A/N: I clearly do not own Sherlock or Avengers. I only own a part of the plot.
Tony Stark had just escaped from the hands of the Ten Rings, thanks to Yinsen and his robotic suit that protected him from all the explosions but was still severely injured and needed medical help soon. But fate had other plans.
Just when he was running away from the explosions after his suit had failed, he had been captured by some men and brought to a cave where there was another man hanging from the wall.
Tony silently gauged the man tied up. He was deathly pale and by the wounds he could see on his bare chest, he assumed that this man had been here for a few days and had been tortured for information if he wasn't wrong. The wounds were clumsily wrapped around them, proving that they didn't want to kill him.
He also noticed that the man wasn't asleep, judging from the rise and fall of the chest. He could hear the laboured breaths of the man far across the room. From the ripped apart clothes lying around, he could say that this man was from a high-class family or some high official.
Tony couldn't unfortunately identify where he was, considering the fact that he had been knocked out before he was brought here and was still groggy. All he knew was that he was still in some desert region, given to the clothes worn by his kidnappers and he was a few meters deep into the ground from the coolness.
He quickly looked around, trying to figure out a way out of this place when and was disappointed when he could find none except the entrance which was heavily guarded. Feeling bored, he couldn't decide on what to do when he heard a small groan from the other man in the room.
"You alright there dude? Who are you and why have they brought you here?" Tony whispered to the man. The man gave out another groan before replying in a hoarse voice, probably from constant screaming.
"James Crate. They've been asking me to join them for a long time for reasons I don't know and some information that I am not willing to give. Who are you and why are you here?" James asked, turning to Tony, who was slightly shocked at the plight of the man. His face had been scarred badly and his eyes shone bright with unshed tears, trying to hide the fear and pain.
"Anthony Jackson. I don't know why I am here but I guess it is to build weapons for them probably. Nice to meet you Mr. Crate" Tony said, smiling slightly at the man in front of him. Before Mycroft could respond though, a few men entered the room, smiling evilly at the two people in front of them.
"Getting to know each other I see. Mr. Holmes, I ask you again. Will you join us or not?" The masked man asked, most probably the leader. Mycroft Crate or should I say Mycroft Holmes just weakly glared at the man. "My answer is always the same you bastard. Nothing you do will change it" Mycroft spat out.
"So sad that you are not joining us here Mycroft. Boys, the usual" the man said and the said men moved forward towards the British government official and started hitting him with pipes and hands and Mycroft only grunted in pain, mostly used to it but occasionally screamed. Soon they started carving things on him.
Tony watched all this in mute horror but could do nothing to stop them, he himself in a helpless situation. The leader, who Tony had decided to call as Mr. X, finally shot a bullet to the leg of Mycroft before turning towards Tony, not before asking his men to patch the man up.
"Now Mr. Stark. You probably know why you are here. Are you willing to design the weapons for me or not?" Mr. X asked with an insane smile that promised torture if the offer is refused. Remembering his promise to the dying man, Tony refused to build the weapons, earning the wrath of the man.
Soon, Tony was experiencing the same service, excluding the bullet to his leg and the carvings in his skin part but was beaten to unconsciousness. This went on for a few days, the man would come to them and ask them the question, they refuse, torture, knocked out and they used this time to get to know each other.
They talked to each other about their personal life, what they do for a living and soon became fast friends as they came to know they had many similarities between them from the talks they had.
This went on until the man came to them and forced them out of the chains and forced a bag on their heads before escorting them outside. When they were outside, the bags were forcefully removed from their heads, leaving them blinking at the sudden light and heat.
"So, Mr. Holmes and Mr. Stark. Do you accept the offer and join us or more torture?" the man in front of them asked. The two men looked around, still trying to adjust to the light outside while shaking their head in a firm no, only to be punched on the nose and kicked in the guts before they were dragged inside the cave roughly.
Once back inside the cave, they were beaten some more before the men left. The two were silent until they heard the sounds of trucks leaving the place, confirming the fact that 3/4th of the group had left, leaving behind only a few men on guard.
"Do you think we will be found?" Tony asked Mycroft. They had gotten to know each other in this small time of their capture, both knew it was futile to try and escape as they were weak and overpowered and were hoping that someone would find them, even though the hope was dwindling as time passed.
Mycroft remained silent, and was roaming around in his mind palace, reviewing memories of the old times where his brother wasn't withdrawn from everyone, though it was partially his fault for ignoring him unintentionally. He smiled at those memories, trying to ignore the outside world and the immense pain he was feeling throughout the body.
Realising that Mycroft was in his mind palace, Tony closed his eyes and sighed, before drifting into a light sleep. He knew that if they didn't have medical attention soon, they would be infected and they would be in serious trouble. He just prayed that someone would come to rescue them.
Two hours later, Tony was brought back to the real world to the sound of gunshots. Wincing at the searing pain that shot through him at the sudden movement, he stood up and grabbed on the nearest weapon he could find, which was a wooden plank to defend himself and his friend.
Tony stood near the entrance, waiting in bathed breath for people to come in so that he could take them down. But when the door opened, it hit him on the face, causing his legs to give out and he fell to the ground, hitting the head hard to the surface and slipped into a deep sleep.
Two hours earlier
The sun was blaring down furiously in the Afghan sands, heating up the place tremendously. A lone man was walking through the desert with a small pack on his back and a gun on hand. He had been scouting this place for quite sometime for a solo mission, from which he had to go back after a few days.
