Thanks for the all reviews! You guys are awesome. Sorry this one is a bit later than usual. I've been having the hardest time with it, trying to move the plot forward and such. It's so long too. Longer than I was going for. I hope this one is better than the last two, because I think I could have done a lot better on them. But, I guess that's what happens when I stay up all night writing while I'm half asleep.

Anyway, now that my rambling is over, here's chapter 3.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Pepper sat her plate on the table in front of her. Before she started on her dinner, she flipped through the channels on the TV, finally settling on the news. She poured herself a glass of wine, something she really needed. The news wasn't playing anything particularly interesting, but Tony wasn't there to talk to and she was too tired to go out. She would probably go to bed early. It would be nice to be able to sleep through out the night without her boyfriend interrupting her when he finally decided to come up from his workshop. And then, somehow proceeding to take up the majority of their bed. Despite the many little annoying things he did, she did miss him. She always hated when he had to go on a mission. She would always be left there to worry. Trouble had a way of following him, so how could she not be anxious?

Pepper took a sip of her wine, grabbing her tablet to check the stocks. Her phone buzzed, signaling a call. Seeing it was from her assistant, she answered, wondering how much extra work she would have to do before turning in.

"Hello, Maggie. What's going on?"

"Ms. Potts," she sounded frantic. "The board of directors are holding a last minute meeting. You really need to hurry down here. It's an emergency."

"Okay, I'm coming," she stood from the couch and put her glass back down on the table. "What happened?"

"It's Tony."

Pepper froze.

"I don't know what happened exactly, but someone kidnapped him," Maggie's voice was shaking by now, mirroring what Pepper was feeling.

"I'll be down in a few minutes," was all Pepper could manage to say. She hung up the phone, sticking it in her pocket as she stumbled toward the door. She felt like she was in shock. This couldn't be happening again. Surely Fury or someone would have let her know. How could she have first heard it from her assistant?

She somehow made it to the elevator, shaky fingers pressing the button to the base floor of Stark Tower. It seemed to take forever for the elevator to reach it's destination. When it finally did, it was all she could do not to fall apart as she made her way through the halls and into the board room. Everyone was there, waiting for her. They all wore concerned expressions on their faces. She slowly walked to the front, feeling like she was going to be sick as she faced them. She asked them to please tell her what had happened and they complied. Apparently, someone had taken Tony and was holding him prisoner, filming him being waterboarded and beaten. They had all received the video via e-mail. Tony's own personal e-mail, which meant that they had hacked into the system. So, not only was Tony's life in danger, but the security of Stark Industries was as well.

"What did they want?" she asked, surprised at how even her voice was.

"He wants us to hand over a project file called E92," the President of the company, Ralph Elmer said. "It's nothing we have any access to. We've never even heard of it. It must be one of Mr. Stark's personal projects."

"I see."

"We were hoping you might know something about it."

Pepper gave him a small smile. "Tony doesn't really discuss any of his personal projects with anyone anymore."

He sighed. Some of the others shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"Even if I did have it, you aren't considering giving it to them, are you?" As sick with worry and shock as she was, Pepper knew better. She had been involved with Iron Man and the Avengers far too long not to. Even if they gave this person what he wanted, it didn't guarantee that Tony would be given back to them. The only thing that was guaranteed was that E92, whatever it was, would be used against all of them.

"It's on the table."

"No, no, no. It's not on the table. That is an absolute last resort."

"What do you expect us to do?"

"Call Fury! That should have been the first thing anyone did."

"We did call Fury, right after we called you. He's sending Dr. Banner and Mr. Rogers over as we speak."

"Okay, then why don't we wait until we work things out with them before we make any decisions? Especially when such decisions could get us all into trouble. Especially Tony."

She sat down, a sudden bout of weakness washing over her. Everything felt so surreal.

"We have to consider every option..."

"And we will. But as I said, it's a last resort. The chances of them releasing Tony are very small."

Her hands were starting to shake. Where were Steve and Bruce?

"This is something that's beyond our control at any rate," Eric Mills, the Vice President, said. "Why were we even sent the video when S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know anything about it? It makes no sense."

No, it didn't make any sense. Nothing did, at the moment. All Pepper knew was that Tony was in trouble and it was taking every ounce of her power not to do anything rash.

The glass door opened, causing their attention to shift. Steve Rogers walked in, with the commanding presence that they all truly needed. Pepper let out a small sigh of relief. Now, they could get somewhere.

