Archive of Our Own

“Do I have to?” A boy complained, only for a bag to be roughly shoved into his hands.

“Yes, you brought this onto yourself so you have to deal with the consequences.” The father growled, and the boy shook his head and scoffed.

“I did what I had to do. Fine, I’ll do this even though it’s stupid.”

“Don’t forget our agreement.” With that, the car drove off and the boy was left standing in front of an imposing building. A man with one eyepatch came out of this building to greet him.

“Good morning, my name is Nick Fury and this is going to be your new home.”

“Alright Eyepatch, whatever you say. Let’s get this show on the roll.” Tony Stark flashed a smile before walking past Fury and into the building calling back, “Come on Nicky I don’t have all day and you need to inform me about this place and where I’m meant to go.”

Nick Fury looked down at the file in his hand and back at the boy before snapping the file shut. He wondered how this kid would fit into the compound, because as of right now he didn’t sound anything like his file, maybe a little arrogant but nothing else.

But he wasn’t the one to let his guard down just because things didn’t look how they seemed, and if this boy’s file held true then he definitely wasn’t letting his guard down. One paper from Tony Stark’s transcript peeked out of the file and a definition stared up at Nick Fury, resolving his decision.

Ma·ni·ac
/ˈmānēˌak/
Noun (Informal)
1. A person exhibiting extreme symptoms of wild behavior, especially when violent and dangerous.

Nick looked up from the definition and to the kid waiting at the door, and tucked the paper back into place.

“Let’s get this started.”

———————————————————

The Avengers Academy was the harshest correctional camp known worldwide, it only housed the toughest and meanest kids. It was a last resort for desperate parents, so not many kids were sent there, and the ones that were are not to be taken lightly.

“Hey! I heard that a new kid is coming in today!” Steve said excitedly as he sits down at a lunch table, his group of friends all looking at him.

“O-Oh, I wonder what they’re like then. Maybe they can join us?” Bruce stutters slightly, fidgeting with his sleeve.

“Highly unlikely, if they’re getting sent here, then they’re bad news.” Natasha snorted as she twirled her fork.

“Well we’re here, aren’t we?” Clint said, shooting paper balls in a trash bin across the room, always getting it in.

“Yeah, and we’re bad news too. We all just get along.”

“Clint has a point though, maybe they’ll be rooming on our floor?” Bucky says to Natasha, who rolled her eyes.

“Barnes we are on the maximum level of security floor, I doubt this new kid will automatically be on that floor.” The guards rush in and Bruce looks at his watch, realizing it’s time for them to go back to their floors. They usher everybody out and the group makes their way to their floor, expecting to see the new kid tomorrow maybe.

Instead, they find him in the middle of the hallway, on their floor.

“Hey kid! Are you lost or something? This is the maximum level security floor.” Clint calls out and the newcomer turns towards them, cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah, I know. I’m looking for my room, number 6?” The boy calls out and Steve points to the door across from Bruces’s, number 6, and he thanks Steve quickly before entering his room.

“Is it just me, or does it look like that kid doesn’t belong here?” Clint says and everybody nodded in agreement. The kid was dressed up in a business suit with a red tie, black dress shoes, and he was super small.

“Hey guys, sorry I had to put my stuff away, my name is Tony. I was hoping you guys could debrief me on the rules for this floor?” Tony called out as he walked towards them again, and cocked his head innocently to the side.

“Fury should’ve debrief you on the rules, so do you really need us to tell you again?” Natasha automatically saw through his innocent expression and called out his lie. Tony blinked in surprise before laughing,

“You’re good! Yes you’re right, the pirate already told me, I just asked because I wanted to spend more time with you guys and see what you’re like!”

Steve internally cooed at the reasoning, it was adorable, and stepped up, “Guys, I say we give him a chance and get to know him. He’s going to be rooming on this floor anyway, so why not?” Steve clapped Tony on the shoulder and only Bucky and Bruce picked up on the small flinch, before Tony smiled and nodded excitedly.

“Yeah! It’s going to be fun! All of you look cool!” Tony was doing this to get to know them, as he said, but also because he wanted to know how dangerous they were, and who they are.

“I-I’m with Steve on this one. We can’t exactly block him out of he’s going to be here.” Bruce said and walked over to Steve and Tony, standing on Tony’s right hand side. Tony looked at Bruce and smiled, and he saw a steelier look in Bruce’s eyes underneath the softness, something more dangerous than the man standing before him, but Tony blinked and the look was gone from Bruce’s eyes.

“Eh, why not?” Bucky drawled and walked over to them, and when Tony made eye contact, the same look that Bruce had was on Bucky too, but this one didn’t disappear, it always lurked beneath the surface.

‘Huh, so one is constant and the other isn’t. That’s to make note of, but what is it?’

Clint assessed Tony and deemed him harmless, so he shrugged and walked over.

“It’d be good to have another pranking buddy, if you’re in to that.” Clint said as he looked at Tony, gauging his reaction.

“Yeah! I love pranks!” Tony said excitedly and Clint laughed, ruffling his hair before they all look at Natasha.

“Fine, whatever.” Natasha walked over to them, and bent down to say to Tony, knowing he wouldn’t understand what she was saying,

“я слежу за тобой.” Tony’s eyes widened, a reaction from the unfamiliar language Natasha assumed, before smiling and laughing.

“I don’t know what you said but I’m going to assume it was something nice, so,” The others turned to the living room, not realizing the interaction between Natasha and Tony, and while their backs were turned Tony’s smile grew colder and his tone sharper as he said quietly so only Natasha could hear,

“Right back at you. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a паук, they’re always so manipulative and cunning, don’t you think? They make a web to capture their prey but because of the thread, the web is incredibly hard to see so the prey don’t know they’re trapped until it’s too late.” Tony drew back and laughed, as if they had just shared a joke, and turned to the rest of the group, chatting happily with Steve, who was trying to get them all to sit down on the various of couches.

Natasha stood still for a moment, before straightening up and walking over smoothly, not showing that she was slightly shook up.

But by Tony’s smile, she had a feeling that he knew.

“Alright guys! Lay it on me! What notorious things have you done?” Tony sat with his legs crossed and wiggled his eyebrows, to which Bruce giggled at the ridiculous of it.

“Shouldn’t we start with out names?” Steve said amusingly and watched Tony smile at him.

“We can do both at the same time!”

“Alright alright. My name is Steven Rogers, I’m here because I picked too many fights with bullies and I have a hard time listening to authority when it goes against my own morals or agenda.”

“Great. So we have a genuinely good guy here that just wants to do what’s right, no matter the cost.” Tony summarized and Steve blushed, because when put like that yeah it was kinda ridiculous, but Tony winked at him to calm his nerves.

“I’m James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, I’m here because I was always in the middle of this guy’s fights, trying to make sure he didn’t get hurt, and because of my alter ego, Winter, who is way too violent for his own good.” Bucky knocked on his head slightly and Tony nodded, that explained the undercurrent of something else in his eyes.

“Alright, so we have a half support half violent guy. Lovely.” Tony drawls sarcastically, but without any ill intent, and Bucky laughs at his summarization.

“My name is, uh, Bruce Banner, I’m here because of my alter ego who likes to fight and smash things whenever he gets out. But he only comes out when I’m too stressed or angry. They said I couldn’t handle him and keep him under control on my own so they brought me here.” Bruce said nervously, and everybody looks at Tony to see how he’ll react. All of them are extremely protective of Bruce, so one wrong reaction and they’ll all agree to kick him out.

“Dude! That’s wicked cool! Do you have any techniques to calm yourself when things get stressful?” Tony leaned forwards excitedly, and they all relaxed at his enthusiasm, he didn’t seem slightly concerned.

“I usually do breathing exercises and meditate certain times throughout the day.” Bruce explained and Tony nodded, before brightening up.

“I’ll be right back!” They watched as Tony raced off to his room and came back a few moments later, nothing different about him on the surface.

“Alrighty then. I’m Clint Barton, I’m here because I was trained to be an assassin and spy at a young age with various weapons, but I usually use a bow, and when the agency I was in shut down, they said I was too dangerous to be left alone with my skills so I was brought here.”

‘The bow was once the pinnacle of weapons...’

