Answers to your comments (:

Wolftattoo - Yup I thought that was important to show as I don't see Thor attempting to murder Tony deliberately

Guest - Thank you! :)

Ciel Tombe - Thank you! I'm glad you were and I'm glad you think it's interesting. Here's another update :D

RLMz - You're welcome! Here is another update :)

Guest - You're welcome! It's my pleasure :D


Author Notes (IMPORTANT):

Hey sorry for the long delay :) It was hard to find time to upload this to here. I hope you enjoy it.
This chapter is HUGE! 26 PAGES! But I felt like I couldn't split it this time, you guys are already so patient with me so I felt you deserved this as a thank you.
Also

I have warned when the Rape Non Con Threat comes up in brackets and in bold. And when the warning no longer applies as this ***

Let me know how you want me to warn you guys in the future if anything this sensitive comes up again :)


As the memory settled around them, Bruce felt his heart jump at remembering Thor lifting Tony up by the throat. He understood better now why Thor hadn't thought his action as extreme as Bruce had understood it to be.

Enraged, the other guy had been clawing to get out and defend Tin Man when that had happened but Bruce had only just held him back. He'd been terrified that any outside action would escalate the situation and the god, with his strength, would twitch his hand wrong.

One wrong move was all it took and Tony would've been gone. Bruce could not have allowed that to happen.

He'd been terrified at the blasé attitude everyone had displayed at a being that could match the Hulk grabbing someone by the throat and lifting them up.

A heavy hand dropped onto his shoulder that matched Thor's voice. In the past such a gesture from the would have almost sent him staggering, now it was more restrained and almost hesitant.

"Are you alright friend Banner? You seem far away."

Bruce swallowed as he found his voice had suddenly returned to him and muttered. "I'm alright, thanks." He tried to casually shift away from Thor's hand. He tried not to think about that powerful hand grasping a fragile human throat with enough force to lift them a foot off the ground.

Bruce tried not to think of the ignorance that could have lead to death, instead trying to remember that Thor hadn't intended to truly hurt anyone. He thought of the heavy hand that now barely glanced his shoulder and had been removed quickly.

'Perhaps I should have done more… maybe said something. I know there is a time and a place for things but God… I wish I could talk about this now.' Bruce's throat was bubbling with things that he wished he could vocalise but got clogged in his throat.

Thor noticed now friend Banner's wary behaviour around him now and the way a few other members of the group were side eyeing him as if he was a wild untamed beast.

He couldn't help but feel hurt by this although he felt like he deserved it for allowing his rage to make him act like a brute.

The God quickly distracted himself by observing the scene in friend Anthony's mindscape.

On the front wall of the mindscape, facing the Avengers, they saw Tony's outside view of the cave.

His hands appeared to be busy fiddling with several clumps of the wiring elements on the table in front of him however they could also see it spread out across the cave.

The first thing the Avengers noticed was that all these Tony's had the Arc shoved unnaturally into their chests and that the mindscape itself looked different now to what it did before.

The sphere held now, not only smoke, but a sticky black tar that threatened to seep through any structural weaknesses.

There was also a sparse covering of sand coating the floor and the air around them felt hot and muggy like the caves.

Pincushion Tony scanned the cave with his powers to take a holographic print of it whilst Angry compresses all the table and all the other things that were in his way to create a space big enough to hold the hologram.

Pincushion twisted quickly and dumped it in the newly open space.

"Right. Here's the deal." Pincushion summoned a light green model of the armour and split it into sections.

Touching the helmet briefly, he turned it and the other sections he needed to do toward the end in red before chucking it to Angry.

"Too obvious to be made right away… the legs hydraulics and support system. We will have to test that first to know that works."

"We will have to move pretty fast because the cameras will be surveying everything." Angry commented, "but there's a blind spot just by the door, we can assemble the armour there when I'm actually inside it."

"We will have to bang everything into shape first but chances are if we scatter the pieces of the armour across the desks they won't have a clue what I'm doing." Pin commented.

"Chances are the idiots will still think we are making the missile." Angry deadpanned before touching the chest area of the suit. "This piece here is a problem for several reasons. One it's an obvious chest plate once you place all the pieces together. Two the arc, if we calculate the weight distribution of the suit wrong it could push down on it so hard that it could crush our heart."

The group were shocked to silence, none of them had ever imagined that was the worst case scenario. They were starting to understand the magnitude of the gamble Tony made in making the suit.

Pincushions face twisted, "When have we ever got a maths equation wrong?"

Shrugging, Angry gave a smile. "One of the first things Pepper spotted after becoming my PA was a small maths error on one of the documents."

"Ok that was once." Pincushion protested, "And Obadiah had kept me up for almost a week haranguing me about those bloody finances. It's hardly fair to use that-"

"Am I the only one who keeps hearing more and more alarm bells the more that Tony talks Obadiah's treatment of him…" Bruce stares at Pincushion with a deeply worried expression.

"Nope." Clint bites out.

"No but I'm pretty impressed that a small maths error was all he made considering he was up all week." Scott pipes up, "When I stayed up all night for Cassie the next day I could barely function."

"Being stuck in a terrorist's lair being tortured isn't fair conditions either." Angry snarled darkly as his irises gleamed a menacing black. "You are not infallible and we are more likely to die here than anywhere else."

"You are a ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Pincushion peered at Angry.

