When Tony Stark disappeared, no one really noticed. Sure, he was a very important public figure, with plenty of popularity. But as of late, he'd been too busy running the Avengers and trying to nullify the accords to do anything really extravagant. So when he went missing, nobody noticed, nobody really cared. Except Rhodey.

He tried to get someone to pay attention, to realize that Tony missing was not normal. He tried to get ahold of Steve and his team, but they didn't listen. They told him that Tony was probably off somewhere, drinking and having sex, ignoring what was important. Rhodey was enraged. They hadn't seen Tony since he came back from Siberia, he was nothing like the old,loud Tony. He went on walks, he worked day and night non-stop, he was so depressed. Rhodey really tried to tell them, he really did, but it was all in vain.

Tony was gone, missing, vanished. Nobody cared, Stark Industries was still running, the Accords were still in place. Rhodey promised his friend he would keep searching. But his resources were low, there was only so much he could do. At this point, all he had left was patience and hope. But even that was dwindling, he didn't know how much longer he could try. He may just have to give up, the others may be right. Maybe Tony would come back when he was ready. But something wasn't right, he just couldn't figure it out.

What could have taken Tony away?

Why wouldn't anyone listen to him?

Something was wrong, he just knew it. But the world continued to move anyways. Nobody cared enough to sacrifice even a little for the one who sacrificed everything for them.

Several states away, an Impala drove down an empty road. The two occupants inside the car were silent, except for the driver, who was grumbling and switching the songs every few seconds. The taller man in the passenger seat sighed, and asking,"Do you really have to switch the song while you're driving, Dean?"

Dean seemed so scoff, shaking his head. "Oh Sammy, Sammy, Sammy," He chastised,"I can't catch a witch unless I'm in a good mood, so I need good music" He switched it onto an AC/DC song, nodding his head to the rhythm.

"You won't be able to catch the witch if you crash the car," Sam grumbled his reply, crossing his arms and looking out the window. They were investigating the rumors that had been floating around about a witch in the area, and reports of people that went missing started appearing in the news around the same time. So, the Winchester brothers decided that they simply had to check it out.

They drove around until they got near the location, parking their car in the brush nearby. They grabbed their weapons and walked into the forest surrounding the street.

Dean looked around for a moment, noticing a light nearby. He elbowed Sam, pointing to it. The light seemed to be fluctuating, it had to be the witch. They looked at each other, before a nod passed between them.

They slowly moved closer, pushing through the green foliage, finding themselves face to face with the old shack. If it weren't for the light coming from it, they would have thought it abandoned. It had rotting planks, plants growing from every direction, and the door hung halfway off it's hinges.

There was no noise coming from the inside, so they got closer. Sam leaned forward, checking in the door. He saw.. Nothing, nothing at all. "Dean, it's empty.." He whispered.

"What?" Dean growled out, no longer being careful. He walked in the shack, crossing his arms. "Then where was the fucking light coming from?" He asked.

As if to answer his question, the floor beneath him groaned, and suddenly gave in. Sam cried out in shock, running forward only to skid to a stop. The area beneath the floor looked like a black abyss, but he heard the sound of wood smashing below. "D-Dean!?" He yelled loudly,"Are you okay?!"

Dean groaned, rubbing his head as the scrapes on his body throbbed. Looking up at Sam's face, which he could barely see. "Yeah! I'm okay Sam!" He yelled back.

"What were you thinking, dumbass!" Sam yelled in return,"Stop being reckless! Get back up here before the witch comes back!"

"Okay! Okay!" He snapped back. Grumbling, he pushed the plank on top of him of, it rolled across the dark room loudly, hitting a wooden beam nearby. When it hit the beam, Dean heard the clink of something metal hitting the concrete floor, and shuddering gasps.

Dean froze, and looked around the best he could. "Hello..?" He asked softly,"Is someone there?" He saw a silhouette, and crawled a little closer to it. The person gasped in shock , skittering away with the clinking of chains following him.

Dean held up his hands, saying,"Hey, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. I was here to look for the witch, do you know where they are? Have they trapped you? I can-"

"Y-You need to be q-quiet.." The person whispered, their voice was young, but clearly a boy's voice. "S-She'll hear you.."

