*~*~* AUTHORS NOTE *~*~*

I'm so sorry I'm not normally this bad, a mix of personal life issues and a creative block is very bad for my writing
I hope you aren't too angry at me for this and you enjoy what I came up with. (It's a long chapter - 19 pages! :D I was going to cut it into 2 chapters but to be honest I want to move this story forward and get Tony back to America.)

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.

*~*~* ANSWERS TO YOUR REVIEWS *~*~*

afedrigo - You're welcome I'm so glad you liked the happy ending last chapter had. Here's the next one. :D

Miss RR - I'm glad it causes that reaction in you :) it means I'm doing something right. Yup! I was feeling very bitter after CACW so I thought I would try my hand at a fix it with a twist to show them all just how much they wronged and undervalued Tony. You have quite a long way to wait for that I just hope you enjoy my version of it when it finally comes :D AOU will be one of the films that hit the hardest. They were! :(


For a moment Tony just clung to Rhodey, digging his fingers into his jacket and breathing in Rhodey's scent from under all the sand and relished the very solid feeling of Rhodey's arms. His breathing felt easier than it had for a long time and he almost couldn't feel the weight of the reactor as Rhodey's presence - the knowledge that he was alive! - seemed to chase away the months of pain, at least for a moment.

"That feeling you get when you're reunited with someone you love after going through something like that is one of the best feelings." Bucky smiled, both Steve and Natasha looked to him, the later with the hint of an understanding smile at the edge of her lips whilst the former squeezed Bucky's shoulder in a comforting gesture with sad puppy dog eyes.

"I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you alive Tony." He felt Rhodey hug him tighter. "Three months! Three months I've been searching for your scrawny ass-"

"I missed you too." Tony rasped into Rhodey, "you have no idea how much."

'I love you so much Honey Bear. Thank god you're alive. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you.'

Rhodey smiled wordlessly with bright eyes, he knew that in his heart the feeling was mutual.

Rhodey was silent for a long time, he sounded regretful when he spoke up again. "Let's head into the aircraft, can you walk?"

"Yeah, you'll have to give me a hand though." Tony rasped hoarsely.

Rhodey pulled away before his eyes widened when he spotted glow of the arc under Tony's shirt.

"Shit! Those bastards! I need a bomb disposal team here asap!" Rhodey pulled Tony away from him and holds him securely by the tops of his arms.

The team couldn't fault Rhodes's logic at all in thinking that but the thought of how easily that could have been the truth made the more intelligent members of the team wince.

Tony held back a wince as it jostled his injured arm.

Rhodey did wince.

"Rhodey it's not a bomb!" Tony's voice went hoarse and cracked, both due to the vehemence of the words and the severe dehydration that being under the unforgiving heat of the desert had put him under. He coughed slightly and tried to make his voice sound more natural, but his throat grated further. "I got injured. I made a miniaturized arc reactor and slotted it in my chest to keep myself alive."

Rhodey swallowed as Tony pulled his tank top down with two fingers briefly to show the side of the arc and give a glimpse of the scars twisting the top of his chest.

For a moment Rhodey just stared in shock, a faint look of horror twisting over his face.

"Call off the bomb disposal team. False alarm. But make sure Base medical is alerted." Rhodey barked to the men hovering behind him whilst helping Tony up off the sand. "MOVE IT! Let's go!"

Feeling a distant pang of embarrassment at how his best friend half carried him towards the aircraft, Tony shrugged him off after they walked forward a few paces and he managed to half fall, half stumble into a seat.

The spike of pain that ran through his leg - and just about every other injury - should have made him regret the action, but he was to glad not to have looked entirely helpless among the unknown soldiers.

Tony leant over and let out a groan whilst he pressed his face into his hands.

The team saw Rhodey cast Tony a worried look before grabbing three full, litre bottles of water in his arms and taking a seat next to Tony.

"Wow that's a bit of an overkill on the water isn't it?" Scott said whilst raising an eyebrow at Rhodey.

"I wanted to make sure he was alright after spending who knew how long wandering the desert. Besides as long as he drunk it slowly I thought he'd be fine." Rhodey shrugged tensely.

