So this definitely was not in the top ten ranking for Tony's best kidnappings. His favorite had been when he was seven, and they stayed in a fancy hotel where he was given a bunch of chocolate by a crazy lady who wanted to marry Howard Stark. In fact, that was the only thing about her that hinted how crazy she was.
On the other hand, this wasn't Tony's worst kidnapping. He really doubted that anything would ever be able to beat the Ten Rings, and he was hoping that no one would ever try to. So this was just a mediocre kidnapping, with a typical setup of being tied to a chair in an otherwise empty room. 2/5 stars on Yelp if he was feeling generous.
Before his mind could start wandering too far into what it would be like to make an app for reviewing kidnappers and other criminals, the door to the room opened, and three men walked inside. One of them seemed to be a generic henchman type, one was a generic low level leader type, and the third…
Tony's eyes widened as he took in a familiar face. He'd never seen the man in person before, but his Captain America obsessed father had never forgotten to include Cap's sidekick in all of his stories. The sidekick who'd died seventy years ago when he fell off a train in the mountains. But who was very clearly standing there, a blank look on his face, and long bedraggled hair that made him resemble a hobo.
Even as the generic leader was talking, Tony was tuning him out completely, only staring at the face of Bucky Barnes. Surely Steve had no idea that his friend was alive and well, not well exactly, considering his current company, but alive.
There had been many times in Tony's life where someone had told him that he greatly resembles his father (as much as it pains him to hear such a thing) so he wondered if Bucky would even vaguely recognize him. Based on the many stories his father and the other Howlies had told him growing up, Steve, Bucky, and Howard had all been pretty good friends.
But there didn't seem to be any kind of recognition in Bucky's eyes. His stare was so blank and he was standing so perfectly still that for a moment Tony wondered if it was just a robot with a really good paint job done on the face. When Bucky blinked after a much longer pause than most people needed, it seemed to be confirmation that he was actually a living human being.
It finally occurred to Tony that it might actually be useful to tune in to what the villain was saying, if only so he could figure out what the hell was going on. This was starting to feel less like a run of the mill kidnapping that came with the territory of being both a billionaire and a superhero, and more like something that actually mattered.
"-fix it?"
Well. Apparently it was too late to listen to what he was supposed to be paying attention to here. He could just ask for a repeat of the question, but he had the feeling that it would come with the whole long spiel again, and Tony just wasn't in the mood. There were also several sarcastic remarks that immediately came to mind, but for once he thought that it might be best to hold his tongue and not antagonize his captor. He was too interested in figuring out what the hell was up with Bucky.
Anyways, if this was a kidnapping with the intent to make Tony fix something, then he was just going to assume that he was more than capable of doing so. He offered a friendly grin, the kind he used when on talk shows, and nodded once. "Sure. I am an expert."
The villain narrowed his eyes, but didn't argue. "Good. You will have the rest of today to make an assessment. Then you will provide a list of the materials you require to complete your task. Once the materials are ready, you will start repairs under intense supervision. We are not as stupid as some terrorists in a cave." Then he turned to Bucky and muttered something in Russian before leaving with the henchman. The door slammed shut behind them, leaving Tony and Bucky alone in the room.
Tony furrowed his eyebrows. "Look, there's only one camera in here that I could see, and it was in the upper corner, so if we both stand sideways and talk with minimal mouth movements, we should be able to plan something here. I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to be fixing, but obviously getting out of here is far preferable to actually helping with anything and I-"
He knew he had a tendency to ramble when he was nervous, but it still seemed a little unnecessarily rude when Bucky shoved his arm in front of Tony's face. But then he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a sleek, shiny metal arm with a faded red star painted on the shoulder. For a moment, Tony assumed that it was a piece of armor, like a single section of one of his Iron Man suits. But then Bucky clenched and unclenched his fist, and Tony stared in awe as metal muscles bunched up and released. "You are to fix the asset's arm," Bucky told him in a monotone voice.
Okay, so clearly there was a lot more going on here than Tony had initially assumed. It made sense that there was something up with Bucky's brain, because Bucky wasn't the type of guy to willingly go along with captors no matter what they wanted. So what had they done to get his cooperation? Threaten someone he loved? Or torture?
And of course there was the question of what had happened to his arm that it had needed to be replaced with metal. And most importantly of all was the question of how he was standing there looking just like he had in the pictures of the 1940s, though obviously a lot gruffer. If Bucky was fully on the side of whoever was holding them both, then it would be pretty difficult to get any answers out of him, at least for now.
"I can't fix your arm when I'm tied up."
Bucky nodded and reached forward to grab at the zip ties keeping Tony stuck to his chair, and yanked them off with his hands. It was an admittedly impressive display of strength, and if this had been almost any other situation, Tony would have jumped all over that. Instead, he slowly stood up, not wanting to appear to be an enemy, and then rubbed at his red wrists. He looked around the room, but there really was nothing in there besides the two of them and the chair. Great.