Dean frowned, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a flashlight. He turned it on, facing the boy with it. The young man cringed, putting his arm over his face, not used to bright light anymore.

The older Winchester examined the young man. He looked like he was teenager, with messy, curly, shoulder length chocolate brown hair and chocolate eyes. He was short, scrawny, and wearing ragged clothing that was too big for him, and full of holes. There were cuffs around his wrists and ankles, very tight metal with that looked like spells embedded in them. The chains were connected to the floor with magic, and Dean could see magic markings on the boy's body as well.

"What the hell.." He whispered,"This is fucked.. Don't worry kid, we're going to get you out of here.."

He went to grab the chains, ignoring the boy's panicked refusals. The second he grabbed them, the burned bright orange, making Dean hiss and yank his hand back. The kid didn't react much to the burning other than a wince, it seemed it affected him too.

Dean huffed. He wasn't leaving the kid down here to be murdered by some witch bitch. He pulled out his gun, and said,"Quick, kid, stick out your leg"

The kid looked horrified. "Please, trust me," Dean said,"I'm just going to try and shoot the chain" The younger boy still seemed nervous, his body quivering with fear. The boy slowly complied, lowering his head and clutching it with his head in his hand. He held out his foot, trembling intensely.

Dean worked quick, shooting the chain and moving back. It didn't bounce back, and he saw the chain give way. He shot it once more, and the chain nearly gave way. He quickly shot the other one twice, and then put the gun back on the floor. "Can you pull your feet and break the chains?" He asked.

The boy tried, but it seemed his skinny limbs were too weak to do much of anything at this point. Dean huffed, and then brought his foot up, stomping hard on the metal and making it give way. It snapped allowing the kid to pull his bleeding legs closer to his chest. He stared down at his feet, then up at Dean in awe. He opened his mouth, about the thank the man, when he saw something.

Behind the man who saved him was a silhouette, one that was very familiar to him. "Ah! L-look b- be-behind- WATCH OUT!" He cried out loudly.

Dean turned, but a little too late. He was thrown forward, crashing into the boy behind him. He stood up, grabbing for his gun when he realized that he had dropped it before this, it wasn't on him. "Shit!" He yelled, trying to run to the other side of the room.

Before he could do anything, the witch's blast hit him, slamming him into the ground and making his head dizzy. "Fuck!" He yelled again, trying to force himself up, holding the knife out blinding in front of him. He really hated witches.

The witch moved up, smirking and powering her hands with magic, whispering a mantra. For a split second, Dean thought he was going to die. But then, the teen was behind the witch. He was so silent, Dean barely saw him as he managed to go behind the crouching witch, grabbing the metal chains connecting his handcuffs and making them glow orange.

He threw his hands over the woman's neck, pushing the burning cuffs against her neck and wrapping his legs around her waist, hanging on tight.

The witch let out a violent shriek at the burning, bringing her hands up and grabbing at the cuffs. The struggles, throwing her body back and forth before backing up, slamming her back against the wall and hitting the kid. This violent attempt happened several times, the witch slamming against walls as the metal burned through her throat, sending blood gushing everywhere.

The witch then threw herself forward, sending the kid flying above her and slamming on the ground, crying out in pain. The angered woman screamed again, her hand burning with magic as she slammed it down on the kid's chest, making the young man shriek in incredible pain, grabbing at her wrist and struggling desperately.

Dean got up quickly, running forward with his iron knife. He slammed it into the witch's throat, causing her to scream violently. He slashed to the side, breaking through with the cut that the kid already made. The witch's head screamed one more time before it fell, spewing blood on the ground.

Her head then glowed a blue color, going down the length of it before falling down the length of her body, and against the kid, where her hand still was. Then, the body turned a stark white, before crumbling into a pile of dust.

The second the hand was no longer on his chest, the kid skittered backwards. They didn't say anything for a moment, before the brunette whispered,"Is she dead..?"

