Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

„Steve, what?… Fuck.“

“Stools don’t talk.” was the harsh reply he received.

Immediately Tony hang his head low again kneeling on all fours under the desk that Captain America occupied.

“Is there something you wanted Steve? The AI told me it was urgent.” Wanda moved into the room, barely glancing at the billionaire.

“Yes! It’s not working, you have to find a way to strengthen the influence.”

At this Wanda took a longer look at the man under the table and sighed.

“Steve, I hate to tell you, but how is he supposed to be less influenced? You are using him as a foot-rack right now.”

“And I told him twice already that stools don’t talk. He has defied me three times alone this day. You know what happens if we lose control!”

Wanda nodded, she knew. It was difficult enough to manage the situation even without Steve’s demands.

“I can take a peek inside if you want me to, to see if there changed something.”

Steve nodded.

“Do that.”

Wanda slowly reached for her magic, red tendrils waving around her hands while her eyes began to glow red. Even that much under, Tony shuddered when feeling the magical grip on his mind as she invaded his brain-matter. After the first few times it wasn’t hard anymore to do. Tony’s mind was basically an open book for her to look at.

She delved deeper, ignored all the embarrassing memories he horded into a dark corner and never dared to look at, even though his Captain America Cosplay as a kid was pretty cute. Long ago she had lost her hate for him. How could she hate someone who was so pathetic as a person and so helpless against her? Tony Stark was no longer someone she was afraid of.

She amended her opinion after the second invasion when she actively searched his brain for the dark deeds she wanted him to admit, like selling weaponry under the table and therefore killing her parents, albeit indirectly. Imagine her disappointment when she not only found out that he was neither the one who dealt with the parties of the Sokovian civil war, but also that the person ultimately responsible for it was dead at the hands of Tony himself. She also found out what Obadiah had done to Tony and if Steve wasn’t such a sadistic asshole she would have felt sorry for Iron Man to come into existence because someone who he thought of as family betrayed him.

It seemed that betrayal was a common fact in Tony's life as everybody seemed to love to screw him over. With her at least, she was honest from the beginning that she hated his guts and he removed himself from the Avengers and made a place for her in the group instead of trying to get her removed.

Once again she wished it had been different but here they were. She was in his mind, again and he was securely imprisoned in it.

She arrived at a portion of his mind, which interestingly looked a lot like Avengers Tower and sometimes like the old Malibu mansion he once had and inside the equivalent of his workshop there Tony was. Looking angry and throwing himself against the thick barrier she placed there keeping his consciousness away from his body and the mind magic.

Deciding that it was still secure and he had no way of escape, Wanda retreated. She ignored the angry wave of a fist Tony threw at her and his soundless screaming. It was harder to ignore him on the days when he was just sitting there, looking lost. In his mind he was still dependent on his arc reactor which she found pretty peculiar.

It was such an obvious weakness that she wondered why only Stane had taken advantage of it. Take the reactor out and you take not only the armor out of the picture but the genius behind it all.

Steve might prefer to ignore everything Tony brought to the table for the Avengers but she searched around and quickly found the tale behind his fight with the Mandarin and how he infiltrated a mansion of gangsters all alone with no suit and no decent weapon except some self build ones made from stuff you could by at Walmart.

All this introspection had taken her only a few minutes but Steve's patience was already running out.

“And? How bad is it? Do I need to restrain him again?”

“He is still closed off so if he continues to communicate it’s nothing I can stop. Maybe there is a limit of how much you can influence a person. It’s never been tested before for this long. Not even Loki used that much magic to keep people unaware and he had them only days from what I heard.
Maybe you could ask Clint about his experience.”

Steve was in her face quicker than she could throw up a shield around her, grabbing her wrist tightly.

“Clint will never hear of this, capiche?” His gaze bore into her and he looked murderous.

Wanda pretended not to be rattled by this and continued to look bored. Widow had taught her well.

“He hated mind control and we won’t traumatize him again by mentioning it.” he continued more softly, worrying about his friend.

“Then you should keep your door locked in the future, because there’s no way anyone believes that this...” now she really looked at Tony, still doing his best impression at being furniture.

“… is voluntary behavior. I did what you asked of me but even I think this is going too far.”

It was dangerous even for her to point out that she thought of it as a mistake.

Steve might not be strong enough to outright kill her but he had some sway with the government and her stay in the US was still shaking and depending on the goodwill of the council.

The Avengers were heroes but also they had lead to the destruction of Sokovia and a few weeks ago, they nearly destroyed Lagos, had Iron Man not been there to defuse the bomb and shield the houses from the explosion when there was a catch in the explosive that intended to take some Avengers out. It had only destroyed the armor, leaving Tony hospitalized for a few days.

Sure enough, her words were not ones Captain America liked to hear. He narrowed his eyes and stood tall in front of her. He would not be cowed or impressed by her magic even though she could take him down in an instant. He was just too stubborn. Too bad killing him off would definitely set back her visa progress.

She guessed if she did finish him and Tony would remember anything from the last months he would not be grateful enough for her to keep her onto American soil much less in his tower. And if she loved one thing about all this it was the freedom of doing what she liked when she wanted and that money was no issue anymore. Growing up in poverty sucked and she never wanted to want for anything ever again. And for that they needed Stark and they needed him like he was now.

Under the thumb, controlled, harmless.

“Wanda, that’s enough! I know Stark best and I know that he is dangerous without this. He created Ultron! Do you think I want to do this to him? I’m not a monster, but he has proved again and again that somebody needs to watch over him for his own sake and I’m doing that. It’s not my fault that he won’t submit voluntary.”

Trust Steve to twist the facts around till he liked them. He only wanted to look for Barnes with the financial support of Stark Industries and keeping Tony like that was just a dark fantasy of his.
He seemed to forget that Wanda didn’t need to manipulate someone to read their mind. And Steve's mind was a dark pool of ugly truths and way too much aggression to be healthy.

It seemed he could guess what she wanted to address, the elephant in the room hence under the table.

“Well… you know his ego needs to be brought down every once in a while...” he smiled sheepishly, scratching his ear in a gesture of embarrassment.

“Sure” Wanda said, waving her hand at Steve and leaving. In the long run it didn’t matter to her. She was pretty sure that Tony would never come out of it fully and even if he did, she couldn’t imagine that he wanted to keep living like that. It was a shame but the day Steve approached her with his desire to have Stark more under control, she sealed Stark's fate.

After Wanda left, Steve immediately turned his attention again towards the man under his table who continued to stay there even though his arms trembled from the exertion.

It would take a few more hours but eventually he would break down. It happened every time.

“Pathetic!” Steve cursed him.

“You are not even useful enough to be a fucking stool. Next time there is a bomb, you can act as a meat shield. But then the money would go to Potts and she would throw us all out. And you don’t want that Tony-boy, right?” He petted the hair of his head softly.

His stool winced.

Steve scowled. The first thing he forbid him was to talk. Then to make any noise. And still he couldn't get the man to shut up completely. It seemed being loud and obnoxious was in his DNA so deep that nothing could erase that behavior.

“Well, I’m done working anyway. Time to put you into your place for the night.” Steve stood up and reached for a remote. The shackles that were around Tony's hands and legs were opened, freeing him from the position he had held for the rest of the day. With shaking limbs he crawled towards Steve who pointed into the next room which was kept in the dark in case someone wanted to grab something from his office really quick. It would wave some questions and Wanda would be angry with him if she kept needing to erase memories of the staff that got a glimpse of Tony's new home.

His “home” was pretty much a cage albeit a very sophisticated one. Ironically he had Tony built it himself. He needed something that was Iron Man armor proof. Why should he risk telling another person about this arrangement if he had the best builder for foolproof stuff like this right here?

Wanda had really outdone herself. She had kept all of Tony's personality away but his genius was still there to use. Only now he was totally obedient just doing what he was supposed to do. If the team questioned Iron Mans new behavior in the field, nobody asked him outright and that was fine by him. Banner stayed gone and he didn’t search for him because the other genius might have found out quickly that Tony was not himself.

He situated Tony inside his cage like he did every evening. Steve spent his whole work hours here in his office keeping an eye on Tony and now he deserved some free time. Tony had a mattress in there, a toilet and a faucet to keep him hydrated and he was brought three full meals everyday, along with at least three cups of coffee. He even got him new clothes to dress in and he let him use the shower in his own rooms upstairs.

He could let Tony sleep in his own bed with his full comfort and not have to fear anything and in the beginning he had but now he found some satisfaction in this arrangement. It truly hammered home that he was the one that called the shots, not the so called futurist. And if Tony somehow broke free of the mind control, he was still trapped inside his own creation.

He didn’t exactly know what happened if you tried to break out of the cage but he didn’t have to. After it was finished he had told Tony to try to free himself with all his might and well… the poor guy landed himself into the medical wing. Heart failure. So he was pretty sure that Tony would not try anything when he wasn’t there and that’s the way he liked it.

“Steve...” a small whisper was heard when he closed the cage again. He sighed, truly annoyed.

“Shut the fuck up Tony. You never learn, do you? For this, you will turn on the faucet, fill the basin and drown yourself for thirty seconds.”

If he was extremely satisfied after hearing the splutter and retching that followed after nobody had to know.

Captain America was leaving his office tonight to go upstairs into the common room, whistling.

Chapter Text

Pepper Potts was pacing.

She had worn a path into the neat floor of her Stark Industries office.

“I know something is wrong with him Happy.” She looked towards her bodyguard and close friend.

“You know him longer than I do and you don’t think there is something going on?”

Happy grunted.

“No. I know there is something going on. Boss hadn’t been the same since the wretched robot tried to take over the world.”

It had been all over the news. Stark AI turned evil, it was a disaster for their stocks and PR had a coronary.

Pepper knew more than most. She knew that not only had Ultron been created by using the scepter Loki had left on earth but also that JARVIS had been killed in the same moment. It would have been enough to explain erratic behavior but it didn’t fit.

“Happy, I expected extensive building of suits, I expected the resign from the Avengers, I expected self destruction but what Tony is doing feels wrong.”

Happy only nodded. They both knew Tony and what he was doing now was fishy.

At first, he had done exactly what they expected. He left the Avengers but kept funding them, supporting their missions but taken himself out of active duty. He felt that Ultron was his fault and he wanted to save the world from any more ideas.

But then, things took a turn. One day, Iron Man showed up at a mission and helped the team out. He worked flawlessly with the team and did what Captain America wanted him to do. Most people thought that Tony was finally growing up and even Potts had been inclined to believe that.