Tony stiffened but nodded, his mind trying to drift elsewhere but he snapped it back stubbornly, absentmindedly running a hand on his chest, before realizing what he was doing and stopped, getting back into the conversation.

“Alright, so we have a wicked archer who can most likely sneak in to places undetected and kill numerous people. Cool.” Tony shrugged before continuing, “Did you have a code name before?”

“Yeah, it was Hawkeye.”

“That makes sense.” Tony turned towards Natasha and looked at her expectingly.

“My name is Natasha Romanov, like Clint, I was trained to be an assassin and spy at a young age with various different weapons, and I was in the same agency as Clint when it shut down and they came to the same conclusion they did with Clint and brought me here. My code name was Black Widow.”

“Great, I was right about the spider thing, and another assassin is always pleasant, I think this is a lovely group though, pleased to meet you all.” Tony said as he stuck out his hand for them to shake, and Steve was the first one to take it. Everyone shook his hand but when it got to Bruce, he yelped and pulled his hand away.

“Bruce what’s wrong?” Steve asked concern while Tony titled his head and stared at Bruce.

“Nothing? Really? You’re very good at this, I was hoping to catch you by surprise by letting everybody else shake hands with me before you.”

“Wait, you shocked him on purpose?” Steve asked, confused.

“Yeah! I wanted to see his alter ego, but, he’s surprisingly good at keeping calm.”

“Well I wouldn’t be on the same floor as you guys if I wasn’t. They’d probably put me in solitude if I lost control every time someone tried to shock me.” Bruce said as he looked at Tony sharply, who shrugged sheepishly.

“I was curious, sue me. Also, maybe they have you on a floor with other people because they want you to have other people around so when you go to the cafeteria you don’t lose control at the number of people around. If they locked you up all the time alone it would be detrimental to your progress so they put you on a floor with dangerous people so if you did lose control, everybody all capable of calming you down, whether that be knocking you out or talking you down. Just a thought.” Tony shrugged and got up, walking away from multiple shell shocked stares.

“What about you? Is Tony your full name? Why are you here?” Natasha snapped back into reality and Tony glanced at her before speaking.

“My full name is Anthony Edward Stark, and-“

“Wait, Stark? As in, Howard Stark? Stark Industries?” Clint asked bewildered and Tony sighed.

“That’s why I don’t introduce myself as a Stark, but yes, I’m Howard’s son. Anything else? No? Great, I’ll see all of you soon but for now I’m going to my room. It’s almost lights out anyway.” Tony didn’t give them a chance to respond as he stood up and walked away to his room.

“Wait, you didn’t answer why you’re here.”

“Let’s just say, I was too futuristic for my own good.” Tony tossed the reply carelessly as he retired into his room, the door shutting and locking.

“He was too futuristic...? What could that mean?” Natasha muttered and Bruce stood up.

“I think I’m going to go to sleep. Too much excitement for one day.” Bruce smiled softly and went into his room, and soon everybody did the same, marking the end of the day.

———————————————————

“1-10?” Three guards were standing around their table, looking expectantly at the kids.

“Five.” Bucky said, it was always a five for him on normal days, indicating Winter and him are balanced and coexisting peacefully.

“Four.” Bruce was usually a three or lower but the arrival of Tony had shook him up a bit.

“Why is there a third guard?” Natasha muttered to Clint, eyeing the third one.

“And why is he holding...machine parts?” Clint muttered back and they continued to watch on.

“Uh, aren’t you guys suppose to leave?” Bucky asked after the three guards didn’t leave and the newest guard stepped forward.

“We’re still waiting for one more answer.”

“What?” Bucky muttered but it was Bruce who got it first, and looked over at Tony.

“Tony?”

“Hm?” Tony looked up from his coffee and looked up at the guards, “Oh! You’re finally here with toys!” Tony reached for the parts but the guard held them away.

“We need to know your level first Anthony.”

“It’s a five, can I have whatever’s in your hands now?” Tony complained and the guards shared a look before handing the genius the parts, to which he automatically started building something. After the first couple of days Tony had gotten adjusted to the academy and had reverted to wearing sweatshirts that were way to big on him and sweatpants, looking like a normal kid and not someone at the Avengers Academy.

“Uh, Tony? Mind explaining why you have to get your level check like Bruce and I?” Bucky asked and Tony glanced up at him before stopping and gave him his full attention.

“I’ll tell you if you two tell me why you need to get checked.”

“You won’t dodge the question like you did before with why you’re here?” Bucky raised an eyebrow skeptically and Tony nodded.

“Yeah, I promise. Pinky promise.” Tony grinned cheekily and held out his pinky, to which Bucky merely rolled his eyes and took his pinky with his flesh pinkie, sealing the promise.

“Well, I need to get checked for the same reason Bruce does, our alter egos. For me, my regular is a five that shows Winter and I are at perfect balance, if it raises then that means Winter is getting more control. At a 10 he’s in complete control and if he’s in a bad mood then I need to be detained.” Bucky explained and Tony hummed in understanding, turning to Bruce as his hands start tinkering with the parts, but his eyes never avert.

“My usual is a three or under, because unlike Winter and Bucky, my alter ego and I are not in perfect balance and shouldn’t be, and when it raises that means I’m getting more stressed or angry. I get detained too if I reach a ten, because he gets control.”

“Huh. That’s interesting, and definitely not why I get checked myself.” Tony sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling to avoid their gazes.

“I’m a literal genius, I don’t say it just to say it, and one of the main engineers behind all the inventions of Stark Industries. I’m a futuristic by nature, but sometimes I...get too carried away.” Tony looked down at his hands and smiled guilty, still not making eye contact with any of them. “When that happens my inventions become dangerous, and I kinda turn into a maniac so in return of giving me spare parts to play with, I give them a level so they can gauge how stable I am. My usual energy is a 6 and under but anything above is when things get testy and they can’t give me anything to create something.”

“What happens when you get to ten?”

“I need to be detain, put in a solitude room where I can’t reach anything, because at ten I completely loose my sense of mortality and I build...really bad things to put it lightly. It’s actually the reason I’m here.” Tony said vaguely and watched in shock as a hand clasped his hand, and looked up to see all of them smiling at him, Clint being the one who reached over to grab his hand.

“I don’t really get the whole level thing, since before Bucky and Bruce were the only ones that used it, but it’s okay, none of us are going to fault you for what you can’t control.” Clint smiled at him and the rest nodded there agreement. Tony looked down at their hands for a minute before sighing and smiling slightly,

“Yeah, I guess your right.” Clint leaned back and removed his hand and they slowly started back up with normal conversations.

“Alright, time for classes everybody. Make your way to your first class.” Everybody got up and started making their way outside the door.

“Oh, I have my first class with you Tony.” Bruce said and Tony looked down and saw it was true.

“Huh, I guess you’re right.” Tony muttered and they all walked out to get to class.

While they’re there because they were ‘bad students’ the Compound still offers education and lets the students get their necessary education, Tony was grateful for that so he wouldn’t get bored.

Later on, when everybody was asleep and in their rooms, Tony slid down on the door and stared at his hands, his vision flickering from clean to coated in blood and he blinked rapidly to get it back to normal.

“Clint was wrong, I should be able to control it!” Tony glared at his hands, clenching and unclenching them.

He didn’t get much sleep that night.

———————————————————

A few months has past and they’ve all grown closer and Tony has grown to like them all as family, but he’ll never voice this because he’s scared that they’ll reject his love for them.

“Hey Tony, whatcha doin?” Clint asked has he slung an arm around his shoulder, the former staring into space.

“Waiting.” Tony muttered and a looked was shared between Clint and the rest of them.

“Waiting? For what?” Clint was confused, Tony was usually the rambunctious one of the group, laughing and joking and always energetic, but now he was quiet and sullen, as if his concentration was elsewhere.

“Alright guys! Time for your levels!” Rhodes, the third guard that takes Tony’s level, says and they all look up at him. Rhodes, Pepper and Phil were the three guards that take Tony’s, Bruce’s and Bucky’s levels respectively, and they all got along with each other quite well and compared to other guards, those three were very kind.

“I’m a six.” Bucky shrugged uncomfortably, he didn’t know why Winter was more pushy and aware, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. Although, Winter was definitely shifty, as if he could sense something that Bucky couldn’t and was preparing for it.