Escaping was important, but Tony couldn't deny that he was very curious to figure out what was going on with Bucky's arm. It reacted so quickly that it had to be connected to the man's nerves, but it was a large chunk of metal, which had to be heavy enough to cause strain. He slowly reached up to touch the arm, and Bucky held perfectly still.
Tony rolled the sleeve up the last inch or so and bunched it up past the line where skin transitioned into metal. There were gnarled scars there, looking angry and uncomfortable. "This can't be pleasant. But I can't really assess anything without getting an internal look at the mechanisms." Bucky reached into one pocket and pulled out a small screwdriver. Tony took it from him, and then gently shoved Bucky over to the chair. Bucky moved, but continued standing, and Tony rolled his eyes. "Sit, sit! You're too tall for me to work on your arm if you're standing up." If Bucky was bothered at all by being told what to do, he didn't make any indication of it.
Tony found the tiny panels that were screwed shut, and carefully began pulling pieces up. He was a bit annoyed to have to work without any of his usual background music, so he filled the quiet air with random chatter. He frowned thoughtfully as he began poking around, getting lost in the work, but never so lost that he forgot he was working on a human being. He could see all the little metal wires that were serving as nerves, and even though Bucky didn't flinch in the slightest, Tony had a basic enough understanding of human anatomy to know that certain pokes and prods had to hurt. He worked as gently as possible, not wanting to cause any undue pain to the man.
Eventually he moved his attention up to where the arm was attached to the organic body. "This is definitely too heavy, at least for the way it's secured here. And I'm assuming you put a lot of extra stress on your shoulder, based on the fact that it looks like it never healed properly. Can you tell me how long you've had this arm?"
It was the first question he'd asked since getting started, and Bucky blinked once before answering in the same monotone as before. "I am unsure."
"Alright, that's fine. Can you tell me what you do that puts so much stress on your shoulder?"
"You do not have clearance for the asset's missions."
Tony nodded. "That's fine. Is there anything you do want to talk about? I'm getting a little tired of just hearing my own annoying voice constantly. Well, that's not true. I could listen to myself talk all day, but I'm sure it isn't interesting at all for you."
The question seemed to surprise Bucky, if the very slight furrow in his brows that appeared for a split second was anything to go by. Then again, maybe that was just his constipated face. "The asset does not want anything." Yeah, there definitely had to have been some kind of extreme torture to make Bucky like this. He didn't seem to have any awareness of even being Bucky Barnes, or even a person in general. It was sickening that anyone would do anything like that to a person, to break them down into whatever it is that they used him for. With such a strong arm, Tony could take a few educated guesses about Bucky's purpose here. He was startled out of his musing when Bucky spoke in a much softer voice. "It is not annoying when you talk."
Tony smiled. "Well, in that case, let me tell you about the stupidest children I have ever created." He'd love to brag about Jarvis, but didn't want to risk his captors somehow figuring out how to make such an advanced AI. Dummy and You, on the other hand, were much less advanced, at least going by today's standards- though of course they'd been far ahead of their time when they'd first been built. And as much as they frustrated him when their defective programming didn't work the way he'd intended, Tony knew he couldn't keep the fondness and affection out of his voice when he talked about them.
He rambled on for a while as he continued to investigate the arm, doing his best to keep Bucky's mind off of any pain that the examination would cause. Finally, he figured that he'd learned everything he could about the arm, but he didn't want Bucky to go away just yet. He had several ideas for how he could greatly improve the arm in terms of weight, durability, sensitivity, strength, and strain to the body. And Tony did want to help Bucky. He'd grown up hearing so many stories about the man, and he knew that Steve would be ecstatic to get his best friend back.
But he also knew that whatever had forced Bucky to work for these people would not just go away. He didn't know what they used Bucky for, but if he fixed and upgraded the arm, and then Bucky was forced to do harm to others, then that blood would be on Tony's hands. But if he did nothing, Bucky would continue to be in constant pain, and would maybe even be killed if they decided he wasn't performing his tasks in peak condition. So what the hell was Tony supposed to do here?
This kidnapping still definitely didn't feel worse than Afghanistan, but at least there he'd had Yinsen actively working with him and helping him get away. Here, he knew that Bucky was just as much a prisoner as he was at the moment, but he also knew that he couldn't really trust Bucky to help with any escape plans if he'd been forced into having loyalty for these people.
Speaking of, Tony realized that the generic villain had never actually mentioned his own name or the name of whoever he was working for. Or maybe he had and it had just been during that generic monologue that Tony hadn't bothered paying any attention to. He closed his eyes for a moment to think back to that, and ran through all of the dialogue that he'd absorbed even without paying attention. But no, there was no mention of any names, other than calling Bucky the 'asset', just like Bucky had been calling himself all day. (Night? Tony had no idea when he'd gotten here or how long he'd been busy)
He shifted to the side enough to cover Bucky's face from the camera, and asked in a quiet voice, "Who do you work for?"
It only took a second for Bucky to answer, and Tony wondered if he'd needed to figure out whether or not he had permission to answer. "Hydra."