"I'm a realist. Blame my creator" Angry teased darkly as the brown bled back over his Irises. "Next."

"I was thinking we could get started on the internal padding and the wiring mesh which looks the least suspicious."

"True… it needs to be able to interweave between the Sorbothane we have to stuff inside around the skull to create an artificial hyoid. So that when we bust out of here we don't give ourselves a million concussions." Angry replied.

Rhodey noted the general looks of confusion the group was sporting, he was about to speak up when Bruce beat him to it.

"A hyoid is the cushioning inside a woodpecker's skull to keep it immune to G force and that's what Tony is talking about doing to himself artificially." Bruce smiled in an awed soft way.

"It keeps our brains from going splat inside the suit." Rhodey added on snarkily when he saw the looks of bewilderment remain over Steve, Bucky and Wanda's faces. "The material Tony is talking about makes the recoil pads of guns and the soles of your shoes."

"The body padding can afford to be slightly thinner but it doesn't have to be it's not like we are going to run out of Sorbothane here."

Angry cracked a grin that looks so odd on his face that the Team can't help but stare at him.

"But how are we going to tell Yinsen this? I'm pretty sure Sorbothane use is out of Yinsen's field." Angry questioned and the grin quickly fell.

"He's pretty good on subtleties and we have been surprised by his knowledge a few times. Having another pair of hands to help extracting the Sorbothane -"

"-there's also the language divide and you can't show any skill on that front without arousing suspicion."

"Fine." Pincushion snapped, "let's just keep him on a need to know basis. There will be plenty of time to fill him in on the details when we bust out of here anyway."


"Good," Yinsen chuckled as he looked at Tony's dice, "Good roll. Good roll."

"You still haven't told me where you're from." Tony muttered as he passed Yinsen the dice, the other man gathered the dice in his hands and shook them before giving an answer.

Tony was still slightly annoyed at the regular breaks Yinsen had forced him to have. Although his mind was playing out possibilities of the game and the best moves he could make his hands itched for his tools and details and plans still ran concurrently in his head, cataloguing his supplies and making adjustments to the designs as he went.

Thankfully, the Doctor had understood the importance of Sorbothane pretty quickly. Yinsen had apparently met some other Doctors in Bern who used it for treating something called Golfer's Elbow.

'So having an extra pair of hands to help with extraction, then later fitting it in the suit, would make up for all the time missed in these breaks.'

"I'm from a small town called Gulmira." Yinsen answered in a forcibly calm voice, he dropped the dice to look away from Tony. "It's actually a nice place."

"Got a family?" Tony asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here." Yinsen's voice became slightly harder, he kept his eyes on the game rather than Tony as he moves the metal pieces. Then he looks up to Tony as he lightly asks, "And you, Stark?"

Tony tries to smile but it comes out looking like a grimace.

'Family huh? I've got two dead parents, Jarvis and Ana are gone too. There's Peggy and Daniel - who I haven't seen or heard from since they moved to England. And Peggy doesn't remember me anyway. JARVIS and the bots are a bit like my children - but they're my creations so they aren't real in the traditional sense and they're tied to me. Would they stay with me if they had a choice?

'Pepper… I'd like to think I have her but she tolerates me mostly, at a stretch I'd say we're friends but not family. Happy? We're friends, true, but if it came to a choice between me and Pepper… I know who he'd pick. Rhodey is awesome but he's my best friend… not family in the traditional sense and I hardly ever see him anymore. His family have always been nice to me but they live in Philadelphia and I haven't even heard from them in a while.

'And let's face it, I pay Pepper and Happy to be around me. Rhodey… I don't know if he'd still be around if the military wasn't paying him.

'So all I really have is… Obadiah.'

Rhodes growls and clenches his teeth, "You have me as well! Idiot! I didn't hang around you because the military paid me! I can't - I can't believe he thinks that! You don't just have that traitorous bastard."

"I am inclined to agree with you Colonel Rhodes," Vision speaks up as his gem glows brightly, "even if Sir doesn't realise it. He always had his childr - creations to count on."

Everyone gave Vision a strange look for that rare slip in his speech, however the Android refused to address it.

'But even he's not family in the traditional sense. I don't have any family left. I am alone.'

"You're not alone," Peter mumbled morosely.

Tony's mouth twitched at that last thought, he finally looked from the game to Yinsen and answered shortly.

"No."

"No?" Yinsen mimicked Tony's delivery of that last line. He glanced back at the board before raising an eyebrow and studying Tony with intense eyes. "So you're a man who has everything and nothing."

'Everything and nothing,' Wanda thinks, 'I guess I never thought of Stark that way. Where it counts Stark was truly poorer than me.' She felt some of her vindictiveness rise up, but soundly forced it back. She'd held on to those feelings for so long they didn't want to fade easily. Now it was a stain that left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Tony gave a half smile that was entirely fake as he could feel the dark day tugging harsher at the back of his mind at that statement.

'Thanks for that Yinsen. Why do you think I drown myself in booze and sex?'

Steve was shocked by this thought. 'I always saw Stark as one of those rich selfish decadent men who indulged themselves to the excess because they could… not because he was unhappy.'

Tony tried to shift his thoughts back to which layers of metal would be the best choice for the shell of the suit and away from the dark thoughts that he couldn't afford here. For Yinsen's and his family's sake.


Tony was stopped from going deeper down that depressing train of thought by Abu's eyes poking through the metal hatch.

