There was a flash, a scream and a cry for help but Rio didn't hear or see any of it. When she opened her eyes, there was a bright light and the sound of blurred voices filled her ears, pushing her towards the brink of madness.

"Is she alright? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just give us some space..you're alright, right Rio?"

"We need to call a doctor, to see if you.."

At that moment, Rio started to scream at the top of her lungs, trying to jump up to escape. Pepper and Tony had to hold her down.

"Jesus, Pep, hold her! Rio, calm down! You hear me? Calm down! We won't call a doctor, okay? Hey, look at me!"

By now Rio stopped screaming, she just sobbed, her eyes squeezed up and her hands balled up into fists.

"Tony, she is having an anxiety attack, a big one, someone needs to come and check on her."

Tony blinked rapidly, doing his best to hold his dear friend, patting her back to calm her down. He had no idea what to do. She was obviously not up for an examination by a doctor. No wonder, figuring the place he found her.

"Where is he, where is he…I love him.." Rio whimpered sadly and Tony sighed deeply. Pepper frowned, Tony's face betrayed that he felt guilty. He probably thought that he pulled Rio out of that time while she wanted to stay.

"Tony? Look at her."

Pepper told her significant other and he did. He saw the bruises on her arms, from being dragged away by the orderly earlier, he saw how skinny she had become, how dark the circles under her eyes were.

"Tony, whatever you pulled her out of, it was the right thing to do. We need to get her to bed."

"Yeah, yeah, lets do that. The guest room." Tony murmured and together, they were able to put the crying girl to bed.

"It was an asylum..some sort of..nuthouse.." Tony mumbled once he and Pepper returned to their living room. Pepper gave him a horrified look. "I was only there for a few moments, but…it was…horrible. They were dragging her off to get shock treatment."

"No wonder she is in this state.." Pepper said breathlessly.

It was one big blur to the girl, she could no longer determine where she was, or with who. Through the night, she screamed as she woke up from horrible nightmares, screamed even harder when she realized that she was no longer in the asylum and when Pepper and Tony finally decided it was enough and called a doctor, they thought Rio would never return to normal. As she shouted her head off, trying to fight the man that wanted to investigate her, Tony's look turned blank as he and Pepper held her down. This was all his fault, he had built a faulty take worm hole, one that would only sustain for 60 seconds. It took him too long to orientate himself, to determine what would have been the wisest and best choice for Rio.

The doctor gave her a mild sedative that would at least allow Rio to get some sleep. Pepper and Tony returned to their own bedroom and Pepper heard a sob come from Tony. She turned to him with a shocked look.

"Tony, what is the matter? You got her out, none of this is your fault!"

The man looked up, his eyes filled with tears and self-loathing. "This is my fault, Pepper. You see, I wasn't here when she was tinkering with the machine. I was on one of my crazy ideas, going to the horse races in the middle of the day, instead of doing what I should. Then I took too long determining where she was. Then I got distracted, with the whole New York invasion and dealing with the Mandarin…I should have…I.."

Pepper sighed. "You should have what?" She asked him as she sat with him. "You should have let New York and the other Avengers burn? You should not have stopped the Mandarin? Rio knew not to go near that machine without you there, she didn't listen. JARVIS did his best trying to find her, things got in the way. It's nobody's fault, it's an unfortunate turn of events. She is back now."

"Look at her! Look at her, Pepper! She is traumatized! Who knows what they did to her in there! And she fell in love, she was screaming about wanting to remember someone, About loving him. That didn't sound fake to me. Now she'll never see this guy again, all because I couldn't build her a better worm hole."

"Go to sleep, Tony. Just go to sleep." Pepper stated, sounding tired and irritated. An hour later, his girl was asleep, but the scientist was still wide awake himself. He had to make this right. He had to do something. He crawled out of bed without waking Pepper up and slipped inside of Rio's room. He sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand in his own as gentle as he could.

