A/N: Thank you for the reviews! They are what keeps me motivated.

WARNING: This chapter contains animal abuse.


The network of the various tunnels was like a maze. There were unexpected turns and several steer stairways that took them deeper and deeper underground, and Tony counted each step, made note of and memorized even the slightest of turns so he would be able to find his way back on his own, given the opportunity. He even approximated the angle of the various stairs to estimate how deep underground his captors had taken him.

By Tony's calculations, they were now walking beneath the ocean bed, which meant that the Atlantic Ocean was roaring right above them. If any one of the tunnels was to collapse, the water would come pouring into the maze and everyone underground would drown – and wasn't that just the kind of realization that Tony needed when he was doing his best to keep calm and not outright panic where The Salivating Scorpions could see.

Tony suspected the men knew what he was doing. That's why they seemed to be taking a more complex route to The Scorpion, that's why they wouldn't let him walk on his own two feet but carried him around like a sack of potatoes – they were trying to make him disorientated and confused, to make it harder for him to try to memorize the way out. The thing was, though, that Tony wasn't a genius for nothing and therefore he was able to keep track of their seemingly aimless wanderings, if only just so.

The men's steps echoed in the otherwise silent tunnel and Tony's breathing sounded loud in his ears. It was pitch black and although the captors had flashlights, Tony was hanging upside down on someone's shoulder and couldn't therefore see much apart from his captor's muscular back. The chill of the stone walls made goosebumps rise on Tony's bare skin and the body heat he shared with the captor carrying him made him instinctively want to curl up closer to the man, unpleasant though it was to be in such close contact with someone who had fucking kidnapped him, especially as the said person smelt of salty sea water and musky sweat. His uncomfortable position made him feel dizzy as the blood rushed to his head, and had his nose still been bleeding, he wouldn't have gotten enough air, taped shut as his mouth still was.

To keep the panic at bay, Tony filled his mind with pleasant thoughts even as he kept a careful track of where they were going: He thought of the dinner he had had with the Parkers the evening before in their charming little kitchen in the heart of their welcoming home. He thought of May's sparkling eyes, the way Peter had confided in him about the girl he fancied, how well – how seamlessly – Spiderman and Ironman were working together even after just a few months. Tony thought of Rhodes and Vision and his robots, he thought of FRIDAY. He thought of paradigms, new ways to improve the Stark Consoles, he thought of pear pudding…

Rhodes was already looking for him with FRIDAY's help, Tony kept reminding himself. They must have noticed by now that he hadn't made it to the hospital. They must have found the letter, the threat against Tony and Steve. So yes, Rhodes and Vision were now searching for him as was the security staff of the Stark Industries and quite likely a bunch of police officers and military personnel. Tony had, after all, information, skills and knowledge that couldn't be allowed to fall into enemy hands and Ross – among various other people Tony had met on many occasions over the years but couldn't remember the names of – would not be sleeping peacefully until Tony Stark's location was known and the man himself was escorted safely back to his tower.

Eventually their small group came to a halt, which shook Tony out of his thoughts. No sooner had they stopped than Henson was already giving orders.

"FS, DT – you two light up the lanters," Henson's low voice sounded loud and eager in the darkness. "ML, set the prisoner down on the altar and make sure he stays on it. I'll go get Snuffles from the storage room, I'll be right back."

The African-American man carrying Tony – ML – let out a grunt of acknowledgement and soon Tony was being lowered onto a smooth stone surface, the altar. None too gently, ML ripped the tape off Tony's mouth and Tony, grimacing, pursed his lips, sticky from the tape, and opened and closed his mouth, trying to regain the normal feel to his lips.

"My disappearance must already be trending on Twitter," he said, slowly moving his jaw from side to side. "I'm insulted if it's not on TopTrends WORLDWIDE."

(He hoped his disappearance wouldn't affect the stocks of the Stark Industries. After the events in Siberia, Tony had concentrated his energy on his company, which had had a considerable positive effect on their already high stock prices. Tony had even made an effort to participate in the meetings, which had made Pepper so happy with him that she had actually told him she was proud of him.)

A sudden flash of a camera blinded him and Tony, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, tried to instinctively raise his hands to protect his eyes only to be met with the restraints of the duct tape. With bright spots dancing behind his closed lids, Tony hated how helpless he was, how passively he was forced to respond to everything that happened around him. Yet, he plastered a grin on his face and forced his burning eyes open to meet the photographer's critical gaze.