He placed two of the bottles to his side furthest from Tony before holding one out tentatively to him. "Tony, I've got you some water."

Tony's head jerked up and he snatched it greedily from him.

Rhodey watched him apprehensively for a moment before Tony heard him calling one of his army buddies, who Tony distantly saw carrying over a small medical bag.

Tony raised an eyebrow as Rhodey pulled out a tube and several rolls of bandages.

"What the hell is that for?" Tony rasped in a harsh questioning voice.

"The first degree burns on your arms," Rhodey raised an eyebrow at him, "I know you well enough to know you're not going to let me treat much else. But look if you have any broken bones or anymore burns tell me now."

"My big toe popped at one point."

"Right that sounds like a dislocation, come here give me your foot."

Tony made an incredulous and slightly defensive expression and kept his injured foot where it was.

"Tony quit the bullshit and give me your foot." Rhodey snapped, sounding thoroughly done before taking a breath and continuing on in calm but demanding tone. "I can help you get your shoe off if you want-"

Tony grumbled and slid it off himself, Rhodey gave a small flash of a smile which told Tony that was Rhodey's plan all long.

"Ready?"

Tony scoffed, "Ready? I was born ready-"

Then Rhodey quickly grabbed his clearly dislocated big toe and snapped it back into place.

A bolt of familiar pain ran through Tony's foot.

Grimacing, Tony bit his tongue so hard he thought he could taste blood and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut for a moment.

"See I was fine." Tony had to consciously try to untense and convince Rhodey that this was true, though he was uncomfortably aware that his best friend could see right through this facade despite Rhodey not calling him out on it. Rhodey could always see right through him.

"You also barely placed your right leg on the floor at all when you were moving by yourself, wanna tell me why that is?" Rhodey asked, before hissing when he spotted beads of blood on Tony's right leg. "Fuck, man. Why didn't you tell me you were bleeding?"

"I forgot." Tony shrugged before his leg reflexively jolted away as Rhodey touched his shin. He pretended not to see the flash of pity on Rhodey's face as he moved his leg back as though nothing had happened.

"Did that hurt? I was trying to feel for any foreign objects stuck in-"

"Nah I'm fine," Tony answered, they both knew that Rhodey barely even touched his leg, "although without that context the way you're touching my leg is bit creepy there Honey Badger."

A smile weakly twitched at Rhodey's lips, "No offence man but you're not my type. Lift your leg for me."

Rhodey worked quickly and silently on wrapping the cuts there before securing it and placing his best friends leg back down.

"Wait… I didn't see you as the type to learn about medicine." Steve wonder'd briefly as he turned to Rhodey.

"It's standard procedure to know the basics." Rhodey replied in a distant sounding voice.

Sam shot Rhodey a worried look whilst Steve cringed internally, knowing that he barely knew that. He was used to being the one being treated not treating others.

"You're missing out buddy." He shrugged with his uninjured shoulder then asked in a more serious voice. "Seriously though, how did you get out alive? … I thought you were dead, just like-"

Tony cut himself off and swallowed heavily as 3 familiar faces flashed through his mind, keeping his eyes trained on his best friend.

"I thought I was Tony." Rhodey breathed in answer as he finally looked away from Tony's leg to meet his eyes.

Tony went rigid. His mind started running through ideas of all the ways Rhodey could have been injured and nearly killed during the attack, each worst then the last.

There was a short pause between the two before Rhodey began to elaborate. "After I sent you off to run to safety, there was a shit storm of bullets that rained down us. One hit my shoulder but most of the first round just hit the gun, enough to ruin the gun and send it spinning… the next thing I knew I lost my balance. And I smacked my head hard on the side of the Humvee and the ground. It was enough to make me completely black out. I woke up a couple of hours later when a team from base arrived to find out where we were. You were gone. All of the Convoy bar me was dead. The only reason I'm alive is because with how I fell and how much the superficial wound bled the terrorists believed I was too. "

All of the group turned their shocked faces to Rhodey, who patted his armoured shoulder. "Every word of that is true… I've got the scar to prove it."