It just didn’t stop there.

Tony moved into the compound. Fine with her, they were taking a break in their relationship because she needed to try to wrap her head around the idea that her partner was devoting his life to the defense of the earth from a danger only he knew about and believed in coming. She had been happy when he resigned, thinking that they finally had a chance but then he threw everything he had into the Avengers. He still did work for Stark Industries but he never showed there anymore. Nor in public. Relations had been taken over by Maria Hill who promoted the Avengers and dealt with the legal stuff. It should have freed Tony's schedule up but he claimed he had to work.

Nobody knew what he was doing though and he kept brushing her off with weird comments. They were fitting for him, as they were sarcastic and sometimes scathing.

But he had never talked to her like that. It was as if he had somehow taken on his press personality full time.

There were moments when she cornered him that he looked at her like he could still understand her but then he would immediately either insult and/or dismiss her and she would not see him again for the next few weeks.

Happy wasn’t faring much better. In the beginning he had still been Tony’s designated driver but in time he had changed Happy’s schedule towards driving only Pepper around.

Tony never hung out with him anymore. He still called him Happy but only as an afterthought.

The whole situation was weird. Colonel Rhodes had offered to replace Iron Man as an Avenger and for a while they had considered it as an option but now it seemed that Tony resumed his role as aerial support on the team once more.

“We can’t do much more than wait.” Harold Hogan concluded. Pepper nodded.

She didn’t like it but Tony was a grown man, owned a successful company which made millions of dollars every week and as they were no longer an item she had no more right for his time than any other employee. Well yes, she was his CEO and therefore they consulted fairly often but Tony only did his work for R&D and nothing more. Normally, an owner of a company as big as Stark Industries was supposed to represent them constantly, but as Tony Stark had more scandals in his past than they could count it was decided that their PR team would handle that on their own and therefore Tony only attended the most important functions.

In the last months, there had been no such event so Pepper hadn’t seen much of Tony. He send her weekly updates of his work but sometimes she thought that he got another AI that did it for him. But that couldn't be, as the government sternly warned the Avengers that one more maniac AI would result in some severe repercussions.

Steve assured the powers that be that he had a handle on that which Pepper roughly translated to “I forbid Tony to build another one and for once he listens to me”.

Still, his mails were lacking everything you associated with Tony Stark.

An artificial intelligence couldn't do it either as they all had more personality than what was displayed in these few words she got from Tony on Sundays.

All in all Pepper could only surmise that the circumstances worried her.

She wanted to do something but she didn’t know what. Furthermore she had no in to the compound. Tony continued to finance the Avengers with his money but he set up a separate fund that was generated by merchandise selling and other income. Pepper suspected that Tony used his personal account for that, which was slowly being drained. His net worth was not common knowledge and even Pepper could only guess but she knew it wasn’t 80 billion as some magazine had titled only last week. More like 12 to 15 billion was her estimate and that would not last forever. Still, Stark Industries was separate from the Avengers business and they only had a contract for weaponry and for some other inventions that were not completely developed personally by Tony.

He was fair and gave credit where it was due and when using some invention for the Avengers that their R&D developed than he paid for it fully like a normal customer would. He got a small discount but he knew that you couldn't keep a successful business running if you handed out everything for free.
Still, most days Tony didn’t know what day it was much less remember how much some product cost or where it came from. Somehow, Tony got more organized, more put together in these last few months.

Somehow, it worried her even more.

In her mind she went through all possible contacts. Rhodey already tried but Tony closed off every time he wanted to hang out or claimed to have urgent Avengers business to attend.

Maybe it was childish but Rhodey had decided that he would wait until Tony sought him out and otherwise gave him his space that he clearly needed. Maybe it was the death of JARVIS that threw Tony off course he guessed. Or he was dying again, he added clearly joking but it fell flat.

Still, his best friend could and would not try again.

Her next pick would have been Bruce Banner but the scientist that could also turn into the being that was called the Hulk was MIA. Tony seemed to know something as he made no move to search for his friend but she asked FRIDAY or at least that rudimentary version of her that Tony hastily installed in his servers before he moved into the compound to keep looking for him, starting in the slums of India. It would take time as Bruce was excellent in vanishing but she would keep looking.

Maybe she should just call him again. She felt a bit silly of thinking about the worst when there was no indicator that anything was wrong at all with her friend and ex.

Even the public loved the new responsible Iron Man as their hero and it was all thanks to the excellent leadership of Captain America as leader of the Avengers.

Her cell phone in hand, she called anyway. For a while nothing happened but then a voice answered, but it wasn’t Tony’s.

“Who is it?” the man asked.

Pepper was surprised. Didn’t he know that there was something called caller-ID nowadays? In fact, Tony had developed his own phone a while ago, thinking it would be a good product palette to have now that they didn’t make any more weapons.

“Mr. Rogers? Is that you? Why are you answering Tony’s phone?” Last time she checked they weren’t friends, barely acquaintances.

“He’s… occupied.” Steve replied slowly, as if he had to think about it. “Hang on, I will give him the phone.” She heard it being laid down on a hard surface and then whispered words she couldn't understand. She heard some whirring similar to a repulsor being charged but quieter.

“P-pep?” finally that was Tony, his voice sounding hoarse, like he hadn’t used it in a while or too much. With Tony it was definitely the latter option. Maybe he had been binge-building in his workshop and Steve had kept him company?

“Tony, nice to hear from you. I just wanted to know how you’re doing, that’s all. Your last mail was very succinct.”

“I’m fine. Just living the good life, you know me. Did I miss anything about work?” he was polite but the remark about the good life was straightly taken out of some interview where Tony had mocked the journalists to think that about him.

“You know that you can tell me the truth Tony. Just because we’ve taken a…. break doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you.”

“When have I ever lied to you Potts?” he countered harshly and she flinched. Where had that aggression come from?

“Tony, I...” she tried again but he cut her off.

“Is that all, Miss Potts?” he asked her their mock question and she sighed.

“That is all, Mr. Stark.” she responded accordingly and the phone call ended.

She was puzzled. That the heck was that?

Tony had said only a few words but they didn’t make sense. Friday had recorded the call, and she replayed the 45 seconds it had lasted again and again.

To analyze what was so very wrong about their conversation if it could be called that. His words were ones he would use, yes. But only in another context. The only thing that was remotely like Tony was the Pep at the beginning, her name. Even that he later changed to Potts, which was only his way of addressing her when talking business with another party. Never when they were alone, not even in internal meetings at Stark Industries. It was always Pepper, only sometimes Miss Potts. At least he hadn’t called her Virginia or she would have sent a doctor his way.

“Tony! What was that? You can’t be disrespectful to a lady. It’s unbecoming.” Steve was onto him as soon as he finished the phone call. Tony was still kneeling under the desk as usual but Steve had opened the shackles for him to use his hands to take the phone.

He looked up to Steve and for a moment it seemed that he had broken through, that he wanted to curse Rogers and do something drastic but then the fire in his eyes went out again.

“I’m sorry.” he slurred and gazed on the floor putting his hands down and assuming the position from before.

“Well, that’s why I’m taking care of you now. You can’t be by yourself Tony. You have never learned to how to behave properly and you should be grateful that I am going to the trouble to educate you.”

Maybe he should change the “settings” on Tony towards more of a servant. That way Tony Stark could cater to his every whim for once. Right now, it was Steve who put in long hours in babysitting Stark and keeping him submissive and docile.

He had to think about this more, he decided but not right now.

“Since you have your hands free for the moment, put them to use. I have never received a massage on my feet but Sam keeps telling me they are awesome. So, Stark, get to it.”

And the man did. Was he still a man? Another question to ponder for Steve to get to later. Much later.

Chapter Text

“Iron Man returns from the mission, does anybody copy?” the metallic voice could be heard over the coms.

“We copy Iron Man. Permission to land at the compound granted.” someone on ground control replied. It was different than before, but the Avengers worked much better now that there was some background team present that organized their missions, take-offs, coordinated with the governments and kept the desk of Captain America as the leader of the Avengers thankfully empty.

Normally they would have hoisted this stuff off to Tony as he had enough experience and frankly put brain power to do this but since he was… incapacitated by Wanda’s magic they had to find another way and Steve wasn’t gonna do it himself. Please, he was a hero and these tasks could be done by other personnel. Thankfully, Stark had managed to employ Maria Hill after the take-down of SHIELD and she was working directly for the Avengers and was paid by Stark himself and not Stark Industries.

Not that any of that mattered to Steve, but Wanda pointed out that if he didn’t want outsiders to come asking questions he could not spend money that would be tracked back to Stark Industries.

Iron Man landed gracefully as ever on the landing pad the compound had. Steve wasn’t there yet, the quinjet was fast but the armor was a lot faster and so he had to trust the hold of the magic that Stark wouldn’t do something stupid.

He didn’t, but he brushed off all members of the ground staff and Hill herself aside, claiming he was fine and he was going to debrief directly.

Not taking the armor off Tony took the elevator upstairs onto the floor where Steve’s office and well … his cage resided. It was a few floors lower than the living apartments for the Avengers and it was not monitored by any cameras or AI. Tony never had the chance to install FRIDAY in the compound and the mistrust of his AI creations had resulted in the Avengers to only have smart home devices at their disposal and any intelligence they gathered were from satellites and other channels mostly Natasha knew how to use.

Tony just stood in the room and waited.

It felt like hours when Steve finally showed up at his office and he was furious. Iron Man had missed debrief and while that had occurred often enough in the past that nobody really thought anything about it and just wrote it off as Stark behaving like a child again, Steve was certain that the magic had finally failed and now Tony was sound of mind and therefore dangerous. Still, the fact that he returned here showed that some programming was still left inside him.

Maybe the situation could be salvaged.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he advanced towards Tony who was still in the armor. When he didn’t shoot him straight in the face Steve approached him directly and ripped off his faceplate.

Tony looked at him, fear showing in his eyes.

“I… I’m sorry...” he stammered and Steve knew that the magical hold was still there. So it was just again Tony’s incompetence in everything, even if he was basically remote-controlled.

“Wearing the armor outside of missions is what Tony? Right, it’s forbidden. What happened the last time you did it? It seems you liked being a rug in front of my bed, let’s do that again.”

Tony would have cringed if he could.

He shook instead and whimpered.

“Orders… were… insufficient. Orders directly opposed another.” he managed to get out like a malfunctioning robot.

