Authors Note *~*~*

No copyright infringement intended...
All Movie Scenes used here belong to Marvel Studios and their respective owners, I'm not out to profit from this work.
I made it purely for enjoyment purposes.

Here's the next chapter guys I hope you like it. :)


Answers to your reviews :)

afedrigo- Thank you! I'm glad you liked last update. Here's the next one!

Ciel Tombe- Yup! :) I know it's not that strong but I just wanted you to stay safe in case it triggered you, you're welcome. Yes! I love the bots too 3 I will write that don't worry. Ooo. Maybe I'll have to see what I do when it comes up. Yep! Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying it.

Thedevilsangel1- Heheheh ;D I'm mean like that.


The scene swirled around them and the team found themselves back in the Mindscape.

Wanda rubbed her arm uncomfortably, thinking about Stark's creations. "I have never seen Stark's bots outside these memories. What exactly is Stark's relationship with them? The way you are talking makes it sound like… almost as if he is a father. But he said earlier that he does not want to be one, so I am unsure."

"It is a unique bond, that is certain." Vision spoke up in a thoughtful tone, he graced her with a smile for her new respect for his family. "However the closest and the most intimate way that I can replicate it is that of a paternal one."

Wanda mentally blanched but tried to remain as calm as possible on the outside.

"Yeah, it took me a while to figure out how much JARVIS and those bots meant to him - too late really - but they mean the world to him, he's just afraid to show it. You can imagine why with Howard as his father." Rhodey answered with a bitter tinge.

Cringing, Clint averted his eyes. He knew exactly how that felt with the horrid Harold Barton as his father when Laura had first told him she was pregnant he had been terrified. 'That could have been why I often took long missions away from them and why I left all the disciplinary actions to Laura. She's told me off in the past for acting more like a friend than a father.'

"To make you…" Scott's eyes were wide with horror as they look to Vision, "Stark's kid had to be destroyed. Shit!"

Bruce's eyes flicked to Scott. 'No, no it can't be. The Avengers murdered Tony's kid, I never saw it like that before but that was because I was sure part of JARVIS was still alive in Vision.' Bruce's eyes turned to a rather grey looking Wanda. 'The witch had played a major role in killing Tony's kid. Disgusting. I'm just glad that Tony has other A.I. children to comfort him after… wait.'

"If there's one thing that we can get from this it's that Tony's A.I's are essentially his children. He has a lot of them. Dum-E, FRIDAY, JARVIS, KAREN, PHOENIX… Wait PHOENIX..." Bruce paused, thinking of the A.I. that now ran the Compound. "Who do we know that is patient, calm under pressure and recently gave Tony a phoenix pendant?"

"The new voice within the walls, PHOENIX is based off of friend Yinsen?" Thor questioned.

Steve smiled, "Yes. That certainly seems to be the case. I think that even after everything we might still be important to Tony. I mean entrusting us with an embodiment of the Doctor could be Tony's way of apologising to us."

Rhodey sneered. "Nope. FRIDAY just refused point blank to work with you - she said something about not trusting herself not to hurt you, I don't blame her - but she demanded Tony not be left alone with you either. PHOENIX volunteered, in fact he was the only volunteer."

"Tony can defend himself, we just saw that. It's not like he needs protection from us-" Natasha objected. 'He didn't. He didn't.'

Bruce raised an eyebrow at her whilst Rhodey let out a incredulous swear.

"Tony may have self-defense knowledge, but he's human. A normal human and most of us aren't. We all have skills, powers or training above his. Outside the suit Tony was a normal man. No - no, sorry, he was a chronically ill man with a heart condition, reduced lung capacity and sternum and rib implants! One well placed super strong blow to his chest could have been fatal." Bruce explained, out of the corner of his eye he sees the Captain shaking his head avidly.

"It can't have been that bad." Steve had an expression on his face like he was talking to a particularly stupid child and Bruce feels his teeth grit at the condescension. "Besides he has Extremis now-"

"Now yes, two years ago; no." Bruce snapped with disgust on his face. "And he definitely needed someone to intervene when a literal god lifted him up by the throat!"

