Chapter 6

(Transcript from Lp37451 on AO3)

The camera is zooming in on an unconscious Tony Stark. Moments later, there's a distant scream and his eyes snap open. He shivers, letting out a shuddering breath that's visible in the cool air. Coughing, he brings his hand up to his nose, pulling out a breathing tube that seems to be infinite in length.

The sound of it being pulled out can be heard, and he tries his best to suppress a gag, before finally ripping it off his nose, along with the tape that once held it in place.

"Ugh, that feels disgusting..." Bruce shuddered.

Steve, Nat, Clint, Sam and Tony in creepy unison replied, "It is disgusting."

The room was completely silent for a moment as everyone exchanged awkward glances, unanimously they decided to pretend nothing had happened and creepily in sync turned back to the TV, leaving the rest of them extremely weirded out.

Rhodey said, "So are we just going to ignore it or….?"

Tony again punched him with an obvious eye roll, Rhodey answered his own question, "Yeah, got it, pretend it never happened, back to the movie."

When he turns his head, his breath is perceptible, revealing just how cold it is. His eyes are set on a glass of water, and he reaches for it, only to succeed in knocking it to the ground.

He has a short coughing fit, clenching his shivering hands and glancing at a man shaving his face in front of a cracked, rusty mirror, humming to himself.

"Yinsen…" Tony mutters softly, only Rhodey catches the guilt in his tone. He pats the man's knee, if Rhodey could right now he would definitely wrap Tony in a blanket and cuddle him till he fell asleep. He was so different to the shy, scrawny kid he had met back at MIT and it hurt to see just how much the world had beaten him down. Whatever people might say, Tony never deserved this, no one deserves this.

Tony ignores him for now and turns back to his task. He rolls over a bit to further his reach for the second bottle of water but stops short when there's a painful tug on his chest.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man who's shaving in the mirror says. Without answering, Tony slowly turns to look back over his shoulder, revealing a car battery with wires connected to it. He grips the cables in his trembling hand and traces their path all the way to his torso. He releases a painful grunt when it tugs beneath the bandages, tapping on it a bit before he starts to rip off the white gauze.

"What the hell..." Sam mutters horrified and afraid to see what lay beneath the bandages. He nearly threw up when he saw what was sitting on Tony's chest.

His breathing is getting heavier and heavier as he continues to tear away the bandage to reveal what the wires are connected to. Sitting in his chest is a rusty electromagnet, cables attached to the battery beside him, dry blood and scar tissue visible on the surrounding skin. His eyes go wide with fear as he struggles to keep his breathing steady.

Bruce jumps up in outrage, "God, the rust on that thing…Tony that isn't the arc reactor, is it?" Bruce felt dumb asking the question but the words tumbled out.

Tony nodded quietly and said, "That's a car battery, hooked to an electromagnet inside my heart, it kept the shrapnel from entering my heart."

Natasha, and as a matter of fact the all of the others, looked horrified, Wanda was looking green. Bucky caught the billionaire's eye and gave him an understanding smile.

Tony was confused for a moment and Bucky gestured to his arm, Tony's eyes widened in understanding and he made a mouthed, "We'll talk later, I have something for you."

Bucky felt his eyes warm as the genius threw him a reassuring smile and hesitantly smiled back, glad to know that Tony, didn't blame him and was willing to talk to him. Steve who had been watching this interaction with narrowed eyes asked Bucky quietly, "He wasn't threatening you, was he?"

Bucky felt his temper flare but took a deep breath to calm himself and said to Steve, "I saw you watching and know you saw Steve, Stark is good. I honestly don't know why you treat him so."

Steve looked at him a little hurt and confused and asked, "Like what Buck?"

Bucky nearly banged his head on the wall but he contended for now by screaming inside his head, "God Steve. I don't think I have the patience or the strength to explain it to you. I think these movies will show where you were wrong about Stark."

The man from before is whistling and stirring food in a pan over a small fire, the camera slowly panning up to reveal Tony sitting on a cot, a broken mirror held in front of his chest. He's looking at it almost with disgust.
"What the hell did you do to me?"