Steves eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

If he was asked such a question Tony knew he had to elaborate and speaking was allowed.

“I… got injured. Would have gone to medical but then they would have seen what you told me to not show anybody if I wanted to live. So… I had to stay in the armor, to succeed.”

“Strip!”

Tony complied, using the internal commands he could give his armor and it fell away. He was having trouble standing without it because his left leg was bleeding profusely. The leg of his pants was ripped off above the knee and how did that happen when it was confined inside the armor? Normally he would have let himself be treated in the medbay but on the same leg there was a big ring of bruising around his calf. Bruises that Steve put there two days before as a lesson.

“And you idiot could not have told them that the bruises are from the fight?”

Steve was angry, this was a waste of his time.

Now he had to dress the wounds himself. Stupid Stark.

“I cannot think of any scenario where I could have gotten these bruises in today’s fight.” Tony replied, keeping stripping and stepping out of the rest of his pants.

“God, stop doing that. You knew I only wanted you out of that weapon. Honestly Tony, you’re supposed to be a genius, stop behaving stupid just because you can!”

Tony stopped like he was ordered just standing still while his blood dropped onto the floor. Steve pursed his lips, he loved that floor.

He rummaged inside his desk for a roll of gauze and threw it to Tony who did nothing to catch it, letting it hit the floor too.

“God dammit!” Now Steve was enraged.

“Get the fuck in your cage and bandage yourself. If you don’t behave like you have any brain I’m using you a floor polisher to get the blood stains out of my floor, is that clear?”

Tony shuddered, he could not flinch as it was not coded into his behavior so he didn’t. He knew he had screwed up, he always did.

Still, he picked up the gauze and shuffled into the next room where he had to crawl inside the cage as it was only a few feet high and not big enough for him to be standing in it.

Steve took one look at him and proceeded to leave the room. He would punish him later, right now he didn’t trust himself to not just kill Tony and be done with it. He had to speak with his team, review the mission and there was enough to do for him without having to think about every step that Tony should take.

Inside his own head, Tony smiled. Even though he already dreaded what would come later he couldn’t help but be glad. He had no chance to influence anything his body did and still he managed to throw some stones into Rogers plans. Actually, Rogers had done that himself what with giving him such a shitlist of orders that contradicted each other. He made him dumb and docile, which made him much easier to use as a stool (Tony would kill him just for that audacity if he ever got the chance) but now Steve also had to micromanage everything he wanted his body to do. And the world still needed Tony Stark. It wasn’t that he could disappear somehow and just be Rogers stupid pet or something similar degrading (he really needed a therapist after this) so to maintain the charade was a lot of work.

Even though it was humiliating to watch himself be this obedient… whatever it amused him that controlling someone was not that easy if they had to function somewhat normally as a person. Even more so if that person was an active superhero. His “programming” to call it for lack of a better word had some loopholes and maybe he could try to exploit them. If Rogers didn’t think of something to forbid him that should mean he was allowed to do so?

For instance, Rogers had laid down the rule that he could not inform any Avengers or other civil person or close friends about this mind-rape. That was an order from before he forbid speaking in general at least if it not pertained to keeping the cover intact.

So, if there was someone who was neither an Avenger nor a civil person or a close friend he should be allowed to tell him right?

Tony wanted to argue that the stupid rules didn’t matter as he had never consented to anything that happened with him for the last few months (and wasn’t that some juicy bone to gnaw on for his psyche) and therefore he shouldn’t need to consider the orders but he had not yet regained control of his body for even one second. It just wasn’t possible. Maximoff contained him inside his own mind so successfully that there were days when he had truly given up. Clint would have a field day with this, he knew how much mind control sucked. Ohhh….

------------------------------------------

“Again!” Tony’s hair was dripping with water and he had no choice to comply and threw his head under water again in his sink. This time, Rogers hadn’t told him a time so he stayed under until his lungs screamed and he had to decide if refusing to obey was worse than dying.

He coughed and coughed and threw up water when he surfaced after a minute and a half when survival instincts showed that they were greater than any mind washing one could do. At least in his case.

“I didn’t tell you to stop. Again.” His face immediately hit the water and he plunged himself into the remnants of his washed up dishes he used for dinner. Even after the fifth time of going in it still tasted horrible. There was no order to keep his eyes open so he didn’t but he would have seen crumbs of food flooding around his face.

Slowly the air left his lungs, his brain shut down. For an instant, Tony really felt the water, felt the horror gripping him, his fear of drowning so great that he had fought panic attacks for years while taking a simple shower. He twitched his hands, gripped the sink. He could do it, he could finally move!

“Alright, get up. Grab a towel and dry yourself off.” came then, and instantly the moment was gone and Tony returned to being a mindless puppet.

Tony was still shaking inside his head. He couldn't believe his bad luck. Not only had he come to while being waterboarded, a torture he still couldn't handle after experiencing it years ago before and these few seconds of being aware of it were enough to send him finally into a loony-bin.

But then the sadistic bastard had to choose this moment to end it. Not that Tony would be glad to suffer more of it but he had felt the sink under his fingers, had felt his heart racing, his lungs screaming. For months he had only been an observer of what Rogers did with his body or what more accurately, he himself did. Steve never touched him directly, always using Tony’s hands or other means to punish him, to teach him a lesson in behavior.

It made the torture a bit better but now he had to live with the memory of being there and being held under water or doing it out of his own volition.

Could someone have a panic attack while being inside their own mind? Tony supposed they could because his thoughts began racing and his body began trembling, lungs pumping like they would after a sprint. More accurately after a panther had chased him for miles trying to eat him.

Steve pretended that nothing was wrong with his “charge” as he left the trembling man inside his cage alone for the night. Using a towel to dry him off was unsufficient so Tony had to not only live with the seat behind the barrier again, feeling like he was watching a movie rather than living, and also feeling wet while doing so.

Funny thing it was, but the water dripping from his hair was felt by his conscious and he hated it. Showers were possible after month of persuasion of himself after Afghanistan and mostly because they were a necessity. Baths however were out of the question, as was swimming at the pool or – God forbid – at his private beach in the ocean.

He never felt safe enough to attempt any of it and now he was sure it would never be any different, but would that even matter anymore?

He wasn’t stupid and while he knew he was pretty unstable from all the shit that happened in his life before, this was the icing of the cake.
He was done.

At this moment, he was not able to even think about living again. How could he, when everything was tainted and twisted by Rogers and that goddamn bitch of a witch.

Would he for ever feel just like a pawn even if he somehow got his independence back?

Chapter Text

Clint Barton was pretty surprised when he suddenly got a visit from Pepper Potts at the Farm.

Not only that she knew where to find them (although she could always ask Tony even if he promised to never tell a soul or that god-awful Intelligence JARVIS) but also that she bothered with him.

Tony was pretty alright and they bonded a bit after the invasion but Tony was also really busy and a fucking billionaire. What did he want from a guy that even ran away from the circus? And Ultron was not cool, and he knew that Tony had something to do with that.

Also, there was Wanda.

For some reason, Tony seemed wary of her and he accepted that. So he left the Avengers along with Tony and returned to his farm, to this day not seeing any of them again – not even Natasha.

If Clint was honest, he was disappointed by this. Steve and Natasha both told him that he was important, a part of the team regardless if he retired and then nobody even asked how he was doing for six months. They weren’t that busy at least not that he heard about it on television.

He had seen Iron Man back with them though, working alongside Scarlet Witch with no issues he had seen.

Clint was a sniper and an archer – he saw even subtle hints a person displayed if they were unhappy with something which Tony clearly did when discussing the adding of Wanda as a member.

And then Tony had been the better man and stepped down, allowing Wanda to come on board even though he was against it.

So somehow Tony had to be in trouble or the world was once more ending, he concluded while Potts was making her way up his driveway on foot. Her high-heels were switched for a pair of well-worn boots and she still looked stunning in them. And dangerous.

Maybe he should get Laura for this, whatever it was. Potts made him nervous, more so than Natasha ever could.

Tasha talked a big game and he knew she could kill him if she wanted to but she clearly was attached and maybe even loved him in some way. Potts however, she was more like a silent predator, stalking you gracefully and surrounded you until you had no way out.

Natasha was more of a back-stabbing Ninja, who you only saw after it was too late. Potts wanted to be seen, she wanted you to tremble in fear while making it absolutely clear that you were just a fly and she would crush you.

In a way she was like Tony. He also commanded every room he went into, but he never wanted anyone to feel afraid of him. So he downplayed everything he could do to you and made silly remarks, sometimes even just bad jokes.

When he came to, after being Loki’s plaything he recognized Stark in the room and was blatantly surprised when everyone of the others utterly dismissed him.

If he hadn’t known that they were the good guys and Stark was on their side, he would have assumed to be used against Tony.

Maybe that would have been in his future, you never knew with SHIELD. Natasha already antagonized Stark before to lure him into the Avengers initiative she later told him.

That Natasha was still alive and kicking and not either on some posting in Alaska nor six feet under showed him two things: Tony had a big heart and was very forgiving and Potts was following his lead on this. The woman would have loved to burn SHIELD down.

“Clint? Call I can you Clint, Mr. Barton?” Pepper Potts was now at his side and smiled pleasantly at him. It seems that he didn’t catch her ire after all that happened.

“You certainly can, Miss Potts.” Clint replied, still cautious.

“What brings you to this lovely abode? I mean, I kinda told Tony that he should keep it a secret but I….” he was interrupted by Pepper.

“I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have come if… and Tony didn’t tell me anything. I had to snoop with FRIDAY deep into SHIELD or what is left of it and I found the address deeply buried.”

Yep, his assessment was dead-on. Potts would have destroyed him if she desired to do so. That meant Tony could do it without thinking, and the fact that he hadn’t, told Clint that he was trustworthy and even somewhat of a friend.

“It’s fine. I mean, you’re Tony’s girl and...”

“Um… I’m not. We separated.”

“I’m… sorry to hear that?” He was out of his depth here, where was Laura when he needed her?

She smiled again.

“Don’t be. I only suggested a break but now he is too busy for anything than the Avengers.” She tried to sound cheerful but he heard a bitter note.

“That’s not why I’m here though… or well it kinda is.” she continued twirling her hair between her fingers in a nervous gesture.

It make Clint queasy. If there was something going on that could make Pepper Potts loose her cool after all that happened, he didn’t really want to be involved. But here she was, clearly looking for him, not the other Avengers. He wasn’t one anymore, he had retired, was done super-heroing.