“I’m a five.” After he got used to Tony, his levels went down again, even relaxed to a one which usually never happens, but for some reason the Other Guy was getting restless and now Bruce could actively hear and feel his alter ego. Judging by Bucky’s response, something was upsetting both of their alter egos. But what?

“Tony?” Rhodes looks over at his charge after he doesn’t answer for a few minutes and Clint shakes him lightly.

“Dude, Tony.”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.” Tony looks up at Rhodes before he looks back down again.

“I’m, uh, feeling a level seven today.” The team looked at Tony with interest, Tony’s never been above a level six since he’s got to the Compound, so this was new.

“Okay, we can’t give you machine parts today Tony. Do you think you’ll be able to get through the day without going higher?” Rhodes asks gently as the guards share a look, because while they read his file, they haven’t actually dealt with him above a six personally.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine don’t worry about it. But, I think it’s a good idea that you don’t give me anything. I’m fine with fixing things that already have a structure but, I don’t think it’s safe for me to build something from the scratch.” Tony explains for their benefit, knowing that they don’t know how to treat him when he’s not at his normal levels, and he already knew what he was like so he’d mind as well put them out of their misery.

“Ah well, if it calms you, you can fix my watch? It broke a few days ago.” Bruce offers and Tony lights up and smiles at him.

“That’d be great, thanks Bruce.” Bruce hands over the watch to Tony and he starts tinkering with it, already trying to fix it. The guards nod and leave the table to its own devices and for a few minutes everything is peaceful. Everybody is talking in their own mini conversations and Tony can feel himself calm, slowly but surely.

Until it’s not so calm anymore.

“Hey Anthony! I heard you were here but I couldn’t believe it! What are you doing hanging out with these guys?” Tony turns around in his seat to see Tiberius Stone, and he stands up as Stone walks towards him.

“Tony...?” Bruce says uncertainly and Tony waves him off.

“It’s fine, just somebody from the outside.” Tony mutters to the team before clearing his throat and speaking louder, “Stone! I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Yes you did, after all, you’re the one who landed me here in the first place.” Tiberius reminds him sharply and Tony laughs,

“You and I both know that if you’re in a place like this, whatever you did, you did it on purpose. You’re not still angry about what happened at MIT are you?” Tony asks casually, hands in his pockets, and Stone snarls,

“Of course I am! You got me in trouble! You were my boyfriend! You were suppose to have my back!”

“You used me to get to Howard’s plans! Don’t you dare use the boyfriend excuse on me!” Tony exclaimed and the team shared a look, it was obvious these two had some past, but to what extent?

“I had to! Our family could barely compete with one Stark, let alone two! I loved you babe, I was only doing it for the company!” Stone’s demeanor completely changed, from yelling to an act of a loving boyfriend, and it set them all on edge.

“Yeah? Well I was only doing it for my company too, so I’m sure you can understand, honey.” Tony sneered and turned his back to Stone, frowning.

“Hey Tony, who is this guy?” Steve asked concerned and Tony huffed, sitting down, before smiling.

“It doesn’t matter, but he was my old boyfriend and he was emotionally and physically abusive. He used to make me feel like I was nothing, and every time I got excited about a new invention or something that I personally enjoyed he would belittle me, and if I tried to argue with him, I would get hit. A lot of the times, when I went out in public, I would have to wear sunglasses to hide black eyes. I finally broke up with him when he tried to steal some Stark Industries plans.” Tony looked down, embarrassed, because he was a fool to stay so long with Stone and he was suppose to be better, stronger.

Stark men are made of iron, after all.

Steve fell silent and simultaneously, Bucky, Clint and Steve stood up all at once and moved to block Tony from Stone’s view. To the left of him, Bruce was doing his breathing exercises so Tony diverted his attention to him and clasped their hands together.

“Hey Brucie Bear what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Tony looked at him and Bruce snapped his head up, glaring.

“How can you ask me if I’m okay?! He-he abused you-!” Bruce cut himself off to take deeper breaths and Tony took a closer look at his eyes, noticing them lighting up to a hazel and was that a flash of green that just went by?

“Brucie, that was in the past, it doesn’t affect me now and so I don’t want it to affect you either okay? I just want to live in the present with you guys, I’m so lucky to have met such a good group of people and I don’t want someone like Stone messing it up for me. So why don’t we calm down so I can finish your watch?” Tony smiles softly, brushing a curl out of Bruce’s face, and is surprised when Bruce drags him into a hug, hugging him tightly.

“I’m happy to be here with you too.” Bruce mutters into his neck and Tony smiles contently before hugging him back and when they part Tony looks over at Natasha.

“Want a hug? Apparently they’re going around for free.” Natasha stands up and walks over to Tony, sitting on his right hand side and accepting his hug.

“You’re so brave Энтони.” Natasha whispers in his ear while they’re hugging and they pull away after a minute, and Tony laughs and smiles. The three are in their own little bubble as Tony fixes Bruce’s watch and jokes around, Tony finally feeling safe knowing that they’re all there for him.

Behind the three, the boys glare at Stone threateningly, as if daring him to try and ruin the happy atmosphere behind them and the person they’re trying to protect.

“So, you’re a bully.” Steve finally states and Clint snorts and rolls his eyes, because great Steve who starts off a threat sentence like that.

“And you hurt our Tony.” Bucky says harshly, a hint of possessiveness and steel coming from Winter, and Clint thinks that Bucky did much better than Steve. Clint himself opted to just stay silent and observe quietly, but ready in case Stone tries anything.

“Oh so now he’s yours? I don’t know why you would hang around someone like him. He’s pathetic.” Stone sneers and it’s enough for Winter to take control and lunge at him, as violent as Bucky made him out to be when he first mentioned him to Tony.

Steve was about to go help Winter when another one of Stone’s lackeys tried to hit him. He dodged smoothly and engage with the nameless person, and glancing to his right, he saw Clint was on the same situation.

Tony glanced behind him and his eyes widened, and he looked back down to the watch and back at the three fighting, gritting his teeth.

“I can control it. I have to.” Tony muttered and started to disassemble the watch and Bruce and Natasha shared an alarm look over his head.

“Uh, Tony? What are you doing?” Bruce asked hesitantly

“I’m helping them out.” Tony answered, although he did look up and the other two watched in silence, wondering whether or not they should interfere, until suddenly he shot up and started to run.

“Tony!” Natasha called out in alarm and watched as Tony nimbly ran between tables, picking up certain objects and adding it to his invention while running, until he skid to a stop in front of the boys fighting.

Tony glanced around, alarms were blaring and guards were starting to rush in and escort kids out of the cafeteria who weren’t involved in the fight.

He didn’t have a lot of time before they reached the fight.

Tony darted in between Steve and the nameless lackey and tackled Stone off of Winter.

“Tony!” Winter called and watched as Tony glared at Stone.

“Call off your men Stone, I’m warning you.”

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do Stark? Recite the periodic table? Ohh I’m so scared.”

“Final warning.”

“Bite me.” Stone snarled and flipped them over so he was the one on top and Tony was pinned beneath him. Stone raises his fist to bring down on Tony and Winter yelled out.

There was a scream, then silence.

Everybody stopped in their tracks to turn and see Stone convulsing on the ground with something stuck in his neck and Tony standing over him emotionlessly.

“Guards! Stop Anthony Stark immediately!” Someone shouted over the intercoms and suddenly everything was in motion again. Two guards came and tackled Tony to the ground, ignoring the fact he wasn’t struggling against them, three other guards tackled Winter to the ground, and he struggled against them to no avail, and Steve and Clint just got their hands pulled behind their backs.

“Winter is in the process of being detained and we’re checking Stark’s level and invention.” A nearby guard said in his walkie before walking over to Tony and lifting his face up between his fingers.

“What did you do to Tiberius Stone?”

“He’ll be fine, it works like a taser, but when I jammed it into his neck, it connected directly to his nerves so anytime he gets shocked it goes through his whole system.” Tony said apathetically and the guard stared at the genius in shock.

“You know too many shocks can give him a heart attack right?”

“Of course, I’m a genius here. Stone was always a coward so I knew I would only have to shock him once. I’m only at a level seven guys, I’m not looking to kill him.” Tony said jokingly and the guard nodded to the other two who heaved Tony up off the ground and handcuffed him, much to Tony’s surprise.