Clint gave a long whistle. "This is probably the one instance where I'll say that you were lucky to be shot in the arm… you got damn lucky Rhodes."

"He's lucky that they were so stupid as to not check too-" Peter added.

"They wouldn't have had time to check each body for life signs and it would have been foolish to do so." Sam replied, frowning while he did so. "They wanted to kidnap Stark and get out of there as quick as possible. The fuckers shot anyone obviously still alive by the end of their assault and then cleared off. Stark was injured himself at the time as well and they didn't want him to die on them while they could use him or be stopped by any reinforcements the military would send to look for their missing convoy."

Rhodey swallowed heavily before breaking eye contact with Tony and moving to sit beside him.

A million things passed through Tony's head and for the first time Tony was shocked by just how old his best friend appeared.

"It's been a long three months Tony…" Rhodey sighed whilst staring into the distance.

"I thought I failed him." Rhodey confessed quietly with bright eyes. "For three months, I feared I'd led him to his death."

Steve looked over to him. In a fit of sympathy, he was about to divulge that he knew exactly what that felt like but shut his mouth before he could speak.

"I know." Tony answered shortly.

There was another long unnatural silence between the two, Tony's head buzzing with questions about how everyone else had coped while he had been in hell. He had found it hard to comprehend that it had been three months since the Convoy had been attacked. It had been three months - it felt like it had been years.

Natasha could feel herself cringe, she knew how slow time seemed to crawl when held under torture or under abuse and after getting out… the darkness that had tainted her never went away. She could only fear and wait to see how that darkness tainted Tony.

Thoughts about the attack, Rhodey's injury and all the soldiers who died turned his thoughts in another direction. He wet his lips as he prepared to ask about one of the things that had haunted him in the last three months.

"Did you know the people who were with me in that Humvee?"

"Not well but I knew their names." Rhodey answered shortly in a tired voice whilst he leans heavily back on the chair. "Staff Sergeant Sasha Ramirez, Senior Airman Daniel Pratt and Airman First Class James Forrest."

Tony felt a knot gathering at the back of his throat. "Did they have families?"

"Don't do that to yourself." Rhodey said in a stern voice.

Natasha blinked in surprise, struck suddenly by the parallel to the words she used to comfort Clint after Loki.

It's clear that to her that Clint saw this too, he directd a warm smile to her and then pointedly looked back to the memory Rhodey.

"Do what exactly?" Tony's voice went dangerously low as he narrowed his eyes, he found the anger within him had suddenly risen up. The strength of his sudden rage even took him by surprise, he took a moment to try and restrain the sudden rage as Rhodey began to speak again.

Sam cringed internally, knowing that the sudden rage was also telling of PTSD. 'How the hell did I miss so much?'

"Don't find out just to find another reason to blame yourself for something that you had no fault in."

"Well said, my comrade." Thor boomed at Rhodey with a large smile on his face, he would have patted him on the shoulder too but with how the team had filled into the carrier had meant that several memory objects were in his path.

Rhodey instead gave a fleeting smile. "Thanks Thor."

Tony scoffed and stood up angrily before sneering nastily. "You know I can find out myself later, right? Whatever misguided protection you think withholding this from me now does, actually does nothing."

Peter flinched slightly away at his tone, he knew that if Tony had directed those poisonous words at him, he wouldn't have nearly stayed as cool and collected as Rhodey.

Rhodey stared him down with a hard look that made his insides shrivel. "I thought you respected me more than that."

The rage monster that had risen up in Tony seemed to have curled in on itself in shame and in its place he felt a cold shrinking sensation of guilt and sadness.

"Rhodey I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Rhodey's stare softened slightly," I know you didn't… just don't be an idiot. Sit down, you need to rest."

Tony gave an upset sigh before sitting back down next to Rhodey.

After a long moment, Tony grumbled. "I hate just sitting here."

"I know." Rhodey answered with a slight smile on his face, "I think we'll be arriving soon don't worry."


The team found themselves a little thrown when the scene suddenly changed to a Doctor's office at the base.

"Stark can you tell me your injuries please?"