"Yeah.." Dean panted out,"Yeah I think so.." They stared at the dust a few moments longer, the teenager slowly working his way around it before hugging Dean's side, trembling fearfully.

Dean stared at the kid with a soft look, wrapping an arm around his back. The teen tensed up for a moment in fear, before relaxing. He let out a deep sigh of relief, before whispering,"Thank you.. T-thank you for saving me.."

"Hey it's no sweat kid, it's part of my job, but how are we going to get out of this room?" Dean asked the soft brown eyes, eyes that seemed to have seen too much in this lifetime, and wise beyond his years.

The child looked around, before pointing at the wall nearby. "There, there's a s-staircase," He whispered softly.

Dean nodded, sliding his hand to the small of the kids back and then lifting him up into his arms. He looked around, finding the stairs hidden behind a well placed panel, just out of the kid's reach.

They climbed up into the dark forest, behind Sam. "BOO!" Dean yelled, making Sam jump in surprise, nearly falling into the shack. He stumbled, falling back on his ass.

He spun around to face his older brother, snapping,"Dean, Don't. Do. That!" The kid in Dean's arms, who had been giggling, now went silent and tensed up. Sam seemed to finally notice the kid, and tilted his head curiously. "Who is this?"

"The witch's kidnapee," Dean announced, before awkwardly looking at him. "I.. Actually didn't get his name, what is your name, kid?"

The kid looked at both of them before whispering,"My name is Tony" He gave no last name, but Dean and Sam didn't really mind that, the kid had probably been through a lot.

"Well, nice to meet you Tony, my name is Sam Winchester, and you've already met my brother Dean," Sam said,"We're hunters, we kill creatures and demons who are threats to others. We're lucky to have found you, how long have you been down there?"

Tony's eyes looked around as they carried him through the trees, and stuttered,"I-I don't k-know, w-what's the date?"

Dean told him the date, and the teen's eyes instantly darkened. "It's.. It's been seven months," He quietly admitted, sadness in his tone.

"Fuck, kid," Dean whispered in shock,"That long? I know witches sometimes use human organs and humans for sacrifices, what the hell were they using you for?"

"Experiments," Tony told them,"They were testing new spells, they wanted to see how far they could go on human bodies and certain spells. That's why I look like this, I used to be older. But one of the There were others with me.. But.. But they didn't make it"

Dean could see the guilt in the kids eyes, and quickly said,"Kid, don't be upset that you survived and they didn't, don't wish that you died instead of them, be proud that you managed to make it through. Keep going, live on in their memory. Don't waste this chance."

Tony looked whimsical, as he softly declared,"Someone told me that before.. Both of you are right.." His smile seemed more sad than happy, so neither brother tried to ask who it was.

Sam and Dean nodded, and then brought the kid to the back of the Impala. "We'll try and take off those cuffs when we get to the hotel, okay?" Sam promised, to which Tony nodded. Dean hummed, patting the dashboard of his Impala as he turned it on.

"Ooh, listen to my baby purr," He said happily, before reaching forward and rifling through his cassette tapes. He looked into the back seat, where the brunette was twiddling his thumbs. His dark eyes flitted up to the front seats, jumping when he saw Dean was staring at him. Dean tried to smile in the most reassuring way he could. "Yo, Tony, any song requests?" He asked curiously.

Tony rubbed his head awkwardly, before softly whispering,"B-Black Sabbath? AC/DC? M-Metallica?" Dean smiled, looking at Sam with satisfaction, he nodded.

"I like this kid, can we keep him?" Dean asked teasingly, pushing in a Metallica cassette in and pressing play. "Enter Sandman" filled the car as they drove down the street. Tony smiled, feeling himself calming down even if it was just a little bit. He slid to the side of the car, leaning his head against the window and staring out at the sky he hadn't seen in so long.

His mind was jumbled, he could remember so much, yet it was all horrible. All he saw was violent flashes of fighting, battles, destruction. He was afraid of it, afraid of these memories that went through his head. He knew the witch had messed with his head, but what if those memories were real? What if there were people waiting for Tony Stark to return, only to kill him? He didn't know, he didn't want to know.