“Why are you here? Don’t get me wrong, Tony’s a great guy but I don’t know what he could need me for. Or you for that matter.”

Pepper knew that Clint wasn’t stupid nor naive but it still astonished her how fast he picked up on the situation even though she did not yet state what was going on.

“The truth is… I don’t know what’s wrong. But I just know that there is. Something wrong that is. With Tony. And I wanted to ask you to help me.”

Because she had no other option. If Clint Barton said no and he was well within his rights to do so, as he had no obligation to her or Tony, then she would have to give up or confront someone at the compound directly. Maybe even ask Natasha after all.

Clint Barton didn’t say no, he just sighed and scratched his head. He hated when he was spot-on right. It always led him into big trouble.

“Mind telling me what’s it all about? I’m not killing anyone just because you don’t want to get your hands dirty….” He did not think it was about that part of his skillset but you never knew.

“No, that’s not what I’m asking you. Gosh, I don’t need…” now she was flustered, clearly uncomfortable with what he was alluding to.

“Tony… he’s changed. Some would say for the better because he never did his paperwork with such enthusiasm and neatness as he does now. But also he never talks to me, his e-mails are less personal than hallmark-cards and he never goes out anymore except on missions. And what’s with that, he’s supposed to be retired. Like you.”

Now she was looking at Clint again, her eyes boring into his.

“The other Avengers… well, Stark Industries has a contract for some stuff for them but not enough for me to barge in there and demand answers. Tony’s an adult and if he doesn’t want to see me apart from business meetings, I can’t do much about it. So, if an old friend could just visit him, unannounced, just take a look at how he’s doing…”

“How much fishyness are we talking about?” Clint wanted to know.

“He listens to Steve in and out of the field without ever arguing.”

“That sounds… very fishy.” was Clint’s conclusion. Pepper nodded.

“I could understand if you don’t want to, don’t worry, but then I will call Natasha…”

“Nope, count me in. You know Tony best and even I think that’s weird as hell. I can visit them at the compound to catch up. It’s not like Tasha kept me in the loop, she never comes here anymore either. If I didn’t know her, I would be disappointed. Tony’s busy that I get, but aside from some big fight they could at least call sometimes. But no, I see them on TV. And now you’re saying it, Tony is really tamed in his interviews.”

Clint stopped before finishing his thoughts. No, he did not need to tell Pepper Potts that he secretly thought that Tony finally got laid again, the poor guy was always so stuck up. Worse than Steve and Steve was as stuck-up as they come.

Glad that Pepper seemed to not have the ability to read his mind (and where did that come from, no one could do that!) Clint sighed again.

“I’ll come by next week. I have to talk to Laura before so that she doesn’t think the worst that I’m once more on a mission or controlled by some megalomaniac alien again.” he chuckled to lighten the mood but the pity he saw in Potts eyes reminded him again of his ordeal.

And then he realized why he thought about mind reading in the first place.

When will I ever by through with that shit?, he thought to himself.

Potts tried to steer the direction of their conversation once more into safer territory.

“I’m sure it’s nothing like that. You just visit some old friends and take a peak at Tony and if he is doing well and nothing seems crazy, then I will let it be. Maybe he is really turning a new leaf, getting better with responsibility and acting as a closed team is always good for morale. I just thought that he was hurt enough by their actions but maybe I underestimated Tony’s ability again to forgive.”

Now Clint was feeling left out.

“What kinda action do you mean? You mean the other Avengers right? What did they do to Tony?” What did I do?

Potts sighed.

“Well, the ignorance of the death of one of his longest friends was hurtful for him. I know you don’t view them as people as he does but nothing whatsoever? And then Wanda on the team…”

Clint was getting more and more confused.

“I’m sorry, but who died? Other than Pietro there were no casualties. Did I miss something afterwards?” If Natasha failed to mention a dead team member he would kill her.

“JARVIS. He’s gone, Ultron destroyed him and what was left of him is now part of Vision. For Tony it’s how he died.” Now she wondered if the others even realized what had happened and that JARVIS had been a lot more than a convenience feature in their lives.

“He’s got FRIDAY now I suppose, as he left me a small version of her to deal with Stark Industries stuff but like Vision, she is very young and nobody knew him as well as JARVIS had. God, I hope that FRIDAY helps him pilot the suit...” Pepper continued, worry eating at her again. She couldn't stop doing it anymore it seemed.

Why wouldn’t Tony just talk to her? She loved him, had always loved him and she hated herself for even suggesting a break.

“I think I missed a lot how Tony’s really doing...” Clint was slow to admit it but damn he had screwed up. If a friend or even just a team member had to deal with this kind of grief all alone that spelled trouble. He always had Coulson as his support if something went awry and after his death, his team was there for him. Not only Natasha, but Tony and Bruce, Steve and Thor too. They didn’t even know him, just accepted him as part of the group after he fought against them under Loki’s control.
And now Pepper told him that nobody even cared about a loss of this magnitude?

“Shit! I didn’t… Tony, he… After everyone blamed him for creating Ultron I guess he stopped… telling us anything? JARVIS is really gone? I thought he fixed him as he always does. And you say he needs an AI to pilot his suit?” It made sense, when he thought about it.

Pepper nodded, gnawing on her lower lip.

“There are only so many information a human mind can filter through so mostly he had JARVIS sift through it and give him the most important ones. He can pilot it fine if there is a malfunction with communication and the software the suit runs on can do astonishing stuff but nobody will be there to keep Tony from doing something reckless to save someone. He isn’t stupid, but he never regards his life as important as all the others so if he’s in a situation where it’s rescue for someone and harm for him, he will go for it without a sensible AI to talk him out, point out other options. Sometimes not even then.”

Now she was thinking back to the fight against Obadiah, where Tony only survived because he had good luck. Two feet to the side and he would have been toast.

“Well I guess I have some apologizing to do. I promise you I will look into it and if there is anything going on with Tony the person responsible will pay.”

Even if it were the other Avengers, somehow.

Chapter Text

He whimpered.
“Shhhh… no more sounds for the rest of the night.”
That ought to do it.
It did.
Steve smiled and threaded his hands through soft brown, curly hair that was getting longer each week. If there weren’t any press conferences, he wouldn’t bother with shaving or cleaning Tony.
As of now, he was lying in front of his bed where Steve resided for the night with a good book to read and some light snack.
There had been a meeting today, not with Stark Industries but other parties, ones that were funding the Avengers and some that just wanted some juicy ammunition against them. Well, they were disappointed because under the guidelines that Steve set, even Tony Stark was capable of acting like a decent human being.
“I’m proud of you Tony. You really got your shit together in front of the press. Nobody will slander us in the papers tomorrow. You did good, acting like a human for once. But we both know that you are not, right? We both know that you wouldn’t be able to do this on your own so it’s a good thing that I have come to take care of it. You don’t have to think about that anymore Tony, no more gray hair for you. You can just be and do what you do best – in this case...” his tender smile turned sinister.
“...being a rug it is. I hope you used the restroom while gallivanting around. If not, you have another job in the morning...”
Without bothering further Steve read his book and munched on some crackers. Some crumbs of them fell on the bed and he brushed them off, directly onto Tony.
He didn’t speak to him nor spare another thought towards the second human that occupied his living quarters.
An hour later, Steve got tired. He turned off the light and threw himself under the covers. At some point, wearing his sleeping pants was too restrictive and warm so he threw them onto the floor.
He only discovered that they had landed directly onto Tony’s head and in his face the next morning.
The entire night, Tony made absolutely no sound and didn’t so much as twitch a muscle.

His body moaned the next morning as he was stepped on by a 240 pound grown up person, or at least he assumed it was Captain America that pressed his fragile sternum into the floor and air out of his lungs. Any more and he would be crushed. Died as a carpet, so humiliating.
At least he didn’t screw up again. It was only no more sounds for the night so moaning now was fine. A silver lining so to say.
Steve of course cared not for his words of yesterday and stayed on top of him.
“Mh… someone must’ve forgotten some squeaky toy under this ugly thing… Maybe I should wash the rug to make sure there is no vermin...”
Instantly, Tony deflated and all tension left his body. Even his own flesh and blood had survival instincts and immediately complied if threatened with more… stuff he couldn't handle.
His bladder was urging him to go though but unless Steve told him to be about, his business had no choice in the matter.

A knock on the door interrupted his inner musings and Steve finally moved so Tony could breathe. His gasping made the person outside the now open door look towards him.
“Why are you doing this Steve? If there was anybody else at your door right now, you would’ve some explaining to do!”
It was Wanda, and even she was fed up with this display of… whatever Steve did nowadays.
“He came back late from the function so there would be questions if he goes into my office at that hour. I had to keep him here.” Steve argued back, sounding like he was chastised for a minor mistake.
“Yeah right. Letting him sleep in his bed was no option I guess?”
Now Steve was getting annoyed.
“Enough. You helped me with him and that’s it. You already said that you have no more effective ways so I’m doing what I can to keep him under control. I keep him safe from harm. He is getting fed three meals a day, taking showers regularly, I never realized before how much he smells...”
If Tony would have been able to laugh, he would have cried. Talk about delusional.
Wanda seemed to go along with Tony here, she just shook her head.
“I will leave you to it then. Your… protection will certainly help him breathe with a crushed breast cage.”
If Steve was chastised by her remarks he didn’t let it show.
“Nat certainly doesn’t care or else she would have been on my case already. I don’t think she would miss Tony behaving like a decent person for no reason. And unlike the stupid people from the press and even his employees at SI she wouldn’t think he finally got his head on straight. I could put him like this in our communal room and nothing would happen.”
Wanda had enough.
“Steve! You are crazy. I had to steer Natasha away from the compound so much that even she doesn’t really know what she is doing anymore. I cannot keep this up if you flaunt your stupid obsession with Stark this way even more. She didn’t visit Clint for six months, don’t you think somebody’s gonna be suspicious of that? Do you even know how much it taxes me to keep that magic influence upright? I have to weave it into him every-time I see him and every week you are getting crazier in your ideas.”
There wasn’t much she could do by now. Stark was so deeply into the program for lack of a better word, that she couldn’t see him getting out of it even if she stopped all her influence on him. But that wasn’t something that Steve needed to know. As unstable as he was, she didn’t want him to think she could be expendable so let him believe that she needed to freshen it up now and then. And her point stayed – he was getting off the rails with this.

