fossilised | For Steve

Tony's stomach just sank. He knew immediately what this was about to turn into and he knew that even if he played a long con here, it wouldn't matter. "Did she steal a thumb drive full of secret plans and documents when she left me too?" he asked, turning to face the woman as if this particular line of questioning (well, threat) was just as boring as the last. "You do know she left me, right? Obviously not for another man. I'm handsome and stupidly rich, no matter how much money I routinely give away," he pointed out.

He needed this woman to think he didn't care about Pepper even if it was a game no one was going to believe. He was too much of a good guy. Even if she cheated on him and broke his heart worse than she had, Tony would never want her dead. Or tortured.

"I'm kind of surprised you're even going this route. You don't practice the fine art of turning people into drones that so your bidding anymore? Against waterboarding? The UN should hear about how great you guys are and take a page from your play books."

"We are taking no 'route', Mr. Stark. You have said that you are not interested, and so we will move onto our next potential partner."

The armour opened up again, suddenly whirring into life as if to accept him into it should he choose to step inside. She was clearly not going to be convinced by his pretense; either that, or she genuinely didn't care if she had to kill a few inconsequential people before she got to who she wanted.

Therefore she would call his bluff.

"If you would like to step in, then you will be returned to your home with our apologies for inconveniencing you. Goodbye, Mr. Stark."

"Actually, if you e got my ex here, I'd like to talk to her. She changed her number. Had her friends collect her stuff. Or maybe that's from a song?" Great. Now it was in his head. Tony slipped his hands into his pockets and turned away from the armor. There was no way he was leaving here without Pepper. She broke his heart but the alternative was a lot of death and guilt. And hey, if he could break Bucky out too, then he'd have a one up on Rogers.

And wasn't that worth the pain and possible suffering?

Tony had no chance right now. These people got to his security. Who knew what else they had done or would do while he was trapped for the next four hours?

"I would also like some coffee and a little under eye concealer." For the bags.

"We don't have Ms. Potts here yet," she said, voice patient even though he was being infuriating. "As we stated, we had hoped to work with you. As you have declined the offer, she will be fetched."

The underlying meaning was clear. She would remain free, untouched, and safe if Tony changed his mind and said that he would work here with them. Of course, she would not hesitate to have Pepper brought in if necessary, she had no problem at all with collateral damage.

There were casualties in every war.

"Damn. So. Well that sucks for me. I still want that coffee though. How about we walk and talk? My boardroom and bedroom days are over to discuss policy and business ventures. Never quite took up golf. It looks so boring. I did try to modify some machinery to make it interesting but that just led to a lawsuit."

Pepper was not safe. She was easily obtainable. She was being watched. And Tony couldn't do a damned thing about it from here.

"I'm guessing, and it's an educated guess, that all of this is about your TARDIS." There was no better way for a time and dimensional traveling machine. None. "You're having trouble keeping up the energy to run it? Yeah I get that. Ours is a huge power sink. Not really cool with the whole messing up other timelines to make more Buckys though. Saw the old tapes. No art in those snuff films."

She raised an eyebrow but she didn't comment on him watching the tapes, she would however use that to her advantage later on. She merely remained seated where she was and gestured to the open armour with expensively laquered fingernails.

"If you wish to remain and work with us then you must say so, Mr. Stark, otherwise I do not want to waste either of our time with discussions or coffee."

Of course he had meant that he would help if they wouldn't get Pepper, but she wanted to hear him say it. It was a power play thing, she had to be in charge and he had to let her be.

He was not going to say that. She'd be holding her breath if that's what she was after. "I don't sign documents without reading them. Or having legal read them. Which is pretty much the same thing. You haven't told me anything at all. No pitch. No coffee. No mutual stroking of balls under the table. You want me to play with you, I need to know the game. And don't make a big thing about telling me too much-- Every company I have ever dealt with had trade secrets. No one cares. You've hacked my armor. You've broken into my safe space. You've shown your hand, enough to entice me at least, but now I want facts. I want to see the cover letter of the project. I want your god damned mission statement. And then we'll discuss terms. And after that, I'll decide if I'm leaving or not. If you want to play with me, there are rules."

