"Anthony, wake up." An unfamiliar male voice startles Tony awake, the house is dark and it's the middle of the night so he can't make out the person's features. He silently calls the iron man suit, oddly even though in sentry mode it hadn't reacted to the strangers arrival.

"Who are you?" Tony sits up, his eyes shifting from the man to where the suit has appeared in the door. He feels comforted with it just being nearby. Rubbing his eyes, Tony picks a disguarded bottle of scotch up off of the floor. Among piles of takeout food containers and dirty dishes, he finds a relatively clean glass, with shaky hands he pours himself a glass. Before the stranger had woken him, he'd had a pretty brutal nightmare.

"I've gone by many names, but you can call me James." The stranger sits down next to Tony on the couch without being invited, Tony's not all that surprised as he's also in the house uninvited.

"Alright James, call me Tony. I haven't been called Anthony since the days I lived with my mother and old man; even then that was only when I was in trouble."

"Alright, Tony. I've come to tell you something."

"I assumed that, James, not many people would break into my house otherwise. Why'd you come in the middle of the night?"

"Long story, you don't want to know it all, but the short version is this is the only time I could come."

"Fair enough." Tony passes James a clean glass and the bottle of scotch. The man pours himself a glass but doesn't drink from it. "What is it you came to tell me?"

"I'm surprised you're taking me being here so well."

"It's a long story why, but truth is it's nice talking to someone."

"Well, you might not think it so nice in a minute. You know about Hydra and SHIELD right?"

"Of course, the Avengers were created by SHIELD and we've been fighting Hydra since we realized it was still around."

"Well I assume you also know that your father founded SHIELD."

"That information was shared with me a while back, yes."

"Well, eventually he figured out that Hydra was inside of SHIELD, Hydra found out. Before he could do anything about it, or even tell anyone what he knew they ordered him killed by their secret weapon."

"My parents died in a car crash, James."

"You never hit another car, Tony." In the darkened light, Tony is just barely able to make out James' face but he sees remorse there. "The Winter Soldier killed your parents. I'm sure you know about him by now."

"Yeah, I do..." Tony's voice sounds distant, James' words have brought old memories back to the surface.

It's the night after Tony graduated from MIT. They're in the family town car, Howard and Maria are both drunk. Tony keeps wrinkling his nose in disgust. It's pouring rain outside, they're headed home after Tony's graduation party. A new driver is taking an odd way home, only Tony notices. Howard and Maria are being oddly affectionate toward one another, not many people know this, but Maria and Howard never loved one another. Howard's heart always belonged to a girl he couldn't have, and while Maria thought she could grow to love Howard she never had. Tony had grown up in a house where Momma and Daddy rarely spoke, yet alone payed attention to their son. He'd been raised by the maids and butlers of their various estates. That was why Spanish much to his mother's horror was his first language. It was why he called Jarvis, dad, in private. Their lack of love had caused Tony to grow up in a loveless house. So, while most teenagers would be appalled to see their parents making out, he wasn't even interested.

They were going around a curve beside a cliff when it happened. The car started sliding in the water, or at least that's what the police report said, Tony always thought that the driver had made the car spin like that. They had spun toward the rock luckily and not the cliff, the back of the car had wrapped it's way around the boulder first, the impact had killed Maria instantly. Howard, who hadn't been in his seatbelt was thrown from the car and out the side window. Tony had watched his father's body slam against the rock, he had known he was dead. Oddly, Tony who had been wearing his seat belt was left relatively unhurt. He'd escaped the deadly accident with a mild concussion and a mark that resembled a hickey on his neck. The worst of his injuries had been mental and not physical.

"What about the other memory." The voice in his head mocks.

"Hallucination." Tony snaps at the voice, he's sure that this memory the one he just uncovered is the real one. "Hope, want, need, driven false memory." He assures himself.

They never found the driver, body or alive. The police thought he might have been thrown from the car and rolled off the cliff into the ocean. Tony who vaguely remembered the sound of a car door opening afterwards had other ideas, but he never voiced them.

"You're saying the car accident wasn't an accident, that the driver caused it." Tony voices his own suspicions for the first time ever. "You're saying that the Winter Soldier was the driver."

"Why do you think you're still alive?" James' words send chills down Tony's spin. "The Winter Soldier only ever killed his targets, never another sole. He wasn't ordered to kill you so he made sure that you wouldn't die in the accident."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because, you can never completely ruin a man." James, pushes his hair out of his face for the first time fully looking at Tony.

"You're cap's friend, Bucky." Tony doesn't know how he recognizes Barnes, he's changed a lot from any photo he's seen but he knows it's the man. "You're the Winter Soldier."

"I was the Winter Solider." Bucky corrects, taking a large gulp off of his scotch. "I'm better now, brainwashing is gone. That's why I'm here, actually, I remember things from my time at Hydra. One of those things I think is pretty damn important for you to know."

"And what's that?"

"You and I both know that your father died in that car crash. I checked the body for a pulse, he was gone. The paramedics determined he was dead. So why is he walking around New York?"

"You're saying Howard Stark has a clone."

"Not a clone, a simple facial mask that changes his appearance to that of Howard Stark. You've been around him, tell me, does he act like your dear old dad?"

"No, he acts a lot different than I remember dad."

"Hydra wants a Stark on their side, a real Stark. They think that if Howard asks you do something, like say, go back into the weapons business, you'll do it."

"They're wrong about that, Howard and I never got along."

"They're probably starting to realize that. I think you're in trouble, Tony. If Hydra can't use you, they'll have you killed."

"Is that why you're still running."

"Yeah."

"How did I know how to find Howard, if he really is a Hydra clone. It's not like I had written instructions, it was a memory that lead me to him."

"No, it wasn't." James passes Tony a file. "It was a story you read, maybe it felt like a memory, but Hydra poising as SHIELD gave you that file years ago."

"How do I know you aren't still Hydra?"

"Would you work for someone who brainwashed you?"

"No, but you might still be brainwashed."

"I'm not, trust me, if I was you'd be dead. Hydra never sent me to talk, I was always the muscle."

"So, what do we do about the fake Howard?"

"We kill him." James has a grim look on his face.

"Why are you helping me, again?"

"I've done a lot of wrong in my life, Tony, I'm just trying to start doing some good again."

"Fair enough, but I wouldn't exactly call killing doing 'good'."

"It's good when the target is Hydra. Now are we going to do this or what?"

"Let me get my suits."