It had started pretty small. Steve approached her roughly 8 months ago, when Ultron was finished, all governments were finally figuring out what the fuck had happened in and with Sokovia and she had gotten settled in as an Avenger. At First, she couldn't believe her luck. After bewitching them all and only switching sides when it was absolutely necessary, they were letting her onto the team with no stipulations – only Stark seemed to have some objections to her being there and she could understand him just fine.
But Steve wanted her on the team so he put her on it regardless of what others, in this case Stark – thought about it.
She wondered why. Steve had also been subjected to her power, experienced nothing pleasant and yet, he was all for chaperoning her.
Well, Wanda knew when to take something because it was good for you, regardless of how insane it seemed.
Tony Stark left, and with him went a lot of amenities, like daily weapon maintenance and of course, Carte Blanche for spending money whatever they wanted for.
Steve also needed the quinjet often enough for other people to get skeptical and for that he needed Tony to approve the uses.
Perhaps is was her own egoism and the luxuriousness of finally living the good life, but when Steve asked her if she could persuade Stark just a little to be more lenient, she thought nothing of it.
Only it didn’t end there.
Almost daily Steve would approach her, ranting about something that Tony denied him or that he was annoyed about. He made puppy eyes at her and obviously she let her hate and disdain for Stark color her decisions.
Life at the compound was running a lot smoother with Tony accepting nearly everything Steve wanted and somehow, she had found herself waving some sort of on-going manipulation into Stark’s brain, making him susceptible to everything Steve said to him.
She supposed she did it when it grated on her nerves that she had to interrupt whatever she was doing at the time immediately because Steve was throwing a tantrum. For a nearly hundred year old guy he was pretty childish.
Yes, she could acknowledge that doing so was never an acceptable thing to do but at the time she had been self-centered and petty and it was harmless at first.
When one day she went to Steve and found Tony fucking Stark under his desk acting like he was a
footrest and not a person she had finally realized what the hell she had done.
It was too late though to change anything.
For the cluelessness Steve displayed on a daily basis with everything to do with modern technology, he had become pretty adapt to manipulate Stark into every thing he wanted him to be.
He once told her that he written some kind of code and Stark had to abide by that. No talking, often not making any sounds, absolutely no questioning of any order and only when Steve decided it, he could act as a person. And Steve only let him be human once a week, for his mail to Stark Industries because typing it up for Tony was too much work and Steve didn’t understand anything about Tony’s projects which he still contributed to from time to time.
There were also the missions with the team, where they needed Iron Man so then Tony was “allowed” to use his armor and fight with them but it was more on auto-pilot than genuine interaction with people.
Wanda remembered when she was afraid of dying in her own home, waiting for the bomb to go off and having no one to talk to except Pietro. It was awful and a torture in itself. Having Tony go through that for months was horrid.
Yes, at first she thought he had it coming, that it was divine justice that he, who wrote a program to defend the earth which was influenced by the mind-stone and ended up wanting to destroy the planet, was being destroyed by adhering to another “program”.
But only a few instances after, where Steve had come to her again, while having Tony under his thumb, complaining that he talked back or some other nonsense, she had seen the light.
At this time, she was more afraid that Steve would snap if she intervened or that he turned on her, spinning it like she was doing all the manipulation and he had discovered it and therefore rescued Tony out of her evil clutches.
No, she would kill Steve Rogers before that could happen. Letting Tony think even just for a minute that Rogers saved him was too much. She would kill both before that happened.

“Wanda you… you tell me you’re using your magic on Natasha? Why would you do that? She is your friend, she should get to decide if she wants to know something or not.”
Oh for the love of… Wanda had to breathe deeply through her nose.
She could not believe this man.
He had the gall to criticize her while doing… that to Tony, an innocent man that had nothing to do with any of this.
Unless she finished him right now though, nothing would change the situation they all found themselves in.
“You know what? I don’t care anymore. Maybe I ought to wake up Stark so you can discuss with him if it is unethical to keep Natasha off your case. Go sleep with him if you have such a boner for him.”
Steve sputtered nonsensical words and went beet red.
“I’m not…” he tried.
“Tony… He’s a guy.” As if that explained everything.
“And you need to get laid. Desperately.” she countered while leaving the room. At least she distracted Steve enough from the issue at hand, meant her bewitching Natasha.
What did Steve think how this worked? Sam Wilson didn’t look further than Cap’s shoes if he didn’t need to, but Natasha Romanov was a great spy and she knew if people lied to her and/or did shady things. She wouldn’t have missed Tony acting strange. If Steve had an ounce of talent in subterfuge, he could’ve pulled it off as Stark turning a new leaf and keep having him under his control, but that idiot had to go and prove to everyone that he was nuts. And a psychopath. Seriously, what sane person thought keeping someone constantly under magical influence was doing them some good? And his punishments. She shuddered. She didn’t wish that on anyone but what’s done was done. She doubted that lifting the mist she put in Stark’s head would change anything.
Even without magic there was conditioning at play and mostly her magic just made Tony more open for manipulation and susceptible for believing everything Steve said. And sometimes words were more potent than magic itself. Steve must have eroded Stark’s self worth to the bone.

“That… witch” Steve was furious and he wanted to wrap his hands around Wanda’s pretty little throat and… No, he needed to think. Calm down.
He turned around and faced Tony, who just laid there like he had no care of the world.
Steve got angry again.
He grabbed Tony by the lapels of the shirt he was wearing and lifted him to his face.
“You! This is all your fault! If you weren’t such a failure of a person, I wouldn’t have to treat you like this. But will you ever learn? No, you never have any respect for anyone other than yourself. Huh, you made some fancy armor and not-died at the hands of terrorist that had weapons that you made beforehand so who is to blame for your kidnapping? Right… yourself alone. And then you insult me first thing we meet and then you built a murder-bot that tries to conquer the world. Bet you wanted to do that too, don’t you? Just were too scared to try.”
Steve shook Tony like he was nothing more than a rag-doll and even though defense was not an option for him, Tony still tried to survive.
“Steve….” he croaked.
“Please...”
Steve backhanded Tony and let him crash into the nearest wall from the force.
“Don’t you dare to talk to me! You are trash and it’s high time that everybody realizes that!”
As much as he wanted Tony to go into the common room and act like a chair for all he cared, he needed to keep his head straight.
That wasn’t gonna amount to anything and keeping Tony’s state a secret was better for all involved. Steve was not stupid. He knew that the world would frown upon his handling of the situation, even if they all secretly were glad and would have loved to do the same. No, this was his burden and he would carry it. Keeping the world safe from Tony Stark and his humongous ego was a heroic task and even if things were a bit rough sometimes, he wasn’t one to complain.
“Let’s get you back into your cage. I will decide later on your punishment...”

It was the first time, but Tony was glad to be in the cage. Steve couldn't touch him in there and that was all he needed right now. His body was still shaking, his legs only cooperated long enough for Steve to haul him into his office and let him crawl into the next room and then he broke down.
Rogers stormed off after seen that he was secure and not going to alert anybody (how could he?) and Tony allowed himself the luxury of panicking.
The humiliation he could get his head around, even though it stung. The… talk with Maximoff and all that she implied? Not so much.
For once he was glad for Steve’s stuck-up-ness because that was something he would not survive nor wanted he to.
His situation being one where consent was not on the mind of any other party than his and he wasn’t asked or allowed to have an opinion what happened to his body, he doubted his internal protest and fear about being used like… that would have made any difference. Still, he was glad that was off the table.
Sure, the punishment would be grave enough and maybe finally the thing that would make his mind snap and then he wouldn’t have to deal with this anymore. It was all he could hope for now.
He wasn’t stupid, he realized what Wanda didn’t say.
He was as good as gone as a person, and not able to simply be a human being anymore. His body was obedient to all things it was asked and it didn’t matter that he wasn’t sitting in the saddle, that he wasn’t the one calling the shots. Nobody cared.
Pepper acted worried at their last phone call but after that nothing happened. She didn’t rescue him because she didn’t know something was wrong in the first place. How that was even possible, Rogers wasn’t exactly subtle about the whole thing but he did hide him away pretty much the whole time, if not for situations where the world needed Iron Man.
And he couldn't even enjoy that anymore. The armor had always made him feel safe, but now it was like lying in a remote controlled coffin. If the HUD went out he wouldn’t know anything what was happening to him and that thought scared him.
Honestly, a lot scared him these days. Every action he took or let them dictate to his body to take, it was possible that he screwed up and it turned into something horrifying.
Eating dinner resulted in waterboarding, rescuing people turned into injury and hiding it, making Steve mad in the process.
Oh, how he despised Steve. That… monster was even worse than Wanda. Sure, she made it possible for him to be so thoroughly controlled but Steve would have found another way eventually.
He spent lots of time just sitting here in his inner-mind workshop-place and had gone over the past incidents with Rogers.
What had he missed? Could he have foreseen that the man was more insane than everybody guessed? He had predicted that the time in the ice could have damaged something in Captain America but he was acting like a complete lunatic. Or was he, Tony Stark, really that horrible? Was he that much of a danger to earth that he had to be imprisoned in his own mind?
See, magic wasn’t even needed to fuck him up. The ten rings certainly didn’t need special abilities to do so.
He sighed internally while his body was busy folding himself into a corner of the cage and trying to calm down.

Chapter Text

They had another mission. While Tony didn’t enjoy having people in danger, he knew that this was the real hero gig he had signed up for. If not for the annoying tendencies that the villains always had some kind of issue with him or hated him by proxy because his father did something awful in the past, he would feel good about saving people.
But since he was also the reason most of the time the people even needing saving, not so much.
This time however, they had raided Hydra facilities which had nothing to do with him. Except being on their “people we want to die so we can take over the world”-list he had nothing to do with them.
This was SHIELDS responsibility and Captain America’s to a lesser extent.
And with all this, his thoughts on the matter didn’t… well matter because he was still being an obedient, controlled puppet that showed off his tricks to his master.
Flying in the armor made him nauseous, especially when he didn’t really know if he was going a sharp left or right turn. Not that anybody knew. Rogers didn’t bother with that, he just ordered him to raid the facility and incapacitate everyone in his way.
So that’s what he did. If he came close to being shot down, not using another strategy because nobody told him that he had to survive? Well, too bad. That’s on Steve too.