"Timothy…please…no…" Rio murmured in her sleep. "Father…please.." She went on and Tony couldn't help but to let out a bitter chuckle. "A priest, Rio? Really? Fine, I will get you your priest. I promise you that. Cross my heart." He whispered and kissed her forehead before leaving the room again. When she heard the door close, Rio sat up in bed. "What?" She asked, still drunk from her deep sleep, but there was no answer.

In the morning, Pepper was beside herself, storming into the bedroom of the red-haired girl. "Rio! Rio! Wake up, please! Did Tony come to you last night?"

Rio groaned, her head feeling like it had been hit with several hammers over and over. "Tony? No..I..maybe…why do you ask?" Pepper wiped away the tears from her face. "He's gone. I think..I think he went back to that place…where you were…" Rio was wide awake now and jumped out of bed, her stomach twisting into a giant knot.

"How could he do that, that stupid, stubborn…" She grumbled as she put on a robe and ran into the living room. "JARVIS?" The system responded immediately. "Yes, miss Taylor?" The way he spoke to her, made her blood run cold and she felt out of place. As if she wasn't really in the room. The world around her began to spin and she sank to her knees. "Miss Potts, your assistance, please." The system called out to Pepper who was already on the phone with the medical help.

Meanwhile, in Briarcliff, the asylum was shook up once again, by a stranger rolling out of the broom closet across from the Monsignor's office. He got up, taking a few deep breaths as he realized that he had succeeded. He was in the same place as the night before, although his physical condition was terrible by now. Time travel was something that weakened a person greatly, especially if they were unstable to begin with and Tony now was making his third trip in two days.

"Sir, sir? Are you alright, what are you doing here?" A nun came to ask the scientist and he frowned at her, still breathing heavily. "I am looking for…him…please..help me." The nun nodded. "I understand. Come with me." She said kindly and lead him to an empty room, pointing at the bed. "Lay down, relax. We will be right with you."

Tony nodded, shaking and sweating, not understanding yet that he willingly walked into the cruel ways of the asylum. Once the nun returned, there were two orderlies and a nurse with her, to restrain the man and sedate him. When Tony woke up, he was tied to a bed and in a nightgown. The orderlies that came earlier came in again and the nun followed close behind. "We are going to take you to the common room, where you can socialize with the other patients, alright? But only if you can keep your cool."

"Cool as ice." Tony told them in a hoarse voice, understanding his mistake now. He told them he was looking for 'him'. What else could they have thought of him than being a patient.

In the present time, Pepper and Rio were functional again. Pepper had been able to wake Rio up before the medical staff arrived and the girl had refused to see any of them, assuring the woman that she was in good health. Now they were trying to work with JARVIS to open the wormhole up once again, to get Tony back.

"Rio," The system addressed her, understanding he was never to call her 'miss Taylor' again, "You do need to realize your weakened state, it can be dangerous to go back to Briarcliff." Pepper cleared her throat. "JARVIS? We talked about this, I will go instead." Both Rio and JARVIS objected.

"It's highly unlikely that…"

"No, I know my way there, you don't.."

Pepper just held up her hands. "I'm going. You can't, JARVIS isn't able to and I love him. It's settled."

"So. You're the man in charge? The big kahuna?" Tony asked Timothy as he accepted the glass of scotch the man offered him. "I am, yes. And you are?" Tony grinned, throwing the drink back entirely before answering. "I'm the answer to all your problems. I noticed how that reporter was on your case back there. Asking about cover ups, patients being treated poorly. And I have to say, it doesn't look good for you, buddy."

"I don't normally allow anyone to.."

"I know, I know, but I bet you don't normally sleep with your patients either."

A horrified look came over the holy man as he stared at this stranger. He had a good mind of bricking up that broom closet for good, so he would be done with all this sass already.

"Oh yeah, I know. See, Rio… she is a very good friend of mine."

"You are Tony."