Because he was too afraid to learn the truth.

They got to the motel nearby, and brought the tools in the room, sneaking Tony in after. They were good at sneaking around and coming up with explanations for why Tony was bleeding and why his wrist and ankles had cuffs chains around them.

Tony sat on the bed, while Sam looked over the cuffs. He didn't try and touch them, the burns on Dean and the kid's hands was enough to steer him clear of attempting it. They wrapped the burns and cuts, removing the kid's shirt to find a very painful looking handprint from the witch's final attempt at killing him. They wrapped it, but they knew it would definitely scar, even though it seemed like there was a scar already below it.

They had been in the room for three hours when, finally, Sam sighed and said,"I can't figure it out. I don't know how we're supposed to get these off, there's so many markings on his body and the cuffs.." He slumped back, leaning back in his chair.

Tony crossed his feet, lifting his leg and staring at the cuff. "S-She.. The witch, she put on more than one spell. Maybe.. Maybe we have to find the individual spells she used and unravel it slowly, like a tangled pile of cords?" He suggested.

Sam and Dean looked at each other again, before Sam smiled and asked,"I like this kid, can we keep him?" Dean chuckled, while Tony gave a lopsided smile, stuttering out,"I ch-charge by the hour."

Dean then snorted, and declared,"Yep, we're keeping him"

Sam chuckled, before a thought came over him regarding that. "We.. Kind of have to if we want to get those off. It's going to take a long time to get those off, if ever. We'd need him to come with us or at least stay in the bunker until we can get them off, unless we want his skin to grow over those cuffs, or the injuries under it to get infected, or the witch left a curse on it," He explained,"And we can't get it off without getting through all those symbols and spells, just like he said."

Dean nodded thoughtfully, and Sam turned back to the brunette. "Hey, Tony?" He asked,"We want to get those cuffs off you, but if that's going to happen, you have to stay with us. Is there anyone who you think may be looking for you? Do you want to go see them before we start this process?"

Tony stared at his knees through the ragged pants, as he shook his messy head. "No, nobody's looking for me," He softly admitted,"Anyone who is, they're probably trying to hurt me.. That's all I remember anymore, people trying to hurt or kill me, not just the witch.."

The kid looked over at them, eyes filled with sadness. "I don't have anywhere to go.. But, if I can, I want to stay with you guys, I want to help fight people like the witch, I want to protect people from the witch" He said softly, his voice was shaky, but it was obvious he was desperately hoping they would say yes. "P-please, let me stay with you"

In that moment, Dean and Sam saw themselves in the kid. When they were younger, lost and confused. Not knowing what they wanted to do, nothing to fall back on, no one to go to. In that moment, Tony was no longer a stranger, he became one of them. He became a little brother.

"If that's what you want to do, then of course you can stay with us," Dean said softly,"You're one of us now kid" He reached forward, ruffling the kid's messy hair.

Tony's eyes widened in surprise, before a huge, relieved smile came over his face. "Thank you," He whispered, shoulders slumping in happiness. He flopped back on the bed, feeling so relieved, he couldn't even describe it.

Sam went and sat on the bed next to Dean. "Tomorrow, we'll start heading back to the Bunker together, okay? I say we'll go around 10:00am" He decided. Dean flopped down too, and let out an affirmative noise.

"Wanna color code that itinerary before we head out, Sammy?" He teased, making the younger man scoff and push Dean playfully.

"Jerk," Sam grumbled, and Dean smirked and crossed his arms, as he said,"Bitch" Tony watched the affectionate exchange quietly, a smile on his face. It was starting to hurt, smiling so much. He hadn't done it in so long.

Soon enough, the two older men had fallen asleep. Tony watched them for a while, just letting that happy feeling in his chest surround him. In a head full of bad memories, it felt so good to have been rescued, to have been brought away from there, and to be given a family, even if it was a broken one.

Tony sighed and leaned against the pillow, curling up with his eyes closed. Soon, he followed the Winchesters into their slumber, feeling the safest and happiest he had for as long as he could remember.

For the first time in a long time, all three of the tortured souls felt at peace.