Somehow, everything turned out alright. Nobody was intelligent enough to take out his armor so the mission was a success.
Having learned from the scepter, they now collected all mysterious artifacts in a secure storage place, which of course Tony paid for.
In the beginning, when he was not that deep under the influence, when he still had his own mind and opinion, he might have protested about not being allowed to go into his own storage place.
Steve decided that he might make another Ultron and while he wanted to bristle and argue that he didn’t even make the first one completely alone, that there were other circumstances at play, he just found himself nodding meekly.
“You’re right Steve. I won’t go near there.”
He should have known something was wrong when reacting like that, but the question was, had he even been able to do something back then? Or was the magic too far into him even then?
He couldn't know and it made him crazy.
Before he could ponder this further, his body landed on the landing pad in front of the compound, having himself entering through the lobby. Apparently the Avengers needed some publicity that’s why Steve had decided that he should land there.
So that’s what he did, landing in his iconic posture and waving to the cheering people gathered there.
Steve stood tall in front of the journalists and whomever was there and told them how they had destroyed another Hydra facility.
Iron Man was not considered by them so he went inside. His program dictated that he was to go upstairs and lose the armor immediately and then return to Steve’s office, awaiting instructions. Mostly inside his cage. Maybe he could eat something today…

“Tony!”
Somebody called him. He turned around, that hadn’t happened in a long time.
Clint Barton was standing inside the lobby, a visitor pass clearly visible on his jacket.
“Hey bird-brain.” he heard himself greeting his teammate. Or ex-teammate? Clint was retired, wasn’t he?
God dammit, he could not remember such details anymore. Everything that made him, him was eroded piece after piece. Not long now and nothing would be left.
Clint wasn’t bothered by the insult and came up to him.
“So, what’s going on? Have you all decided that an archer was too boring for a superhero or why is no one calling me these days? I only see you on TV.”
He wanted to put his hand good-naturally on Tony’s still armored shoulder but the latter flinched away.
“I’m fine. Living the good life, you know me.” he said, waving him off.
“I have to go now.” He turned and his metallic fingers ticked against his armor.
“W-hat?” Clint was baffled, but then he heard the clinks.
Tick, tick, tick…. Tick. Another tick. One more. Tick, tick, tick… and so forth.
Clint was a spy and he recognized the international sign SOS if he heard or saw it. What was going on?
Tony still hadn’t turned around, but now the ticking changed. It took a while but then Clint heard that Tony was spelling in Morse-code.
C-A-N-T… T-A-L-K.
Clint wanted to go to him, see what was going on, but a subtle shake of Tony’s gauntlet which was held behind his back so Clint could see it but cameras won’t stopped him.
F-O-L-L-O-W D-O-N-T-B-E-S-E-E-N.
Okay, he could do that. Even better they were in the compound, he knew he had ways to accomplish that. He let Tony go away, standing there befuddled. For whomever was not supposed to know anything here, he grumbled out loud.
“Oh fine, Mr. I am too good for Barton anymore. Have it your way.” And he turned around towards the exit. Everyone who would review the tapes if someone did that, that is, would only see him trying to reconnect to his teammate and Tony brushing him off. Nothing special there. Really, Tony was a billionaire and extremely busy, he had lots of meetings and whatnot.
But now Clint was not only curious, but worried. Tony had sent SOS. He needed help. With what and why, Clint didn’t know yet, but he knew he would find out soon. And then god help the perpetrator.
It took him a while but he managed to follow Tony’s path through the compound without really following him. The vents were built perfectly just for him, he knew that Tony had designed the interior design after the remodeling of the old storage place his father had here. He must have switched out the vents too.
He glimpsed that Tony had shed his armor before he caught up to him and now traveled down to the 7th floor, where all the offices of the staff for the Avengers where located. More precisely, the ones for the operational staff, such as Maria Hill and… Steve Rogers.
Why would Tony go there off all places? Maybe he wanted to go to Steve? Maybe it’s Steve that needed his help? It doesn’t make sense…
That’s what Clint thought.
Still, he followed Tony like he was supposed to and waited. After entering the office that was marked as Steve’s, he didn’t come out again. Five minutes was the most Clint dared to wait, with nobody else coming towards the door, he decided it was safe enough.
So, now Clint was in Steve’s office. It looked ordinary enough. There was a desk, a comfy chair, some rows of paperwork neatly sorted.
A modern computer was sitting on the oak-furnished desk. So Steve was now caught up with the future. The only interesting thing he could see were some sandwiches that were placed on the floor next to the desk.
No Tony and the room was dark.
“Tony?”
No answer.
There was another door which was slightly ajar and normally Clint would think it was an adjourned bathroom which were common next to these offices. It was dark too. But Tony had to be somewhere so he decided to take a look.
“Tony? If this is a prank then...” he stopped.
Instead of a bathroom, he saw an eerie blue glow which reminded him of the arc reactor. But it didn’t come from the armor but was emitted by a metallic structure which looked a lot like a cage if he had to call it something.
No, more like a dog crate. And inside the crate…
“Holy shit Tony!”
Tony was kneeling inside the cage, it was nothing else, and looked towards him but not at him. He looked at nothing in particular.
In front of Tony was another tablet with food on it and then, like he was finally realizing it was there, he gazed down to the food. He looked… desperate… hungry?
“I don’t… Tony what is going on here?”
This was something he could not wrap his hand around.
The clinking returned.
C-A-N-O-T-E-A-T. N-O-T-A-L-L-O-W-E-D.
“What do you mean, not allowed?”
M-I-N-D-C-O-N… he shuddered and broke off. Staring directly at Clint now and the view broke Clint’s heart.
Tony looked horrible, gaunt and his eyes were screaming when he couldn't.
Clint wasn’t stupid, he could conclude what Tony wanted to spell. It was horrifying none the less.
“Wanda?”
He needed to know. Everything pointed towards this, that the Avengers were doing this to Tony but maybe, there was some villain that…
Tony shook his head. Gestures seemed to be “allowed” whatever that meant.
“Steve...” he croaked and boy, his voice sounded like he was a chain-smoker.
“You can explain later. First, I’m gonna get you out of there!”
Who put him into it in the first place was something Clint wondered about, he hadn’t seen anyone entering except Tony. Could mind control be that far reaching to imprison oneself?
Tony shook his head again.
N-O-W-I-L-L-K-I-L-L-M-E. H-E-A-R-T…
Spelling everything out took a lot more out of Tony than it should but he stopped again. His gaze returned blank, staring at nothing once more.
Apparently, even not speaking had it’s limit.
“Ok, ok. Stay put. I will come back, I promise.” He didn’t want to leave Tony here, but he wasn’t the engineering genius of the two and if he summarized what he learned so far it was entirely possible that the aforementioned genius had built his own prison so it worked perfectly. If Clint had to guess, the cage had an electric charge high enough to sent Tony’s fragile heart into arrhythmia, therefore resulting in heart-failure if not stopped right away in the medbay or with the right medication. Clint had neither so Tony had to stay for the beginning.
“Eat something, drink something, you look horrible.” Maybe orders from him would work, too. He hated the thought of doing this to Tony but at the moment it was a last resort.
Tony didn’t react.
“I’m coming back, Tony. You have to hold on.”

It was good that Tony didn’t look at him any more so Clint could finally leave. He didn’t know when Steve would come back to his office but Clint would see to it that he won’t do it on his own accord. If not for the location of Tony’s… prison he would normally assume that the good Captain and leader of the Avengers didn’t know about this. But this was incriminating.
And Wanda had to be involved unless Steve somehow developed mind manipulation techniques.
The only other being that they knew could do something like that was Loki and this didn’t sound like him. For once, Loki would have shown Tony off to the whole world as a demonstration of his might and that earth had to worship him in order to not share the same fate. He would have heard about Loki returning, he was sure of. Also, Thor had told him later that Loki was sorry about the invasion and he seemed to have been controlled himself. Clint didn’t want to believe it at first, but even he knew that this invasion was a strategical nightmare.
It wasn’t that far fetched to think that Loki’s own actions had been dictated too. And them succeeding was Loki’s manipulation of the situation much like Stark did right now. Using loop-holes to communicate where he normally couldn't.
And what this not a whole other reason to just shoot Steve? How dare he forbid someone like Tony Stark to talk. The man needed it to function, he even made himself an AI interface just so he would have someone to bounce off ideas to. He seemed like a lonely kid, if he had to resort to building himself friends.

Clint could find another hundred reasons why this was horrible but right now he just wanted it to stop. Not knowing whether calling some help would be safe (the compound was monitored and maybe Steve had another AI tapping the frequencies so he had to avoid detection) so he was on his own.
But he knew Tony and he knew that he was not one to just throw away stuff he didn’t need so there had to be some of his older bows and arrows somewhere. He just had to get to the workshop.

Chapter Text

Clint was here. He was really here. Tony couldn't believe it. Weeks before he had finally figured out that Clint Barton was the only person he knew (and would believe something was wrong) that was neither civilian nor Avenger. It seems that Steve missed the small group of, totally consisting of one, retired Avengers. Bruce was missing in action and while Tony would love to worry about his friend, he knew at least the big guy in that equation could take care of himself and Bruce was a master at vanishing and well… he had his own plate full.
Speaking of plate… hungrily Tony eyed the sandwiches that were stacked neatly onto another and he had to keep from drooling.
God, he was so hungry. Steve’s latest punishment was by far the most vicious so far, even out-rating
water-boarding although that could be just because right now his stomach hurt worse than his lungs.
Faced with both of them, he didn’t know which one he would rather choose but as choice was a luxury he didn’t have anymore, who wanted to dwell on that?
Right now, he would eat nearly everything, but he couldn't. His command was very strict. Nothing to eat, not limited to actual food. Shame because Tony would have gladly eaten his own clothes to satisfy his hunger.
Having the food directly in front of his hands was insulting. He knew he would eventually cave, he had to. Sustaining his body overwrote everything and Steve knew that too. So why bothering with such useless disciplinary action that was bound to fail?
Unless Steve wanted him to fail.
If the outcome was the same all the way, why should he suffer through this in the first place? But logic didn’t work with the program, at least not always. It had when he used the loophole of using Morse code to “talk” to Clint. His vocal responses were limited to a few sentences distantly sounding like himself, like a perverted parrot he repeated this nonsense until everybody was just annoyed to have bothered talking to him.
Coming back to the issue at hand, his gnawing hunger, he drank some more water that was provided freely and in huge amounts.
In fact, Steve’s second order had been to drink as much as he could, at least three liters a day. At first, Tony hadn’t known where that would go but then the next thing clarified it.
“Not going to the bathroom...”
Right, like his body had somehow gotten the memo to not produce any urine anymore.
His bladder was putting even more pressure on his stomach and he felt overall awful. The likeliest case that would happen in the nearer future would be him making a fool out of himself by relieving himself in front of Steve and pass out from hunger.
The only reason why it hadn’t happened before was that he could shower everyday without supervision.
It made no sense but then the whole thing didn’t. He really tried to rationalize it away, trying to find some silver lining in it, some greater good where it made sense that he was sacrificed for.
There just wasn’t one.
The Avengers had been working fine, he had stepped down because Wanda joined so he didn’t have to deal with her (and what a load of good that had done him) but Steve still implemented this plan to … control him for lack of a better word and for what?
He never said that Iron Man would be out of the picture, he never withdrew his funds, gave them plenty of money to spend and use for missions and custom made weapons.
What was so bad about him just existing that Steve had to resort to magic of all things?

