"We'll get him back," Pepper promised.

This seemed to snap him from his shocked state. "No. We won't. Pepper, I don't want you anywhere near this. Please? Promise me you won't go anywhere near this." He was shaking as he stumbled to his feet, moving towards where a phone usually sat on his dresser.

"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm and steady.

"I'm going to call Happy. He'll go with you to-"

"I'm not leaving you to do this on your own... Or with her." She was standing by him now and he was shaking. She reached a hand up to his face, trying to calm him, but he caught it, holding it tight.

"You want to know the worst dream? The one that scares me the most?" He paused, as if waiting for an answer. "It's the one where you're there. The one where you die. Pep, I'm going to rescue Steve, but I can't focus on that if I'm worried about them going after you."

"Tony..."

"I'm not letting anyone else close to me go," he swore. "Not you. Not Steve. Neither of you are going anywhere."

She smiled through the tears and kissed him. "No. And you'll get him back."


Steve opened his eyes and wished that he had resisted temptation. It wasn't a particularly frightening room, but it was cool and dim, and he was being watched by a man whose expression was just as cold. Unfortunately he looked perfectly intelligent, and Steve might go so far as to say cruel. One part of the wall behind the man was a built in aquarium with a beautiful variety of fish of various size and color. Steve pulled against the restraints keeping him bound to the chair he was seated on, and masked his surprise at being unable to even budge them.

"Don't worry, the effects are temporary. They've already worn off once. You're quite a difficult man to restrain." The man said, taking a seat on a white couch.

"I'd apologize but it's kind of a survival thing." Steve said.

"No need. Your physiology is quite fascinating. It's a shame I don't have time to study it more thoroughly. However, I have some questions, and I don't want to wait for you to wake up again so you'll either help me now or I'll kill you. What's your name?" he asked.

Steve set his jaw and said nothing.

The man sighed, almost as if boredom edged his irritation. "This really is just standard procedure," he grumbled. "They wouldn't have taken you unless they were sure. Blond, blue eyes, but your a bit bulkier than our records indicate." He frowned. "Let's try this a different way: Is your name Travis Winters?"

Steve blinked at this. "What?"

"Travis Winters." It made more sense now. That was the name that Eleana Lewis had given to the man that was now Tony's AI. But hadn't this group had a hold of him before, and shouldn't they know that Steve was not, in fact, that man? He couldn't help but frown, confused. He could handle being taken for him. That was not a far-fetched scenario, but this was beyond what he had expected. Even so, if they thought that they had the man they were looking for, it would keep Tony and the rest of them out of harm's way.

"Yes." Steve answered. "My name is Travis Winters."

"Where were you born, Mr. Winters?"

"Don't you already know?"

"Humor me."

"I can't see how where I was born has any bearing on what you really want. So why don't you tell me what it is you really want, Mr..."

"Carson. You can call me Carson, not that you'll be calling me anything for long. What's your middle name, Mr. Winters?"

"What do you want?" Steve asked again, carefully pulling at his wrist ties. He could feel his strength coming back ever so slowly.

Carson regarded him with gray eyes that conveyed absolutely no compassion. "Tony Stark has been of some interest to us for some time. His money, his weapons, a name that opens doors and shakes important hands. For all his I-don't-give-a-damn bravado he is very careful about whom he sells to and unfortunately my organization isn't as wealthy as we like to think we are. If we couldn't buy him, we'd take it from him. That's what Travis Winters was sent to do. He was quite the chameleon, from what I understand. It's a shame I never met him. Company meetings are hard to arrange when so many people are wanted in so many places." Carson pulled out his cell phone from his pocket. "Ah. There's the picture." He held it up for Steve, who was surprised to see a picture of himself and Tony at a race they'd gone to months before. "Tony Stark and unnamed companion. You turn up in many of these tabloid media outlets, unnamed companion. Long before Winters was assigned to Stark." Carson stood, pocketing the phone. He withdrew a blade and approached Steve swiftly. Steve tried to jerk away and only managed to tilt the chair back as Carson drove the blade into his side. Steve gasped and struggled. Carson smiled. "What are you fighting for, unnamed man?"