"Do you want my good side?" he asked the man, turning his face to the right to show off his profile, before turning his face to the left to show off the other side of his face. "Or my better side?"

The photographer didn't answer, just kept taking the photos, and Tony rolled his eyes with an exaggerated sigh.

The altar was hard beneath him, cold and unforgiving against his back. Tony fidgeted, trying in vain to loosen the duct tape holding his limbs together making him immobile. ML was standing on guard by his side and would have likely injured Tony had Tony actually managed to free himself, but that didn't mean Tony couldn't fidget a little, did it.

"Can you bring the lanterns a bit closer, Johnson?" asked the photographer and the bald man who had earlier been the first to climb down the well with Gregory did as he was asked, bringing three of the lanterns near the altar. "I want to take as many photos of him as I can before the purification, but that doesn't mean I will let the quality suffer."

The mentions of "purification" – whatever it was that the men meant by that – sounded ominous to Tony's ear, and he really, really did not want to find out what the purification was all about, of that he was certain.

When FS and DT – Gregory, as Tony still thought of the big man – had managed to lit up several more lanterns, Tony could take his first glance around. They were in a round enclosure about the size of his bedroom, but unlike in his bright comfortable bedroom with several large windows, the walls in this enclosure seemed to almost be edging all the while closer and closer to each other, as if they could hardly wait to crush Tony in between them. The were at least five tunnel openings that Tony could see in the light of the lanterns, leading into the enclosure, but apart from the granite altar on which Tony was lying, there didn't seem to be any artifacts.

"Cozy place you've got here," he said. "Very down-to-earth."

"Thanks," said Gregory without an ounce of humor. "It was a lot of work."

"What kind of ventilation system design did you go for?" Tony couldn't help but ask. "Side suction system? Is compressed air energy storage your thing?"

"You ask too many questions," said ML with audible suspicion. "What are you planning?"

"An escape," Tony admitted because, honestly, wasn't that obvious? "Isn't that obvious? I'm not planning on staying here for too long, you know. Don't get me wrong, Mole – can I call you Mole, it goes well with ML – I appreciate the effort you've made to make my stay comfortable, but earthly design was never really my thing. I'm more of a flashy kind of guy – made for the stars more so than living underground like mole people."

"The sooner you tell us where to find your friend, the sooner we will let you leave," said Mole. "It's your friend The Scorpion wants, not you."

"Meh," Tony did his best to shrug despite of the restraints, "perhaps I like it here after all."

Hell would freeze over before he would tell them a thing about Steve's location.

It was only a few minutes later when Henson came back from wherever it was that he had gone off to. He was carrying a small fluffy dog – a golden retriever puppy, Tony saw as the pair came closer. The puppy was sniffling Henson's nose and kept giving the man fond licks in the chin and Henson returned the affection by scratching the puppy behind the ear and speaking to it in a soft voice.

Henson stopped by Gregory, taking a hold of one of the puppy's front paws and waving with it at the stern-looking man.

"Say hi to papa, Snuffles," Tony heard Henson saying and watched as Gregory gave the puppy a few pats on the head.

"This is Snuffles," Henson said, stepping close enough for Tony to see the puppy clearly, while the rest of the men gathered silently around the altar to watch on. "My husband's dog gave birth to seven puppies and this is one of them. Isn't she adorable? Say hi to our prisoner, Snuffles."

Henson lowered the puppy onto Tony's chest and, after a moment of hesitation, the puppy took a cautious sniff at Tony's mouth. The smell of wet fur filled Tony's nostrils, but while it wasn't the most pleasant smell he could have thought of, he didn't pay it any mind. Instead, he was quickly overcome by trepidation and wanted to tell the puppy to run, run, run, get the hell away from here; for whatever reason Henson had brought the dog in the dark underground facility – a place unsuitable for such a lively animal – it couldn't have been for anything good.

The puppy gave Tony's bloody face a few friendly little licks and then kept on sniffing him, letting out pitiful yelps as if she was equally worried for Tony's condition as Tony was for her.

"Snuffles seems to like him," Gregory observed from where he was now standing at the foot of the altar with his bulgy arms crossed on his wide chest. "Snuffles has accepted him – looks like it's a suitable match."