“What the-hey! Why am I getting handcuffed?!”

“We’ve read your file Stark, and we don’t want to take any chances of becoming your next victim. The fact that you’re only at a level seven and willing to do this much...we can’t risk it.” Tony’s eyes widen and he looks at the guard in front of him guilty.

“Are you guys...scared?”

“We’re scared of what you can do, if this is your invention at a level seven, I’d hate to be the guy who’s a victim at level ten.” The guard admits and that seems to take any fight out of Tony, who just sags against the guards hold.

“You’ll be handcuffed for the day until we can check up on you tomorrow, and you’ll be excused from all your classes today. These two will escort you back to your floor.”

“Hey that’s not fair! He didn’t even do anything bad! He was just trying to help!” Steve defended and the guard surveyed the group, making eye contact with all of them.

“I don’t think you realize what your friend here is capable of doing. He may not be as good of a physical fighter, but he’s as dangerous as the rest of you when he puts his mind to it. I bet he hasn’t even told you why he’s here, but there’s a reason why he’s on the same floor as you guys. Take him away boys.” The guards nod and walk Tony out of the empty cafeteria, and Winter is lead to the solitude floor, and he’ll be released after Bucky comes back.

The rest were ordered to continue on their day like normal.

———————————————————

Bruce finally made it to their floor, the first to finish his classes, and looked around.

“Tony?”

“Over here...” Bruce heard Tony say weakly and he walked over to the living room, and stood stunned at the site before him.

Tony was leaning on the side of the couch, with his hands handcuffed to the table besides him, blood dripping from his mouth and his shirt had been ripped off and Bruce could see bruises already forming.

“What happened?” Bruce could already feel his eyes lightening to a hazel color but he tried to resist it as he hurriedly grabbed a blanket to throw over Tony from his room and squatted down in front of him.

Bruce inspected his bruises closer and they must’ve punched-or kicked Bruce didn’t really know-him pretty hard because the bruises were all over the place and an ugly shade of yellow and purple. He could feel himself spiraling out of control the longer he looked at the bruises, but for once he didn’t try to stop it. He deserved to be angry, how could the guards do this to Tony! While he couldn’t even defend himself!

“Bruce...?” Tony’s tentative question was the last thing he heard before he blacked out.

———————————————————

“Finally, we’re finished. Now we can check on Tony, although Bruce should already be there.” Clint said and Bucky nodded his agreement. The team, aside from Bruce and Tony, were finally released and they were making their way to their floor now.

“I wonder what they’re doing, Tony’s still handcuffed so it’s not like he can do much science or even basic games.” Steve said and they all winced sympathetically for Tony, knowing that if they had been the ones handcuffed they’d be freaking out.

“Yeah, but I wonder what the guards saw in Tony’s file for them to be fearful. He never tells us anything about why he’s here, even though we all told him.” Natasha says and they shrug.

“I don’t know, but it’s none of our business. If he doesn’t want to tell us, we shouldn’t force it out of him, it’s his call. Whatever he did, he obviously feels bad about it and that good enough for me.” Steve said confidently, and they finally reached their floor to see Tony and Bruce.

“Hey guys-Tony what happened to you?!” They all rushed forwards to get a closer look but was stopped by a low growl. They look behind Tony to see Bruce wrapping an arm around Tony protectively and pulling him closer.

“Hey guys I’d like you to meet Bruce’s alter ego, Hulk, and apparently he’s super possessive so I wouldn’t take a step closer to me. On the bright side, I’m perfectly fine.” Looking closer, they can see Bruce’s eyes have changed into a green hue, and his body language and mannerism is completely different from the Bruce they knew, but his physical body stayed the same much like how Bucky’s did when Winter took control.

“Tony, did Hulk do this?” Natasha asked warily, if Bruce and Hulk were that far gone to physically harm Tony...

“No no! It was the two guards that brought me up here, they figured since I was helpless, being handcuffed, they’d teach me a lesson. Bruce actually lost control looking at my bruises and Hulk took control.” Tony shrugged and Clint had a strong urge to find the two guards and stick an arrow in their eye.

“Don’t we need to treat those though? Like with an ice pack or something?” Steve asked concerned, usually Bucky would put ice on Steve’s bruises when he got into a fight, so he’s going off of that.

“Well, probably to stop it from being so sore tomorrow, but with Hulk in control I don’t think you’d get far.” Tony shrugs before saying, “It’s alright, I’ve had worse.”

“Worse?” Natasha questioned cautiously and Tony sighed reluctantly, it was obvious he hadn’t meant to say that.

“Gather around children, it’s story time.” They all sat in a circle around Tony and Hulk, far enough to stop Hulk from growling at them.

“As the son of Howard Stark, I’ve been kidnapped plenty of times. When I turned nine, dear father of mine decided I was old enough to break myself out.”

“What?! At nine years old!” Steve exclaimed, it was bad enough Tony even had to get kidnapped, but at nine he was expected to bust himself out?!

“Hey Steve it’s alright, I got used to it, but sometimes I’d stay there for weeks just trying to get out, so that’s plenty of time to get a few beating in.” Tony chuckled before saying, “I remember one kidnapping they actually broke my bones to try and convince my father to pay them money. He refused and I had to break myself out with broken bones and all, I think that kidnapping was the beginning of something worse.”

“Worse?” Bucky asked and Tony knocked on his head with a self-depicting smile.

“I was eleven when that kidnapping happened, and I started creating worse weapons for Stark Industries. I mean, I was already creating weapons the moment Howard could put me in the lab, but before I was only creating weapons that were already made and making them better. When I got out of the kidnapping, I was creating my own new weapons, they were revolutionizing and deadly. Nobody could compete.”

“Is that when you got the levels?” Clint asked tentatively and Tony snorted.

“I wish, but no. When I was 18 I was kidnapped by a terrorist group in Afghanistan and they wanted me to build a missle. There was this doctor named Yinsen that was captured with me, and together we builded something to break us out, but when the day finally came we needed more time to get it set up and...” Tony closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, Hulk hugging him closer as if feeling his pain, and Clint and Natasha already could guess what happened to the doctor.

“And he made the sacrifice to buy us more time.” Bucky nodded silently, Winter had already informed him of what he guessed had happened so he wasn’t surprised, and Steve bowed his head silently, he was in military school before all this, and he knew what it meant to be captured and the honor you deserve for it, even if you didn’t make it out alive.

“What happened to the terrorist group, did the officials get them once you informed them after you escaped?” Steve asked after a moment of silence and Tony raised an eyebrow at him before responding.

“There wasn’t anybody to get, all of the terrorist died from an explosion because of the highly flammable material they kept around camp. That’s what the press says anyway.”

“And what do you say?” Natasha asked as Steve paled, and Tony smiled at her sarcastically.

“You can probably guess, but if you must know, I killed them after they kill Yinsen. I was too late to save him, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t avenge him. Of course, Howard Stark’s son couldn’t be a murderer so I told the officials that when we escaped, the terrorist shot down Yinsen but a stray bullet hit explosive material and from there it was a domino effect.” Tony said emotionlessly, not a hint of guilt for killing the terrorists on his face, but sadness and a resigned look was in his eyes, expecting his new founded friends to turn their back on them.

“You did what you had to in that situation, if you had let them go they could’ve done more harm. It’s not legally correct, but I think you did the right thing morally.” Steve said confidently, he knew what it felt like to know you did the right thing but the law doesn’t agree with you. Not to mention, he was a former soldier in training so he understood what trauma made you do.

“Victim of trauma.” To everybody’s surprise, it was Bruce that spoke up, albeit a bit sleepily.

“Brucie? Is that you? Or am I talking to Hulk?” Tony asked casually, not even fazed and Bruce took a few seconds to process what he said and where he was before responding.

Bruce jolted back, untangling himself from Tony in the process and standing up. Tony himself whined from the loss of heat but Bruce was too busy freaking out to notice.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry Tony I lost control and I should’ve checked up on you-I went to medical school for a reason but instead I-oh god did I hurt you more I’m so sorry-“ Bruce rambled as he paced a few feet in front of the group, Tony looking unamused while the others looked worried for Bruce.