Thor jerked backwards, wincing.

"Why didn't you then, Doctor?" Natasha spoke up, "You are the one of the group that is the closest to his strength. For all my training I couldn't match a God.-"

"Shouldn't you be asking that question to our glorious ex leader over there?" Bruce growled as he gestured to Steve. "And in answer, I was worried that if I did anything, I would Hulk out and make everything worse!"

"That still doesn't answer why Tony would feel threatened around us now." Steve said in a calm manner. "That was an extreme situation, if Tony behaved and caused less problems it wouldn't cause us to react in such a bad way."

"I thought my opinion of you could go no lower Captain," Vision replied calmly, a subtle look of repulsion on his face.

Peter had found that his mouth had gone completely dry, one of his ex - now definitely ex - idols had just tried to rationalise their abuse of his father figure by blaming him for it… 'Holy shit…'

"Was anyone else impressed with those kick ass moves as I was? Where did he learn them anyway?" Peter asked with a forced jovial light tone into his voice before the argument could escalate further, hoping to alleviate the tension of his teammates somewhat. However the tension was still palatable but Rhodey broke his eye contact with the Captain to look at him.

"Well some moves I taught him after I completed basic training. We still spar occasionally, not so much after Afghanistan but we've picked up again the last couple of years. Before the coma Happy boxed with him. In his childhood, from what we have seen, I think he was taught by Ana, Jarvis and Peggy as well."

"Well at least it came in handy there… Jesus some of those threats Abu was spewing though." Sam shook his head, he was still several shades lighter than normal. "Do you remember what the press was rumouring about that he was hurt like that over there when he got back?"

Peter let out a high pitched noise and Rhodey's head snapped to Sam. "How'd you still remember that? It was ten years ago... And Tony filed for defamation so the press haven't been able to mention it since."

Sam shrugged, "I didn't really till that low-life threatened him. It was pretty shocking at the time but I never believed it. Stark is too much of a proud bastard to allow that to happen to him-"

"Rape isn't something people allow to happen to them-" Rhodey snapped.

"He was one man against dozens and injured, there wasn't much he would've been able to do. He wasn't even able to fight off Abu properly." Winter growled, "Do you think I allowed myself to be mind wiped and controlled by Hydra?"

"No, no. Look it was poor wording but it was just never something I saw Stark as ever having gone through." Sam held his hands out in a placating manner; Bucky narrowed his eyes at him before letting it drop.

The gravity of the threats levelled against Tony still weighed heavily on their minds, Tony was still in danger of that happening while he was still in the Terrorists clutches.

By Natasha's math that was roughly two weeks, 'a lot of things can happen in two weeks. Tony will still be starving and if he shows any open sign of disobedience they might just do that…'

Natasha's hands clenched into fists and she glanced down at her new widow bites that had recently been upgraded by Tony. 'How I itch to Avenge him and rescue him from this hell now…'


Sparks flew as Tony used an old hand held, circular saw to cut down struts for the hydraulic exoskeleton. The struts were measured against his thigh and shin.

The way he was bent over made the team notice that parts of his spine were visible even through his sleeveless shirt.

Bruce winced, rubbing his hands on his pants nervously, "he's starting to become emaciated."

Clint looked away, remembering how his father had often denied him food for the slightest - or even perceived - wrongs.

The hydraulics system was one of the most difficult parts of the suit. While easy enough to make he had to ensure the cylinders and struts were capable of carrying the weight of the suit and completing any necessary tasks without compromising his movement too much.

The suit wasn't going to be agile by any means but he needed to be able to walk.

"This really isn't going to be anything like his current suits is it? He's usually pretty maneuverable, this looks clunky." Scott commented as he eyed the rudimentary parts he could see scattered around.

"Can you grab a couple of the double-acting cylinders, doc?" Tony asked as he paused his cutting and flipped up his mask. Yinsen headed to the box filled with the cylinders as Tony shouted back "the ones I marked with red!"