He seemingly had the best luck and the worst luck as he had stumbled upon a terrorist base accidentally. He quickly his behind the rocks, trying to listen in on what was going on. When he couldn't hear anything he risked peeking, only to find two people brought out to the man in the entrance.
He could clearly identify the local dialect of the man and the British and American accents from the other two. Even from a distance, he could tell that they had been tortured for days and contemplated on calling for backup but decided against it as he saw trucks leaving the place with most of the men.
'Not much time before they collect these two to the main base John. It has to be done now. Even if they weren't sent to the base, they will probably die from the injuries before backup arrives.' John thought and decided to go ahead and break in to the base.
He got to the caves with ease but the problem was presented inside. The deeper he went inside, the more people he could find guarding the place. He successfully killed the border guards before he spotted spots of blood leading to a place where there seemed to be many guards.
He spotted a guard coming towards him and quickly took action. He jumped on him and twisted the guard's head until he heard a crack before he got up and quickly dressed up and went inside.
He quickly shot two of the guards with his rifle and made his way forward to face 6 gunmen who were in front of him. They rapidly started firing at the intruder, John dodging most of them with ease but four caught him in surprise and he was knocked back to the wall.
He groaned as he sat up, thanking the military for providing with the body armour as otherwise, he would be dead. He was expecting nice bruises and maybe a cracked rib. Firing 6 shots at each men and hearing the bodies fall to the ground, he quickly made his way to the door where he suspected the captives were held, not before checking if the guards are dead.
Quickly but quietly heading towards the door, he heard some shuffling before he swung open the door quickly and heard a thud to the side, causing his head snap towards the noise, only to find one of the men he came to find knocked out on the ground and he suspected that he would get a nice concussion from the force he fell down.
He immediately set to work of cleaning the wounds so that it won't be infected and then proceeded to scan him quickly to spot any injuries and swiftly worked on stitching the deep one and bandaging him up, leaving the device in the middle as he didn't know what it did and decided to ask about it to the man after he woke up.
His eyes then landed on the wounded Mycroft who was in his mind palace. He quickly moved over to him and checked for a pulse, which seemed to bring him out of his musings as he flinched at the contact.
"Dont worry sir. You are being escorted to safety after I do a basic checkup on you." John said as he brought out the first aid kit and set to work, quickly checking up for any damage, and he sedated the man and proceeded to tend the wounds, wincing at the carvings and the wounds he found, the worst one being the bullet wound that seemed to need immediate attentions and signs of infections.
He quickly bandaged him up to avoid the other wounds to be infected, he heard the man say something like "Tony... also here... must be rescued" before slipping into deep sleep as the drugs took control. After bandaging him up as much as he could in a hurry, he sat down to think on what he was going to do next. He couldn't ignore any one of the duo and take the other back to camp without risking the others catching him.
He also knew that he could treat them properly only when he reached the place he was camping at for his solo mission and that it was four hours away from here and the if he wanted to contact anyone, he could do it from there only.
So he decided to ignore the flaring in his body from the bullets caught in the armour and lifted one onto each shoulder, holding his handgun in one hand as he as he moved outside, looking back occasionally to check whether anyone would jump them.
Soon, he made his way out and started to switch between a jog and a march for a whole two hours before deciding that there was enough distance between the base and them. He then set the two men down and to redo the bandages and do a proper check up to see whether he had missed out anything.
All this while, he never noticed one of them had woken up and was checking him out (John still under his disguise). The man jumped back in fright at the sight of him, alerting him of the wake of one of them with a hiss of pain.
"Its alright here sir. You don't have anything to worry about. I am just checking him for injuries to treat upon." John said, calmly while he was doing a checkup on Mycroft and removed the mask he had got from the terrorists. Tony calmed down as he saw the man's face, though was greatly confused at why this man was here.
"This sir here need serious medical check up with the infection forming. There is a limit on what I can do with the technology available. And I think you are confused on your rescue and are you right now?" John asked and Tony nodded, his brain still fuzzy from the concussion.
"Alright then. I can't tell much right now as we need to get back to camp immediately. I am going to redo your bandages now so please sit still." John said as he finished up with Mycroft and sat next to Tony to check over.
"Um... I think I didn't catch your name sir? And where are we currently? I am Anthony and that one there is James. I don't think I will be able to tell you anything more right now" Tony said.
"Sure Tony. Nice meeting you. I understand why you can't tell anything now but I assure you I am all ears when you want to talk. About me, I am Johnathan and we are in Afghanistan. I hope you can walk some distance?" John asked as he finished dressing up Tony.
"I think I can do so. Can I contact someone after reaching the camp?" Tony asked as he got up, slightly wincing and leaned on John for support. John grunted slightly as he lifted up Mycroft, which didn't go unnoticed by Tony.
"Are you alright John?" Tony asked as they moved forward. "Nothing serious to worry about Tony. We can contact your friend after we reach camp. I am sure we have some unanswered questions that will be answered there." John said and the two covered the rest of the way slowly in comfortable silence.
A/N: Chapter 1 of this fanfic people. I would say that this idea came from reading the books by AndyHood mostly. A Sherlock andAvengers crossover as you can see, I have made a few tweaks in the timeline here.
Hope you all liked it! All comments and criticism accepted and appreciated from you all. Any honest reviews will be welcome.
Thank you all for reading!
Rasnak signing off ;) :)
Published on 25 May 2018