"What happened to Tony?"

oooooooooooooo

Rome, Italy

Natasha had been annoyed when Tony was late for their meeting that morning.

She had become suspicious when a few minutes had turned into half an hour.

She had a bad feeling when her phone suddenly stopped working after she tried to call him.

She went back to the hotel, hoping that her phone shutting down was just a coincidence, a problem that could easily be fixed. But when she opened the door to his room and he was nowhere to be found, she knew they had been compromised. There were signs of struggle. The sheets were all over the place, a lamp had been knocked over, and a drawer had been pulled almost all the way out. The two things he always had with him, his phone and his suit, were still there.

This was not good.

She quietly searched his room, looking for any clues that might lead to where he would be. She tried her phone again in an attempt to call Fury, but it still wasn't working, so she kept going over every detail. As a spy, she was trained to look for the little things. She pulled the sheets off of the bed, hoping to find something. She examined every inch of them. No blood, thankfully. But there was nothing else either. Whoever had done this had been very careful, not leaving a trace of anything behind.

She had looked for over an hour, trying her phone over and over again. Nothing there and phone was still out of service. She sat down on the bed, trying to think. The most obvious thing to do was to suspect the very people they were after. A terrorist organization that had been running all over Italy and was now targeting a new green energy company in Rome. Problem was, they were smart and very well trained. They were expert computer hackers, which was why Tony was chosen to go on this mission. They tried, and many times succeeded, in being untraceable. Because of this, the locals began to call them 'ghosts'. Natasha stood. She couldn't just sit around. She had to start somewhere.

She went downstairs to the lobby and quickly got the attention of the receptionist.

"Excuse me. Could you tell me if someone had an extra key to room 975? There are only supposed to be two."

"Let me see," the receptionist went to his computer, searching for the information. "No. Only two keys are out for that room. Is something wrong?"

"Yes," she leaned forward. "I am S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Black Widow. My partner Tony Stark was staying in that room and now he's missing."

The receptionist didn't seem alarmed. "Are you sure he hasn't just gone out?"

"Would I be here asking you if he had?"

He guessed not. Now he was starting to pale a bit. Everyone knew who Tony Stark was and to have a high profile business man/Avenger suddenly go missing from your hotel was bad publicity.

"I need to look at your security feed," Natasha said. "Someone was in his room earlier and I need to find out who it was."

"Yes ma'am. Of course."

He motioned her to sit while he contacted the manager, letting him know what was going on. It wasn't long before she was lead into a back room full of televisions with cameras recording the halls of the hotel.

"Here is the footage for the hall outside of Mr. Stark's room," the security guard said. "What times do you need?"

Natasha thought for a minute. "I need the footage from 7pm yesterday til about 11:30 this morning."

"That's a large window."

"I know."

He started to set everything up for her.

"Is there a phone here I can use?" Natasha asked.

"Sure." he pointed to a phone at his desk. She went over to it and dialed Fury again. Thankfully, it rang. He picked up in one ring.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Fury, this is Black Widow."

"Natasha, what is going on over there? I've been trying to call you! We were thinking they got you too."

A confused look crossed her face. "Sir, what are you...?"

"Tony's gone missing. Again. And someone has been messing around with the our computers and Stark's."

Well, that explained her phone going out.

"How did you know Tony was missing?"

"His captors sent us a video. They want one of his project files in exchange for him."

Well, that was certainly a lead.

"Fury, they cut off my cellphone and I'm using an unsecure line, so I don't have much time. What are my orders?"

"Stay there and try to find out what you can. And lay low. I'm sending Hawkeye out there now. He'll give you the details."

"Yes sir," she said. He hung up the phone. She sat the phone down, feeling a little better now that she had something to go on.

"Everything is ready," the security guard said. Natasha nodded and went over to the screen to look over the feed.

"You Avengers being here," he said slowly. "Does this have anything to do with the Ghosts?"

Natasha didn't look away from the screen. "I can't give you any details about our mission."

He nodded and didn't ask her any more questions.

ooooooooooooooooo

Tony woke up feeling disoriented and sick. Their food wasn't exactly agreeing with his stomach. He wrapped his arms around his belly, hoping that he wasn't going to throw up. The lights had been dimmed, but it wasn't helping his still throbbing headache. If anything, it seemed to have increased.

"I guess it's too much to ask for some pain medicine," Tony said to himself. He rolled over onto his other side and immediately noticed a change in his environment.

Loki was gone.