"Yeah, Tony Stark. Nice to meet ya. I am going to skip the pleasantries, father. Hope you don't mind. See, she is quite sweet on you. So I am taking you back there. Pack up, let's go."

The Monsignor laughed and shook his head, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. It couldn't be real. Even if it was…the future scared him. How would he adjust? What would he do for a living? What if Rio did not forgive him?

"Mister Stark, kindly leave my office and go back to…wherever you came from."

Tony blinked a few times. "Excuse me, what? I travelled 50 years, several times in the last few days and you send me on my merry way? That girl is pining for ya, man!"

"That girl does not pine! She seduces, she taunts, she takes what she wants and moves on!" The priest growled, slamming his desk and bringing his face close to that of Tony. "She will be far better off without me, trust me on that."

Tony tilted his head and looked at the man a few moments longer. "I see. I'll give her that message. Oh and eh…that reporter? She is going to tear this place apart. I've read a lot about this place while Rio was here. This is not going to end well, for anyone, I might add." He told the priest with a wink and stood up. Without turning back to the man behind the desk, Tony walked into the broom closet and used the machine he used the first time to get back to his own time, a miniature version of the time machine he built with Rio.

Captain America shook his head with a sigh once Pepper finished explaining. "So Tony went back in time, after rescuing Rio here from an asylum, to go and pull somebody out of there. And we are the rescue mission? Can't he find his own way back?"

Rio looked from one Avenger to the other, a scared look on her face. Pepper looked even worse, pale and shaking. "Yes, Steve, that's correct, now why are we wasting time?"

"This is not what the Avengers are for, we are not some gang of time travelling vigilantes that can meddle with time." Steve answered to that question, frowning as he tried to wrap his head around the entire idea.

"Capsicle against time travel? I never thought I'd see the day." They heard Tony's voice from the doorway and Pepper let out a cry of despair and relief before running over to him, hugging him tight. Tony let out an 'oomph' but did his best to hug her back. He was sweating and shaking, dark circles underneath his eyes, but other than that he was well.

"Oh Tony…oh my god…" Rio murmured and went to join the hug. Tony rolled his eyes and gave Steve a fake exasperated look. "Can you believe this? They're all girlpower and women on top, but just wait till the man is no longer home." Rio pulled back with a pout and punched his shoulder.

"Couch, please…now.." Tony murmured as he grabbed his head, an upcoming migraine making it hard to stand. Pepper and Rio brought him to the couch and made him lie down, as Steve went to get him a cold compress. He came back and gave it to Pepper, who dabbed his forehead with it.

"Did you find him?" She asked him with hope in her voice. Tony's face said it all.

"I did. He…he didn't want to come. I'm so sorry, Rio."

Rio got up and ran from the room, locking herself in the guest room where she could process this in peace.

"Tony, please explain this to me?"

"Sure, Capsicle." Tony grunted as he did his best to sit up a bit. "See, Rio there, she works for me. We built a time machine and she worked on it while I wasn't here. Something was triggered and she was teleported back in time, into an asylum. Briarcliff. Maybe you heard of it." Steve Rogers shook his head, too baffled to object or speak at all for that matter. Tony went on. "That asylum was run by the church, so instead of people getting treatment, they got punished. Bad meds, bad treatment, traumatizing them in general. Now Rio didn't exactly fit in, so I assume she gave them all some trouble, earned herself a punishment here or there. I think she fell in love with this priest. I went back there to try and get him to come back with me. He said no. Even told him that the place would go to shit, it didn't help."

After giving Tony the 'language'-look, Steve shook his head. "Tony, the both of you messed with the timelines, this could mean trouble. I think. I am not sure how it works but…" Tony snorted. "Don't worry, Rogers. I got it. I just needed to make it right."

Pepper went through Tony's hair.

"Tony, that was so kind…but Rio is going to have to learn to live without him. In time, she'll get over it."