Tony felt like all the blood in him just froze in his veins, and he knew that he was gaping at Bucky like an idiot, but what else was he supposed to do? Hydra had been defeated during the second world war when Captain America destroyed Red Skull, so to hear that they were still around, even if they were just some kind of neo group, was highly concerning. Nazis were bad, with no possible sane argument to oppose that, and Hydra were nazis with access to toys they shouldn't have. And it looked like Bucky was one of them. "Are they the ones who gave you the arm? And made you still look young?"
"Yes, they made this arm. And the asset spends most time in a cryogenic chamber."
Tony crossed his arms over his chest. "But you can't put a living person into cryogenics. The temperature is too severe to be safe, blood and skin would freeze beyond repair without all of the chemicals they pump into dead bodies. Chemicals that would definitely kill you if your blood was replaced with it." He resisted the urge to pace back and forth because he didn't want Bucky's face to be too visible to the camera when he was talking. "Do you know how long this Hydra group has been active?"
Bucky gave a very slight shake of the head. "That information is not the asset's concern."
Tony sighed, and nodded. "Sorry if it seems like I'm really nosy all of a sudden. I'm not sure how much you remember, but you definitely hated Hydra back in the day, so it's really weird to see you working for them now."
As he spoke, a strange look crossed Bucky's face, and it was the first real sign of emotion that Tony had seen on the man, though he wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean, exactly. "You know who the asset was before?"
Tony nodded again. "Yeah. Do you really not remember?" Bucky gave a small shake of the head, and Tony silently cursed Hydra for everything they'd done to the poor man. "Your name is James Buchanan Barnes, but most people called you Bucky. You were best friends with Steve Rogers, aka Captain America-" he cut himself off when he saw the way Bucky managed to tense up even more than before. "Ah, we don't have to talk about this right now if you don't want to."
Before he could get an answer about whether or not he should continue to talk about Bucky's past, the door to the room opened, and the smell of food had Tony's stomach growling loudly. This certainly wasn't the first time he'd gone a long time without food while he was busy, and he'd long ago gotten used to ignoring his body's needs while he was working. But usually he was in the comfort of his own workshop, and had music blasting at deafening levels and Jarvis trying to tell him what to do because he cared. He felt a pang in his stomach that wasn't from hunger as he thought about home. He didn't think he could have been here that long, though he wasn't sure how long he'd been unconscious before waking up. He did miss home, though. And the other Avengers, as annoying as it could be to have so many people in his space.
The generic henchman was back, though now Tony was more wary since he knew that they were Hydra. Of course even Hydra's typical underling wouldn't be that big a threat, but he also knew that it would be a mistake to underestimate such an evil group of people. "Asset, return to your bunk." Bucky got up immediately and left the room without so much as a moment of shared eye contact between him and Tony. Then the henchman shoved the styrofoam tray he was holding into Tony's arms. "Eat. Now."
"While you're watching?" There was a vague grunt of confirmation, and Tony rolled his eyes before sitting down and setting the tray on his lap. Smart to give him a foam tray, since he couldn't see any plausible way to make it into a weapon without any other supplies. On the other hand, Bucky had forgotten to ask for his screwdriver back, so at least there was that. Tony certainly wasn't going to mention the tool in his pocket if Hydra was too dumb to check the cameras and see that he still had it in his possession.
Tony quickly ate everything on the tray, grateful even for the plain peanut butter and jelly sandwich, apple slices, and dried jerky, even if it did make him feel like a grade school kid. When he was done he looked up at the cell's other occupant expectantly, and the man tossed him a water bottle. Tony didn't even how thirsty he was until he was gulping down half the bottle at once. Then he realized it would probably be best to conserve his water, since he didn't know if Hydra would continue to treat him so hospitably tomorrow. The henchperson just shrugged, and walked closer to grab the empty tray and the half-full bottle. Tony stubbornly held onto it. "I'll finish it now, geez." And he slowly sipped at the water until the henchman got impatient and grabbed it mid-sip, splashing some water down the front of Tony's shirt.
The man didn't seem at all bothered by the way he'd ruined Tony's nice shirt. "Follow me if you want to use the bathroom before you sleep."
Well Tony wasn't stupid enough to turn that down. He quickly followed the man out into the hallway, where another henchperson was waiting. This one had a gun that Tony saw for a few seconds before a blindfold was wrapped around his head and he was warned in a low growl not to take it off. He had to hand it to these people for not underestimating him, but… they were still underestimating him. He might not be able to see where any particular rooms or exits might be, but he could at least count the steps and keep track of the directions they walked in before he was shoved forward and he heard a door slam shut. He pulled off the blindfold and saw himself in a small dingy bathroom. It looked old but clean enough that he wasn't going to remind himself of the many types of germs and bacteria that could live in unsanitary bathrooms.
He took care of business and then scrubbed at his face after washing his hands. He also ran some cold water through his hair and then awkwardly patted it dry with several paper towels. There wasn't a shower in the bathroom, and this was the closest he could get to cleaning himself at the moment. At least there wasn't sand and dust everywhere like there had been in Afghanistan.