Tony gave the man a hard glare. "Surely as a doctor you're meant to tell me that."

"Come on Tony, you've got to at least give him something to work with." Bruce rubbed his hands together and tried to resist biting his nails, anxiously he waited to see how the Doctor reacted to what Tony says. 'If he reacts the wrong way it could make Tony withdraw even more.'

The Doctor didn't rise to the bait though, and responded in such a calm mild mannered way that it reminded Tony painfully of Yinsen. He focused on the man's physical differences like, the lack of spectacles and the orderly, thick mop of brown hair that was the polar opposite to the other Doctor to try to keep the similarities from hurting. "I can't do that without examining you properly Stark."

"When you lose someone you care about you can't help but see them everywhere, see every little similarity. It hurts…" Wanda murmured as she frowned and looked away.

Rhodey swore under his breath before hissing. "I chose him because I thought his temperament might help Tony feel comfortable…"

"Give me your best guess, Bones." Rhodey bit sharply in response.

Doctor Bones turned briefly to Rhodey before looking back to Tony. "I believe you are suffering from heat exhaustion, you have two obvious first degree burns on your arms which were treated very well. The way you are being very careful with your right arm makes me believe that you have dislocated it somehow."

"You're a right Sherlock doc." Tony said with a hard note, his mouth twitching into a false smile. He just wanted this doctor to leave.

'I don't need your help, I'm fine. I'm not weak.'

"Needing medical attention doesn't mean you're weak, Sir." Vision sighed.

"The effect of Howard's A+ parenting strikes again." Clint gave a sarcastic slow clap. "What a dick."

Surprisingly Steve didn't react to that. He knew he couldn't deny that description at least fit Howard's behaviour to Tony. By seeing his friend act the way he had as a parent Steve noticed that he was slowly starting to see in shades of grey where things and people to him had previously either been all good or bad without question.

"As for treatment of this injury I will set on bandaging and possibly stitching some of these wounds up," Bones said as he peered at the cuts across Tony's chest and shoulders. "Then give you some local anaesthetic-"

"-No." Tony bit out in a brittle voice.

"Stark, I don't think you understand how much resetting the bone will hurt if I don't-"

"No you don't understand. The last thing I need is to risk an addiction to pain meds which is surely what I will get knowing what my track record with Alcohol is like. I don't use it unless I absolutely need it"

"Wait… What?" Peter turned to Rhodey, appearing surprised. "I get that he liked his drink in the past but I never thought it was an actual problem."

Rhodey sighed and then bit out in a hard voice. "The press have been spreading rumours about his issues with alcohol since his parents died and there was a grain of truth to it. Is it really any wonder he didn't want to be addicted to something else?"

Wanda tilted her head to the side and questioned, "but he was using morphine in the cave and never said anything."

"We all felt the pain after the operation and that was with the drugs, he needed it there." Natasha answered back in a dark thoughtful voice. "But it's understandable that with how much drugs he's used recently, he wouldn't want to risk anymore."

Memory Rhodey stayed silent where he was sitting but his look to the the Doctor became sharper and he bristled almost as if he is readying himself for a fight.

"Alright but I must warn you the process will be very painful without it." The Doctor agreed before moving other to the side to grab the gauze and stitches.

"Wait? That's it?" Tony blinked at the Doctor who turned back to him with the equipment gathered in his arms. He'd expected more of an argument.

"Short term relief isn't worth it if you feel it's going to to be detrimental to you in the long run." The Doctor flashed him a smile that flooded Tony's insides with relief, Tony noticed Rhodey untense as well as the Doctor moved back over.

"Bless you Bones." Steve smiled. "He's pretty understanding."

"Putting the patients long term needs ahead of protocol sometimes is the mark of a good Doctor." Bruce responded with a smile.

"If I may before I fix your arm, can I get some details about the device in your chest and how it will possibly affect the muscles in your shoulder and your chest cavity." The Doctor prompted gently. "I would like to take some scans and run some tests to be sure I don't cause further damage."

