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To his credit, he’d tried to keep track of time.
Tony’d counted three days. Three days of the same thing- the sun would come up and shine through the singular window of his cell, and an overhead light would turn on. Around an hour later, his first meal would appear through the door slit. The meals were simple, but filling. There would be a typed note to slip the tray back through the door slit when he was done. His second meal would come when the sun was at its highest. His third came as the sun began to set. The light in his cell would go out two hours later.
However, by what he thought was day five, he noticed that the sun was setting too soon. His internal clock knew that it was too soon, not just from the fact that his next meal hadn’t come yet. Soon after that, the sun rose straight to its high-noon position, before setting again about twenty minutes later.
The next time the “sun” rose, it became just a white empty space.
The light above him never turned off again.
He was determined to not be broken by whomever was behind this. He did all he could do to keep his wits about him; he began to do complex equations in his head. He’d sing AC/DC’s entire discography from memory. He’d do pushups and sit-ups. Hell, he even did a one-man re-enaction of his favorite movie.
But he was finding himself slipping. He was so tired. His captors hadn’t said a word to him since he woke up in this concreate block. The only proof that they hadn’t abandoned him was the fact that his meals still came- at very odd intervals, he noted. Even without the supposed sunrise and set, he could tell the time between them coming changed drastically.
Or is it?
He shook his head rapidly as he finished his final forkful, and he went to push it through the slit, when he had an idea. Though he’d already peeped through that slit a few times and just saw darkness, maybe he oughta wait until someone came to grab the tray. Maybe he could get a glimpse of whomever came.
So he sat there, slit opened, and eyes trained through it, focusing on the silhouette of the tray he’d slid onto the floor.
At some point, he could hear footsteps coming down what sounded like an echoey hallway. They were taking their sweet time, but they got closer. And closer. And closer.
The footsteps stopped.
They had to be in front of the door by now.
All they had to do was bend down, and he could maybe see their face.
Two angry, glowing eyes suddenly filled the window the slit provided.
Tony yelped and fell backwards, scooting on his bottom back and away from the door.
The brightly lit room began to dim rapidly, and there was a strange hissing noise. Just before the room went dark, Tony could see a gas begin to take up the air.
And then he was out.
~~~
“…ny… Tony…”
The sound of his name being called slowly brought him around.
“…Tony, can you hear me…?”
That voice… that… I know them…
He forced his eyes open, only to have to close them again, thanks to the light overhead.
When his eyes adjusted, he soon recognized the figure standing over him as Steve Rogers.
“…please tell me you didn’t kiss me to wake me up.” Tony breathed, trying to disguise the relief in his voice.
Steve smiled gently, before his face melted into a look of malice. Before Tony could say anything, Steve lifted the shield high above his head, and began to bring it down on Tony’s chest.
The shield hit the arc reactor, which Tony was surprised to see now on his chest. But that didn’t matter- all that mattered was getting away from Steve!
He scrambled to his feet just as Steve raised the shield again, and rushed for the open door.
Stumbling out into a long hallway, he took off in one direction as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him. It only took him a second to glance over his shoulder to see if he was being followed to collide with the person who had suddenly appeared in front of him.
Wanda Maximoff looked startled to see Tony and staggered back a few steps.
“Maximoff! Thank god!” Tony breathed. “I dunno what the star-spangled hell is wrong with Cap, but he-”
Her eyes were glowing red, and so were her hands. A nasty scowl appeared on her face as she slowly rose into the air.
Oh. Shit.
He turned and tried to run the other way, but instead was suddenly lifted into the air. After letting him dangle for a few agonizing moments, Wanda used her magic to fling Tony down the hallway.
He sailed through the air, longer than he should’ve based on how hard she through him. The walls of the hallways whizzed past him, going further and further until a bright circle appeared in his field of vision.
The circle, a glowing orange light around it, got bigger as he drew closer. He only had a split second to see what looked like a … carpet? Before he went though the circle and hit face-first into the wall.
No wait, it wasn’t a wall… it was a floor!
He pealed his face from the “wall,” and looked up. The room around him began to orient itself to its normal position, and he found himself in front of a grand staircase.
Pushing himself to his feet, recognition flickered through his mind.
This is the wizard’s house!
Glancing around the Sanctum, he scanned desperately for Stephen. Maybe he could explain this.
As if thinking about him could bring him about, the sorcerer himself suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, as if he’d been waiting there. His back was to the stairs, and therefore to Tony.
Nevertheless, Tony’s heart fluttered with relief and love. Up the stairs he rushed, with the need for one of the man’s warm hugs, and the need to hear his sarcastic name-calling.
“Stephen! Was this all you? Some messed up prank by your magician friends?” The effort this was taking began to hit, and it got tougher to breathe.
Wait, were there more stairs than I remembered?