He started to open the bathroom door, but it was pulled shut again, and an order was barked out for him to put the blindfold back on. As much as he didn't want to be deprived of one of his senses, Tony figure it was better than being shot point blank, so he obeyed, and then asked if they were going to stand around all night like some kind of perverts while he was in the bathroom. The door was wrenched open, and then they were back to the joyful game of being shoved down hallways and pushed around corners. He noted that they took a different route back than they'd taken to get to the bathroom, and assumed it was supposed to be some kind of disorientation tactic.
When they got back to his cell, the blindfold was taken back, almost like they didn't trust him to have anything nice, and then he was shoved back in. Though it was immediately apparent that this wasn't the same cell he'd been in before, even though the bare walls and lack of windows was the same. But instead of a single chair in the middle of the room, there was a lumpy looking cot pressed up against one wall. At least he wouldn't be sleeping in a metal folding chair. He was definitely too old for that kind of thing.
He flopped down on the bed and immediately decided that it wasn't really all that much better than the chair, though at least he could stretch his legs out, and it surely beat lying on the cement floor. He kicked his shoes off onto the floor without bothering to make sure they fell flat, and then laid back. He closed his eyes and tried to pretend that he was on the cot in his workshop after a long night of binging. Any minute now, Steve or Jarvis or one of the assassin twins would come to wake him up for one of their 'team bonding movie nights' or something equally ridiculous. It didn't really work. The cot was too uncomfortable, and he rarely went on science binges in a suit, and the room had a bit of a draft to it, but he was tired, and hoped that some brilliant escape plan would come to him while he slept.
,,,
When Tony woke up, he realized what an idiot he was. There was a draft in the room that had gotten him to curl up in a ball and pull the thin blanket over his shoulders. If he hadn't gone straight to sleep, he could have investigated where the draft came from in the privacy of the darkness. The room with the chair hadn't had any draft. Now he'd have to wait until tonight to investigate. And that would be after a long day of pretending to help while actually accomplishing nothing, even though he did genuinely want to help.
Tony wasn't given any breakfast, but he was given a small cup of coffee, which seemed much better than breakfast to him anyways. Then he was blindfolded and led around for a while before coming into a lab. Pristine white walls, tables, beds, everything. Like someone in there was allergic to color or something. And technicians wearing white lab coats just to complete the look. It's almost like they were trying to go out of their way to look like they worked for a supervillain. The only thing missing was Hydra's logo hanging on the walls.
The hench people who accompanied him went to stand over by the only door in a menacing way, while one of the technicians came over to Tony. She looked like she couldn't be older than twenty. She paused at the sight of him. "They said they'd be sending in someone to help, but I wasn't expecting it to be you! I'm a huge fan of your work, Mr. Stark! I can't believe I'm getting this chance to meet you!"
"I don't suppose a huge fan such as yourself would be willing to help me out of here in exchange for an autograph or picture, would you?"
The woman's face fell. "I'm sorry Mr. Stark, but I can't just-"
Tony gave her a tired look. "You're too young to be involved in a group like this. When were you recruited?"
The woman glanced over at the guards by the door, but they didn't seem to care about anything that was going on as long as it didn't involve blatant trouble. Then she looked back to Tony and spoke in a quiet voice. "I applied to be a scientist for Shield, but they turned me down. They said that I didn't make the cut because even though I was really good, there were just enough people who were better than me that I didn't hack it. Hydra keeps a close eye on rejected candidates from Shield, and they would actually appreciate my talents, so of course I was going to go for them instead."
"Yes, I suppose being bitter about getting rejected from the school you like is a perfectly reasonable explanation for helping support racist, bigoted murderers."
Her face hardened. "I'm sorry that you can't find it within yourself to think so highly of me, Mr. Stark. But not everyone was born with the advantages you have."
Tony shrugged. "I know plenty of young, brilliant people who were passed over at first because they didn't have money or connections. But none of them thought it would be best to turn to murder. They put in the time and effort and tried again and again until they proved they were worthy of being accepted. You just took the lazy way out."
The woman narrowed her eyes, and abruptly turned on her heels to walk over to one of the examination tables. Tony hadn't noticed Bucky sitting on it when he'd first walked in because the white hospital style gown he was wearing made him blend in seamlessly with the rest of the room, and didn't match the gruff look he'd had on yesterday.
One of the other technicians who was checking things off on a clipboard looked up at Tony with annoyance. "Alright, so what materials do you need to get started?"
Tony raised one eyebrow. "Did I already manage to do something to offend you?"
The technician narrowed his eyes. "Nobody trusts you, so we can't work in our usual space with all of our computers and tablets. Which also means any coding you might need to do will have to be handwritten and then one of the interns will have to run to the other room with the asset to input it. We would have been perfectly fine without bringing in any outside contractor."
"Hey, if it helps, I absolutely don't want to be here," Tony reminded the man. "Anyways, what's wrong with the arm that's so bad it's worth kidnapping such a high profile guy?"
The technician scowled, as if Tony had just said it was entirely the man's fault for whatever problem was going on. "The asset isn't able to perform optimally. According to all the simulations and tests we've run, it should be much more efficient than it actually is in the field."