Trying to start up the saw again, he banged it on the table until it restarted. He bent back down to cut an opening into the strut and the cries of the metal and saw drowned out his bitter "piece of junk."

Rhodey grimaced at the faulty tool, thinking of how dangerous it was to work with tools not operating at full capacity. He eyed the cable that led to a battery that reminded uneasily of the one Tony had been hooked up to.

Yinsen returned with the two cylinders and Tony set him to start attaching their fuel lines as he began filing down the edges of the metal. The back and forward motion of his arms as he put force into the movement tugged at the muscles of his shoulder and upper chest.

The resulting strut was not pretty but he didn't need it to be and he ignored the tingling in his right shoulder as he swept up the shavings.

Not having a decent drill, let alone proper drill bits, the bolt holes needed to be done the old fashioned way; in the forge. Chiseling and punching a hole took a lot longer than drilling one and a lot more work. Tony's muscles were tense and sore by the time he'd finished the necessary holes.

Steve still found himself surprised at how hands on Tony was with the building and how he seemed to even enjoy it. He'd always assumed that Tony did most of his work on computers and either had employees or machines do the actual building. He found he rather liked watching Tony work.

He ignored the aches and began helping Yinsen mount the two cylinders onto the struts to form the basic leg supports. "Wrench it tight," he grunted as he threw his weight onto the last few turns of the wrench on his side of the support, until the bolt refused to budge.

Thor was stunned at being reminded once again of the Man of Iron's fragility; he would be able to tighten that bolt with his bare hands. 'I can't believe that I misjudged friend Anthony so badly… when inside the suit of Iron I have seen him best a Chitauri mothership. This increase in strength from his current condition must be some feat of Midgardian magic and craftsmanship worthy of the Dwarfs.'

"Good," Tony huffed as he wiped sweat off his forehead as he checked over the bolts.

Tony could feel Yinsen's dark eyes assessing him, checking whether he was in pain.

'He's worse than Jarvis was with the physical therapy when I was younger… did they take tips off each other or something?'

"He really should stop, he's pushing himself too far." Natasha muttered.

Now for the test.

Tony and Yinsen spent several minutes hooking up the cylinder to the radial pump and checking the pressure and flow control valves before Tony ran some last minute checks on the Gesture Control Brace he'd designed earlier.

"Let's hope we've got this right," Tony said as he strapped the brace tightly around his leg and connected the wires to the strut laying on the table. "This should detect movement in my leg and send signals to actuate the cylinders, increasing or decreasing the flow into each chamber to mimic the movement in my leg. If this doesn't work-"

'Please God let it work.' He really did not have time to go back to the drawing board. With the camera in the cell he would only get this one shot to test out his design for the hydraulics.

"Pressure flow looks a little low," Yinsen said as he looked at the reading on the computer, "provided I'm interpreting this correctly."

"You're doing fine, turn up the flow regulator and make sure the hose is secured."

Scott and Rhodey both move to Yinsen so they could take a look at the actual readings.

"It is a little Low I guess." Scott murmured, "but it will work."

Yinsen bent over the pump as Tony instructed him, turning the regulators dial once to increase the flow of the hydraulic fluid to and from the cylinders.

Looking at the readings again, Yinsen gave a thumbs up, then Tony raised his leg.

The large strut thwacking the table in time with him moving his leg, as well as the tell tale hiss from the pistons of the radial pump on the table, caused a smile to break out across Tony's face.

The team all let out wide grins and other celebratory gestures.

"You did it." Yinsen gave a small proud grin to Tony who looked across to him.

"No we did."

After placing his leg back on the floor the team sees Tony quickly removing the brace with ease and storing the struts away before the scene swirls around them.


Tony wasn't surprised when a voice came through the hatch and the metal doors finally creaked open again, he was actually shocked it had taken them this long. He knew his latest equipment test had been in full view of the camera.

He and Yinsen abandoned their work and placed their hands on their heads at the influx of their heavily armed captors, weapons were pointed at them before the men parted to reveal Raza who prowled ahead of them like an alpha lion leading his pack.