It didn’t matter, he supposed. Maybe there was no reason other than insane people torturing him for fun. Clint was now here, he would help.
Maybe then everything would finally end.
Tony’s body gave out, he was just so hungry. So far, he hadn’t eaten in five days.
He fell down and stayed there. It was not in his hands anyway, he could take a long nap.

The Avengers were gathered inside their common room, mingling around after the successful raid of the hydra base. Steve was sitting on the couch with Sam, talking to each other. Both were laughing about something. Wanda was in the other corner with Vision. Why the Synthezoid hadn’t done something, was another question. Such as Natasha.
She was sitting inside a lone chair, just gazing thoughtfully into a book. Clint had seen her doing so dozens of times, pretending to read was a really good cover for a spy. Only now she didn’t even pretend to do that, just staring into space.
Well, there was his answer.

Steve was in the middle of a retelling of the howling Commandos to Sam when he abruptly stilled, eyes wide.
An arrow stuck out of his crotch. Super Soldier or not, one guys nuts were delicate and he screamed.
All the others reacted immediately, like one united group looking out for a target.
“If one of you even thinks about moving, the next one is gonna be in his throat!” Clint came forward out of his corner, growling and drawing the next arrow in his bow.
This one wasn’t nearly as good as his favorite at home but it would do. In fact, any weapon was enough for Clint, he had killed with a hastily built slingshot before.
“Clint? What are you doing?”
That was Natasha, who seemed totally confused.
“That’s Steve. He is one of us.”
Wanda’s hands glowed he could see out of his eye and without looking away from Steve, his bow moved around and he hit her left hand right when she wanted to throw some red mist towards him.
“Ah, ah… no magic. You just all stay where you are and listen.”
Wanda howled but no more mist came forward. Good. Magic user incapacitated, super Soldier nearly too.
“What do you want Clint?” Natasha again, she seemed to think something wasn’t right with him. Oh the irony. Everybody always assumed he was mind-controlled if he did something rash.
“I just want to know one answer to a question: Where’s Tony?”
Now all looked confused.
“You mean Stark?” That was Sam, scratching his head, still not fully over the shock.
Clint rolled his eyes and had drawn another arrow, again pointing it towards Steve.
“No, I mean the other Tony who is the owner of this compound. Of course I mean Stark!” What an Idiot.
“Well, he is never around much, I guess. Maybe he’s in his workshop? The armor was banged up after today’s fight, maybe he is fixing it up?”
Everybody but Steve and Wanda nodded. So they knew nothing, were not involved. Save for Tasha who could pull it off none of them were good enough to lie to him so he would miss it.
And Natasha didn’t say anything, just narrowed her eyes at him. Good, finally she was thinking.
He didn’t yet know if Wanda influenced his friend or not, but Natasha had dropped the ball on this.
He remembered Fury coming towards both of them, after he had his talk with Tony in his barn.
They were both supposed to keep an eye on Tony, he said. Taking it as a final order from their boss, Clint and Natasha had nodded.

“Now, everybody who doesn’t know shit, move over there. Steve and Wanda stay where they are.” Clint commanded them once again, Tony needed his help and he needed it now.
“You!” he still pointed his arrow at Steve but addressed Wanda.
“Undo it! Now!”
“Clint what...” Natasha began, but Wanda sighed.
“For the record… it wasn’t my idea and I would’ve stopped it long ago, but who would believe me over Steve?” she laughed.
“The deranged, revenge-thirsty witch over the epitome of goodness? Yeah right, I saved myself.”
Clint had no words for the likes of her.
“Vision! Detain her, block her magic, I don’t care. She doesn’t leave here other than a body bag.”
Vision, naive and gullible that he was, didn’t understand a thing, so Clint clarified.
“You still have JARVIS memories, right? So you need to protect Tony right now, understand?”
“Protect… Sir?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, I will confine Wanda to this room.” With that said, Vision used the mind stone on his head to create a bubble around Wanda enclosing her. She just sighed and sat down again.
“I won’t fight you Vision. Go.” she said to Clint.
“Maybe he can still be saved. But you need him...” she pointed to Steve.
“still alive for that. Right now, he is the only one capable of lifting the orders.”
Steve hadn’t said a thing other than groaning from the pain.

“Clint, what is going on?” Natasha clearly was still lost somehow.
It didn’t matter, he couldn't deal with her right now.
“Later, Tasha. I have to save Tony.” He looked at Steve.
“You are going to come with me and you keep your mouth shut unless I tell you so.” Let him have a taste of his own medicine then.
Steve just smiled.
“You can’t keep me...” what Clint could or couldn't do was lost in the new scream that Steve let out. His left leg was decorated with another arrow sticking out of his femur.
“The next will shatter your kneecap and I will keep doing it until your healing factor kicks in so it will be useless after that. Shut the hell up.”
It took longer now but Steve was not making another fuss. He hated the thought that he had to expose Tony again to his tormentor but there was nothing he could do about it.

When they finally both arrived in Steve’s office once more, Steve tried to argue and defend himself.
“He was off the rails Clint. You know I wouldn’t do that if...” that earned him another arrow, this time in his right knee.
Steve dropped onto the ground.
“Good, now you can only crawl around for the next hours. Have a taste of it.” Clint spat.
“He created Ultron...” Steve groaned from the pain and the only reason another arrow didn’t come was that Clint had now seen that Tony was lying in his cage unconscious.
“Dammit, I’m too late. Tony! Wake up. You have to eat something...How does this thing open?” He wanted to know from Steve who just shrugged.
“I don’t know. He built it himself, I never touched him. It’s amazing what your own mind will do to yourself if you earned it...” That was it, another arrow launched itself into Steve’s foot. He screamed, cradling his feet towards his body which in turn put pressure on his femur and knee. He was in agony right now.
“Oh too bad… the bad guy is hurting. Wake him up. Now.”
Steve’s eyes glinted maliciously.
“I get to order him around?”
Clint looked at him like he was a piece of dog poo on his shoe.
“I will castrate you right here and now if you say anything out of line. Just tell him to wake up and eat something. Nothing more.”
Steve would not be running away, not with a shattered knee that even the serum took a few hours to heal.
“Alright, fine. Tony, wake up.”
Immediately Tony began to stir. He opened his eyes and took in Steve, not even trying to take a bit of the sandwiches piled in front of him.
“Now tell him to eat something.”
“Tony?” Tony looked at Steve, awaiting orders.
“Kill Clint Barton!”
“No!” Clint screamed, quickly putting an arrow through Steve’s throat. He was dead before he hit the ground. Tony groaned, putting himself to his knees and deactivated the cage. It was his damn finger print, could one believe that?
But then Clint began to etch away because Tony took a long look at him and begun complicated moves with his arms. Oh shit, he was gonna call the armor.
Clint had to do something, which he really didn’t want to do, but right now he had to salvage the situation.
He drew an arrow and when Tony finally stood up in front of him, he took aim and shot him in the leg.
Tony cried out and went down. Clint had missed all vital blood lines and bones, but the wound would hurt like a bitch, he knew that. Still, making it impossible for Tony to use the armor was paramount now.
He broke down the capsule of a sleeping gas arrow he had found inside the upstairs storage room and put Tony to sleep. Taking the arrow out had taken only seconds. He bandaged the wound.
It was over, for now.
He cradled Tony in his arms, carrying him towards the medbay. He ignored all confused stares he got, he even ignored the corpse of Steve Rogers upstairs.
“Install a gastric tube and a catheter, I’m gonna be back and explain.”
Tony would not be a happy camper if he woke up but that was not the priority right now. Eating something would have been preferred but it seems it won’t happen like that so he had to improvise.
“Just believe me if I say it’s life and death, so please just do so. If he later on complains you can take it out.”
Normally, no doctor that wanted to keep their approbation would even think about doing this to a non-responsive patient but these were the Avengers and who knew what happened in today’s fight?
They also knew that Tony Stark was very forgiving and would not fire them for acting on the behalf of a teammate and Hawkeye was a teammate.

With Tony taken care off he had to go to the other Avengers. Calling the police was distantly on his mind but with Steve dead and Wanda too much risk for normal prisons he decided to involve the only one he could still trust to handle this kind of shit. He called Fury.