Tony crossed his arms over his chest. "He's not an 'it'." Though he didn't mention that he knew Bucky's name, because he wasn't sure if he was supposed to have recognized the man or not. But he certainly wouldn't call him 'it' or 'the asset'. That just sounded so impersonal, like he wasn't even a human. Then he listed off the basic things he would need to adjust Bucky's arm enough to hopefully make the pain go away. But he wouldn't actually upgrade the arm, not until he knew for sure that Bucky wouldn't use it against anyone innocent.
Everything he listed was already available, and it didn't take long for all of the materials to be gathered up and placed in front of him. Then Tony shooed everyone away so that he could work in peace, though the lead technician insisted he had to stay and watch to make sure Tony wasn't going to do anything stupid.
Considering the fact that Tony was confident in his ability to do stupid things even under adult supervision, he wasn't really sure how necessary a babysitter was, but he knew he had to pick his battles, and this one wasn't worth the breath it would take to argue. It came down to the fact that he was a captive here, and they vastly outnumbered him and had guns. So for now, he had to at least try to cooperate a little bit. But only for Bucky's sake. If Tony pissed off his captors too soon, they might drag him away before he could relieve Bucky of the chronic pain that he had to be dealing with.
He wasn't sure whether he was rambling for his own sake or for Bucky's, but he still paid just enough attention to himself to make sure he never said anything that was real. It was all just inane babble so that he had something to listen to, and so that Bucky wouldn't forget that Tony wasn't one of the Hydra goons.
It wouldn't have taken Tony very long at all to complete his task if he had been working at full efficiency, but he had intentionally worked slowly to try and buy himself time to think of an escape plan. Maybe if he stalled long enough the Avengers would come and find him, but he generally found it best not to put his hope in other people. Besides, if they were busy saving the world, that would take priority.
By the end of the day, Tony was just finishing up with the goal he'd set himself, and it hadn't required any coding to be done, so there were no annoyed interns having to run back and forth down the hallways. Tony made sure to never take out the screwdriver that was in his pocket so that the technician watching him closely wouldn't know he had it. He was also careful to avoid bumping into anything so that no one would hear the sound of the screwdriver. He kept an eye out for any opportunity to slip something else into his pocket, but there were no chances like that.
Even so, he felt that it had been a productive day. "Alright, now slowly raise your arm up above your head and tell me if anything hurts, or even feels funny. I'm sure you probably have a strong pain tolerance, but I want to know if there's even the slightest twinge." He reconnected everything so that Bucky could use the arm again, and he followed Tony's instructions. There was a very brief look of surprise on his face before he lowered his arm again. "Well?"
"There is no pain," Bucky said quietly.
The technician glared at Tony even harder. "How the hell did you do that? Ever since I was put in on this project there's been baseline issues just from the nature of the arm!"
Tony shrugged. "You know how it is. I'm a technological genius. Just poke a few things here, twist together a few things there, throw in some gum and duct tape, and voila!" The technician didn't hesitate to smack Tony across the face, and it was a hard hit. Tony stumbled back one step, but then he felt a solid arm steadying him by pressing gently at the small of his back, and he glanced over his shoulder to see that Bucky had leaned forward to keep him upright. He gave Bucky a small smile before turning back to the technician with one of his usual charming asshole masks, not wanting the Hydra agent to focus on what Bucky had just done. "Rude and uncalled for. Now can someone hook me up with some grub? I'm completely worn out from a hard day's work."
If the technician had been planning on saying anything about Bucky's reaction, it must have slipped his mind, because instead he just focused on glowering at Tony. "I should have you taken off rations for a couple of days for your insubordination."
"Does it really count as insubordination, though, if I don't even work for you? I don't really appreciate the blatant hostility towards the guy who has no choice but to be here."
The technician didn't look like he would ever be happy with Tony. He barely even looked at Bucky as he barked out, "Asset! Escort the nuisance to his daytime room and then report back here for further testing!"
Bucky gave Tony a long look, and Tony held his hands out in a friendly show of cooperation. The hench people didn't bother to follow after him this time, and it was presumably because they figured that Bucky could handle Tony well enough on his own. Hell, even without whatever they must have done to him, Bucky would most likely be able to overpower Tony in hand to hand combat. He'd never been amazingly muscular, but especially these days, with the arc reactor in his chest slowing him down and causing chest pain upon too much physical exertion, and Tony was a smart enough man to know that his body wasn't one of his strengths.
As they walked, Tony in his blindfold, he spoke in a whisper and hoped that there were no other Hydra members lurking around the hallways to listen in on him. "Thanks for the assist back there." He couldn't see if Bucky had acknowledged the thanks or not. Then they were back in the room with the chair and Tony took off of the blindfold. He slipped it into his pocket instead of handing it back to Bucky, and then stared at the man with one eyebrow raised challengingly. Bucky didn't demand for the blindfold back, or the screwdriver. "So look, I'm sure everyone around here is just waiting for the moment of my brilliant escape, and they're smart enough to try and prevent that from happening. But I know that they won't be expecting me to have any kind of help from the inside. It would be a win-win, because we would both be able to get out of here."