Tony slowed his run to a stop, looking up at the sorcerer who still hd his back turned. Between gasps for breath, Tony asked
“Wizard, what the hell is going on?” But Stephen offered no answer, not even any acknowledgement. “Are you mad at me for something? Or did some spell mess everything up again?”
Still, Stephen said nothing. He instead began to walk away from the stairs.
Tony felt his heart shatter at the rejection. What had he done wrong?
Quickly, he started to run up the stairs again. He didn’t get very far until a large fiery object came down from the sky and crashed into the stairs creating a large crater, and sending the inventor rolling back to the first floor.
Once Tony felt his heart start again, he slowly crawled back up to the crater and peered down- only to be greeted by a loud angry roar, accompanied by humongous green fist socking him right in the face
He reeled back, his mind knowing he should be rolling down stairs, but instead he only hit tile floor.
A very familiar laughter caught his attention.
Loki! He’s back!
This made Tony sit up instantly, only to discover he was now in the Avengers’ tower, on the floor facing the large windows. Standing near the view of the Manhattan skyline was indeed Loki, his reindeer helmet on his head, the glowing staff in one hand.
It was what was in the other hand that scared Tony more.
Peter!
Loki held the frightened teen by the neck, and slowly lifted his up so they were face to face. While grinning wickedly as the struggling teen’s face turned purple, Loki lifted his staff and began tilting it towards Peter’s chest.
“NO!” Tony heard himself scream as he barreled towards them. Loki instantly let go of Peter, tossing him through the window, just before Tony could grab him.
And just before Tony could stop from falling out the window himself.
Peter plummeted faster than should have been possible, and was soon out of sight. Now Tony was just free falling. No suit to save himself this time.
He shut his eyes. He decided, no point in getting upset, he would just… just let it come.
Nothing else he could do, anyhow.
His fall was broken, but not by an impact.
It just stopped.
His eyes shot open to find himself on his back, and to his horror, on the floor of his cell.
Before he could react, he realized he finally wasn’t alone.
A very startled Stephen Strange stood before him. The look on his face quickly became relief and he rushed to scoop the inventor into his arms.
“Oh, thank the Vishanti, you’re okay!” Stephen breathed.
The warmth of the hug. The feeling of shaking hands holding him. The sound of that deep voice. He wanted to believe this was real.
But he couldn’t. Not again.
Hurriedly he pushed away from “Stephen,” who looked hurt.
“Tony, what’s wrong?” Stephen asked.
“…you’re not real.” Tony breathed.
Stephen cocked his head. “What are you talking about? It’s me, douchebag!”
Tony’s shoulders relaxed slightly at the insult. “Okay… um… prove it!”
“Prove it?”
“Tell me something only the real Stephen would know!”
The sorcerer blinked. “Oh… okay… uh… last week you were fixing Peter’s web shooters, and as a joke you decided to ‘test’ them by webbing Clint and Bucky’s butts together.”
Tony breathed a sigh of relief as he laughed. “Was that before or after we painted Cap’s shield pink?”
“What? We didn’t paint his shield!”
Tony grinned. “That was a test.” He rushed back into Stephen’s arms, wrapping the man in a hug and kissing him soundly.
Time meant even less than when he found out the window’s view was fake. Time just seemed to stop as he stood there with Stephen, their foreheads touching, out of breath from kissing.
“What the hell is going on?” Tony asked at last. Stephen pulled back.
“Does the name Quintin Beck mean anything to you?”
It sure did.
“He used to work for me. We… didn’t exactly part on the best of terms…”
Stephen nodded. “He managed to get to you. And he’s been messing with your head with B.A.R.F.”
The inventor gaped. “Wow, he was way more messed up tan I thought.”
“And way more dangerous than you thought. But we’ve got him, and we disabled the system.” Stephen smiled gently as he offered his elbow to Tony. “Come. Let’s get you home, love.”
Tony’s heart fluttered again as he looped his arm through Stephen’s and they left the cell, wordlessly walking to the exit, just enjoying each other’s presence in blissful silence,
“Just around that corner, and we’ll be out.” Stephen informed him. The inventor just nodded, his energy quickly running out. “You know, B.A.R.F. is pretty astounding technology…” Tony nodded again. “Though it could certainly be improved.”
This got Tony’s attention. “What do you mean?”
Stephen smiled again, only this time it was… odd. “Oh, you know…be upgraded to access the mind more thoroughly… and perhaps, I don’t know…fool someone by saying something that only the other person in the room with them would know?”
They both stopped moving. But it didn’t feel like thy stopped walking, just stopped moving.
His breath hitched. “…No…” The fear in his voice was just an afterthought as the face of his boyfriend began to bend and change shape, until he was face to face with whom he never wanted to see again- Quintin Beck.
The man cackled. “Enjoying your alone time, Stark?”
And as if it had all vanished in the time it took him to blink, Tony once again found himself on the floor of a concrete cell.
Through the only window, he could see a sunrise beginning to form.