Sighing, Tony stood up-although the handcuffs forced him to hunch over slightly as they were chained to the leg of the table so he couldn’t stand up fully-and reached up to Bruce, managing to grab the edge of his sleeve, then promptly sat down again, dragging Bruce with him to the floor.

And proceeded to hug him.

“What-?! Tony!” Bruce weakly tried to push Tony away, not wanting to hurt him more by using his full strength, and the rest stood silent to let Tony handle it.

They all knew this would be a crucial moment for Bruce, if it went correctly, it would give him more confidence within himself.

“Shush Bruce, I’m not going to let you stand there thinking that and be afraid to even touch one of us. Look at me.” Taking Bruce’s face within his hands, he stared at him as he said,

“We all love you and trust us with all our hearts, and you can’t change that Bruce. We’re going to be there whenever Hulk comes, and we’ll be there whenever you get back control, there’s no take backs.”

“But Hulk is dangerous and a mindless-“

“No he’s not. I don’t know if you retain any information from when he comes out, but he’s not some mindless beast. He knew I was a friend, and protected me from anything he deemed a threat, he knows who is who. I told you before, letting you be exposed to other human beings helps your progress, and Hulk’s, because seeing others lets both of you know how to interact with others and make connections. Exposure is good Brucie, and neither you or Hulk can hurt us.”

Bruce looked in Tony’s eyes, and finally nodded. Tony knew that Bruce still wouldn’t trust Hulk around them, and would still be hesitant and wary, but he seemed to get the concept that he couldn’t hurt anybody in this room because they wouldn’t let him.

And that was enough for Tony right now.

Giving him one more hug, Tony released Bruce from his grasp, but to his surprise Bruce merely adjusted himself by Tony’s side so he could face the others while leaning on his shoulder and made it so the blanket draped over the two geniuses. Tony chuckled but let him stay there, internally relieved that Bruce decided to stay.

“So, sleepover in the living room? I mean Tony can’t move and Bruce looks comfortable so we can all just hang out together.” Clint suggested and everybody nodded in agreement, leaving the two to grab their own things to get ready to hunker down for the night.

“Grab our pillows and my blanket someone!” Tony yelled out to whoever heard him, Bruce’s blanket already with them, and laughed when Clint came back juggling all the pillows and Steve with the blankets.

“They insisted that they could do it by themselves, so we let them.” Natasha explained and Tony nodded, noticing that all of them had changed into their pajamas.

“You should probably get changed too Brucie, go.” Tony jostled his shoulder a little until Bruce got up and left to his room to change.

“You and Bruce get along really well, I’m glad. You guys might as well be best friends with how you two act.” Clint says happily and Tony could already feel the heat creeping up his neck. He’s never really taken compliments well, especially the genuine ones. He learned how to take or deflect the fake ones, the ones politicians and press use, but not the genuine ones.

“I don’t know what your talking about.” Tony huffed, eyes darting place to place and Natasha snorted.

“Please, it’s pathetic to see you try and hide it.” Tony shot Natasha a glare, which she just responded with a smirk.

“Honestly, we’ve been trying to get someone Bruce could open up to for awhile, but nobody met our expectations.” Bucky admitted and this time, Tony snorted, although he eyed Bucky warily.

“And I do?”

“I mean, yeah, you actually exceed them.” To this, Tony seemed a little taken back, and the assassins had to wonder when was the last time someone told Tony he was great at something.

They suspected never, with what they heard of Stone and Howard.

“You care for him, comfort him, aren’t afraid of him for sure with that shocking trick you pulled the first day.” Steve listed off and Tony fidgeted nervously before laughing it away.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, it’s not like he thinks the same about me, and Howard wouldn’t want the press to think I’m dating a gu-dating someone, and our supposed close relationship could be interpreted as such.” Natasha narrowed her eyes at this, and couldn’t help the sinking feeling she felt as she asked,

“Tony, as Howard ever put his hands on you? Or as ever showed homophobic tendencies.”

Tony froze, and glared at Natasha defensively, and she knew she hit a nerve.

“That’s none of your business паук.” Tony said coldly, reverting back to the nickname he gave Natasha the first time he met her and just before it could escalated into something more, Bruce showed up.

“Hey, what did I miss?” In an instant, any signs of the cold Tony was gone, replaced with the Tony they had all grown to love but Natasha couldn’t get the conversation out of her mind even though everything went back to normal throughout the sleepover.

That night, when everybody was asleep, Natasha made up her mind.

She was going to find Tony’s file.

———————————————————

Sneaking into Nick Fury’s office wasn’t exceptionally hard, but it might’ve just been because she was a exceptional former assassin.

Whatever the reason was, she was in his office and searching for Tony’s file, and when she found it, she hesitated to open it.

Was it really worth it, to find out what Tony was hiding? This would cost Tony’s trust probably, Natasha knew, and it might make her see him in a new light.

But curiosity soon over won any of those thoughts, and the need to know everything about the people surrounding her from her assassin years.

So she opened it.

There was his name in fine print next to a picture of him from when he was first admitted. Further on was his personal information, background, and why he was here.

Anthony Edward ‘Tony’ Stark

Age: 21

Sex: Male

Relations: Maria Stark (Mother, Deceased) Howard Stark (Father, Living) Edwin Jarvis (Butler, Deceased)

Background: Anthony Stark is the son of Howard Stark and Maria Stark, born on May 29th. His childhood was cold and affectionless, his father could care less about his existence unless it was to make weapons, and his mother was constantly distancing herself from her child. Anthony has genius level intellect and is a proficient scientist and engineer.

Reason of Holding:

After the trauma of being kidnapped numerous times and the affects of making weapons at a young age, Anthony snapped after the murder of Jarvis who served not only as a butler but as a mentor and father like figure to young Anthony. Going on a maniac-like rampage, Anthony killed three people with one invention and labeled unstable to be on society, and was integrated into the compound. For the benefit of everyone, it is best to keep this information private unless if Anthony himself decides to reveal the information or if a situation arises. Only his caretakers and guards on his level will be informed.

Notes on Anthony’s Levels and How to Be Treated Accordingly:

Levels One-Six: These are his normal levels, and can be handed materials according to the contract.

Level Seven: Slightly unstable, cannot be handed materials but should be fine to resume normal activities. He can work with things with structure, but not spare parts. If he harms someone, restrict his hands.

Level Eight: Unstable and cannot work with materials, structure or not. Bring him up to his level and have someone monitor him to ensure he doesn’t try to do something. Check up on him the following morning to see his level.

Level Nine: Highly unstable, sedate him immediately and bring him to his room or the White Out room where he can be restricted and has no access to machines or to any other people that can bring his level up.

Level Ten: Maniac Level, can’t be reasoned with. Clear out the general facility around him to ensure no students or general staff can get hurt. Sedate him by any means necessary except for long term bodily harm and put him in the White out room. Contact President Nick Fury or Vice-President Peggy Carter when this level has been reached.

The next two pages had a picture of an invention, presumably the invention Tony used to get in here in the first place, and then three dead bodies, probably not all of the people dead, just to highlight what the invention can and did do to them. Natasha grimaced, closing the file and putting it back where it belonged before exiting the room.

She wished she hadn’t read it.

———————————————————

Tony was quiet the next day and Natasha feared he had found out. How, she didn’t know but it was a fear nonetheless.

She didn’t know whether or not to be thankful when she found out it wasn’t because he found out.

“Level?”

“Eight.” Tony replied automatically, and had to suppress a hysterical giggle from coming out when he saw all the shocked expressions.

“Tony, we have to take you back to your room, you won’t be handcuffed again but you’re not allowed to leave the floor. Understand?”

“Perfectly.” Tony looked up at Rhodey and the guard couldn’t help but internally shiver at the look in the engineer’s eyes, and decided that if they were going to keep Tony at a functioning level, they needed someone to go with him that can calm him down.

“Would anyone else like to accompany Tony for the rest of the day? We’ll make sure your teachers know it was for a valid reason.” Pepper said, and it was obvious that she had reached the same conclusion that Rhodes had.

“I will.” Bruce spoke up first, back straight and determined look in his eyes. If Tony could help him through his lost of control then he could do the same for Tony, even if he wasn’t that out of it.

“Alright Bruce, we will let your teachers know, it’s best that you two get going now.”