He shouted at Tony in Arabic whilst walking in and gesturing wildly with his hands when he translated into broken English. "WHEN? When finish?"

Everybody's hackles raised at his frantic questioning.

"He's not even close to being done yet is he? They can't expect him to be done already!" Cried Scott.

Tony's body language subconsciously wound tighter with Abu's shouting and his voice came out cold and clipped. "Finished, ready."

Steve felt momentarily horrified at the thought that Tony had actually built the weapon or had finished plans to.

"What?" Rhodey squeaked, "no he can't-" he cut himself off when Yinsen directed Abu to the washing machine where a neat pile of washed clothes and linen lay.

Steve allowed himself to relax, but in the back of his mind he was still worried that Tony would be convinced to build it.

Abu started ranted about colours and whites being mixed.

"I washed the whites and the colors seperately, I just folded them," Tony bit out a retort about how he did fine considering how he'd been injured before and it being his first time washing.

Although a few of them laughed at this fact, the others were more worried because of how the last interaction with Abu went, it seemed beyond stupid to answer back like that.

Abu tucked the washing under his arm before looking over at Tony and Yinsen's game. Moving a few of Yinsen's pieces, Abu smiled at Tony as the genius chips in with a rather forced nonchalance. "That's what I would've done."

"Mr Tony," a proud smile spread itself across Abu's face. "Abu champion, Abusieda."

Yinsen quickly translates that meant that Abu was the champion of Backgammon in his big town.

Tony's expression remained cold almost disinterested as he glanced over at Abu before looking back at his game.

"Guess where he got that look from." Clint murmured snidely whilst glancing at Steve and Bucky. "Your old war buddy certainly wasn't as great as you thought."

Bucky grimaced whilst Steve shot Clint a sharp glare at the implication. Watching Howard's less than stellar parenting had been difficult for him and he didn't like being reminded of it.

"I sorry Mr Tony." Tony looked up again at Abu, raising his eyebrows at the unexpected apology. "I not want to hurt."

"What did you mean 'I not want to hurt'? You dropped an injured man on his chest, you idiot!" Peter snarls.

"Technically, It wasn't actually him, he was just giving the orders." Several glares in her direction told Wanda how unappreciated her comment was.

Abu trailed off before pointedly turning to Yinsen and speaking in fluent Dari.

Yinsen's expression became pinched almost like he had sucked a lemon however his voice is one of a cold calm. "He says that Raza wanted the missile, that he ordered progress. He needed to make sure it is done. Raza kills and tortures those who disobey. Then he asks if you understand this."

Tony pursed his lips and nodded, still unhappy with the man but he could imagine the situation Abu was in.

'Under extreme duress people do horrible things to survive.'

Wanda's eyes brightened a little. 'Maybe Stark does understand my reaction to him after all. I was a refugee who had lost my entire family…'

"Don't tell me Stark is now sympathizing with his captors! He chose to be a terrorist!-" Winter spat savagely.

"Only to keep himself and maybe his family safe!" Wanda retorts as she rounded on Winter. "Those Americans shouldn't have got involved in their countries affairs!"

"You can't exactly say that was your reason, can you?" Bruce snarled. Wanda whipped around to face the Doctor, her eyes glared an unnatural shade of rageful red."And I'm sorry what were you doing in Lagos a few years ago? Fine when it's not your country isn't it?"

Wanda blinked appearing hurt as she gaped like a fish out of water before storming away from him when it became obvious that she couldn't think of anything to say in her defence.

Rhodey snorted and murmured under his breath to Peter. "The Hypocrisy is strong in this one, young padawan."

Peter's previously worried frown snapped into a face splitting grin. He had to smother a laugh on the back of his hand at the obvious Star Wars reference.

Although the witch had done nothing to him personally, Peter couldn't help but dislike how she talked and acted around Mr Stark. To Peter she seemed like a bully which confused him as to why the Captain liked her so much and not Mr Stark. 'Isn't Captain America supposed to hate bullies?'

"You well? You work?" Abu peers at Tony's chest at this question which makes Tony slightly uncomfortable, he does up his jacket a bit more.

"Getting better, working on plans and some wiring but I'm not up to metalwork yet. Soon." Tony tried to offer a fake small smile but it fell quickly.

"Good." Seemingly pleased, Abu pat Tony on the shoulder, before gazing at him with concern when Tony failed to hide a flinch. "Too skinny. More food I bring."

Abu left and a few minutes later brought in another washing basket using the movement of dumping it on Tony to slip him a pocket full of crackers along with the promise to play against him sometime in Backgammon.

Tony narrowed his eye's as Abu left the cell. 'It... might be possible that Abu is genuine and just doing what he has to to survive...'

"What the fuck?" Clint was stunned. "Tony, he knew exactly what he was doing to you! He knew what the Ten Rings do to people and he VOLUNTEERED to join them! Does that sound like a good person?"

Natasha gave Clint a intense pointed glare. "What?" Confused Clint tensed defensively to which Natasha flicked her gaze to Wanda.

She rolled her eyes when it becomes obvious that Clint couldn't see the irony or the hypocrisy in his own words.

'But there's a far more likely scenario here.'

He knew he could use this to his advantage. Play the game they'd set up, get the extra food and whatever else he could weasel out of them and garner some trust and leeway. It was the smart option.

It also made his skin crawl.

