plan! Stick to the plan!"

             But Yinsen ran out into the cave tunnels, picking up a gun as he went. He scared the approaching cave members as he ran after them, shooting bullets into the air.

          Tony clenched his jaw; he was just useless, waiting. Snow quickly finished the bolts and then grabbed the helmet to put over his head.

           "Hey, you stay behind me, okay?" Tony said softly; all three of them were supposed to make it out. All three. "You stay behind me?"

            "I'll stay behind you," she reassured softly before she put the helmet over his head gently as the progress bar almost reached its conclusion. They heard footsteps again and she stepped behind Tony in the suit as power surge made the lights go out.

            Men stepped into the room, searching in the darkened room for the two of them. One of them stopped and then looked up seeing the face of the helmet. Tony reacted quickly and whacked the man; with the strength of the suit, the man went flying through the room.

            Bullets were fired into the room but they were hidden to the side of the cave. When the firing stopped, Tony quickly appeared in the doorway and took them all out.

           Then they made their way through the cave. She followed slowly behind as Tony took out all the enemy soldiers. He even punched through a metal door.

           They finally came to the mouth of the cave to find Yinsen bloodied from being shot and laying on a carton. "Yinsen!" she called and ran forward past Tony to the man.

              "Snow!" Tony shouted as he spotted Raza. She looked back to find a missile shooting past her.

         Raza, the leader of the group of captors, fired a missile at Tony but missed as it hit the wall. Tony fired back and it also hit the wall but it caused part of the roof to fall that knocked Raza out.

             "Yinsen," she said desperately as she watched him breath laboredly. "We're going to get you out of here."

              "Come on," Tony approached him and opened his helmet. "We got to go. Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it."

           "This was always the plan, Stark," Yinsen stated.

         "Come on, you're gonna go see your family," Tony felt tears stung his eyes. "Get up."

           "My family is dead. I'm going to see them now, Stark. It's okay. I want this. I want this," Yinsen reassured and she started to cry.

         "Thank you for saving me," Tony said gratefully.

         "Don't waste it. Don't waste your life."

            "You're one of the good ones," she cried. "Good people aren't supposed to die."

             It was naive little thought but one she'd always had. Bad people died and good people lived. It was something she had to believe or else why would she even want to live? It wasn't fair if the bad people won.

                "Everyone dies, young one," Yinsen counseled. "But go live your life in the sun before you do. You deserve it."

              She placed a hand on his shoulder as she uttered quietly with a small sob, "Be with your family."

                  Almost as soon as she said it, his eyes fell closed and his breathing stopped. She looked up at Tony with tear stains on her cheeks and he held his hand out to her, holding back tears himself, "Come on and you listen to me this time."

             "I'm sorry," she sniffled as she took his hand.

              They stopped at the mouth of the cave and the sun was bright, too bright. Her eyes were blinded and she couldn't see.

                 "Okay, wait here and I'll call out for you to come out when it's safe," Tony commanded.

               She nodded even though she couldn't see a thing. She heard his metaled footsteps stomp away and she shielded her eyes.

             She heard bullets flying outside the cave. Her sight started to adjust but it was still very poor. She heard Tony call out for her and she ran out of the cave, running straight, and right into his arms before he shot up into the sky. She had no idea that she ran through flames.

            But now they were flying straight up and out of the fumes. They got out over the mountains when the repulsors on the suit fizzled out, losing their flight power, and they started falling. 

           She also started losing her grip on Tony and began to slip. "Tony!" she shouted in fright.

               Because of the damage from the bullets, he couldn't move one arm and only had one secured around her. So when she started slipping, there wasn't much he could do.

              "No, no, no!" he shouted before the high speed ripped her from his grip and he tried to grab her clothing but she was gone.

              It wasn't long before he made impact with the sand of the dessert. As soon as he did, he got up and immediately started looking for Snow while shouting her name.

                 He went in the direction he thought she dropped. Then he ran as he found her miraculously walking towards him.

              He hugged her tightly as tears stung his eyes, "I thought I lost you."

          He couldn't lose her, too, after losing Yinsen. Especially, when it felt like his death was his fault.

             Tony pulled away to analyze her, "Are you hurt? Did you get burnt at all?"

Tony distinctly remembered her running through the fire. But he felt like he couldn't trust his own mind.

"I'm okay," she gave him a small, toothed smile. In fact, she didn't have a scratch on her.

"You're okay. You're okay," he muttered to reassure himself and calm his racing heart before he took the jacket he had on and draped it over her to cover her from the intense sun. With her pale skin, she'd get fried in an instant.

"What are we going to do, Tony?" she asked as she looked out across the endless desert; her sight had finally cleared.

"The only thing we can do...walk," Tony said as he held his hand out. "Shall we?"

She took it and Tony was surprised by how soft her hand was. It was so smooth compared to his mechanic hands. But she also had small hands that were easily dwarfed by his own.

Then she turned her head back to look behind her at the imposing mountain before tugging on his arm. She couldn't believe she was outside of it and how happy it made her; how there were so many possibilities other than the cave.

"Tony," she had the brightest smile. "We're free."

He smiled as he squeezed her hand back, "I told you, Snowflake."

Then she walked into the endless desert with him. But if anyone would've walked back to the site where she crash landed, they would have found a bed of flowers.