Bucky frowned. "The asset only follows the orders of the handler."
"Right, yeah, I figured that it would be too easy. So I guess that means I'll have to convince you the old fashioned way, huh? I don't suppose you have any interest in money? Because that is something that I have a lot of."
Bucky shook his head. "The asset has no interest in anything."
Tony walked over to the metal chair to sink down into it. "Well if that's not just a terribly tragic thing to hear," he muttered. "Well there must be something you want, even if you haven't realized it yet. How about knowledge? I can offer you information about who you were before all of this. And, as an added bonus, I can get you back to the guy who was your best friend. From what I hear, you were always protecting him because he was getting himself into scrapes with people twice his size."
"Scrappy kid with a big heart," Bucky said in a strange voice. Then he froze in place and blinked a few times, clearly confused about where that idea had come from.
Even though he knew that this had to be a bit scary for Bucky, Tony couldn't help feeling like this was an encouraging sign of progress, if he was able to remember anything about his past. "Yeah, exactly." He hesitated before laying out his final offer. "And I can fix your arm, too. More than just the slight changes I made today. I can make you an entirely new arm that would be twenty times better than anything a bunch of gross nazis could build."
Bucky still didn't agree to help Tony come up with a two man escape plan. Instead, he just wordlessly walked away, closing and locking the cell door behind him. Tony closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to stop himself from screaming out loud in his frustration. He knew that Bucky was his best chance at getting out of here, but he still needed to figure out what exactly he could do to convince the other man that escape would be a worthy cause.
Tony slid his hands into his pockets, carefully touching the screwdriver and the handkerchief to remind himself that he wasn't entirely helpless, at least not at the moment. He didn't pull either of the items out, though, not wanting his loot to be caught on the camera. He wasn't sure what he could do with a small screwdrivers and a blindfold, but he knew it would certainly be a lot more than he could do without them.
,,,
Now he was past the point where he could actually keep working on Bucky's arm without doing any potential harm to future people, and without providing information and potential profit to Hydra. He could probably get away with screwing around for a couple of hours, but if the technicians here were any good, they'd figure him out sooner rather than later, and he didn't want to think about what the consequences would be.
Tony was given a quick bathroom break before being led back to the same lab as yesterday. His whole body felt sore from sleeping on the cool concrete floor of the cell with the chair in it, and from not being given more than that single cup of coffee. "How do you expect me to work when I'm tired and hungry?" he grumbled. Someone shoved a protein bar into his hand in response, and even though it wasn't ideal, Tony quickly scarfed it down.
He walked to the table Bucky was perched on, and gave the man a friendly smile. He'd already seen his face in the bathroom mirror and knew he was sporting a gruesome bruise from where he'd been smacked yesterday, but he refused to show any kind of fear or hesitation around these goons, and he definitely didn't want Bucky to think that he'd already given up. He didn't get the chance to say anything comforting though, as the technician rudely cleared his throat to get Tony's attention. And Tony wanted to be defiant, but also wanted to avoid getting hit again if he could.
The lead technician was the same grouchy man from yesterday, who looked just as enthusiastic about working with Tony as Tony felt about working with him. "So what do you need today to work your magic, oh great messiah?"
Tony grinned. "Ah, I'm finally getting the recognition I deserve around here. Anyways, here's what I'll need." He listed off a few things that were decently reasonable requests, and then a few things that he knew would take weeks to get ahold of, if it was even possible at all. He had no clue what kinds of resources this Hydra group had access to.
The technician scowled once he'd finished scribbling down everything from Tony's list. "What could you possibly need half this stuff for?" Then a look of understanding settled over him, and he put his clipboard down on the nearest table. "You're just trying to stall until one of your precious Avengers comes to the rescue, aren't you?"
Tony put one hand to his chest and gasped dramatically. "What? How could you accuse me of such a thing? Me, the guy who was kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to work for you? How could you possibly not trust in my loyalty? I'm hurt, man. I thought we really had something." The technician stormed right past Tony, much to his confusion. He turned to look at Bucky, one eyebrow raised. "Can you believe that guy? Marching away as if he was-" There was a loud bang, and then a searing pain in Tony's lower leg. He immediately crumpled forward, though Bucky easily caught him.
Tony looked over and saw that the technician had grabbed a gun off of one of the guards, and had obviously just used it to shoot Tony with, and he was still aiming it at the billionaire. "As long as no damage is done to your brain or your hands, I'm at liberty to do what is necessary to guarantee your cooperation. Now I suggest you think long and hard about whether or not you want to try and be a funny guy right now."
Tony's leg felt like it was on fire, and he could feel beads of sweat building up on his face in what had to be a pretty unattractive look. It was strange, now that he thought about it, this was actually his first time getting shot. When he was kidnapped as a kid, even the rougher kidnappers generally didn't want to hurt him too badly, and then once he had the Iron Man suit, he was safe from something as simple as a bullet. But right now he was vulnerable, and damn, it really hurt, even if it hadn't hit anywhere lethal. He was pretty sure he'd just splat right onto the ground if it weren't for Bucky holding him up.