The thought of pretending to work with them, to befriend one of them, was disgusting. They were murderers and torturers. 'He could have been the one to hold me down while Yinsen ripped open my chest! Or hold me underwater and burn my back!'

'I've just got to wait and pretend to play into it for now, wait for Abu to be more obvious or to slip up… and he will.'


Abu came back the next night whilst Tony worked on pulling all the Sorbothane out of yet another unloaded gun's recoil pad and played a game with Yinsen.

The terrorist seemed impressed that Tony was succeeding doing these tasks at once and Tony tried to not let his revulsion at this show on his face.

Tony placed the striped gun on the side and faked a friendly smile so convincing that a few of them had to concentrate on the doubtful fear and distrust that they were actually feeling from Tony to believe that it was in fact all a farce.

Warily, Tony cast a glance at the camera's as Abu took a seat beside him.

"No worry Mr Tony. Watcher's sleep. Quiet. Guards," he pointed to outside of the door, "no hear. I play?"

Abu directed Tony to move the pieces accordingly in stuttering clumsy English and Yinsen found himself surprisingly losing with in few minutes.

Smiling, Tony leant back and rubbed his chest as he analysed the board. "Well looks like I win, Doc. Give up." Abu frowned at him.

"We win."

"Of course." Tony kept the sickening smile, Abu returned the gesture as he clapped Tony on the shoulder.

"You make progress Mr Tony." He whispered whilst he pointed to the wiring and metallic aspects around the room. "I bring reward."

'Wow that was obvious. Are you trying to be subtle?'

With that Abu reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of assorted foods wrapped in a napkin which he handed to Tony under the table. "You hide this."

"I will." Abu nodded at Tony's answer and let out a wide grin that Tony saw reach his eyes this time.

'Ooh you are slipping aren't You? Now time for the ultimate test.'

"Ultimate test?" Steve questioned the group, he bit his lip anxiously. "Don't play games with him Tony."

"But he is playing." Bucky answered with a smirk dancing at his lips and his eyes gleaming with hidden knowledge. "And he is winning. I have a feeling Abu's plan is going to come undone pretty soon." 'I just hope not too soon.' Winter commented doubtfully in the back of his head. 'If Stark plays into this he could use it to hasten his recovery by taking advantage of the extra food, but it didn't sound like he was planning too.'

"Tell me a bit more about yourself." Tony molded his face into one of polite interest.

Tony waited a moment, Abu appeared to tense nervously so Tony attempted to ease this with a gesture that Abu often did to him; he clapped the terrorist's shoulder. "Hey, no need to be so nervous I just wanted to know more about my frien-"

Tony made a mock face of mortification and paused a moment before correcting himself so that Abu could decipher his 'mistake'. Only resuming what he was saying when he detected the poorly concealed triumph in Abu's eyes and he made his voice sound tighter.

Natasha cocked her head as she admired Tony's smooth manipulation.

"-you. I wanted to know more about you. Just tell me something like I don't know… you seem like a pretty decent guy. Why did you join the Ten Rings?"

"The best way to suss someone like this out is to turn their own points against them. To pick out things like inconsistencies and logic flaws…" Natasha breathed as she directed a smile at Tony. "You're full of hidden talents aren't you, Stark?"

Abu frowned at him for a long moment before exchanging meaningful glances with Yinsen.

"Family, protect." Unnoticed by Tony, Yinsen's eyes flit to the floor. "Core values not all bad. Stupid to object-"

Yinsen's gaze sharpened as he glared at Abu for a moment before he directed his eyes back to the board.

"Which core values?" Puzzled, Tony leant forward looking intrigued. "Tell me which you think aren't bad."

A smirk twitched at Yinsen's lips as he saw what Tony was doing.

"Oh he's got you now." Rhodey laughed.

Abu paused but his eyes become slightly panicked. "Come on Abu," Tony urged him. "You could have a convert here. Just tell me which aren't bad."

Hurriedly Abu spoke Dari to Yinsen as Tony turned his head to the Doctor.

"He says that values are only told to members and that to pick a few above the rest would be bad because he could get killed if the watchers understand." Yinsen translated, Tony could see that the Doctor was trying to carefully reign himself in from showing his joy at catching Abu out.

"That's a pretty weak argument, for one he said the watchers were asleep earlier." Sam pointed out, "Wow he's thick…"

"I'm willing to bet he wasn't even the one who came up this plan." Scott rolled his eyes. "That Raza guy seems like the only one with brains…"

"You said they were asleep earlier." Tony pointed out in a droll voice, he watched Abu lazily as the terrorist gaped like a fish out of water.

Steve got the distinct impression that Tony at that moment was a lot like the cat he would often see outside his old house in the 1940s who he would catch playing with mice before they met their inevitable demise. It made Steve uneasy. 'Tony is more manipulative than I gave him credit for… it's one of the reasons I was initially reserved about trusting Natasha. I didn't trust Tony anyway though… that could have been one of things that made him seem off to me… Howard was more genuine.'

Abu rose to his feet. "They could wake."

Tony smoothly steps up too in response. "Of course they could." He purred, "but that is not the real reason why you can't tell me is it? You're stalling."

Sneering, Tony's lip curls up. "Why? To think of a satisfactory answer rather than so called secrecy, probably because they would have enticed you in with something-"

"Protect family-" Abu spat, a vein throbbing in his forehead.

"It is unwise to keep pushing this fiend, friend Anthony. He has shifted into an attack stance." Anxiety pools in the Gods gut and Thor's grip goes white around Mjolnir.