Tony gave him a hard look. "Long story short, it's a very sophisticated pacemaker. I got injured. I made myself a solution. No, you popping my arm back in won't tear anything in my chest, just do it."

"He can't possibly know that." Bruce gasped. "Tony you idiot!"

"What?! Why would his shoulder affect anything?" Rhodey turned to Bruce with wide panicked eyes.

"Because the pectoral muscles run from the shoulder to the sternum; it connects to the reactor. Moving the shoulder back could cause the muscle to tear away from either his shoulder or the arc." Bruce responded in an anxious flurry, he felt restless and anxious at the thought of possibly more internal injury for Tony and what it could mean.

The Doctor frowned, he pressed his hands briefly around the area of the joint and his chest, seeming to check Tony's words were true before he clicked the joint back up.

Feeling flooded through Tony's arm, which was both a good thing as he hadn't realised his fingers were going numb till that point and a bad thing because the pain around the joint had flared up again with a vengeance.

They all hissed in pain and clasped their respective shoulders as they felt the sharp pain and the dull ache that blended with the pain that still lingered in their chests. Tony scarcely winced.

"How is he barely reacting to that?" Wanda hissed, as she gingerly brought her hand away from her arm. Her powers thrum powerfully across that shoulder and trickle down to her hand, almost as if they were checking that conduit was still available to them.

"The reactor," Bruce murmured sadly, "he's getting used to pain around his torso. The relocation is nothing compared to the pain he's had and still has from the reactor."

"Colonel Rhodes, would you mind grabbing the patients change of clothes? I'll be ready to move on the full examination soon." The Doctor said as he moved over to the cooled storage cabinet.

"Full examination?" Tony raised an incredulous eyebrow at the Doctor that he didn't see because he was in the process of taking out ice packs from the Cabinet.

Tony thought he could see brightly coded and labelled selections of vials of medicines and containers filled with things he couldn't distinguish.

Bruce's interest peaked at the small glimpse of the other doctors materials and chemicals, he recognised a lot of the things in there from what he used as his time being the team doctor.

However, he forced himself to look away from the distraction to Rhodey. "What the fuck is that? It sounds plain creepy or boring to Me."

"You and me both." Peter mumbled as he shifted uncomfortably, he had always felt uneasy around Doctors and his family could rarely afford medical care. He'd gotten used to minor injuries and illness being taken care of by Aunt May and now that he was Spider-Man by fixing whatever injuries he received himself.

"Its standard procedure. He just needs to check for any internal injuries you may have." Rhodey said.

"I'm fine." Tony said incredulously.

"Forgive me if I have trouble believing that seeing as you busted yourself out using an explosion." Rhodey hissed anxiously to Tony.

"It is pretty far fetched, in fact there was a high possibility of fatality from both the explosion and the fall." Vision said. "Mr Stark was very lucky to have gained only these injuries from what we have just seen."

There was a moment of tense silence between the two before Rhodey's tone became reassuring. "I'll be back soon."

Tony hated it. It felt like Rhodey was being too careful with him, treating him like he was fine china.

He was sure to show how much he hated it too by directing a severe glare at Rhodey, one he's sure would have been worthy of Howard Stark, as he left the room.

Steve cringed as he saw the resemblance from the Howard that he had seen in Tony's memories. He had always wanted to see Howard in Tony, now he wasn't sure he liked it.

"I promise I won't be too invasive Stark, but we will get to that in a moment." The Doctor replied calmly but firmly as he moved back over. "First I need you to hold the ice pack to your shoulder whilst I check your ankle."

Tony held the ice pack mechanically as the doctor prodded around the ankle before declaring it was only twisted with a small gash before binding it.

"Can you take off your shirt please so I can examine the wounds there?" The Doctor asked.

"No." Tony bit out.

"Would you prefer to wait till Colonel Rhodes returns?"

"No I would prefer to have no one poking and prodding at me for once in three fucking months! Is that too much to ask?!" Tony found himself yelling at this point without consciously telling himself to. "I am fine! I really am! I just want to get changed and be left alone. No meaningless prodding! No gawking! You've fixed me up, now there's no point for it for some BS examination. I know I'm fine. Let me go."