Steve grit his teeth. "For Tony."

Carson smiled again and motioned to someone in the shadows. "Prep the tank."


It took some time and preparation once Tony got his feet under him to tweak the Iron Man suit to run without his usual AI backing him up the entire way. Jarvis watched nervously from his bed, fingers intertwined in the gloves and steadily clicking against the computer in his lap. He never had to look at it.

"I will not be able to aid you in the usual ways," Jarvis said as his creator continued to load data into the suit.

"It's fine. As long as I can see and move that should be enough."

"Not to mention air traffic, targeting, and anything else you take for granted," Elaena grumbled as she looked to be cleaning her gun. She wasn't happy that she was being left as what she considered to be Pepper's personal babysitter, with strict demands that they not pull their earlier stunt a second time.

"It will be slower, but we should be able to make it function," Jarvis noted, eyes flickering over to her.

"Do we have a trace?" Tony asked.

"I have done multiple searches," the AI answered tiredly. "According the compilation of data, this seems the most likely venue they would take as a hide-away with Captain Rogers."

Tony glanced at Eleana, her grim look telling him that if Captain Rogers was indeed not at this location, they wouldn't need to hurry finding the correct one. "Is there anything else you can tell me about Tower that I might need to know?" Tony asked.

"Shoot first, ask questions later. Scratch that. Shoot, don't ask. They won't tell you anyway." Eleana said.

Tony watched her for a moment, their brief interlude flashing through his mind. "Were you working for Tower when you and I..."

Eleana glanced up at him, surprised. "No."

Tony believed her. "If you needed the money-"

"Don't, Tony. Just don't. It wasn't about the money and we don't have time to get into that. I hated it, every second. And as much as I hate being under Fury's thumb now, it's the lesser of two evils in my mind." Tony nodded and pulled her aside. "If it gets to overwhelming for Jarvis to be tapped into this..."

"I'll take care of him." Eleana promised.

Pepper stepped into the room. "Everything ready?"

"Yep. Steve and I'll be back for dinner," Tony said with a trademark grin.

Pepper didn't return the smile, but crossed the space between them. She stood on her toes and kissed him, short, but with everything she felt. "Come home to me," she whispered.

The billion-dollar smile faltered until it was just his. Small, only a quirking of the lips, and a little sad. "Of course." With that he put the helmet on and turned towards Jarvis. "Everything seems online here. How's it working for you?"

"Well enough," Jarvis answered, eyes slightly glazed over. Tony wondered briefly if the AI were trying to focus on what the suite was producing and not his physical surroundings. It was a whole new world for Jarvis.

"Keep the skies clear." Then he was gone. Pepper and Eleana watched him leave through what was supposed be the driveway, off to save an unlikely friend.

Pepper frowned and clung tightly to the desk in front of her. Tony didn't talk about Yinsen, but she knew that the man's death had changed him. She dreaded to think of the effect Steve's death might take.


"Think about it this way, the temperature your experiencing will help stop the bleeding." Carson offered as consolation to Steve, who was now standing in a tank directly across the room from the one that held all sorts of fascinating aquarium life. The freezing water was up to his knees and he had one hand on the glass, the other pressed against the wound in his side. He worked to control his breathing and the wave of panic that threatened to overtake him, keeping his eyes on his enemy. He had tried hitting the glass, to no avail. "Tell me one thing I can use against Tony Stark and I'll at least put you out of your misery with one bullet. It'll be better than drowning." Carson said.

"That's never going to happen." Steve said through gritted teeth.

"Why? Because he's your friend?"

Steve allowed a small smile to tug at one corner of his mouth. "Yeah. I've just got one, now." The water kept rising.

"No point in asking you to join us, then, if you're willing to die for something so meaningless as Tony Stark's friendship." Carson said, turning away.