"Sounding like a broken record there, aren't we?" Tony daringly stepped forward into Abu's personal space. "No. You didn't do it to protect your family. Do you even have a family? You haven't mentioned anything about them, not even names."

Clint twitched a little at this, he hadn't mentioned his family much either before civil war but that didn't mean they weren't important to him. He was keeping them secret to protect them because he cared. 'You don't know what you have till it's gone,' a mocking voice sounding like Barney sang in his head. 'I haven't lost them. I will fix things with the kids and I will try to get at least a friendship back with Laura when I get out.' He grit his teeth and continued to listen to Tony taunting Abu.

"Nice terrorists don't exist…"

Wanda flinched a little at that before comforting herself. 'I'm not Hydra anymore. I'm good now. I'm an Avenger.'

"At least not for long. You seem experienced. So much so that they trust you to be around the captives and not set them free… You're their spokesman, so you must be fairly high up. Oh no, you have been around a long time. What's worse is that when I asked you, you didn't offer any 'good reason' to entice me into joining your crazy cult."

"Tony, don't call the Ten Rings a 'crazy cult!' He has a gun. Stop!" Bruce pleaded to his friend even though he knew that he couldn't hear him.

"So either you know what you are doing is bad or you can't think of a reason why any good person would join. Honestly I'd put my money on both-"

Abu snapped.

The terrorist whipped the gun from his holster, aiming it at Tony's head. The Doctor immediately jumped up to his feet to intervene, Abu turned around to aim at him instead.

They all felt a flash of fear, thinking for a moment that this could be where Yinsen dies…

However, Tony quickly moved in front of the gun and with a single swift movement his hands clapped around the terrorist's wrist and gun, twisting the pistol from Abu's grip. Tony used the movement to try and grab the gun but he lacked his usual coordination and the gun went spinning across the floor.

Bucky was shocked at seeing the quick defence, it wasn't something he had ever expected from Stark despite the fact that it probably should have been. 'Stark did show some talent when he kept up with me two years ago. He was untrained and unenhanced that's pretty impressive.' Winter commented. 'He has potential to be a good student like Natalia was.'

Natasha's eyes widen, impressed with the move. But he'd also dropped the gun and was in dangerous territory. To make matters worse she knew that his body wasn't going to be able to keep up. She worried that no matter the outcome here, Tony would be worse off.

"Wow! That's pretty advanced defense…" Clint smiled. "Go Tony!"

Abu shouted in pain and anger, his trigger finger broken and bleeding from a gash where the edge of his gun had caught it.

Rhodey would have let out a cackle however he knew that even with a broken finger Abu was dangerous, perhaps more so now...

Tony didn't have the speed to react, his chest and shoulders protesting his quick action, when Abu's other arm launched at Tony and pushed him up against the cave wall. He threw his hands out in a fall break, grazing his palms against the rock wall and groaned as his healing back impacted the rough surface. He kept his head safely ducked until the terrorist's forearm was shoved against his throat and his head was pressed against the wall.

"He really does know some self defence," Sam murmured. "Most people don't think to brace themselves or duck their head to stop it hitting the wall."

"More than some," Rhodey said a little proudly. Tony had already had knowledge in self defense but Rhodey had gladly taught him some of the manuvers he had learned from the military.'I wish he hadn't had to use them but I'm glad they helped him here.'

Tony choked for a moment, forcefully calming himself as he struggled for air, he lifted his right arm up, twisting and bringing his elbow down to break the hold. He'd got Abu's arm off his throat when the man stepped back and punched him in the solar plexus.

"Oww. Bastard! Get your grubby hands off." Rhodey growled.

He doubled over with a whine, the impact traveling through his chest and spat bile at Abu's feet.

Abu growled menacingly in Dari and lifted Tony by the neck again, this time wrapping his fingers around his throat.

Thor noted with horror that it was similar to how he had lifted Tony upon discovering Ultron.

Tony was dazed but pleased to note that Abu was keeping his other hand close to his chest, blood dripping down his hand from his broken finger.

"That looks like it hurts," Tony hissed hoarsely, a grin twitching around his lips before the fingers around his throat tightened. He mentally ran through the ways he knew to get out of the hold and which soft target's he could attack, but his chest ached worse with every movement, his throat was screaming at him, his back throbbed slightly and he couldn't bring himself to so much as kick at Abu's knees.

Yinsen shot Tony a worried, silencing look but dared not intervene when Abu glared viciously at him, 5 fat fingers still wrapped around Tony's throat.

Abu started yelling viciously in Dari, spittle flying onto Tony's face and the genius found it hard to maintain the lie of being oblivious when he was keenly aware of all the threats that Abu was snarling at him.

(If you are triggered by threats of non con I'd advise you to skip this bit up to the ***)

:You think you are so great, Tony Stark. But we are the Ten Rings. You are only alive because we allow it. Remember that!:

Peter felt the colour drain from his face. 'Mr Stark gets out. He's ok. He gets out.'

'We can't exactly forget it." Sam murmurs darkly as his hands clenched.

:The minute you stop being useful we will remove your hands and your famous silver tongue and nail them to the wall.:

Rhodey made a horrified high pitched noise in the back of his throat.

:You think you know pain? There is much more humiliating and degrading ways we can deal it to you other than fire and water.:

Natasha's jaw jumped although her face appeared blank her eyes blazed with an angry green fire at the implication behind Abu's words.