The group were floored again but the sudden strength of the anger that rose up in their teammate and a lot of them found themselves stepping away from him unconsciously.

"Fuck…" Peter reared back in surprise, "I don't think I've ever seen him so… raw and angry."

"Not that you can blame him, he did just bust out of hell." Winter's eyes narrow as a calculating expression comes over his face distinctive to the Soldier. "He's tense and defensive which is telling of anger but the way he's angling his body, particularly his back away from the Doctor seems to me like he wants to keep the Doctor as far away from that part of him as possible."

The scene began to morph and change around them.


The team followed Rhodey and Tony down the corridor leading away from the Doctors office, they were a little thrown by the sudden scene change and Bones absence. But not so much as to not follow the conversation they were listening to.

"This is fucking Bullshit. I'm not an invalid." Tony growled to Rhodey from the wheelchair.

"I'm not treating you like one. It's a reasonable compromise seeing as you won't let the doctor check for internal injuries… when we get back I'm going to call some paramedics to meet us as we land in the US.-"

"-Rhodey-"

'You know that promise to the Doctor was bullshit, come on Man.'

Bruce let out a long suffering groan. "Tony, is one of the best friends you can have, but the worst patient you can ever have."

"I brought you a suit you can change into." Rhodey spoke up, Tony hated the tone he was using it sounded too calm, too careful, like he felt Tony would shatter if he was too harsh. "I'll show you to the bathroom."

"Go Rhodey." Peter smiled widely to him.

"Pepper packed those clothes for me to bring him home in just before my first mission. I couldn't bring myself to take them back to her even after so long. Neither of us wanted to give up despite it being so long…" After that confession Rhodey's voice hardened and his jaw clenched. "Only Stane seemed ready. I should've been more suspicious at how ready he appeared to be to call off the search to 'grieve'. Bastard."

"I can't believe I sw the day where you got self conscious. All the time I've known you you've never been like this - quite the opposite actually." Rhodey observed anxiously.

"People change." Tony bit out.

Rhodey opened the door and turned back to Tony, giving him a worried frown. "That whole exchange with the Doctor just now seemed off. You're hiding something-"

Tony narrowed his eyes and rose to his feet as he steadily met his best friends piercing gaze.

"Well if you don't want to tell me that's fine." Rhodey appeared a little put out by the lack of response before he held out the suit. "Here. Take as long as you need, I'll be waiting."

Rhodey shut the door swiftly after that to give Tony privacy.

As soon as he was sure Rhodey wouldn't come back in, he began to quickly pull off his jacket and his tank top despite his injuries protests.

Upon looking at himself in the mirror, Tony's face dropped, not only was he really pale and gaunt, he was covered completely in scars.

The worst was the mangled mess that was his chest, at the top were the places where Yinsen had extracted the shrapnel, jagged lines from where Yinsen had inevitably slipped a few times when Tony had violently writhed against against his blade.

Tony cringed at the remembrance of those thoughts circling his brain, he tried not to linger too much on those scars though.

He knew what they looked like.

"It's still a lot though …" Steve looked over Tony sadly, "that's going to be tough to deal with."

"Well spotted Captain Obvious." Winter growled in reply, seeing Stark so scarred and seeing what he had to go through to get them seemed to have struck a nerve in him and Bucky.

After taking a moment to brace himself, Tony turned and twisted his head to take a look at the massive Ten Ring's brand dug into his back.

Tony is immediately floored by the extent of the ugly brand distinctive brand, it swamped the entirety of the lower half of his back.

Winter tensed, the almost imperceptible sound of gears jarring against each other and the general hum of the arm was something he more felt rather than heard as he clenched the arm. He could feel the metal rubbing against flesh under the skin of his shoulder.

His new arm was different, better than Hydra's. And it didn't have that god awful red star, the one that claimed him as their puppet. But that feeling of being owned and permanently disfigured by Hydra never left. No one could miss that he was as messed up as he was or that Hydra had took his flesh arm, that the remnants of his shoulder were a scarred mess. But he knew it would be much worse if he was forced to stare at that red star day after day. Stark didn't have the option of replacing his whole back or getting a new paint job.