Phil escorted them to their level and when the elevator doors finally closed behind Phil, did Tony collapse on the couch hysterically giggling.

Bruce carefully put his watch out of reach from Tony before joining him on the couch, concerned for his friend.

“Tony...?” Bruce reached out but Tony’s body cringed away from his touch, all while still hysterically giggling.

“You guys are precious. I don’t know why you even try, mind as well go on to your classes because if you think you get get me down to a stable level you’re wrong.” Tony said sarcastically, fingers itching to get a hand on something, before realizing who he was talking to and pulled himself together.

“Ah I’m sorry Bruce-I didn’t mean to say that-“ Tony was pulled into a hug and his hands hung limply at his side in shock before Bruce pulled away.

“It’s okay Tony, I know it’s probably hard to resist it but your doing great. I’m here to distract you so why don’t we go quiz each other on the periodic table?” Bruce smiled kindly and Tony couldn’t help but be grateful for such a great friend.

“Alright.” So they went into Bruce’s room-because Tony’s was too cluttered with mess and things that he could make into something more dangerous-and quizzed each other on science. If Tony’s eyes sometimes got a insane light in them when he thought of something bad and his fingers twitched, well Bruce didn’t say anything but direct Tony’s attention back to him.

Eventually the others came back and that’s when it got bad. They had gotten up to greet the others but when they got out the door, Tony’s eyes soaked up all the potential, his fingers twitched, and he had tried to be good for Bruce but-

“Tony!” Bruce yelled as the engineer himself crumpled to the ground, hands covering his ears and eyes squeezed shut as tears leaked out.

“Get the guards! Now!” Tony yelled above his thoughts and Steve quickly raced over to the button and slammed it, alerting the guards on their level.

“Shutupshutupshutshutup-just wait until the guards come you’re fine.” Tony muttered and everybody looked around worriedly, not knowing what to do.

Natasha squared her shoulders and walked forward right to Tony and sat down besides him, pulling his head into her lap and carding her hands through his hair.

If she looked through his files without his permission this is the least she could do.

The others followed her lead, giving Tony and her space but muttered words of encouragement to Tony. Right when it seemed like things were calming down-

The guards rushed in, pushing Natasha out of the way, and quickly sedating Tony.

“Tony!” Steve yelled out in concern and Bucky stepped up, eyes flashing.

“What the hell was that for?” Bucky said lowly, glaring at them as one of the guards stepped up to meet him halfway.

“One of you pushed the buttons and we could see it was obviously Anthony that was the problem, and having previously been notified his level was an eight, this situation called for sedation.” The guard explained neutrally and Bucky stepped down reluctantly, because what he said was true, as Steve had pushed the button.

“Sorry guys.” Steve said apologetically as the guards took Tony to his room and locked him in before leaving.

“It’s okay, Tony did say to grab the guards. You did everything right, we didn’t expect that we would be able to calm him down.” Clint said reassuringly and Steve nodded, reinforcing his confidence because obviously his team was still shook up about what just went down.

“Well in the end it didn’t even matter what we did considering he still got sedated.” Bruce muttered dejectedly and Steve clapped him on the back.

“It’s alright Bruce, we now all know what to do in case this ever happens again. Physical touch and friendly words seem to get to him the most.” Steve said comfortingly and adding some logic into it, because Bruce likes to have a full proof plan or at least some solution.

“Yeah, about the physical touch. When I first tried to touch him when we got to our floor level, he cringed away from it. Why do you think he did that?”

“Well, I have two suspicions. One is that he didn’t want to hurt you with him like that. The other is that in his mindset he couldn’t recognize you and might’ve thought you were...someone else.” Natasha says and Bucky looks at her solemnly.

“Someone who has hurt him.”

“Yes.”

———————————————————

Months had past since the sedation incident and although much to the disappointment of everybody else, Tony never brought up anything about it or tried to explain his reactions. Time slowed down though around December for the team.

December 16th specifically.

The guards hadn’t even been able to check everybody’s levels before everything went haywire.

“Get ‘em boys.” In a blue of movements, Steve, Bucky and Bruce were all restrained, hands behind their backs.

“What the hell Stone?!” Tony stood up from his chair and faced off with Tiberius, who was smirking evilly.

“What’s wrong Tony? Angry your little friends are at my mercy?” Waving one of his hands, his lackeys twisted their captives arms and Stone grinned when each of them hissed in pain.

“I’m not in the mood Stone.” Tony had managed to keep relatively calm all day, but watching his friends be harmed because some guy wanted to hurt Tony brought back bad memories, and it made Tony’s levels go up quickly.

“Why? Is it because it’s the day poor little mommy died?”

Tony snapped, and the last thing he remembered before his vision tinted red was Bruce’s worried look.

———————————————————

Tony stood still for a minute in silence before he started cackling. Stone looked at him nervously before Tony straightened up, and walked towards Stone amusingly.

“Listen sweetie, I’m giving you one more chance before I attempt to kill you.” Tony said truthfully but obviously Stone didn’t take him seriously because he laughed.

“Yeah right. Boys, a little more pressure.”
The lackeys did as they were told nervously and when Bruce whimpered in pain was over.

Tony’s eyes lit up with complete insanity and he produced something from his pocket.

It scared Bruce to see Tony lose complete control of himself.

“You know, I’ve been working on this for awhile just in case something like this happened. I’m glad I get to test it on you.” Tony walked closer to Stone, who stood his ground fearfully.

‘Idiot.’ Tony sneered internally as he grabbed Stone’s arm and body flipped him to the ground, gaining the attention of others and someone raced to go grab a guard. Tony quickly flipped Stone’s arm over and watched in delight as his invention crawled over to Stone’s arm and into his skin.

“Get it off me! Get it off!” Stone screamed as he trashed around, knocking Tony off but it was too late.

“Guards! Get over there now!” A voice roared over the intercoms and all the guards from every level rushed in, evacuating kids and getting over to Tiberius and Tony.

“Grabbing Anthony and getting him to the White Out room.” The guard said into his intercom has two hoisted Tony up, who was giggling like crazy.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, I installed an instant kill in my little invention. If I step one foot outside this room without my consent it will crawl it’s way to Stone’s heart and kill him. It’ll be bloody too.” Tony grinned, white teeth and all, and the guards stopped short.

“Sir...?” The guard asked into his intercom and a voice answered.

“I’m making my way there now.”

“Anthony, can’t you just release Stone? I’m sure he learned his lesson.” A female guard asked gently and Tony giggled.

“Sorry lady, but he didn’t learn last time so I’ll make sure he does this time. Can’t have him hurting what’s mine now can I?” Tony tilted his head, mockingly thoughtfully, before snapping his fingers, making Stone scream louder.

“Stark! What did you do!” The guard holding Tony growled out as he shook him harshly, but the maniac glint didn’t disappear.

“My pet is planting eggs in him now, but they’re causing him great pain. It’s wonderful what you can do with a few parts isn’t it?”

Bruce gulped, and while he wasn’t necessarily scared of Anthony, he didn’t like to see him like this.

Wait, Anthony?

Brice thought about the instinct to switch up names when his science bro lost control and supposed it was because he wanted to separate the two personalities he seemed to have, even if he didn’t have an alter ego like him or Bucky.

It’s just...

Anthony was everything Tony wasn’t. Where Tony was smart and sly, Anthony was deceitful and at a maniac level of genius. Where Tony was kind and merciful, Anthony was harsh and merciless.

They were on two ends of the spectrum, but they were also one person and one mind, nothing separating them from one another like Bruce and Hulk or Bucky and Winter.

They were the same person, no matter how much they seemed different and the only reason Anthony even existed was because of PTSD.

“Anthony Edward Stark!” A female and male strode into the room, the female being the one calling out, and the genius’s head snapped up.

“Aunt Peggy?” Peggy Carter walked right up to him and did something that shocked everyone.

She slapped him.

“Ow! Aunt Peggy!” Tony complained, even though the look in his eyes didn’t cease, and Peggy stared him down, arms crossed firmly.

“Anthony I want you to stop doing whatever you’re doing to this poor kid.” Peggy motioned to Stone who was rolling on the floor bawling his eyes out.

“Sorry Pegs, but I’m going to have to go against you there.” Tony snorted at the sight of Stone and Peggy frowned.