Through grit teeth, Tony choked out a response. "Not much funny stuff going on right now. Not sure how you expect me to get any work done like this anyways."
The man shrugged. "There's plenty of chairs around here."
"Great. Then patch me up and we'll get serious, though personally, I think that the second date is a little soon for that."
The technician's finger twitched on the trigger, but he didn't pull it again. Instead he handed it back to the guard he'd taken it from. As soon as the gun was out of play, Bucky scooped Tony up and laid him out on the examination table, and then a few of the lab coats came over to fix him up. The bullet had gone right through, so all they did was splash some disinfectant on him, and then wrap a tight bandage around his leg a few times. Nobody even offered him an ibuprofen.
Once that was done, Bucky was told to take Tony back to the cell with the cot in it so that he could rest for the remainder of the day. But they couldn't leave until the technician warned Tony that if he continued to be uncooperative tomorrow, he might go so far as to take off an entire leg, since that wasn't necessary for building things. Considering the pain in his leg at the moment, Tony decided it would be wise to take the threat seriously. Which meant that he needed to escape from here tonight, with an injured leg. Great.
Bucky set Tony down on the cot with more gentleness than he would have expected from the 'asset'. He gave Bucky a pleading look. "If I don't get out of here, I'm just going to keep getting hurt. I'd rather die than help Hydra with anything, but I'd rather not die if I can help it. Please, Bucky, help me get out of here. I probably could've managed it on my own last night, but there's no way I'll make it by myself now. Please." The desperation in his voice wasn't fake. These people weren't as dumb as the Ten Rings had been. There was no way he'd fool them into thinking he was doing what he was supposed to.
Bucky looked down at his metal arm for a long moment. "Bucky. You said that's what people called me?"
Tony nodded. "Yeah. Which is good because I've already got a James in my life. Though I call him Rhodey usually, so I guess it wouldn't be that big a deal. Maybe people with the name James just aren't allowed to go by their first name? Or maybe it's only the James' who are best friends with badass superheroes? I mean, I know you're not seeing me at my best right now, but I swear I'm not usually this pathetic. I mean, one time, I-"
Bucky gently pressed his flesh hand over Tony's mouth. "You talk a lot."
Tony winced. "Yeah, I know."
For some reason, that seemed to make Bucky feel bad, and he pulled his hand away. "It isn't bad," he said slowly. "But there isn't much time to make a plan."
Tony's eyes widened, but he did his best not to get his hope up right away. "You mean you'll help me get out of here? And you'll get out of here too?"
Bucky frowned. "You made the pain go away. And you are nicer than the other technicians. You don't belong here."
Because Bucky's hand was still hovering strangely close to Tony's mouth, and Tony felt a bit high on pain, he darted up to press a light kiss to the palm before landing his head back on the pillow with a soft giggle. "Guess that makes you my knight in shining armor, huh?"
,,,
They had quickly come up with a plan. It wasn't the most complicated thing, but as long as it got them away from Hydra, it was good enough. Tony slept through the night to try and keep his strength up, though without food, and the only water having come from what he could manage to get from the bathroom tap yesterday morning, on top of a gunshot wound to his leg, Tony felt like complete crap. He was itching for some coffee, and something a lot stronger than that. He couldn't wait to get back home to the tower, with his large and expensive alcohol collection.
He woke up, and hobbled over to the door, standing next to it. The screwdriver he had was small, but if he aimed just right, it would still do enough damage to slow a person down. It didn't help that he was so much shorter than the generic hench person who usually fetched him from his cell.
As soon as the door swung open, Tony went into action by jamming the little piece of metal right into the guard's eye. The man let out a loud howl of pain, but Tony just limped past him as quickly as possible. Bucky had promised to make sure only one guard would show up instead of the usual two. Tony's leg was throbbing, and he felt like he was going to pass out any minute now, but Tony was determined to get out of here alive. Rhodey would never forgive him if he didn't. And he couldn't deny that the thought of bringing Bucky to Steve was one that made him feel warm inside. He knew that he and Steve had their differences, but surely returning his supposedly dead best friend would help bridge the gap between them. And he wanted to get Bucky out of here for Bucky's sake; he didn't deserve to be a prisoner of Hydra who did whatever they told him to do.
Tony followed the directions Bucky had given him about the layout of the place, and soon enough, he met up with Bucky. Bucky held out a handgun. "Do you know how to use this?"
"I was kind of a major arms dealer before I switched to the clean energy business." It didn't really answer the question, because Tony didn't want to admit that he had very little practice with using guns. He took the weapon, and Bucky nodded once, not bothering to ask for further clarification. Then he crouched down a little bit.
In any other situation this would feel awkward and childish, but right now Tony was too focused on getting out of here alive to care about something as petty as minor embarrassment. He climbed up onto Bucky's back, wrapping one arm carefully around Bucky's neck to keep his balance, and his legs around Bucky's waist. Bucky used his flesh arm to hold up Tony's injured leg, while keeping his metal arm free.