"Good," said Henson, picking up the puppy and holding her carefully in his arms. Looking down at Tony, he explained, "Like children of all species, Snuffles is an innocent being. As she has accepted you, we can use her innocence to purify you of your sins – you must be thankful to her for her sacrifice."

And it hit Tony like a lightning.

It was sick. It was absolutely sick. These people were sick.

They were going to kill the puppy.

"You better not hurt that puppy," he told them. "You really don't need to do it, okay? Seriously, don't do it."

He tried to get up, but suddenly there were several pairs of strong hands holding him forcefully in place.

Tony felt like throwing up when he caught the glimmer of a knife in Gregory's hand. Henson handed the puppy over to Gregory, kissing the top of her head and muttering "good girl" in her ear. The other men made room for Gregory as he stepped to lean over Tony, holding the puppy by the scruff of her neck above Tony's belly.

"Oh, great Scorpion," Gregory then spoke. "Please take our sacrifice and purify this man of his plentiful sins."

"Hail to The Scorpion!" exclaimed Henson and the other men immediately echoed, "Hail to The Scorpion!"

"You people are sick!" Tony cried, looking in horror from the knife to the oblivious puppy.

"May Her venom never be diluted," said Gregory and then, then he raised the knife up to the puppy's throat – and sliced it open.

A loud, terrified yelp of pain echoed in the tunnels and warm blood gushed on Tony's belly, on his chest, on his face, as Gregory moved the struggling puppy slowly above Tony so Tony's body was showered in her blood. The pungent smell of iron was all around him, he was bathed in warm blood while the men around the altar hummed some kind of a mantra, holding him still. Tony closed his eyes and turned his face away when Gregory sliced Snuffles again, this time in her belly, but her cries were impossible to block out, they were as loud in Tony's ears as the sound of his pounding heart – yet, the sudden silence that followed the cries felt even louder.

Gregory put the puppy's lifeless body on Tony's legs and then he backed away from the altar, while the rest of the group kept on humming.

"Now that the innocent blood has been shed and an innocent life has been sacrificed," said Henson, "it is your turn, Mighty Scorpion, to come complete this man's purification!"

Despite of all the blood, Tony cracked an eye open. Some of the blood immediately went to his eye and it smarted, but he didn't close the eye, just blinked to clear his vision. His pulse fast, he scanned the room, not sure of what he was expecting to see. A woman in green? Some kind of a super villain?

In any case, what he saw was not what he had been expecting:

The shadows near one of the tunnel openings began to move and soon, yes, far too soon, Tony could see the form of a giant green scorpion that was watching them in silence from the shadows with its eight black eyes, each the size of a grown man's hand. Apart from its considerably larger size and black eyes, The Scorpion looked similar to the glass figurine Tony had found on his nightstand. Most notably, this scorpion, too, looked with its transparent form like it had been made of green glass.

For a creature bigger than the average delivery van, The Scorpion could move surprisingly fast with its eight legs. It scuttled across the room in an instant and almost as soon as Tony had first noticed it, it was looming over him, snapping its huge claws like two guillotines.

His mouth suddenly dry, Tony swallowed hard, staring first at the claws, then moving his gaze up to the tail with the stung, and god, that thing was massive, the tail alone easily the size of Thor. If a small glass scorpion had temporarily paralyzed him with its venom, what could a glass scorpion of this size do to him?

Tony wasn't sure if he even wanted to know.

As he watched on helplessly and with a growing sense of horror, The Scorpion climbed up onto the altar.

Later, Tony would have nightmares of the way The Scorpion now slurped the puppy's blood off him. He would remember what its mouth felt like on his tightly shut eyes, on his ear, on his throat. He would never forget how The Scorpion carefully ingested all of the puppy's blood and how it then – when there was no more blood to be had – ate the puppy, crunching the frail bones with little difficulty. In his nightmares, Tony would remember the sounds he heard when The Scorpion grasped the puppy with its claws and tore the flesh. He would remember all that and even more, but while it happened, it was all he could do to not throw up and all he could think of was how much he loved Rhodey who had made him take the tetanus shot.

Afterwards, when The Scorpion was done, it climbed off the altar and went back to the shadows, its pace slower now that its hunger had been satisfied.

The men stopped humming when The Scorpion's scuttling could no longer be heard.

"Praise to The Scorpion," said Henson. "The prisoner has been purified."