“Please, how do you think Jarvis would react seeing you like this?” Tony jolted against the guards holds at the mention of his Jarvis and glared at Peggy, any signs of him returning to himself gone. Carter internally cursed herself for mentioning Jarvis, knowing it was a rough subject.

“Thanks for reminding me why I do this Pegs, it means a lot.” Tony flashed her a winning smile and this time the man stepped up.

“Oh hey pirate, glad to see you joining us.” It was Nick Fury, who stared at Tony apathetically.

“Why do you do this?” He asked calmly and Tony’s eyes lit up in excitement.

“To make everyone that crosses me suffer like Jarvis did! I do everything for Jarvis, good or bad!” Tony exclaimed excitedly, as if it was something to be proud of, and Nick shook his head.

“Sedate him, he can’t be reasoned with in this state, but make sure he stays in this room so his invention doesn’t kill the kid.” Nick motioned to Stone, and while he didn’t feel any sympathy for the kid, he couldn’t have him die on his watch.

“Aw Nicky you’re so smart, you found a loophole!” Tony smiled mockingly as he went on, “Except for the fact if you sedated me, you’ll be putting poor Stone over there in a coma.”

“What.” Nick glared at Tony, who shrugged his shoulder as casually as he could with the guards holding his hands behind his back.

“Anything that gets injected in me is injected into him. Lethally, of course.”

“You know what, I’m getting tired of a Stone crying like a baby. I think it’s time to put him out of his misery.” Tony smiled with an excited grin on his face as he laughed at the guards panicking to figure out what to do.

“Another mark in the book!” Stone started screaming and while everyone was freaking out, Peggy crouched in front of the engineer.

“Anthony look at me.” Peggy said gently, and the engineer did so with a defiant look in his eyes.

“What?”

“You’re scaring your friends Anthony, do you really want this? I remember when you first came here, you told me you were excited for a clean slate, and that you would have it under control. I trusted you to keep your word, and I still do, but right know is the time to show you really meant it.”

Tony’s breath hitched, and he looked past Peggy and Stone to see his friends standing on the sidelines.

Natasha, Clint, and Bucky looked grim, they already expected Stone to be dead by the end of this.

Steve looked hopeful, he believed Tony would pull out in the end even if everything said that he wouldn’t.

Bruce was somewhere in the middle, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

For the first time, Tony hesitated in this state when faced with others emotions.

“You guys are annoying, always ruining my fun with your empathy.” Tony huffed, and Peggy looked hopeful that she had gotten through to him.

“Release little Tiberius, Crawler.” Stone jolted on the floor, mouth open in a silent scream as the invention Tony made crawled out of his mouth carrying all its little eggs and stood in front of its creator, waiting for its next instruction.

“Self destruct.” Tony stated dully and his creation did so, toppling down so all that was left was some machine parts, a little put out by the fact he just wasted potential.

“There, are you happy? You all have some pretty weak stomachs.” He said exasperatingly as some weaker guards turned and threw up at the little bumps left in Stone’s skin, the person in question finally knocked unconscious from the stress.

“Yes, I’m proud of you, you did good to resist the thoughts going on in your head to help Stone.” Peggy tapped his head playfully, and Tony looked away, the look in his eyes dying down as he stated his reasoning.

“I didn’t do it for Stone.” Peggy huffed out a laugh as she stood up and ruffled his hair.

“You might want to knock me out though, I’m not sure how long I’ll last.” Even as he said it, she could see the way his remorse was seeping away and Peggy had no choice but to order,

“Sedate him and put him in White Out room.” Tony’s eyes rolled up as he slumped forward and his eyes shut, the sedation quickly kicking in already.

“Yes ma’am!” One of the guards picked Tony up and three others followed him as Peggy turned her direction to the only kids still in the room.

“Your friend will be fine kids, he just needs a little time to calm down.” Peggy said calmly, and Steve stepped forward in front of his group.

“What caused him to lose control so quickly? He seemed to be doing fine.”

“Tony never had the best relationship with either of his parents, especially Howard, but he still loved his mother dearly. On December 16th his mother died, making Howard and Tony’s relationship quickly deteriorate. Months after Jarvis, who was Tony’s mentor and father like figure, was kidnapped and eventually died making whatever bridge Tony and Howard was making burn down, and the rift between the father and son turned into a chasm. Tony took matters in his own hands and killed the kidnappers, but society found out and weren’t happy. Tony was checked by the best psychologists and neurologists around and was deemed unstable and brought here.” Peggy finished solemnly and spun on her heels.

“I’d suggest you kids start moving along, you can see Tony tomorrow if he’s stable enough.”

None of them got much sleep that night.
———————————————————

They saw Tony in the morning, before their classes. According to the guard, he was a level eight but by the next morning Tony would be clear to leave.

“I knew паук.”

That was the only thing Tony would say and Natasha had paled but refused to say what Tony was talking about, no matter who asked.

Except Bruce.

“I look through his file.” Natasha whispered into the night, Bruce and her sharing a couch to sleep on since they felt too antsy to sleep in their own rooms, the rest of the group sound asleep in their rooms.

“Is that what he was talking about?” Bruce asked softly and Natasha nodded quietly, unable to break the silence of the night, and admitted something she would never with anyone else.

“I’m scared Bruce, I know I lost his trust. But the one thing the Red Room couldn’t take out of me was my curiosity. It’s coming back to bite me now, though.” Bruce was Natasha’s oldest friend, and even though Clint and her were dating, Bruce was the only one who really knew her and her emotions.

Bruce knew Natasha wasn’t scared of Tony or what he could do, she was scared that Tony would never trust her again and never share comradary with her. It was a reasonable fear, Tony was a tactile creature by nature, and for her to go behind his back...

“Tony probably doesn’t trust you right now, and might not for awhile. But, there might be a chance he could learn to trust you again. Be open, don’t deflect any questions he has for you and if he sees that you truly trust him, then he might forgive you.” Bruce said honestly, he wasn’t going to best around the bush because Natasha messed up, but there was a chance of fixing it.

How long it would take was the question.

But as Natasha nodded, they both knew she’d wait a lifetime to earn back the trust she lost.

———————————————————
“Hey gang.”

They found Tony on the couch scrolling through what seemed to be a phone before he tucks it away and flashes them a blinding smile.

“Tony!” They all call and rush towards him, Natasha trailing behind a little.

“Woah woah, what’s up?” Tony stood and held his hands up in surprise adapting his body to remain lax and non-threatening as the group swarmed him.

Bucky, Natasha and Clint couldn’t help but wonder if he did this on instinct from his time in Afghanistan.

“You’re back!” Steve exclaimed happily and Tony laughed, putting his hands down albeit a bit hesitantly, and nodded.

“Yup, got cleared when you guys went to class this morning and finished my homework before you guys came.” They chatted for the rest of the time, all avoiding what happened before, and eventually they all fell asleep in the living room after a movie night.

It was a peaceful night.

Until it wasn’t.

———————————————————

There was a scream that startled Bruce awake, and suddenly he was thrown off the couch. Bruce sat up, groaning softly as he touches his head, and, looking at his watch, wondered why he was thrown from the couch that him and Tony were sharing-

Tony.

Bruce stood up and looked at the couch where Tony was thrashing wildly around and quickly looked around to see the others waking up.

“Tony!” Bruce called from the sideline, out of range from the engineers thrashing, but Tony couldn’t seem to hear him past the nightmare.

“I help him.” Hulk growled from his mind and surged forward as Bruce took to the back, and the others must of noticed the change in Bruce because they took a step back to give them space.

Hulk quickly made his way to Tony and pinned him down, straddling him to lock his legs and taking his arms and pinning them above his head so he couldn’t punch out.

With Tony still screaming, Hulk opened his mouth and screamed louder than him, but it didn’t seem to help. Bruce took control, with Hulk still close to the surface so Brice could use his strength to keep Tony down, and his eyes lightened to a hazel because of it.

“Tony! You have to calm down! It’s okay!” Bruce called out over Tony’s yelling, his voice slightly deeper from Hulk being close.

The rest watched in amazement, they’ve never seen Hulk and Bruce work in unison before.

“No! Let me go! I have to save Jarvis! Please!” Tony’s voice rose and cracked at the end and Natasha stepped forward and gently carded her hand through Tony’s hair, muttering sweet nothings.