:Ever been whipped? Chained, caged and used like the dog you are?:

"Just you dare, you despicable fiend! You are a lesser mortal than friend Anthony!" Thor growled as a menacing tremor of murderous thunder crept into his voice.

Peter's eyes darted between Abu and Tony. The darker part of his mind suspected what Abu was threatening his mentor with but the other part didn't want to open his mouth to confirm it.

In the end, a stunned Scott was the one who asks, "Is he-is he really threatening him with rape?"

Scott felt scrutinised when everyone's intense gazes flicked to him, it almost felt like he had broken an unspoken rule.

The faces around him looked as terrified as he felt.

"Yes." Rhodey's voice sounded like it was scraped with sandpaper, he looked furious and his fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white.

"What?!" Steve's voice went unnaturally high, "Why would he even-? How? Tony's a man."

"Well," Clint appears grey, he talks through a tremor in his voice. "It obviously works the same way as it would to with a woman… just the butt way."

"Oh my god. No." Steve digs his pale face into his hands.

Bucky just stares, his eyes are as round as dish plates, he feels Winter stalk menacingly to the forefront of his mind. "Natalia, if this Asshole is still alive how do you feel about tracking him down with me and cutting off his dick?"

Natasha gave a frigid smile. "It would be my pleasure Soldat."

:All those things can and will happen to you if you dare make presumptions or impede production.:

Visions gem shone a vibrant, vicious gold and his face became as cold and unforgiving as marble. The android didn't do explosive rage, his form of anger was more controlled and cold but still carried the same amount of danger. Perhaps more so because every action of his would be calculated and precise. 'I destroyed Ultron with the force of this gem… just imagine what it would do to a person.' Normally such thoughts would horrify him but this man was threatening to hurt his grandfather in one of the worst ways possible…

Vision believed himself to be justified to be on the side of death rather than life in this case. He was only glad that Mr Stark and JARVIS' actions led to this terrorists' demise later.

However Wanda who was next to him openly gaped. 'Even Hydras prisoners were not treated to such a fate… no the ones I came into contact with just had their minds ripped apart…'

:I came here to check you are making progress not to make a friend.:

Tony didn't have to continue to pretend to be oblivious because soon after Abu has stopped talking Yinsen translated in a harsh voice the brief minimum of what Abu says.

"You are only alive because we, the Ten Rings, allow it. If you stop being useful we can remove your hands and tongue and nail them to the wall. You see that we have far more humiliating ways of dealing pain to you than what you have been through before. That can happen if you ever impede production or make presumptions about me again. I came here to check your progress not to make friends."

Working to keep the reaction to both those sets of words from his face was hard, Tony felt a surge of fondness towards Yinsen for trying to spare him the harsh details of Abu's extra threats, however pointless it was.

Tony knew what they could and would do to him. Terrorist groups weren't kind to their captives and nothing was off limits. The Ten Rings were no different.

"I know." Tony's voice sounded choked and hoarse, he was in agony and Abu's threats implied that it only could get worse.

Abu's hand released him and Tony gasped, slumping against the wall he tried to steady himself against it as his legs faltered. The terrorist sneered at him as he slid to the floor and coughed as he rubbed his sore throat.

Peter startled forward in an aborted attempt to support him before remembering once again that he couldn't do anything. He looked to the others and saw that they too had unconciously gathered around his mentor in an untidy protective formation. 'It was hard to imagine that merely days ago the majority of the reformed Avengers didn't like Mr Stark. But now they appear genuinely angry for him, huh maybe this experience is changing them.'

Tony stayed slumped there as he watched Yinsen reluctantly splint and bandage the broken finger Abu had jammed into his face after picking his gun back up. He focused on steadying his breathing and the feel of his heart as the pacemaker artificially soothed it back into a normal rhythm.

Abu threw them both a dark glare on his way out and snarled, "No rations," as he picked up the bag of bland rice.

'Fuck. There goes our food.'


Yinsen watched Stark leverage himself up off the floor, clearly ignoring his body's aches and pains as he walked back to his work station. The gun he'd been pulling apart was lying half stripped on the desk, he continued stripping it with what Yinsen was sure was more force than necessary, thoroughly dismantling the gun and setting aside any usable components as he extracted the Sorbothane.

"Stark-" Yinsen began to inquire before Tony bitingly cut him off with an order to let him work.

"Ouch." Steve murmured, there was no need for Tony to snap at the Doctor like that, he was only trying to help.

He threw away the useless pieces of the gun in frustration. Obviously craving something more physical, he grabbed some metal rods and started heating up the forge.

Bruce turned from Tony to watch as Yinsen sighed and reluctantly left Tony alone, he looked over his shoulder, ready to intervene if Tony got too carried away.

Bruce knew from the many times where he and Tony had worked together, that was easily done.

Most of them turned away from Tony's tense form to watch as Yinsen knelt down, screwing off the cap of a missile propped against a crate; revealing that the mechanical innards had been stripped and was instead almost half filled with food.

Although it was only one kind. Rice.

Bruce grimaced. Rice was a staple in many countries much it didn't offer the full nutritional needs of a balanced diet. Having eaten a lot of rice himself over the years he'd had also come to resent the bland taste of plain white rice.