"This is not going to go well! Shit. They know he's not building the missile," Sam swore as he eyed the amount of armed opposition, afraid of what punishment they might inflict on Tony now for his defiance.

Raza assessed them with a cruel, calculating gaze as he stalked toward them, looking like a predator who had cornered its prey and casually twirling the ring he wore.

"Relax." He ordered in a calm almost friendly tone.

Tony glanced briefly to Yinsen as he obeyed and they both warily dropped their hands. He tried to look calm as Raza walked towards him.

'You are not afraid of him.'

Tony didn't quite restrain his flinch as Raza fingered his shirt, pushing the collar away to better admire the unbandaged Arc.

He could feel his heart thumping madly against the reactor as Raza's finger's glossed over the device almost certain the organ was going to jump out of his throat. His breath was caught in his lungs as he struggled not to retreat or strike out - made a little easier since despite the rush of his mind his body seemed locked in place - as the man touched the device keeping him alive. Tony was certain he could feel the touch through the reactor as the terrorist drew his fingers along the casing of the reactor with a desiring glint in his eyes.

A tremor of fear ran through the group as they watched this man touch their friends mechanical heartand the lingering look he gave it as he began to talk set them all on edge.

"The bow and arrow once was the pinnacle of weapons technology."

"Once!" Clint protested as Raza gave Tony the ghost of a malicious smile that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Natasha, like a few of the others just inch closer to Tony whilst keeping their eyes on Raza.

Raza finally dropped his hand, walking over to a stripped missile, Tony's eyes followed him all the way. "It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire." He fiddled with a piece of machinery dangling from the carcass before crossing back over to Tony who was careful to remain silent and not to make eye contact. "But today, whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands." The man walked past Tony, going to the table where the suit plans had been laid out and began rifling through them.

Tony shot an anxious side look to Yinsen who raised his hand slightly in a calming, warding gesture.

"And soon, it will be my turn." Raza stated menacingly as he placed the papers back and turned towards Tony. His voice had lowered to a threatening promise, his cold black eyes boring into Tony's for a long moment, he walked to stand in front of Tony again, sand and dirt crunching under his boots. The tension between them rose when Raza barked something in Urdu, a language Tony had unfortunately never learned.

Tension and fear for Tony rose in the group at the foreign language. For Bruce, Thor and Vision who understood the language, fear rose for the Doctor who they knew the order was directed at.

Yinsen replied in a deliberately soft meek voice, which made Raza turn around and ask something else as he approached the Doctor. Tony watched cautiously as the questioning took on a sinister edge.

Raza barked something that Tony, despite not understanding, knew was an order, he watched as a group of men then reached out, grabbing Yinsen by his elbows and the back of his neck, pushing him onto his knees whilst Raza turned away to the fire.

Tony grimaced, his hand clenching and unclenching reflexively.

"What are they doing?" Peter yelled, he really didn't want to experience someone else being burned again.

Tony briefly looked away and then turned back to see Raza blowing on a hot coal clasped in forceps, initially Tony's eyes bulge slightly as they flutter from the hot coal to Yinsen kneeling on the floor.

"Oh god," Bruce muttered as he heard what Raza said next. Thor looked furious.

"What'd he say?" Rhodey asked.

Bruce swallowed nervously, it was Vision who answered in a cold rage, "He said open your mouth."

"What does he want?" Tony spook up, he tried to force as much steely calm into his voice as possible whilst he watched Raza bodily grab Yinsen's head, twisting it to the side and forcing it down onto an anvil. His stomach clenched at the sight of the burning coal, the burns on his back echoing with ghost pain.

'Yinsen tell me...'

Raza hissed a question.

All most of them and Tony could understand from Yinsen's response was the word 'Jericho,' and that was when it clicked - they were questioning Yinsen for the Jericho now too.

The coal was brought closer.

Tony breathed heavily as he looked between his friend and the psychopath holding the burning coal - a part of Tony screamed to get as far away from that coal as possible and the pain he knew it could bring, another part was demanding he do something to help his friend. Sweat dripped down Tony's palms, his hands subtly trembling, as Raza repeated the question, a controlled rage lacing his words. Yinsen once again repeated his answer and the coal inched closer.