"It's massive," Tony breathed. "Holy shit! I can't cover that up. No amount of plastic surgery will ever fully fix-."

Winter swallowed heavily, he barely held back the murderous rage and it was only thanks to Stark's treatment with the BARF that he could.

His throat clenched painfully and he cuts himself off before he can finish that sentence.

Contrary to popular belief he had never been fully arrogant or vain.

But one thing he was, was proud.

He took pride in several things, for instance; Tony knew was attractive - but now with the brand covering his back and the arc scarring splayed across his front, he was ruined.

Front and back.

"No. Scars are a mark of what you can endure, they are something to be proud of since they are a mark of the battles and the struggles you can endure. Doesn't Midgardian culture view them this way too?" Thor looked to the others with confusion etched on his face, the brand on his friends back he could get the shame in since the enemy had defiled him with their symbol but the chest scars he couldn't get the shame in them at all. They were a testament of survival against all odds.

"Most people view them as just ugly." Natasha replied in a hard voice, she had to try to keep her hand away from her side where Winter had shot her, the mark had bothered her for a long time until she had gotten treatment for it, now she was lucky that only the barest hint of a mark remained.

What was worse was that he would have to carry their mark on him for the rest of his life

'Who would want to sleep with you now? Pepper certainly wouldn't. Even discounting that who would want to be in a relationship with a man who has a brand like that on his back and a mechanical heart.'

"She did though!" Rhodey exclaims, "Because she loved you, idiot."

"At least I am here. The personality is what counts isn't it? I survived, I burned them. They're gone. They're gone." Tony repeated that to himself like a mantra.

'It doesn't change the fact that I am permanently disfigured now. And come on the personality is what counts?! I don't even like myself.'

Wanda spoke in a toneless voice, "Scathing, even I have got to say that's too harsh."

Tony grimaced at that before grabbing the brown shirt and slipping it on gingerly to accommodate for the pains running up and down his arm.

He took care to pull the pendant Yinsen made him from his pocket and stow it safely on the side before looking to grab his new clothes. Pepper had good taste.


Eventually, he grabbed his dirty things and unlocked the door to find Rhodey sat waiting for him with that blasted wheelchair still there.

"Hey Tones- I've got to ask… what happened over there?"

They saw brief flashes of blood, water, sand, metal, bright blue light and Yinsen's dead unsettling eyes.

'Suppress it.' They felt Tony internally push everything deep to the back of his mind.

"I have a feeling that all the darkness in Friend Anthony's sphere is all the repressed traumas from times like these." Thor reaffirmed the grip on his hammer anxiously.

"I really hope not." Scott replied. "He can't afford to do that, especially not after all this."

"I don't want to talk about it." Tony's jaw twitched, he was silent for a long moment then his voice became sharp and his eyes turned black. He knew Rhodey wouldn't drop it unless Tony gave him something.

'So give him something.'

"They wanted me to make weapons."

"And?" Rhodey prompted.

"I said yes, I made a weapon too. One to get out and blow their operation to smithereens, they got nothing from me."

Natasha was awed at how good a manipulator Tony was showing himself to be. He was telling the truth but in such a way that he omitted huge details without it being obvious that was what he was doing.

'It's not proper lying; I just kind of skimmed over the truth a little. I'm not going to tell anyone about the other things that happened.' Tony thought.

Seemingly relieved, Rhodey smiled. "Oh thank God. Who knows what would have happened if you were your normal stubborn self and said no first."

"I didn't buy it completely but I thought this was as close to the truth as I was going to get." Rhodey shrugged with bright eyes and looked away, "I didn't want to push too hard and cause him to retreat into himself."

Tony resisted twitching at that and disguised the impulse by instead lowering himself into the wheelchair. 'Oh I do know. I lived it.'

Rhodey shifted uncomfortably and grimaced at remembering all the things he had seen his best friend live through in those three months of hell.

"Tony...that's enough for me but my CO is going to want to see you now you're all patched up." Rhodey said almost regretfully.

