The Avengers were already in the air when Pepper called. Still slightly confused, foggy and weak but hell-bent on giving them as much information as possible.

They were in a meeting. Nothing out of the ordinary. Without any prior warning, there was an explosion. It was loud, with a blinding light and then seemingly they all passed out. Everything went so fast. They woke up a lot later, Tony was gone as the only one. All the other influential and rich figures were untouched as well as the secretary and other staff. The conference table was damaged but apart from that, there was no evidence or clue what happened and where Mr. Stark went. Pepper nearly got arrested when she hindered the police from investigating, insisting on waiting for the Avengers.

When they entered the conference room the first thing they saw were tipped over chairs, scattered sheets of scripts and statistics. Pepper was pale but stood as upright as ever. Talking to Happy who looked like he had lost the most important one ever. For Loki that was exactly what had happened. Then he caught sight of something that looked like blood on the ground. Not much but enough to worry. Loki pushed away a chair to take a closer look. The force he used crashed the furniture against a wall where it shattered with a loud noise.

"Would you stop tearing the place apart before we could secure evidence?" Black Widow was all calm business.

"Then you better find something useful." He sharply answered, turned around and left the room. There was nothing he could do there apart from hoping for the best and that he could do everywhere.

Thor thought that he would tear apart more than just a chair or a room if somebody would abduct Jane. So he turned to follow him but Bruce shook his head and Thor stayed.


xx


At some point, Tony must have fallen asleep. He woke up and felt at least better than before. Whatever poison that was it just had a temporary effect. Getting up was a small struggle nevertheless. Tony looked around his small cell. He was free to move around but that was the only positive aspect. It was bright in here, fluorescent lights high above him. He had no idea what time of day it was or which day. How long had he been unconscious?

There was the cot he woke up on and the only other fixture in the cell was a stainless steel toilet without a lid. No sink. The cot was cemented to the floor. Without power tools, it wouldn't move no matter how much time or effort he would put into a try. Wonderful. They really seemed intent on not giving him a chance to escape. There was just nothing. The walls were too high to reach the light fixture, the door was massive and seemingly unmovable. This room was solely designed to hold someone captive. The engineer leaned his back against the wall opposite to the cot and waited. He wanted to see as much as possible of the hallway or whatever was in front of the door. He needed more information and then he required a goddamn plan to get out.

When the door opened he saw three guards, one on each side of the door and one opposite to it. Armed and in black uniforms. He heard someone scream and the terrified voice made him take a deep breath. There were more doors but it was impossible to guess if they were in front of other cells or rooms for other purposes. They all looked alike. He couldn't see the end of the hallway and the door to his cell was closed fast. A smile crossed his face. He wouldn't give them the joy of showing his anger and dread even if his sole option at the moment was to wait for whatever came next.

It was the same man again that had given him the bottle of water. "You're up. Fine."

"The mattress is a catastrophe. You completely forgot my blanket and pillows. I'm afraid I'll have to leave negative feedback concerning my stay here."

"I think I'll enjoy it immensely to make you scream."

"No doubt. You look like an asshole that would relish that."

"We will keep you here until you are useful to us. You're powerless in our hands. We will make you wish to die but we'll also take care that you stay alive as long as we wish so."

"Don't you have a superior, someone who has something to say? Somebody not as irrelevant as you, cupcake. I want to talk to that person."

"It's completely irrelevant what you want." He took another step in Tony's direction, already raising his right hand. Tony had no way out of this mess and no way forward but he wasn't going to be easy prey. He attacked. Launched himself at the man, grabbed his throat and pushed him on the ground hard and fast. The same moment his fist connected with the man's face the door flew open and something hit his chest. His body went stiff and fell backward. Unable to control his movements his muscles convulsed. There was the pain of an electric charge searing through him for what felt like a lifetime. Until he saw someone kneel down beside him with a mean grin on his face and the pain subsided. The guy ripped out the barbs of the Taser. Tony would have enjoyed it to just stay on the ground but surrounded by HYDRA that might be a bad idea. He struggled to his feet, ignoring the residual pain. "I see," he croaked out, „You brought some friends."

He was crashed against the wall when one of them hit him. A blow against his stomach left him gasping for air and bent over. One of them whispered in his ear. "Big mistake." Another punch sent him to the ground and they left him alone. The door closed like before but with a coughing prisoner on the ground. It took him some time to get up and sit down on the cot again. So they must have a camera in here. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to storm into the cell so fast.


A short while later two men entered the cell. Grinning. "Ever heard of waterboarding?"

"No, I live under a rock." Tony's face and body were completely still but inside of his mind, a steady voice was repeating "No." over and over again. Then he just gave in to the fear and turned it into rage.

They underestimated him. People tend to do that. These two didn't expect him to go berserk. They tried to stop him but despite their training, he managed to throw them off him. First, he leaped at the one at the right with an agility that surprised him himself. He was tired but panic was obviously better than coffee. He shook the guy and slammed his head to the ground. After jumping up again he clenched his fists and managed to knock the second one down. Two or three others came rushing into the room. It didn't stop him from fighting tooth and nail.