Tony did a good job at hiding it but Natasha noticed the fear behind Tony's wide eyes. She noted how his fingers twitched.

"He's terrified," Bucky stated, looking between Tony and the coal. "He's remembering when they burned his back. And this is probably the bastard that did it. He certainly seems to like it."

Sam looked closer at Tony and compared his current state to some of the soldiers he'd counseled. He could spot symptoms of a burgeoning anxiety attack a mile away, even when it was being heavily repressed. At least he'd thought he could because it was becoming more and more clear that he'd missed it in Stark.

Steve looked confused, "But he's been working around hot coals and was fine?"

"He could control that," Natasha mused, "he was working. Now he's not the one in control and it's a threat."

Both a combination of Raza's shout and the fact that the coal was now inches from Yinsen's tentatively opening mouth spurred both Tony's mouth and body into action.

"What do you want? A delivery date?" Tony strode forward and instantly all of the terrorist's guns were on him, Abu was amongst those vocally telling Tony to stop for a brief moment before they look to their leader who still has a burning piece of coal raised inches from Yinsen's open mouth.

'I can not see you get your tongue burned off.'

"Tony!" Rhodey cried.

"Shit," Clint swore, seeing the guns and their trigger happy looking handlers turn to Tony, "this is not a smart move man!"

Tony carefully placed an impassive, almost uncaring facade over the majority of his face but his eyes glistened with very real fear which contrasted with his carefully detached voice. "I need him." Tony deliberately emphasised this part before adding the next part as almost an afterthought. "Good assistant."

'A better friend - but I can't let them know that.'

Raza considered him. The coal dropped inches from Yinsen's mouth.

The knot in Tony's stomach loosened and he could breathe again. The phantom pain running through his back faded.

"You have till tomorrow to assemble my missile." Raza ordered before ushering his men out of the door.

"Actually he handled that quite well," Natasha said, impressed with how Tony dealt with the situation, managing to find a way to defuse it instead of the many more ways he could've easily made it worse. "He was casual and placed importance on Yinsen's part in the project rather than getting emotional and making him seem like good leverage against him."

"He was really prepared to risk his life to save his friends, even back then." Steve said, he could feel a proud smile spread itself across his face. "They looked ready to start shooting."

"Indeed! Friend Anthony is truly a brave and noble man! I am honored to have him as a shield-brother."

Tony waited till they had all left to breathe out a short relieved laugh, he gave Yinsen a small smile. But the other man doesn't appear to return the gesture, his eyes are still on the hot coal as he slowly lifted his head from the anvil and leant against it with shaky legs.

'Thank God Yinsen didn't get burned too. No wonder he's a little shaken-'

Tony glanced up to the security cameras before turning to the Doctor. "Look Yinsen-"

"That was incredibly stupid of you Stark." Yinsen leveled Tony with a stern look.

Tony blinked at him.

"What? So I don't get a thank you, I just stopped you from having a hole burned into your mouth-" Tony growled.

"Although I am grateful, they were ready to shoot you." Yinsen retorted sharply.

"They need me they aren't going to-" Tony spoke up but Yinsen uncharacteristically cut him off.

"You don't know that. If you become more of a problem and they decide that you are more of a commodity than an asset you will be killed. You saw how Raza looked at the arc reactor! He knows it's more than a pacemaker Stark! Right now it keeps you alive and productive so he allows it, but the moment you no longer suit their needs they will kill you and take it from your corpse! That is not a scenario that I am willing to see take place. I didn't spend all this time saving your life so you could ruin it with American bravado."

Vision flinched violently, remembering through JARVIS being unable to move as Obadiah did nearly exactly that to his grandfather. Next to him Spiderman's body language had curled so tight that he was sure that the young man was shaking and shocked speechless.

Feeling a little sick, Wanda realised she could visualize that situation quite clearly. Ultron had deserved what he'd gotten. Stark didn't deserve that either alive or dead. Ultron was a monster, Stark… wasn't.