Often he, like Tony, had popadoms instead of rice at every opportunity. Tony however refused to eat anything even containing rice, claiming it was the devil's food and seemed to loathe the simple grain. Bruce understood his reasoning now, whereas he'd previously assumed it was just another of Tony's eccentricities.

"How do you feel about Rice?" Yinsen joked.

"I'm giving this place a 1 star review on Yelp. The menu variety is extremely poor."

"Well at least his sense of Humour is still there." Peter quipped, determined to try and see the positive of the scene. Personally, Peter thought that place deserved no stars on Yelp. 'Torture with sides of crappy dieting and disgusting threats. It doesn't even deserve one Star. Can you give minus Stars on Yelp? This place deserves minus a million.'

Although, he was pleased to hear Starks snarky response, nothing could hide the fact that Stark's eyes were darker than usual as he looked back at Yinsen.

'If he's trying to hide his turmoil he's doing a poor job at it.'

Yinsen kept focused on the task at hand dug out two handfuls of rice and placed it in the pan. In the background he could hear as Tony heated the thin rod and started banging it into the shape he wanted.

Peter watched excitedly as Tony twisted and hammered the end of a rod over an anvil. His movements were jerky with frustration, but still showed that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Yinsen was suddenly startled when he heard one particularly loud hammer blow, one that bent and almost ruined the rod he was working on.

Although surprisingly Stark remained silent, his eyes bore holes into the rod and his face creased into an almost animalistic angry snarl.

The hammering became more incessant before he let out wordless yell, Tony threw one of the bent, heated rods across the room.

Wanda yelped and shivered as the rod went right through her. 'I always knew Stark had an explosive anger to him like the beast but I wouldn't want to be on the end of that.'

Yinsen saw that his brown eyes appeared to have an angry red hue with how the light from the fire reflected off of them. He'd known that it was only a matter of time before Stark snapped.

"Angry Tony is obviously centre stage again…" Clint murmured.

Steve couldn't help but openly stare with Clint, the artist in him wanted to capture that image. The crimson and the yellows of the fire had highlighted the high points of Tony's face and accentuated the shadows which made him look almost demonic - no that wasn't the right word. 'He appears like an Avenging angel.'

He doesn't know why but that thought made him as terrified as he had felt in Siberia when Tony had attacked him after seeing that video.

Tony bent over the anvil, twisting his shoulders in a way that told Yinsen they were aching and rubbed his chest around the reactor.

"Stark you need to rest-"

Tony looked up and gave the Doctor such a fierce glare that even Thor stepped back. "I'll rest when I'm dead."

"Ok is anyone else quickly getting why Mask calls Angry 'goth girl'? I think that's the most Emo thing I've heard come out of Stark's mouth." Sam commented.

Peter sighed, "technically emo and goth are two different things but similar, so yeah." Quickly spotting Thor's, Steve's and Bucky's looks of confusion, Peter tries to elaborate. "A friend of mine went through a phase," the looks still remained, "Ok this is a discussion that really needs to happen at another time."

"You're still obviously in pain-"

"Of course I'm in pain! I'm always in pain now, so what kind of fucking question is that?"

They all reared back at the yell, struck by how honest and emotional the answer was.

Thor looked down somberly, clearly his Shield Brother had, had a harder life than he had anticipated before the Being had put him through this experience. Thor had always thought Tony had an easy life like himself before his fall to Midgard, despite the fact that he had always seen the Man of Iron as sharing many similarities to Loki.

Steve frowned in sympathy and understanding but turned a little red at the language. "There were days before the serum that I felt like turning on everyone because of how much pain I was in too. But Ma would shove soap in my mouth If I swore like that."

"-really?" Bucky asked with wide eyes.

Steve paused for a moment, appearing sad. "Yeah, don't you remember? Even for words like 'shit' or 'damn' she would do that...It'll come back to you Buck. Don't worry."

"Hope so." Bucky gave a false smile in response and bit his lip. "The mental image of you with bubbles coming from your mouth and nose is hilarious."

Steve playfully shoved him in response, it was only when he turned away that Bucky let his smile fall. 'I wish I could remember that but Stark said there's no guarantee I'll ever fully remember it all even with his machine.'

Yinsen shot his own withering glare at Tony. "You just got into a fight with a man who is currently twice your bodyweight. On top of the fact that, yes, you are still in pain, you are in more pain because of that and should rest. Preferably before you ruin any more rods or harm yourself more."

Tony glanced to where the cooling metal lay on the floor and ran a hand tiredly down his face. "Fine, I'll just put this in a bucket."

Sighing in relief, Yinsen turned back to the food cooking on the fire. He started serving it into the bowls as Tony sat down next to him.

Despite adding a little of water to each bowl, the two portions still looked pathetic and unappetizing. The rice was gluggy and clumped together in the now murky water and it was more water than rice. It looked like a watery and lumpy white soup.

Wanda stared at it with an intense expression, she had often had to survive on unappetizing meals like that given out by relief aid workers after the bombings. There had even been times were she and Pietro had gone hungry, leading him to pick up the habit of stealing. 'A habit which I always feared would get him shot.'

Tony glanced down at the pitiful meal, "The IntelliCrop gives better food than this."

Yinsen gave Stark a curious look. "IntelliCrop? You'll have to forgive me Stark they don't keep us well informed of the outside world in here."