Tony was struggling to keep control of the memories surfacing and gripping at him. But it hit him with too much force. A too vivid memory of water dripping from his face, soaking his clothes. Voices that were screaming at him but he couldn't understand a word. And then he couldn't move. Arms that held him down mercilessly. He wasn't sure whether they did it then or now. Or both. The pain in his chest worsened. He heard himself screaming but had no idea what. His body went limp when whatever was in the syringe that someone had injected him with kicked in and everything went dark once more.

He was laying on the floor of his cell when he regained consciousness. Nobody else was was there. He tried to haul himself up on his elbows. Then he was screaming in rage. He sat up, making it to the wall to lean himself against it. He stared ahead, frozen in the thoughts of when and how this would end. He could just play out time and that was frustrating as hell. And terrifying. Immediately he pushed aside the thought that sprang into his mind unbidden.

It wasn't clear to him how long they had left him there. The bright light and the silence in an empty room was unnerving. The silence was only disturbed when someone opened the door to push a tray with food and water into the cell. At the very least, they didn't poison his water this time. When the door opened, he could hear screams echoing. Knowing that sooner or later they would come for him was starting to wear him out.


xx


Finding out that HYDRA was behind Tony's kidnapping didn't take much time. To ascertain where they kept him was a lot harder. The first base they searched was abandoned. For some time it seems. It made the Hulk so furious that he leveled a considerable part of the small building to the ground.

They were attacked a few hours later when they came for another hideout. The fight was hard and took its toll on them all. Natasha left with a bandaged arm and Steve was silently waiting for the serum to heal his bruises while gritting his teeth in pain. Bruce was sleeping curled up on the ground. Hawkeye was hit by a grace shot, even Thor and Loki looked worn out. They didn't find Tony. There were cells but no trace that he ever was there. The HYDRA agents that weren't killed in the process couldn't provide information because they killed themselves instead of surrendering. The mood was gloomy when they silently get out of the Quintjet. Loki was the first and when he walked around another corner he was grabbed by a small but strong hand. Natasha held his arm.

His words were sharp and forceful. "Let go of me."

"You're wounded."

"I'm not in need of your assistance."

The redhead studied him silently for several seconds. She became calmer as realization dawned. "You did that on purpose."

"I don`t understand." Loki hissed, unwillingly holding still instead of pushing her away.

"You didn't tell anyone about your wounds not just because you didn't want to look weak but also as a twisted sort of punishment. Because you think that you failed."

I did. "That doesn't sound like me."

"Sounds exactly like you. You're self-destructive like Stark. Always judging yourself to an unrealistic standard of perfection. It's not your fault. We'll find him. Whatever it needs, we will find him." Natasha glared at him, not wasting energy on pretending that she wasn't angry. "Never do that again. It`s dangerous. For all of us. For you and for your lover and all Avengers that are with you. You'll make mistakes, we all do. Beating yourself up will not help anybody."

"You have no…" She didn't let him end his sentence.

"What? No idea how that feels? No right to talk to you like that? No reason to care for you? You're a pest but that doesn't necessarily mean I want you to do that to you. Now shut up and let me take care of that."

"I can heal that myself."

"Then do it."

"I'm not a liability you have to take care of." His mouth and cheeks tensed up and his eyes had narrowed. Natasha wasn't really sure if she should brace for an attack. "I welcome whatever helps me to go through this and get him back. This might not be good for me but things rarely are. He is. If I have to tear apart this whole world piece by piece to have him back by my side, then I'll do it with pleasure. If I get hurt in the process, I'll heal. You're not due to question me. I'll be ready to fight whenever it will become necessary. If I'm not able to do that then you may lecture me. This conversation is over."

She let go of his arm and gave a short nod before she left.


xx


It was cold. Not freezing but very uncomfortable. His hands and feet declined to get warm again. The thin clothes didn't offer protection and without a blanket, there was no way to get warm again. When another man opened the door and entered his cell he forced himself to smile. "When will you bring the TV?" The surprise in the guy's face was a small victory. "You know like in Netflix and chill? As you already started with the chilling part we can now choose a movie. No romantic comedies."

"I agree, it's cold in here. You might enjoy this." He held out the coffee cup he had brought with him. "Coffee. Not the best but drinkable enough."

Tony didn't take the cup hold in his direction. "So you're playing the good cop? Who will come next? Because I'm really looking forward to the hot spy trying to seduce me into cooperation." The new man was soft-spoken, just a little shorter than the first, with a lean build. His short hair was dark and big brown eyes looked around curiously behind black rimmed glasses. Wearing a lab coat he was good looking but unremarkable.

"You can make this a lot easier for all of us, Mr. Stark."

"You can, too. Just open the door and let me go."

"We have ways of convincing you one way or another. I just would prefer it if you didn't get damaged in the process."

"That's just so considerate."

"I think you should try to understand your situation. You have no way out and it doesn't look like the Avengers are trying to find you. That's not so surprising anyhow. I read the paper Romanov wrote about you and I wasn't able to find documentation that would reflect that S.H.I.E.L.D. changed its mind and made you more than an accountant. They just accepted you being an Avenger grudgingly after you saved the world because they didn't have another choice." He clapped his hands in a nearly amused fashion. "You'll stay with us. We even might appreciate your genius more than they did."

"By turning me into an ice cube?"

"I could offer you a warm blanket and hot food, as long as you cooperate."

"I'd prefer not to."