Rhodey went grey, feeling sick at the thought of that happening to his best friend. He swore that he would kill anyone who dared even try to do that to his best friend.

"Fuck man! That's so messed up," Scott murmured as his face gained a sickly green tint.

"They're monster's," Steve said in a hoarse sounding voice. "It's barbaric. Who would rip someone else's heart out? No one deserves that."

Wanda shot a sharp glance to Steve. "Yes there are. But Stark isn't one of them."

Bucky was shooting a side glance at Steve, remembering his own - or Winter's - action to almost tear out the device and the way Steve had slammed his shield down on it. He knew better than to voice this. Bucky knew he would most likely be silenced by the Being before he could get his point of view across.

Green tinted Bruce's vision before it was pushed back to the far reaches of his mind. He and the Hulk were in complete agreement though regarding what would happen if any such thing ever occured.

Natasha was muttering swears in Russian and several other languages under her breath. Clint bumped her shoulder, "It doesn't happen Nat, he's alive and fine."

"So next time I'm just supposed to let them do it am I?" Tony snarled venomously, "Do you want them to carve a pretty pattern on your face like they did to my back?"

They twitched at the reminder of the brand, the ghost feelings from Tony made them feel even worse.

'Ok that was harsh but he needed to hear it.'

"Stark." Yinsen's voice took a harder note which effectively cut Tony off. "That is not what I meant and you know it and yes, if there is a next time you are supposed to just let them do what they want to me."

"I don't regret saving you. Don't try to make me. I would do it again." Tony bit out as he stormed away from Yinsen and grabbed a bit of metal that needed to be banged into shape.

Despite Yinsen's reaction, Tony swore he could feel the wooden Phoenix burn proudly in his pocket.


The Avenger's attention was drawn quickly by Tony hammering a piece of metal into shape over the anvil. Each hit caused a pang of ghost pain to ripple across the teams chests and right shoulder.

Tony paused slightly between each hit in order to recover and regain the familiar rhythm his work had when he was in the lab.

Bang!

They saw that the exertion of the work had caused him to shine with a thin sheen of sweat which highlighted his muscles rippling with each hit.

Bang!

Tony grimly peered at, what the team now saw, was a metal face plate.

"Fuck." Clint piped up in a wavering voice. "Damn, Iron Ass can be scary when he wants to be."

Nats mouth twitched. "Did you expect him to make it smiling?"

"Nay. To make an armour jovial would defeat its purpose to intimidate your foe. Friend Anthony's armours do this well." Thor rumbled, because of his concentration on Tony he had completely missed that Nat's question was in fact a rhetorical one.

It was a dark intimidating thing and a twisted part of Tony hoped that it would cause a few terrorists to shit themselves before he killed them.

"Oh they will, man." Scott spoke up, "if I wasn't Ant Man I would be pretty scared too."

Scott is irked by a small scoff he hears in response but he can't tell who made it. He was about to retort with how he had easily slipped into Stark's armour at Leipzig before he just stopped himself.

After dunking the metal in some cool water and letting it sizzle for a moment Tony pulled it out with a pair of forceps and twisted around to rest it on Yinsens desk.

The team shifted and some of the other members of the team got a good look at it.

The helmet truly made an intimidating sight, smoking as the water evaporated from the rapidly cooling heat.

Peter let out a low whistle as Wanda swallowed and stared at it. It unnerved the witch a little almost as much as it had done to see her eyes glare red for the first time or to see Ultron's face in the Novi Grad church. It reminded her of how she could feel Ultron's presence but she couldn't see into him. 'Sometimes not seeing something is worse…'

Steve tilted his head as he admired the helmet. It felt cold and too threatening like this, his inner artist longed to see the familiar gaudy red and gold design once again.


Tony was wrapping his hands like a boxer as Yinsen began to organize the suit, loading the chest piece onto a tall rack that was positioned facing away from the camera. Yinsen then helped Tony into a thick jacket that would protect his skin from the rough metalwork of the suit, Tony's thick working gloves followed to protect his hands and then a makeshift neck brace.