"Really? Can't they just let him go home already?" Peter exclaimed as he turned to current Rhodey.

"If it was up to me I would have." Rhodey wiped his hands down his face. "There's no way I could have done that without getting both myself and Tony into a lot of unnecessary shit."

Tony let out a loud groan. "What the fuck? Really? I just want to go home already. I want to see Pepper-"

"-I know. I know," Rhodey's voice took on that soothing, careful tone again and Tony hated it. "You can do all those things right after this."

Tony folded his arms and lifted his head up defiantly to Rhodey, he had always been smaller than his best friend and the wheelchair only emphasised that.

Although it was an illogical thought, he felt trapped. Again.

"No wonder…" Sam sighed.

Something about those thoughts must have shown on his face because then he felt Rhodey's hand on his shoulder. "Hey, this is just standard procedure. Be brief if you want, he'll ask you to elaborate if they need you to. No-one's accusing you of anything, it'll just be him clarifying what went down."

"He better be quick." Tony let out an irritated sigh and grit his teeth, his eyes flashed angrily. "Where does he want me?"


When the scene reappeared the Avengers found themselves standing with the younger version of Rhodey waiting impatiently outside an office door beside an empty wheelchair.

The mystery of what was going on behind the locked door was quickly solved when they heard muffled raised voices of both Tony and another man.

A few of the team jolted in surprise when the door slammed open and a scarily angry looking Tony stormed out through it.

The man who was quickly apparent to be the CO followed Tony out, he moved like a much younger man than he appeared to be and held himself upright and stiff like a soldier.

His cold, controlled anger clashed staunchly with Tony's who whirled furiously around on him with all the fury and heat of a forest fire.

"If you bugged the hospital room what was the point in asking me all those questions?! What I said there is all I will say!"

"That… that breaks patient confidentiality. Tony could sue him for that." Bruce said in a hard voice, he found his old rage for the US military resurfacing with this revelation. "He should."

"So much for not accusing him of anything." Natasha's jaw twitched, "I'd expect this behaviour if they thought..."

Natasha gave side glance to the current version of Rhodey before continuing in a more detached probing tone. "Even though this is an interrogation tactic used to try and verify someone's word, I would expect behaviour like this if your CO believed that Tony was guilty."

Rhodey matches her hard look with one of his own. "The Brigadier General is like your Fury. He never trusted anyone as far as he could throw them. He was a staunch rule abider when it suited him, when it didn't... he didn't see the harm in bending a few. It was probably one of the reasons why he was so successful. Tony had a way of verbally tying him in knots and making him fall flat on his face. It didn't help that there were glimpses of SI weapons in other countries when Tony boasted that he exclusively dealt to the Military and those were fakes. As for suing him… Tony had bigger fish to fry after Iron Man and the guy retired soon after Obadiah had kicked the bucket."

The Commanding Officer took on a firm, stubborn tone whilst his expression remained unapologetic. "All I want is to clarify what happened over those 3 months so we can rule out any suspicions."

"Suspicions of what?" Tony snapped cuttingly.

He waited a moment whilst he scanned the other man's face before Tony's eyebrows rose so far up his head they were in danger of disappearing into his hairline. "Terrorism? Do you really think I'd betray the country my father and I made resources to protect?"

"It's ludicrous," Cap murmured as he shook his head. "Completely Ludicrous."

"If you didn't know Stark… it didn't seem such a stupid assumption." Scott cringed, "Quite a few others thought it."

The Brigadier pressed his lips together to form a thin white line, the expression reminded him of Howard and for this he hated the man even more. "Anything is possible given the right motive."

Steve felt the colour drain out of his face as he risked a quick glance to Bucky.

"Fuck you." Tony snarled, "We're done here."

Peering at the military craft landing outside and the soldiers filtering into it, Tony took a seat in his wheelchair and began to try to speed away.

It was difficult with one arm, so he ended up almost careening into the wall before he felt Rhodey grasp the back of his chair and steer him back on course.

Whilst walking him swiftly away from the Brigadier, Rhodey asked. "Where are we going?"

Tony pointed at the military craft with his uninjured arm. "Home."