With Bruce still holding him down and Natasha calming him, Tony woke fairly quickly.

“Ugh...what happened? Uh, Bruce?” The person in question got off of him and sat next to him, and Natasha stopped what she was doing.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Tony asked jokingly, but everyone noticed when he hurriedly wiped away his tears.

“Tony...” Natasha trailed off warningly and Tony sighed, knowing he couldn’t get past her.

“After I calm down from a level ten incident, I have relapses of what happened.” Bucky frowned, that made sense since it wasn’t uncommon for Bucky to have relapses himself, but if he was correct-and Winter doubled checked him- Afghanistan happened after Jarvis died but it was his name that Tony called out...

“Tony, is there more to the story of how Jarvis died? And Maria Stark on that?” Tony stilled at the question, and Bucky knew he was right.

“Why am I always the one to do story time? Alright, come on guys, gather round.” Pulling Bruce to him, Tony motioned everyone to sit around them, which worked since he was in the corner of the couch.

“Edwin Jarvis was a butler to the Stark household, and a good friend to Howard. Supposedly.” Tony snorted and Steve tilted his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Maria Stark was the wife of Howard Stark and mother of yours truly, and she loved us both dearly. Whether or not Howard loved her back was the question.” Tony continued, ignoring Steve’s question.

“They both died because of Howard and Anthony Stark.” Time stilled, and Bruce turned to look at Tony.

“You don’t mean that. You didn’t kill them.” Tony merely smiled and ruffled the top of Bruce’s hair at that.

“Maria had depression and after a suicide attempt, she fell into a coma and was put on life support. Howard knew I hated him, and he struck up a deal with me-“

“You don’t mean that, you don’t hate your father, do you?” Steve asked and a mirthless smile filtered across Tony’s face.

“Yes, I do. After everything he put me through, I couldn’t not hate him.”

“Anyway, Howard struck up a deal with me that if I made better, revolutionizing, weapons then Maria would stay on life support for one more week. So, once per week I had to make a better weapon than my last to keep my mother alive. Eventually, well you can guess, I failed. The Jericho was my latest weapon, the one I got kidnapped for, and I was tired and I couldn’t think past the need to eat, sleep and take a shower, maybe even socialize. Her death was on me, I lost sight of the task and it was her downfall.”

“Tony...” Steve softly reached out to him, but Tony shook his head harshly and moved on.

“A few months after Maria’s death, Jarvis and I were going to a Stark Industries press conference and I stepped into the car he was meant to be in. I know he planned this, because he didn’t remark on it and stepped into the car I was meant for. I didn’t know how he knew, but that day the car I was meant to be in got captured, and Jarvis was kidnapped. They kept asking him how they could get in contact with me but he refused to tell them, he knew I would trade myself in his place in a heartbeat. They didn’t like it when he refused.”

“On the other side, when I got out of the car, I was notified immediately that the car got sidetracked and I wanted to leave but Howard wouldn’t let me. Threatened to never look for Jarvis or let me look for him if I walked out on the press conference. I tried to finish it as fast as I could but it took longer than usual, one reporter asking meaningless questions.”

“I figured out later he was one of the spies the kidnappers left. When I got home I searched relentlessly, but they were good at their job and I was young and stupid. Eventually, when I did find him, I immediately wanted to grab Aunt Peggy and get him out of there, but there was an important conference and Howard couldn’t afford me not being there.”

“I either had to go or Howard wouldn’t let me save Jarvis afterward by breaking my legs. But the kidnappers weren’t getting anywhere with Jarvis, and he wasn’t valuable anymore. They killed him-they killed Jarvis and I had to watch him get sent out in a body bag. Howard and I were never the same, but his death was my fault too. If I had knew where he was sooner, or had not been such a coward-“

Tony cut himself off with a sob that surprised him, and he quickly covered his mouth. They all shared a look, because when they asked for the truth they didn’t know how much Peggy left out.

“When I was a younger assassin, I had this group-team and I loved them all. We were on a mission and I let a stray arrow fly straight into highly explosive material, they all died except for me. Would you say that was my fault?” Clint asked suddenly, and Tony brushed away his tears to answer.

“No, of course not, it was an accident. Even if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t blame you. What does that have to do...?” Tony answer confidently, albeit a bit hesitantly, and Clint nodded.

“Exactly, I used to beat myself over it constantly, but I realized eventually that it was just that. An accident. Instead of blaming myself, I put everything I had to becoming what earned me my code name is, Hawkeye. I vowed never to let that happen again on my watch, because I could stop it.” Tony quickly realized what Clint was trying to get to and shook his head.

“But it wasn’t an accident. I could’ve done more-“

“Tony you were a kid when Maria died by the sounds of it. Wanting to socialize and do basic human needs isn’t your fault. Howard never shouldn’t put that pressure on you. As for Jarvis? He knew what he was doing, he was your bodyguard above anything else, and he was your family in everything but blood. Just like how you were willing to put yourself in danger for him, so was he for you. Jarvis died at the expense of your life, don’t waste it dude.”

Tony opened his mouth to argue, but suddenly a memory came to forefront.

‘Young sir, I do everything for you.’

‘Why?! Anna needs you alive Jarvis! You can’t do things like that!’ A younger Tony yelled angrily, tears streaming streaming down his face as he stood at Jarvis’s bed side.

‘I am your bodyguard first and foremost young sir, and it is my duty to protect you.’ They were in the hospital because Jarvis took the bullet that was meant for Tony. Aunt Peggy had been livid, taking down the shooter and knocking them out, but Tony was more concerned about calling 911 and making sure Jarvis didn’t bleed out.

‘Th-Then I’ll make sure you’re fired! You won’t protect me if it isn’t your job!’

‘Yes I will Anthony.’ Jarvis said seriously, with a soft lilt of fondness in his tone and Tony looked at him stunned.

‘Why?’

‘Because I love you, young sir, and when you love someone you’re prepared to do anything for them.’

Tony stood silent for a moment before shyly hugging Jarvis and muttering into his chest.

‘...I guess I won’t have you fired. And...I love you too.’

“Yeah, maybe you’re right Clint.”

———————————————————

Tony had been gone for a month.

The group was worried and when they asked the guards, they only shook their heads and said,

“Tony has a contract with his father that he needs to fulfill.”

The next day, they were allowed to visit Tony in what seemed to be a makeshift white out room that was filled with machine parts and nothing else.

“Tony?” Steve stepped into the room and the engineer in question looked up, bags under his eyes.

“Hey guys.” His voice was slightly hoarse, which they could all deduce was from not using it and Bruce stepped forward.

“What are you doing in here? You were gone for a month.”

“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve made a decision.” Before any of them could say anything, two figures stepped in.

They could be recognized as Howard Stark and Obadiah Stane. The group automatically shifted closer to Tony, after everything they’ve heard about Howard they didn’t trust him and Stane was a stranger.

“Tony. Pack up your things, and the weapon, we’re leaving as the agreement in the contract said.” As Howard spoke the group looked at their engineer, shocked. Is this what he was doing this whole time?

This is the decision he made?

“Where is the weapon anyway?” Obadiah looked around and Tony stood up and put himself in front of the group, standing up straighter and squaring his shoulders back.

“I’ve come to a decision. I did everything for Jarvis after he died, I made weapons and followed both of your orders constantly against my own morals, to help those like Jarvis and Peggy who went in the military. I’m making a decision once again on his behalf.”

“I’m not making any more weapons for you.”

“What.” Howard snarled, but Tony stood defiant, and he shook his head. “If you don’t make weapons, you’re staying here boy.”

“That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” Looking at him one more time, Howard threw a disgusted look Tony’s way before spinning on his heel and beckoning Stane to follow him.

The door slammed shut, Tony relaxing as it did, and he turned to welcome his friends cheers and happiness.

When you love someone, you’re prepared to do anything for them.

———————————————————
Author’s Note: Bam! It’s done! I had some trouble writing, I went on and off this a couple of days, but I’m proud of the final product. I didn’t include any relationships in this one, except for the brief mentions of them, because I was focusing on the family aspect of it. Below you can see more details of the story I didn’t get to/didn’t want to add in there but aside from that, I hope you enjoyed reading this!

~Exiti_Anima