Steve drove his fist into the glass again, gaining him the man's attention one last time. "Don't ever say. Unlikely? Yes. Difficult? Sometimes. But never meaningless."

"Then where is your friend now?" Carson asked as he turned his back on him one last time and left Steve alone. The water was rising, chilling him. He thought maybe it should be colder, but the blood loss had already begun to numb him. He felt himself leaning against the glass, the hand at his side going limp as the water began to ease it away from its place. His friend was likely in his mansion and would never make it in time. He wasn't supposed to be rescued. He was Captain America. He... Steve felt his thoughts wandering, the water rising and he began to float upward, his natural instinct to survive kicking in and he tried to keep his head afloat. It hurt. Whatever Carson had done to him had slowed his usual healing abilities and he felt sluggish and numb. So numb that he barely realized that he was slipping below the water's surface.

Carson motioned carelessly behind him and his man pulled a curtain over the tank, obscuring Steve's body and the blood-tinged water from view. As Carson shut the door to the room behind him, a young man ran into the room, out of breath. "What's the matter with you?" he asked.

"Sir, we're being attacked." he said.

Carson frowned. "Get the documents out of the back room and meet me at the car. Is it SHIELD?"

"I don't know, Sir. It's Iron Man."

Carson tilted his head. "Curious. Go." The young man disappeared down the hall.


Tony ripped through the mansion, scattering black uniformed employees as he went. Steve had to be here somewhere, and he'd take the whole house down brick by brick if he had to do so. He kicked in a set of French doors and found a man in a three-piece blue suit with gray eyes that didn't seem alarmed at his presence.

"That's a nice suit. In my experience, the nicer the suit, the higher up the food chain. You in charge here?" Tony asked, firing up an ion beam in his hand.

The man nodded. "I am."

"Good. You have something that belongs to me."

"And you have several things that I am interested in, so perhaps we can strike a deal."

"I don't make deals with the bad guys. Sorry. You have five seconds to tell me where the man you took from Tony Stark's home is."

"Or what? You blast me to oblivion?"

"I can find him. I don't need you. You just make it a bit easier."

Carson sighed and tapped his earpiece briefly, as if listening to someone on the other end. "Down the corridor to the left, take a right, and then another left. You won't make it in time."

For one split second Tony considered wiping the smirk off his face permanently and decided it wasn't worth the precious second it would take. Tony followed the brief directions, sensors on the suit not indicating any additional body heat signals, which was good because it meant Suit didn't have any henchmen lurking around. It also wasn't good, for reasons on which Tony didn't care to dwell. He found the room and opened the door, his temperature gauge reading a significantly lower number. He shut the door and soldered it shut so it would take anyone following him in some time to do it. Tony quickly scanned the room. The fish in the floor to ceiling aquarium darted away from him as he walked past. A white couch and white rug sat in the middle of the room. A single folding chair sat facing the couch, rope discarded on the floor. Tony walked over and felt his chest tighten. There were multiple broken zip ties, and a bloodstain that appeared to be relatively fresh. "Steve?" he whispered. He scanned the room again, still finding no heat signals. A soft light emanated from what looked like a crack in the wall. Tony slowly went to it, pulling up the mask on the suit as he went and reached out to touch it. Puzzled, he realized it was a curtain covering glass and not a wall. He hooked his fingers around the fabric and pulled it back. Tony's breath caught in his throat, his hand instinctively going to the cool glass.

Steve floated, blond hair drifting up creating almost a haloed look in the blue tinged aquarium light. Red flecked the water in eerie patterns around his body, his blue eyes distant and unseeing. Tony's other hand came to rest against the glass, his throat tightening and eyes burning. It was almost like he was in a trance, unable to demand anything from himself other than to stare. He had not been involved in Captain America's finding or rescue from the icecap, but he had done his research. This seemed much worse. All at once he stepped back, hands still out, and the ion beam shattered the glass. The water spilled out everywhere, and Tony, with the help of the Iron Man suit, was able to stand against it to catch his larger friend so that he could ease him to the ground. He felt his breath coming in fear-induced gasps and struggled to focus on the here and now. "Jarvis, I need full readings," he whispered, cradling the elder man. Steve's eyes had slipped shut when he had been released from his icy prison, and he lay limply in the dark haired man's arms.