Tony felt like an Arthurian knight being dressed in his leather under armor. The comparison helped steady his nerves and reminded him of all the stories he'd read of King Arthur as a child.

Steve made a small noise and grinned over at Bucky upon remembering all the times that he had role played as Arthur and Merlin when they were kids. Or Bucky and Ma reading those legends to him when he got sick. He remembered getting into a massive argument with Bucky, who had seen himself as a knight too rather than a sorcerer. Now upon reflection he agreed Merlin's character didn't fit Bucky but Tony… Tony fit him almost seamlessly. 'He is truly a wizard withtechnology that's for sure.'

Stepping up to the rack he kept still as the heavy chest plate was lowered down with mechanical clanks and hisses. He rolled his shoulders back and tried to get used to the hulking weight that was bearing down on his sore chest.

"Okay?" Yinsen breathed, getting Tony's attention, "can you move?" he asked flexing his hand in question. Tony fisted his hand closed testing his range of movement beneath the forearm plating.

"Okay, say it again." Yinsen prompted.

"41 steps straight ahead. Then 16 steps, that's from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right." Tony answered back in a determined but lightly quaking voice as Yinsen ran last minute adjustments on the suit, checking filter lines and tightening bolts.

"Wow." Scott breathed, "he could really remember the way out after three months stuck there…"

"Tony is remarkable, that's for sure." Bruce smiled as an impressed grin too spread itself across Natasha's face.

Yinsen moved around to Tony's front to adjust the metal plates. Looking up, Yinsen spared Tony a brief reassuring smile, sensing his nerves. The warm reassurance that gesture gave pooled in Tony's gut and the nerves he felt eased back a little.

'I will get you out of here, if it is the last thing I do…'

The mood of the entire group drops, even Steve who had briefly courted denial about Yinsen's death was now forced to confront the reality of the Doctors impending doom.

Steve swallowed heavily at feeling the strong friendship between Tony and Yinsen. 'Yinsen was Tony's Doctor Erksine… I just hope that Tony didn't have to see his death.'

Then the moment broke.

"Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!" The terrorist's clamber at the door, continuing on to shout something in a language that Tony only recognised and once again his heart felt like it had settled in his throat.

"Say something. Say something back to him." Tony murmured to Yinsen, the strength of his voice wavered a little once again.

"He's speaking Hungarian. I don't…" Yinsen responded, equally flustered.

"Then speak Hungarian." Tony hissed at the Doctor, the anxiety pooling in his gut made it come out harsher than he intended.

"What the hell Stark?" Wanda hissed, "You can speak Hungarian! There are things more important than keeping up the stupid charade-"

'Come on Yinsen. The only words I know from Ana are Aunt, Darling and Sweetheart. I don't think they'd take it well if I called them that. I might as well put a gun to my head.'

Wanda twitched awkwardly after hearing that thought and back peddled, "Well I guess that's ok then."

"Okay. I know."

Hope reignited in Tony's stomach but he pressed for Yinsen to elaborate. 'Please don't let the only words you know be pleasantries too.' "What do you know?"

Yinsen frowned briefly before shouting back something at the terrorists behind the door.

A few members of the team turned to Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Thor or Vision to translate but there was no time to do so.

The terrorists flurry of responses to him clearly confused the Doctor who made a helpless expression before the terrorists tried to pull open the door.

The team noticed the bomb wired to the door a second before it exploded in a ball of flame.

Dust, sand and small debris washed over Tony as he tried to turn his head away from the cloud.

Despite not being physically present they all flinched back from the explosion, expecting the force to wash other them.

Scott reflexively coughed in the debri cloud.

'Ok, so it exploded but are they down?' The fact that the bomb detonated caused some confidence to leak back into his voice though and he found upon opening his mouth again that his voice no longer shook. "How'd that work?"

"Oh, my goodness. It worked alright." Yinsen appeared slightly stunned and a little impressed whilst he moved back to secure the leg of the suit.