There is a better view of the man now. He has glasses and a bit of grey stubble, and though he's mostly bald, there's still a thin bit of hair around the back of his head. He glances at the billionaire then back to his cooking before responding.

"What I did? What I did is to save your life."

The view changes to looking into the mirror and at the device embedded in the brunette's chest as he continues talking, "I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it's headed into your atrial septum."

"Heart." Bruce clarifies before anyone asks.

Wanda is still looking pale and she directs a glance at Tony whose gaze is fixed on the older man on the screen. She feels even more sympathy for him now, but doesn't say anything.

"Here, want to see?" The man holds up a glass bottle, jingling its contents, "I have a souvenir. Take a look." He tosses the bottle to Tony, who catches it and raises it to his face for a better look. He holds it up to the limited bit of light, the pieces of sharp metal rolling in the glass. "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."

"A week?" Steve whispered horrified. "How did you survive there for three months?"

Tony just grimly said, "Watch."

The billionaire speaks up, obviously not in the mood for small talk, "What is this?"

That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart. Hm?" He gives the distraught genius a weak, fake smile, before turning back to his cooking.

Tony self-consciously zips up his jacket, eyeing the security camera in the far corner. Upon catching his gaze, the man tries an attempt at humour.

"That's right; smile. We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern."

"I don't remember."

"No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."

Bruce looks at him incredulously, "You gave a lecture on integrated circuits while drunk?"

Tony grumbled, whilst Rhodey outright laughed though it was a little tight, "Man you should've seen him at MIT. This scrawny runt-"

Tony interjects, "I was not scrawny, stop spreading lies Honeybear,"

Rhodey continued as though Tony hadn't interrupted, "So this scrawny teen, drunk beyond belief stumbled into the dorm at 2 am. Proceeded to design an entire fucking AI code, screamed in my ear something about a Roomba and fell asleep. The next day he couldn't even remember designing it."

Although the others laughed, Steve frowned and said, "You were drinking when you were underage."

The laughter died down instantly Bucky face palming and sharing an exasperated look with Sam. Natasha sighed quietly, they were meant to form trust again, Steve wasn't exactly making it easy for Tony.

Tony laughed bitterly and replied, "I know, and you can thank daddy dearest for that. Thrust a glass of whiskey in my hand when I was 12 telling me to grow up and be a man and if I refused there were…consequences."

Tony turned away after saying his piece and a tense silence enveloped the room. Steve said nothing looking down ashamed, even Clint realized the mistake.

When Sam looked at Steve and asked exasperatedly, "Steve aren't you forgetting something?"

Tony barked, "Drop it Wilson, I don't expect him to."

Steve simply looked confused and asked, "What?"

Tony threw him a withering look and called, "Right on the money. Let's just watch the movie."

No one objected but mostly everyone was looking at Steve, disappointed.

"Where are we?" Tony says almost immediately, but before the man can answer there's a noise from the door. A hatch opens and a man yells into the room.

"Come on, stand up. Stand up!" The man's tone is just short of a whisper as he grabs Tony's arms and helps him stand.

"Just do as I do." He commands, looking Stark straight in the eye. The door begins to unlock and they stand side by side, "Come on, put your hands up."

The door opens and a group of men pour into the room, all holdings weapons and aiming them at their prisoners.

Tony looks at them confused before mumbling to the man next to him, "Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?"

This just further proved the man's innocence, Wanda mused.

"Do you understand me? Do as I do!" The man snaps back, and the billionaire falls silent, glaring daggers at their captors.

The leader strolls in a larger man with a dark beard, holding a rolled up piece of paper.

He begins to speak a different language, and when he finishes his sentence, he nods to the man next to Tony as an indication for him to translate.

"He says, 'Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America. He is honoured.'"

The leader continues talking, and the man translates again, "He wants you to build the missile; the Jericho missile that you demonstrated."