Chapter Text

In the end, everything else had been a piece of cake. Natasha seemed to have awoken out of her “I don’t care about nothing” attitude and together with Fury Clint had determined that Rogers and Maximoff were in this all alone.
“I seems that they have been using magic on him right after you all defeated Ultron.” Fury concluded. Questioning the others wasn’t helpful. They knew nothing, had never realized anything was wrong. Thank god for Pepper and her antennae for bullshit regarding Tony Stark.
Wanda had decided to come clean, she wasn’t going to weasel herself out of it anyways, so it didn’t hurt to tell them all she knew.
“At first, it was small things. He was angry Stark left the team because of me, so he wanted him to have a better opinion of me. I didn’t think it would hurt. And before you berate me, yes I know that mind control in itself is wrong and I have regretted it deeply myself but I was naive and stupid back then. And angry at Stark. Surely I know now that he had nothing to do with the shell that was not detonating in our house nor the one that did and killed my parents and that the whole world wrote them off as collateral damage and he still felt bad about it.”
She lifted her hands in a placating gesture, wearing a power-dampener in form of a collar she could do nothing to them.
“And then what?” Fury wanted to know.
“And then… Steve didn’t get enough. Every week he approached me with something else he wanted Stark to do or think and one day I had enough. I’m not proud of that, but I kinda gave him a standing line of influence over Stark. At first it was just little things, like doing mundane tasks for Steve, for instance I remember Stark carrying the laundry through the common room to do it himself in the washing area. All got a good laugh out of it.”
It had been fun at that time, she thought.
“But then… somehow, Steve snapped. He started doing really degrading things to Tony and I don’t know half of it but he flaunted it in my face as often as he could. Probably thought I would find it funny seeing Stark acting like a stool.” She shuddered, that had been disturbing instead.
“The thing is… I can’t really take it back. Steve went so far and wrote a program, like a code of conduct and Stark had to abide by it. I don’t know the details and I don’t know if he wrote it down, but I know one rule was never talking except keeping appearances upright.”
So that’s where the nonsensical sentences Tony sprouted from time to time came from.
“If Rogers was still alive, we could have asked him.” Fury said with a touch of reprimand but Clint was having non of it.
“I’m glad the bastard is dead. You should’ve seen how Tony lived. And the last thing he said was for him to kill me. Nope, I did the right thing.”
“There is still the problem of reaching Stark. Right now, we keep him sedated but we have to let at least Potts know what’s going on.”
Clint pondered this.
“Let’s try to find out if Steve wrote something down. He did this for half a year, with at least four months of it having total control over Tony according to what Wanda said. He can’t improvise everything. Right now having Potts and Rhodes here won’t do any good. Tony won’t appreciate them seeing him like this, I’m sure of.”
The least they could do is preserve his modesty and privacy.
Fury conceded. “You’re right. Let’s go there and find something, and do it fast.”
Together they re-entered the room where Steve Rogers had died and Tony Stark had been imprisoned.
Fury shuddered seeing to small cage-like thing that glowed like an arc reactor. Knowing Tony the damn thing was powered by one.
“Always an over-achiever...” He sighed and went looking through all the papers that were lying about.
Stark would have hidden this code or whatever inside the computer, but know they had to think like Steve. At least, like Steve the 100 year old strategist, not Steve the deranged psychopath.
Deep inside his mind Fury wondered if he should have handled Tony Stark differently. He knew why his father had ordered Nick to maintain his distance and not seem too friendly. Tony would have been a prime target for getting Fury to comply. So they went the cliche heroic route of being an ass to people they cared about.
Still, keeping Tony low on self-esteem so he would find himself indebted to the other Avengers was a mistake, he realized that now. Teamwork was important, but doing it like that, nobody appreciated what Tony did for all of them and he never thought himself good enough for any kind of compensation.
Tony gave his soul… and now also his mind, to keep the Avengers together and if they couldn't fix this somehow, Nick Fury didn’t know what to do. Tony couldn't stay like this. They had woken him up once, to try to get him to eat, but he only stared into the air, not interacting with them. Not Morse code, not ordering helped.
He had whined when they put some snacks right in front of him but didn’t make any move to take them. The gastric tube helped so he wouldn’t have to eat something but his mind was another matter.

He had to concentrate. Finding this code was all they could do for now.
“I think I have something.” Clint had found some hastily scribbled words in Steve’s handwriting.
“That bastard!” he shouted, making Fury, yes Fury, the seasoned spy-agent-boss-of-everything jump.
“He had Tony tell him every hurtful moment and used that to… punish him. Oh God…” Clint knew how horrible Afghanistan had been, he had read the file SHIELD had on Tony.
“Read for yourself.” Clint just handed Fury the papers, looking away. If he wasn’t already dead, he would gladly kill him again.
Fury took the papers and identified the first words.
“COMMANDS
STOOLS DON’T TALK
DON’T MAKE ANY SOUNDS
TALKING RESULTS IN WATERBOARDING
(T seems incapable of following orders – leaves the water after two minutes tops)
LYING AROUND IN FRONT OF MY BED WHEN COMING FROM THE PUBLIC TAKES HIM DOWN TO EARTH
(also, T. is a very cushy carpet for my feet in the morning)

Fury gulped. He tried very hard not to throw up.
“This is...” he had no words for this.
“But there is no clue how to end this. He had no… exit for him, not even for one minute. I can’t imagine… oh God, I should have come sooner.”
Clint was having trouble wrapping his head around it all.
“There has to be something… oh!” He grabbed the waste-basket and rummaged around in it.
“Perhaps Tony did fail to follow orders before… not trying to drown. Maybe he tried out some other stuff that didn’t work? Here, I have something.”
Together they looked over the crumbled paper.
“BE A DOG” t. too stubborn for that
“KILL YOURSELF” body will always protect itself
“WHY IS HE SO DAMN STUBBORN? NOT SAYING STEVE SHOULD NOT BE THAT MUCH!!!”
“Well, that’s something. Although I hate to think about getting him to respond to that vile creatures name.” Not even Nick Fury was cold-hearted enough to do that to Tony.
“There is nothing about not eating food so I hope that’s new enough that he didn’t write it down. And the gastric tube will remedy that in a few days.”
Clint nodded, his boss was right. Not eating was an issue but not the main one. Unless they could get Tony to respond to them, it wasn’t possible to address it.

“Can we get a few minutes alone with your patient?” Fury asked in his most polite voice but only Clint convinced the doctor that they were to be trusted with Mr. Stark.
“Do not agitate him. He lost weight and his heart-rate is all over the place.”
“We won’t.”
When they were finally alone and even the nurse left the spacious room in the medical wing the compound had for injured super-heroes, they approached Tony again.
He was lying in his bed, staring at nothing. Catatonic, was the medical term the doctors used.
Imprisoned in his own head was Clint’s choice of words.
“Tony? Can you hear me?” Nothing.
“Tony? Be a dog.” Clint tried, but again nothing happened. He was glad because he didn’t want his friend to act like that.
“Let me try. Tony!” Fury bellowed.
Tony flinched, but didn’t look at him but finally they had a reaction.
“Tony, do not say Steve or I will punish you!” Fury laid into him with his most-authoritative voice he had and after a while there was a whisper.
“S-St-eve...”
“Tony!” they both shouted and now he looked at them not through them but his brown eyes found theirs. He briefly looked at Fury then at Clint.
“I am Iron Man.” he croaked, voice horse from disuse.
Clint deflated.
“He is only saying stuff he was ordered to maintain the facade of being alright.” he explained to his boss.
But now that Tony was awake and more or less lucid, Clint tried Morse code again. Maybe Tony would remember that he could communicate like that.
“It’s fine. You’re allowed.”
Tony shuddered once more but began to hit the railing of his bed in a rhythm.
H-A-P-P-E-N
“I came back, like I promised. I rescued you and bought you into medbay. You wouldn’t eat so they had to insert a gastric tube. I’m sorry!”
R-E-S-C-U-E
“Yes, you are free Tony.”
S-T-E-V-E
Clint had dreaded that question but he had to answer.
“He’s dead. He can’t do anything to you anymore Tony. I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”
If Tony understood him Clint didn’t know because there was no outward expression of him to the news.
S-T-I-L-C-A-N-T-T-A-L-K
“I know. We are working on it. Wanda told us there is no lifting the magic, you have to break through with our help.”
T-A-L-K-E-D-B-E-F-O-R. W-A-S-P-U-N-I-S-H-E-D.
“I know Tony. Nobody’s gonna do that to you, I swear. I’ll protect you. Steve is dead, he won’t order you around anymore.”
W-A-N-D-A-D-E-A-D-2?
“She turned herself in, basically. Right now she wears a collar that prevents her from using her magic mist so she is detained at SHIELD headquarters for the moment.” That was another voice and then Tony acknowledged Nick Fury standing at his hospital bed.
P-I-R-A-T-E
Normally Nick would have groaned at the address Tony had chosen but now he wanted to cry. Tony was still in there somewhere, he just had to find his way out to the surface.
“We will fix this Tony. You’re gonna be back to normal in no time.”
Now Tony shook his head. It was the most reaction they had gotten out of him aside from the tapping of the morse alphabet.
N-E-V-E-R-N-O-R-M-A-L. J-U-S-T-W-A-N-N-A-E-N-D-I-T.
Now Clint was devastated.
“No… Tony you… You have to believe...” Well did he?
Clint fell silent, this was an ethical matter and he didn’t want to go there. Fury was no help either.
“Lets… lets not go there right now, alright? Let’s fokus on getting you out of this conditioning. I hate to do this to you Tony but...”
“Eat something small and lightly digestible.” That was Fury again, tone deep and commanding.
Tony immediately began to search for some of the aforementioned food and Clint hurried to bring over some white bread. It was plain and probably a bit stale, but Tony devoured it in seconds.
He was finally eating.
The conditioning wasn’t broken but they made same small progress.

Tony still couldn't believe it. Steve was gone, Clint had done it. He freed him. Right now, his body was lying in a soft bed, he was fed nutrition that he desperately needed. He just couldn't get his body to do anything on his own. It was frustrating.
He had thrown himself against the barrier in his mind, like he had done in the early days when he realized it wasn’t a strange dream he had but the bitter reality of his conscious being locked up.
It didn’t budge.
He still couldn't get out. He had suspected long ago that this would be the case, but to feel it for himself was another matter. He felt hopeless. Nothing worked, he just stared into space and his hands didn’t even twitch.
Then, a deep voice began commanding him. He groaned, wasn’t this ever gonna end? But then he knew that voice. Had seen it before, heard it before.
When Nick Fury forbid him saying Steve out loud, he felt his body doing something.
Yes, getting him to shut up had been the hardest task. And he didn’t completely manage it.
When Clint began to talk to him again and he knew that now was the chance to say something meaningful, not “I am Iron Man” (what kind of crap was that? He said that once. Once.) he willed everything he had to make his body do the Morse signs that he wanted to use.
He more or less succeeded, spelling aside.
When the reassurance came for reclaiming a normal life, Tony had to interject. He didn’t believe that possible. Not right now, maybe not ever. He couldn't do this anymore.
Then another command from Nicky divided his attention and he felt his body munching on some bread. It felt good to have something between his teeth, to chew and to swallow. He wondered for a moment if he could still do it, but apparently the time between the command to not eat anything and now was too short for his body to forget what to do with food.
Thank goodness that Fury included lightly edible in his command or the small thing would have been a button of his bed sheet. The thought alone was humiliating.
For this time they all had to content themselves with the knowledge that Tony could still function, he just needed new commands to work with.
Maybe it was all there ever would be for him.
But maybe, maybe he would one day reclaim his identity and life as Tony Stark.