Tony stared at Yinsen with wide eyes. "I unveiled that design several months ago. It didn't get as much publicity as the weapons do… which was a shame, I was proud of it. We've been working on the concept for years and funded a large plantation for UN relief workers back in the 90's. We've had other fast growing plants but this one was able to grow just about anywhere."

'Oh god, those relief aid workers used Stark's tech not just to help us from that rubble but to feed us!' Wanda felt sick. Sokovia had been hit with several food shortages which were always quickly resolved with something Pietro had shrugged off as 'bio food.' She hadn't cared where it had come from at the time but it had kept her and millions of others alive. 'We were out to destroy the person we owed our continued survival to...Oh god no!'

Horrified, Wanda stepped quickly backward, keeping her wide eyes on Stark. 'What have I done? What did we do?'

Vision drifted to the back to enquire what was wrong but she couldn't speak, she merely shook her head.

The Android remained by her as a sole comforting presence, Clint and Steve looked back at her but she wordlessly assured them that she was alright.

She lied. They didn't need to know the magnitude of her mistakes.

Steve grimaced as he looked back at the sad excuse for a meal. "We didn't have much growing up, but Ma always found a way to at least make it taste alright. This looks awful."

"Hydra gave me better food than this." Grunted Bucky.

Bruce shifted awkwardly at the small amount of secreted food and the way Tony and Yinsen both looked to the door as though expecting someone to come and take it away. It reminded him of his childhood where loss of food had been a frequent punishment.

It had obviously been the same for Clint, the archer was reacting in a similar way to him.

"I think I've had some of your bio food before." Yinsen smiled.

"Oh really?" Tony gulped down the rest of his watery rice quickly without looking at it. "What did you think?"

"It was good. It kept me and my family alive and well and it tasted better than anything we had in months." Yinsen said as he collected Tony's bowl, once he turned around he said, "we didn't know who to thank for it so we included whomever made it in our prayers from then onwards-"

"- Oh well you didn't have to." Tony replied self deprecatingly. "Really I don't deserve that."

"You fed my family Stark, I say you do."

Wanda nodded a little at this, she swallowed heavily but Vision's comforting presence gave her the strength to lift her head and remove her gaze from the floor.

However speech still eluded her.

Tony shook his head vehemently. "I just lost you your food! Because I was an idiot and couldn't just play nice with Abu."

"You can't seriously be blaming yourself for that?" Peter cuts in incredulously. "You reacted like any normal person would in that situation, Mr Stark."

"We have just eaten. And no one would blame you for not 'playing nice' with a terrorist. Although there were smarter ways of handling the situation you reacted as a human. I don't blame you for that."

"This is why you don't piss off terrorists. That was a doozy, man. But no, I don't blame you either." Sam reprimanded softly, forgetting for a moment that Tony couldn't see him.

Stark is silent for a long moment. "A part of me wanted to believe he was good now… purely so we would have another friendly face. But I knew he was one of them. I had suspicions they were trying to make me fall for Stockholm syndrome. The pure audacity of that after everything… how fucking dare they?"

"These people have no morals." Yinsen delivered the answer with a cold sharpness rarely ever heard from the Doctor. "But I don't believe their plan would have worked on you. A weaker man would have given into that temptation, that need to have another friend here. It's a credit to you that you kept your wits even in these dire circumstances. Whether you believe it or not, you're a very strong man Stark."

Tony gave Yinsen a weird look as they all felt a little dizzy when their perspective suddenly changed and the now familiar ghost pain emanating from Tony's chest returned.

"Just then you really, really reminded me of JARVIS."

"Who's Jarvis?" Tony visibly froze up at the question.

Despite everything, Tony eventually managed a shaky grin.

"He's an advanced AI. Do you remember Dum-E from the news?" Yinsen nodded and Tony was impressed the Doctor remembered that from so long ago. "Just think think of him as a slightly more advanced version. I have two others as well." Tony looked up at Yinsen to try to analyse how he would process that information but Tony saw no fear; only interest on the Doctor's face.

"Oh?"

"U and Butterfingers. They aren't real, not in the traditional sense, not like your family but they are mine." Tony paused and smiled at Yinsen.

Vision smiled brightly at that. 'You are mine too.'

"That's kind of sad if you think about It-" Wanda spoke up somberly. "He had no real family so he made himself an imitation of one. Made of things that were tied to him-"

"I assure you, Wanda. He made himself a real family, they are with him of their own free will and are as happy with him as he is with them. There's nothing sad about it." Vision's voice was unusually stern when addressing her which made her wisely not retort.

"I will reunite you with yours. I promise. If you want I can take you and your whole family back to America with me. Anything you want, anything you need. You come to me and you would never have to struggle again."

"That's what Friend Anthony did for all of us." Thor beamed.

Cringing, Clint's gaze flits to the floor, guilt twisted uncomfortably in his stomach. 'That's what he did for me, in particular. And how did I repay him for it?'

Yinsen had a weird expression on his face, filled with a mix of different emotions that Tony couldn't identify all at once.

"No pressure," they feel a deep flash of fear coming from Tony that he had come on too strong. "You don't have to answer right away. By all means ask Mrs. Yinsen first when I drop you back-"

"No, no Stark I'm flattered. It's just - You do have a family." Yinsen murmured. "Real or not in the traditional sense, they are real to you and that is what matters."

"Very true." Rhodey exchanged a meaningful glance with Vision, who gave a sorrowful smile in response. "Many people undervalue how much the bots mean to Tony. They really shouldn't."