Their captor hands them a picture, and the man next to Tony takes and holds it open for him to see, "This one."

"Please tell me you didn't build it, Stark." Steve mutters.

Clint threw Tony an unimpressed glare, "Stark laying down his life, bloody unlikely."

Rhodey had to restrain himself from punching them in the face.

Thor boomed, "Friend Clint have you forgotten perhaps that during Loki's invasion it was Friend Anthony who flew the nuke into the wormhole?"

Natasha threw them a glare, too pissed to argue, did they just ignore everything good Tony did. Natasha admitted that she herself had done that once, but after seeing the New York battle, her views had changed. She hoped these movies would do that to Clint and Steve. Wanda, Bucky and Sam seemed to be leaning towards Tony.

Tony looks the leader straight in the eye upon seeing the picture, "I refuse."

"No Tony, that's not what you do." Rhodey muttered.

Tony just replied, "What was I supposed to do? I needed some time to think of a plan." He kneaded his hands together in preparation for the next part.

The scene changes immediately and Tony is being held underwater, thrashing and screaming for air.

When he's finally pulled back up by the hair, he gasps for breath, spitting the water out of his mouth. Before he has a chance to completely catch his breath, he's shoved back under, the water reaching the cables in his chest and shocking him in the process.

He's pulled up again, this time thrashing and fighting with his captors as they manhandle him and pull at his hair.

Natasha felt even more horrible now. Tony was simply a civilian, and he wasn't trained to deal with this like she was.

Clint and Steve's mouths were hanging open. Bucky had physically turned away from the screen. Thor was cackling with electricity while Bruce tried to calm him, though Bruce's eyes were a shade greener.

Wanda had red tendrils of anger around her finger and directed towards the men. Rhodey clutched Tony's arm tightly.

Tony was slightly paler and had turned his eyes away from the screen. He did not want to relieve those moments ever again, thank you very much.

There's a bag over Tony's head now as he's being forcibly guided through the cave and outside. When the bag is removed, he blinks a few times, adjusting his eyes to the bright sun.

He's shoved forward, clutching the car battery to his chest as he stumbles behind the men. He scans his surroundings as he approaches the leader, and looks horrified when he realizes all the cases say 'Stark Industries.'

The leader speaks again, and the doctor elaborates, "He wants to know what you think."
The billionaire looks at his captor and speaks, his voice raspy and raw, "I think you got a lot of my weapons."

"How did they get these much of your weapons though?" Sam asked.

Tony replied, "There was someone on the inside who was double dealing and I was stupid not to realize it earlier. The movie will most likely show what happens I think."

Sam nodded and Wanda made up her mind, she was going to apologize to Tony after this, she had misjudged him really harshly. This had really flipped her view. She still was angry about the Accords but she felt he deserved an apology at least for her accusations.

"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile," The doctor translates the reply,

"He wants you to make the list of materials. He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you free."

Tony reaches out and shakes his hand, giving a fake smile, "No he won't."

"No, he won't," The man confirms.

"He would be an idiot if he let you go." Natasha confirmed.

In the distance, there is a brief shot of a tan, bald man, fiddling with his ring and standing on the edge of a rock, surrounded by men, overseeing the operation.

"Is that Raza?" Rhodey asks, Tony simply nodded.

A/N So when Bucky looks at Tony and gestures to his arm, it means that Bucky understands how scary it is when your body is modified without consent and Bucky's arm is pretty painful too since the HYDRA weren't exactly known for their hospitality to anyone. In a way a Bucky understands how Tony feels and can relate to him.

Next, in the scene with Steve where everyone is disappointed with him, they expect him to apologize to Tony.

If you have any problem with that please do not hate in the comments. Please and thank you. This is my take on the characters and if you don't like it please there are tons of Team Captain America fics out there read those or better yet, write your own. I don't mean to be rude but I'm saying this due to some of the comments I've been getting. If you don't like it simply don't read.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited and followed the story. Hope you guys enjoyed this one, the next chapter will be up on 5th April, 2021. I'll see you guys then.