"That's what I do." Tony tried to push some false nonchalance into his tone to lighten the mood despite the fact that he could not feel less proud of that fact at the moment. 'It is the same thing that killed those three soldiers and possibly Rhodey…'

Rhodey swallowed heavily at the phantom feeling of crushing self loathing and guilt. "I'm not dead, what happened isn't your fault."

He felt his gut wrench at that thought and he stubbornly stopped himself from going down that rabbit hole.

"Good." Bucky muttered, he knew Tony couldn't afford to go there now.

"Let me finish this."

"Initialize the power sequence." Tony said urgently. 'We're running out of time…'

"Okay."

"Now!" Tony raised his voice at the Doctor, the very real anxiety of running out of time was stronger than it had ever been, being immobilized was worse when he knew that he could complete this ten times faster if he was able to aid Yinsen.

"Tell me. Tell me."

"Function 11. Tell me when you see a progress bar. It should be up right now."

"Yes."

"What the hell does 'yes' mean?" Peter hissed in a panic.

Tony's eyes widened a little. 'Yinsen. Elaborate! You can't just say yes.'

"Talk to me. Tell me when you see it." Tony tried his hardest to control the irritation and the fear that was bleeding it's way into his tone, Yinsen was his eyes, ears and hands at the moment and that powerlessness really didn't sit well with him at all.

Natasha nodded as she watched the scene intensely, real powerlessness was not something she had experienced much since her days in Red Room.

It was not something she liked the feeling of.

"I have it." 'Oh thank God…'

"Press Control 'l'."

"'I.' Got it."

"'I.' 'Enter.' 'l' and 'Enter.'" Yinsen's hands darted across the keyboard in accordance with Tony's instructions. "Come over here and button me up."

"Okay. All right." Tony could almost feel the Doctor's nerves as he bolted the final parts of the suit together, it didn't help that the distant sounds of terrorists approaching was echoing down into their part of the cave.

'Showtime is approaching.'

"Every other hex bolt." The noises were getting louder, Tony tried to project some steely, strict calm into his voice in the hopes of easing the Doctor's nerves a little.

But it was in vain, Yinsen was still panicked even as he secured half of Tony's bolts. "They're coming!"

"Nothing pretty, just get it done. Just get it done." 'You can do this Yinsen, we planned it all out remember.'

"They're coming." 'I know… I can hear them. Please don't do anything stupid.'

A dark foreboding feeling swept over the group… what was coming was becoming clearer and clearer to them.

"Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?" The tremor in Tony's voice returned, the darker part of his mind had guessed that Yinsen was going to do something suicidally reckless. 'Just say Ok..please Yinsen.' Tony's bright eyes were stuck on Yinsen as the doctor stilled and looked at the progress bar.

"We need more time." Yinsen looked up from the progress bar and his eyes went to Tony as he moved away from the computer. He spoke in a soft tone that told of the determination of what he was about to do and of the friendship that they had shared in their three months of hell together.

"Hey, I'm gonna go buy you some time."

"Shit!" Scott exclaimed, "do you - do you think this is how he dies?"

"God I hope not." Steve replied, his nails pressed deeply into his palms. 'Please don't mirror Erksine… not like this.'

"Friend Yinsen is truly a worthy warrior, but this action is unwise." Thor fiddled with his hammer anxiously

'NO! NO! DON'T! I'll be fine! Idiot! You have a family!'

"So do you." Both Rhodey and Vision shared an awkward glance as they both spoke in unison.

"Stick to the plan! STICK TO THE PLAN!" Tony yelled as he watched Yinsen grab a loaded gun from one the blown up terrorists. "YINSEN!" Tony twisted his head just in time to see the other man disappear into the deeper recesses of the cave.

'I'm not worth dying for.'

"Yes you are." Peter murmured in response whilst he followed Tony's gaze to where Yinsen had vanished.

Shuddering, Tony turned back from where he saw the Doctor disappear, took a shaky breath and glared holes into the computer on the worktable.

'Hurry up you piece of junk. I've got to save Yinsen.'

They waited with baited breath as they stared at the progress bar and prayed for it to hurry up.