"Actually I'm now way dirtier than before," Tony forced himself to put in, despite of his nausea, despite of how repulsed and horrified he felt. "Let me take a bath – or just a quick shower – and I promise I'll be like a walking flower afterwards. Or a walking apple, if you prefer. Do you prefer apples? Some people do. I'm more of a vanilla guy, if I'm honest, but only when it comes to body wash, if you know what I mean."

"Praise to The Scorpion," the other men were saying instead of listening to Tony and Tony tried not to feel insulted. "May Her venom never be diluted."

"May Her venom never be diluted," said Henson with a nod. "Now, then, I believe it is the time to begin the questioning."

"Oh, by the way," Tony said as Gregory moved in to cut the duct tape off him with the bloody knife, "on behalf of Snuffles, fuck you."


They filmed the questioning. There was an old-fashioned video camera on a holder in front of Tony, recording every move he made, every flinch, every glare, every curse he spat at his captors.

They hit him when he didn't answer their questions about his "hiding friend".

First they were mere slaps in the face, but later Mole picked up a few broken pieces of cords from the corner of the room, where they had various other things lying around – thermal insulation tape, toilet paper, canisters – and Tony could only assume that either they were planning on using those unconventional things for torture, or the room was working as both an interrogation room and storage room – and handed them over to Gregory who then tied the cords together to use as a whip.

Gregory and Mole took turns in whipping and hitting Tony and Tony bit his lower lip bloody to not make a sound.

He told them nothing – nothing about Wakanda, nothing about Steve, nothing about his former friends – and eventually Gregory grew so impatient with him that he wrapped the cord whip tightly around Tony's throat and began to strangle him.

"If you insist on being silent," Gregory hissed in his ear, "why don't I silence you for good?"

In the end, Gregory didn't silence him for good, but he did leave the cord, tight, around Tony's throat when the men eventually dragged Tony - gasping and trying not to shed any tears of pain - out of the room into the pitch black tunnel.

This time they didn't drag him far, only some twenty yards, before they came to a stop in front of solid metal bars. Looking pass the bars, Tony saw a small room half full of potatoes.

"This is our potato cellar," said Henson in his jovial manner. "All potatoes are from our own fields and you are free to eat them. Unfortunately we don't yet have all that many areas ready for hosting guests, so this will have to do. My Dearest was kind enough to attach the bars when I requested it of him. My Dearest is so handy."

Henson opened the door and Gregory and Mole pushed Tony forcefully into his new cell. Tony stumbled, unable to steady himself in time, and fell onto the potatoes with a painful "oomph".

"One more potato among the potatoes," was Mole's idea of a joke. "I hope the ground won't be too lumpy for you, Stark."

"Why is he constantly speaking when I don't want him to," grumbled Gregory in his humorless manner, glaring at Tony from under his dark hair, "but the moment I ask him a question he snaps his mouth shut and refuses to utter a word?"

"I did utter many words," managed Tony in a voice hoarse from being strangled. "Swear words, granted, but still words, just the same."

"Shut up," said Gregory - this was apparently among the times he didn't want Tony to speak - slamming the cell door shut. Henson locked the door.

"I will leave this lantern here for you," Henson said and hung the smaller one of the two lanterns he was carrying on a nail on the wall opposite of Tony's cell. The lantern was too far for Tony to reach, but close enough to shed some light in the darkness. "It should keep The Scorpion away – Her Venomness can be a bit unpredictable when she meets lone people in the unlit tunnels, you see, and under normal circumstances I wouldn't mind, but we do need you to stay alive for a little while longer so we can please Her later."

"We will see you after lunch," Gregory said, and with a final glance at Tony, the captors left, their steps sounding gradually more and more distant in the silent tunnel, and Tony was left alone in his cell.

Now that Tony was alone, he allowed himself to let out a quiet sob, blinking the tears of pain and exhaustion from his eyes. With trembling fingers, he pried the cords off his neck and rubbed at his throat. He doubted there was any permanent damage done to him, but it had nevertheless been unpleasant to get strangled.

Sighing, Tony looked at the potato piles around him and hid the cords carefully under them. Potatoes were full of energy and now he had the cords – perhaps he could later use them to make a battery.

For what, that he didn't yet know.

But he did have ideas.


A/N: Tony, Tony, Tony... *shakes head slowly* This is only the beginning for you, you know.

Please let me know, if you would like to read more! :)