It was a startling realization because there was only one explanation Tony could think of. And even though Tony pretty much hated the guy, he felt that no one deserved that. He crawled over to Loki's corner, grabbing the blanket. It was cold, no body heat left on it. He wondered how long they had him and how bad he was going to look when they brought him back. He looked down at the filthy piece of cloth in his hands.

Maybe it would be a nice gesture to...keep it warm for him.

He slowly wrapped it around himself. It felt so good to finally feel some warmth. It was scratchy and uncomfortable, but at that moment, it didn't matter to him. He laid back, letting his mind wander. He let himself drift back through memories, bringing himself some comfort. Thinking of the time he spent with Pepper when they had gone to the Caribbean one summer. How pretty she was when she slept next to him, how relaxing it was to just sit on the beach, enjoying each others company. He also remembered how she would stay up all night with him, when the stress was too much for him. When bad memories kept him from falling asleep. He had been getting better, but now, if he made it through this, it would be back to square one. But at least he had someone there to help him through it.

It seemed like an hour had past before the guy who had been feeding them came back, hauling a miserable looking Loki behind him. Tony threw the blanket off and crawled back to his side faster than he thought would be possible. But not before he received a glare from his cell mate. The drone opened the cell and threw Loki inside before locking up and leaving without a word. Loki let out a small whimper when he landed. It took him a minute to get up and sit upright. He wasn't covered in any new injuries. At least, none that were obvious. The only thing that was a sign of injury were two identical cuts in the bend of his arms. But he looked exhausted. No, he looked way past exhausted. More like he was drugged. He was also shaking terribly, hardly able to keep his composure.

"Wow," Tony said, quietly. He remembered the cameras and he didn't want anyone listening to his conversations, no matter how pointless they were. "You look awful."

"I imagine so," Loki said, his voice slow and slurred.

"Are...you okay?"

"Fine," he turned and set his unfocused eyes on Tony. "But please allow me to set some ground rules. If I ever catch you touching my stuff again, I will make you feel as though you have been through one hundred wars. Do I make myself clear?"

"Hey, you weren't using it."

"I don't care."

"Guess no one taught you how to share."

"Share? All anyone does when it comes to me is take."

He winced as he tried to get comfortable, something they both quickly learned was pretty much impossible here.

"By the way," Loki continued. "You're next."

Tony figured that.

"You'll probably come back looking much worse than I. They don't particularly like you."

"Yeah, I'm sure they've fallen in love with you. What with that charming personality of yours."

"They favor me over you," Loki smiled. "Can't you tell?"

"You know, it's really sad that you're that happy about getting better scraps from the people holding you prisoner. You're taking needy to a whole 'nother level."

"I am not needy. I just know how to use things to my advantage."

"That's why you're in a five star room, right? Are they giving you drugs if you behave? Because you sure do look like you've had some. Is there any way I can cash in on that deal?"

"I'm not on drugs."

"You sure?"

"Positive. My punishments are...somewhat different than yours. Usually."

"That so?"

Loki nodded. He suddenly looked very uncomfortable. The look quickly disappeared, though. "Thankfully, it's not as often as it once was."

"Is that something to look forward to? They get bored with you after a while?"

"No, not with you. They'll probably become more frequent with you."

"Great."

It wasn't long before someone came back. A different person, this time. But either way, Tony knew they had come for him. He took in a deep breath and readied himself for a fight.

He, of course, wasn't as strong as he had been before. While he had made a group of them struggle earlier, this one person had no trouble handcuffing him. Loki did nothing but watch with slight interest. He had no reason to help, so he stayed out of trouble. Tony was taken from the cage, having a hard time walking on his sore legs. He tried to prepare himself for what was coming, but he couldn't. He was scared.

"Good luck, Stark," he heard Loki say. But by the sound of his voice, he knew he didn't care about his luck at all.

He was taken to the same room as before. The same chair. The same man who's name he still didn't know. Said man smiled at Tony.

Okay, let's get this over with.

"Day two, Tony. Shall we get started?"

Now that that part is done...

It's getting a bit hard writing Tony and Loki's scenes. I love writing their dialogue, but I'm trying not to get redundant with them, since they're trapped with nothing much to do. I don't want to make the pacing too fast and I also don't want them to just become friends right off the bat. There's a bit too much that's happened between Loki and, well, all of the Avengers for that to happen. Anyhoo, I hope you guys enjoyed it and please leave me a review. More reviews inspire me to write more. :D