Tony could do nothing but stare up at the ceiling for a long time, pulling in frantic gulps of breath to try and calm himself down long after the footsteps of Steve and Bucky had faded away. He felt like the world around him had completely fallen apart. Why? He thought in despair. Why would Steve keep that from me?! Am I not worthy enough to know what happened to my own parents?! Why was he so ready to just attack me?!

I thought we were friends…

There was a burning in the back of his throat, his eyes blurring over with tears. But, he forced them back. No, he wouldn't cry over Steve, he couldn't. That bastard obviously felt no remorse over what he did, why should Tony?

His hands pressed against the ground, forcing the heavy suit into a sitting position. He caught sight of the red, white, and blue shield, and instantly felt anger and pain flash through him. He weakly smacked at the metal, watching it tumblr away.

He winced, taking a few deep breaths, attempting to push himself to a standing. Without power, however, the suit was much heavier. He let out a frustrated huff, his hands going to tug at palm around the top of the suit. Finally, he felt the small emergency latch. The second he clicked it, the suit split apart instantly, and Tony felt as if he could finally breathe.

His bare hands made contact with the cold ground as he crawled away, pulling himself to a standing. The frigid cold seemed to surround him as he looked around, his breathing beginning to even out. As he calmed down, his mind finally began to work once more, building up a plan.

"I… I n-need to get these computers working… I n-need to get home.." Tony whispered, brown eyes flashing all over the empty base. His arms moved to hug himself tightly as he began to shiver from the cold.

Finally, he found a flight of stairs. He stumbled down them, avoiding the holes and piles of rubble. The genius continued to hold himself as he saw the room where Zemo had shown that.. That video. The bodies were still in the test tubes as well. But now, everything was dark, the glow of the reactor in his chest was the only light.

Tony felt dread crawl up his whole body, thumping down the stairs as fast as his battered body could go. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, his legs caught against eac*+h other and he tumbled down the last few steps, his shoulder slamming into the cold concrete floor.

A loud wheeze of air escaped him, clenching his fists in an attempt to hold in all his tears. Finally, he forced himself to a standing once more. He moved towards the closest screen he could find, pressing every button or key he could find in a desperate attempt to get something.. Anything working. But alas, everything remained dark.

Tony shivered as a sad sigh escaped him, pressing his back against the cold machine, and sliding to the ground. He pulled his legs up to his chest, forehead resting on top. He listened to the sound of howling wind outside, as an ironic smile crawled on his face.

Maybe this was just how it was meant to be.. He thought I'll finally die, and the world will have one less monster to worry about.

With that thought in mind, Tony closed his brown eyes, wondering how long it would take him to wither away and die.

Eventually, Tony lost track of time, the only sound being the howling of the wind and snow. Just as the cold was beginning to eat away at his consciousness, something changed. He heard the sound of a jet engine…

The engineer's brown eyes snapped open, adrenaline flowing through him once more. Weakly turning his head towards the entrance, he felt hope. Someone found me? Does that mean Friday was able to send a distress call out?

At that moment, Tony didn't care, he was exhausted and delirious from trauma and cold. He forced himself to a standing, ignoring his shaking legs as he stumbled towards the entrance.

Through the violent snow, he caught sight of the large vehicle, and smiled in relief. The genius took a few steps towards it, expecting to see one of his friends waiting for him. But as his vision grew clearer, he noticed something large and imposing above the small jet.

This caused the engineer to frown, stopping in his tracks, right in the doorway of the HYDRA base. It didn't look like anything he had ever seen, with no sign of anything making it float, and several figures staring from the windows.

Tony frowned deeply, his eyes flickering down towards the small jet once more. Terror and adrenaline exploded trough his body as he realized that a large, imposing figure was running towards him. They were fast, much faster than humans. What was going on!?

The engineer panicked, stumbling backwards and running back into the entrance. He thought fast, grabbing one of the man pieces of rubble and backing up.

As one of the strangely colored creatures ran in, he threw it right at their head. They stumbled in surprise, giving Tony the chance to slam his shoulder against them, knocking them into the wall.

The object he had been holding clattered to the ground, and the engineer quickly picked it up. His eyes widened, noticing the many buttons and switches on it. What the hell kind of gun is this?!

The sound of many footsteps caused Tony to turn, trying to aim the gun at the oncoming creatures. He finally found the right button, and began shooting out of the doorway. The creatures yelled at each other in a language Tony didn't understand, before jumping out of the way.

Unfortunately, in Tony's panic, he forgot about the one below him. Suddenly, a hand found purchase of his ankle, throwing Tony onto his back with an easy flick of his arm.

With Tony on the floor, one of the others quickly pulled out a smaller weapon. They shot it at Tony, causing a metal chip to attach the the man's arm, delivering a violent electric shock. All the engineer could do was scream and thrash, until his vision faded from the pain, and everything went black.

The aliens were breathing slightly hard from the altercation, as they stood looking down at the man underneath them.

The purple man on the ground huffed, moving to sit up. Looking up at the others, he declared,"A fighter. Definitely the 'Iron Man' we were sent to find."

"Good," Another muttered,"I don't want to stay on this disgusting planet any longer than we have to. Grab the suit,"

They motioned to the tall one, who knelt down, and grabbed the unconscious man. They slung Tony over their shoulder, before following the rest of the group back to the smaller ship.

As soon as they entered, the jet closed tightly, lifting into the air, and entering the larger ship high above it. Once the airlock was shut tight, the ship rose a little higher, before taking the jump straight out of Earth's atmosphere, not even a piece of snow out of place..

The only things left behind was Captain America's Shield.