From there, everything seemed to happen in a blur. It didn't take long for an alarm to start blaring, which presumably meant that the guard Tony had attacked had finally pulled himself together enough to alert everyone else to what was going on. Soon, there were shots being fired all around, with Tony doing his best to cover Bucky's back. He could feel his heart pounding away a mile a minute, and was pretty sure it was only pure adrenaline that stopped him from passing out when he ended up with two more bullets in him. Even now the shooters were following the order to not hurt Tony in any way that would stop him from being able to work, but they didn't seem to have the same thing holding them back when it came to Bucky, so Tony shifted aside to act as a human shield. Bucky was the one doing most of the work here anyways, and his good health seemed a lot more necessary for their escape.
And then they were outside, and the empty gun was being pried out of Tony's too-tight grip, Bucky looking at him with concern. "You need a hospital."
Tony nodded. "I hate them, but I don't know how close we are to my tower at the moment." He sighed as he realized that with the adrenaline wearing away, the full pain from all three of the bullets he'd taken flared to life, and he wasn't sure how soldiers were so okay with going out into a battlefield where they were likely to get shot. He tried to keep his mind off of the injuries. "Hey, when you start remembering more, try not to compare me to Howard too much, okay?"
"Howard?"
"Yeah. My dad. Howard Stark. You knew him back in the day."
Tony closed his eyes, finding that it was too much effort to hold them open. There was a pause, and then Bucky carefully lifted Tony up bridal style and began walking again. "Hold on. We are close to safety." Time seemed to pass in a swirl of color and pain and emotion, and then there was a cool metal hand pressed against his forehead. It felt like such a relief, considering how overheated he felt at the moment. "You do not belong back there, but I do."
Bucky was leaving, and Tony instinctively reached out to grab at the bottom of Bucky's shirt. "Where you going?"
Bucky gently pulled Tony's hand free. It probably didn't take much effort, considering the fact that Tony felt pretty weak at the moment. "You are safe now. Do not worry."
,,,
The next time Tony opened his eyes, he was in the infirmary in his tower, and there was no one else around. He furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to remember everything that had happened before he'd passed out. His memories were vague, though, messed up by his pained and fevered state. Where was Bucky? Had the man been injured too badly during their escape? He could feel his heart rate picking up as he panicked about Bucky's fate, and there was a loud beeping noise coming from somewhere nearby. Someone rushed over to him, and everything went black again.
,,,
This time Tony felt much more lucid when he woke up. He looked around, and to his surprise, Steve was slumped over in the chair next to the bed. He would have thought that Steve would be too busy catching up with Bucky to have time to visit with Tony. "Steve?" He spoke in a soft voice, not wanting to wake the man up if he was too deeply asleep.
Steve just blinked a few times, and then slowly straightened up in his seat. "Tony, thank goodness you're awake now. It was pretty touch and go there for a little while. What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?"
Tony furrowed his eyebrows. "Didn't Bucky tell you?"
Steve shook his head. "What are you talking about?"
Then Tony realized that Bucky hadn't actually agreed that he would escape with Tony, only that he would help with the escape. He heaved out a sigh, and slumped back against his pillows. If it weren't for the blindfold he could see resting on the bedside table, Tony would almost think he'd dreamed the whole thing. "Steve, I know you're probably not going to want to hear this, but Hydra is still around. They're the ones who had me. And they took me to help fix a mechanical arm, which happened to be attached to Bucky Barnes." He could see that Steve didn't believe him, probably thought he was still delirious from the pain, but Tony insisted. "He's the one who helped me escape. He's alive, Steve. I don't know how, but he is, and he looks like he hasn't aged a day since that last photograph of all the Howlies together." Then he explained about everything that had happened during his time in captivity.
Hundreds of miles away, the asset was strapped into a chair to be punished and fixed after his act of rebellion. He hadn't done such a thing in so long that no one had been expecting it. He knew that the chair would erase everything that had happened, but he quietly accepted his fate. Something about Tony Stark had awoken memories in the asset, and he didn't like all of them. The scrappy blonde boy had brought feelings of warmth, and it had been tempting to leave and meet him. Tony had sounded so optimistic about the future that it was hard not to believe what he said.
But as they'd been escaping, Tony's mention of his father had brought up a different kind of memory, from his time as the asset, and he knew that if Tony knew what had happened, it would cause the man pain. The asset didn't want Tony to be in pain. Those eyes of his, so clever and joyful, did nothing to hide the years of pain buried underneath. The asset did not want to add to that pain. He deserved this punishment for what he had done. But he didn't regret rescuing the strange man. The asset couldn't remember ever meeting anyone like Tony before, who'd been so gentle and caring, and had talked on and on in that soothing voice to keep the asset's mind off of all the bad experiences that usually came with being in the labs, who had removed the pain that had been there for as long as the asset could remember.
Yes, in this very moment, the asset regretted a lot of things in his life. But he knew that he would never regret helping Tony get away from here. That man didn't belong in a place like this, the same way the asset would never belong in Tony's world. The asset could only hope that Tony was okay now, and that his too big heart wouldn't lead him to foolishly returning to this place.