Jarvis' voice emanated from the helmet, somewhat staticky and difficult to fully make out. "Life signs... holding. Temperature at... below average."

Tony looked around, moving away from him only enough to grab and yank hard against the curtain, finding it dry past the first couple of feet that had been soaked when he destroyed the holding cell. He wrapped the curtain around Steve's shoulders and pulled him close again, one hand against his chest over his heart. Jarvis' distant voice sounded in his ear again. "Heart rate slowing, Sir."

"No, no, no, you don't get to do this. You don't get to be the hero and then check out. You already did your time as a capsicle, yeah? Steve? You listening to me, Captain Boy Scout?" Tony built energy levels into the hands of his suit, trying to warm his unresponsive friend. Steve's head lulled against his shoulder and Tony took one hand to gently press against the wound in his side. "What the hell did you do to annoy him into stabbing you, huh? You want to tell me that? For someone who's so damn charming and sincere and honest you sure do piss people off. Maybe you just piss people like him off. People like me. People who need to be kept honest. You keep me honest." Tony knew he had to blame it on the fear that he couldn't seem to shut himself up.

"Oxygen levels decreasing, sir." Jarvis called quietly.

He didn't know what to do. Big man in suit of armor. Take that away, what are you? Nothing. He was had his suit. He had everything, but he was about to lose the one thing he couldn't hold on to. He was in Afghanistan all over again, standing over Yinsen's stilling form. Sure, he'd come out alive. He always came out alive, but how long would that matter when everyone he came to care about kept dropping around him?

Tony carefully pushed several strands of the wet hair away from Steve's forehead. The man out of time at first had been nothing but a thorn in his side, a living reminder of a person and a past he could never be a part of. Then they were teammates of necessity, and when they weren't trying to kill each other worked together like a well-oiled machine.

Tony stood slowly, shifting Steve in his arms to cradle him more tightly. Now they were friends, and if Steve was still fighting anywhere in there, Tony was going to reach him. "I'm going to save you." Tony said firmly. He looked down and his breath caught when he saw Steve's eyes were open, and the man was looking at him, drowsily, but looking at him.

"You made it," Steve croaked, his voice barely audible. He was still shivering, but the bluish hue that had previously colored his lips seemed to be fading just a little.

"'Course I made it. Couldn't let you have all the fun, huh?" Tony managed, his own voice shaking with the overload of emotions.

The blond smiled tiredly, looked as if he might say something, but then didn't as he let his head lull back to Tony's shoulder. There was no visible exit from where they stood, save the door he had made sure to close well behind them. Not that a lack of exit had ever stopped him before, and Tony shifted so that he could raise one hand and open a hole up in the wall. Steve had gone very quiet in his arms. He tried to remind himself that the fact that he was still shivering was a good sign.

"I'm going to get you home, okay? You have to stay awake, though. Steve?" Steve nodded almost imperceptibly, pulling one hand from the makeshift blanket and placing it against the suit as if to steady himself. "Okay. Hang on." Tony launched, knowing he would have to make the trip as quick as possible. The wind probably wouldn't help Steve get any warmer, and he didn't know how serious the wound in his side was or if it would need stitches.

From the ground, Carson watched Iron Man until he was a pinpoint in the distance. He dialed a number and placed the phone against his shoulder as he got back into the car. "Yes. Send a team back to the Stark mansion. It wasn't Winters. We have reason to believe that Winters will still be there. Can you get there in ten minutes? No? Fine. Wait two hours. Take twice as many as before. I want Winters, and I want everyone else in that house dead."


TBC