He'd never taken a single business class in his life but he didn't need to take one either. This was just how it was done. Even if it was done by a crazy megalomaniacal organization like HYDRA who beat and starved people into submission.

Tony dealt with people like that before. Namely, the US government.

Sorry Rhodey.

"Also. I don't do well when threatened. Be nice to me and I'll be nice to you. You don't have to strong arm me if you pique my interest."

She finally pulled up to her feet and, as she did so, the armour once more closed itself up and took a step back to be against the wall. She smiled, full red lips pulling up, and reached out to ever so lightly press at the centre of his lower back in order to guide him out of the room and into the corridor.

"Very well, let's talk."

But she didn't order for Pepper not to be brought in.

"As you correctly surmised, we require the arc reactor technology to power our experiments into traversing the multiple dimensions that border our own. We hope to learn from these experiences how to help guide our own planet to a better understanding of how to live in peace."

The corridors were dull gunmetal grey and colder than his room, and they were occasionally dotted with highly armed HYDRA guards.

Tony snorted. He was well aware that this woman, who he didn’t know her name yet, hadn’t rescinded those orders. In fact, Pepper was likely being brought in right now didn’t go passed him either. Instead, he focused on where they were and what was going on. Firstly, he noted the walls and the heat. The floors were warmer than anything over his knees. That meant thermal heating.

Iceland and Siberia were both world leaders in geothermal power and that narrowed down where they could be. Given HYDRA’s ties with Russia, though, Tony settled on Siberia. It made him feel better to have a location for this little meeting.

He waved to some of the agents and their weapons, not at all bothered that no one waved back. “So, let me get this straight, you’re looking to make the world better by visting alternate realities to steal version of the serum that you people killed my parents for to make more Buckys so that the world can be a better place? It’s not like anything you do there can possibly effect this world unless you happen to come across one jointly running at an accelerated timeline to ours with more advanced technology or insight into future events. I know you can’t really time travel. Doesn’t work that way. That’s how we could pick out which reality you guys decided to hop to so easily. You needed a reality where it was still 1943 running concurrently with our 2014. Just one fit the bill. But anyway, carry on. Wow me.”

Tony Stark was a very intelligent man, and nothing that he said was wrong. Time travel itself was literally impossible, the very nature of its existence was paradoxical, for anything altered would change a future where needing to go back would be erased, thus erasing the future in question. But these many others worlds, some running concurrently to their own, were a veritable treasure trove of goodness.

"You think our goals so narrow, Mr. Stark. Though the Soldier is a magnificent asset, and accruing more assets is never something we are adverse to, it is to protect our world and people that we need to seek out these other dimensions."

She led him into a large chamber with reconditioning equipment in the centre, something he had seen in the tapes used on Bucky.

"Some of these other dimensions also possess this technology and do not wish our home any kindnesses, we must protect ourselves. To do that, we require fully working and reliable portals. You are our pathway to this, you may name your price."

Tony didn't ask permission. He just helped himself onto the dais to take a look around. He bypassed the chair, the place were all intelligence and identity could be erased with the click of a button. Instead, he was interested in way laid beyond it. Yes, he was aware of all of the guns trained on him but he ignored them. No one was shooting him and none of this stuff here could be used for communication. Not without some tweaking. He was good but he didn't have time to do it properly so he wasn't that good.

"You guys are looking to alternate dimensions. Our guys are looking to the Chitauri. Oh. By the way? Thanks for all that stuff we found in your base. Really helpful." Without the tesseract, that scepter was their best bet to getting the power they needed. Not even the leviathan had anything technically relevant about it. Not that Tony could see.

He brought up a display (on a screen! How quaint!) and wiped his hands on the backs of his jeans as he looked over the read out.

"Huh. So the reality Buck fled to. Hilter had nearly won with an atom bomb a few thousand times larger-- yeah okay. Good job stopping that one. Listen. What I want, you can't pay for. Oversight. I want to run this whole thing. And I want to give Bucky his mind back because that's just gross."

He must be expecting her to refuse, that was a steep price to pay for even his services. Still, that was how negotiations began, she must now come back with a counter offer. She wasn't so stupid as to think that he wouldn't entirely be working on a way to sabotage them at the same time, it was what he had done in Afghanistan to pretend he was working for the terrorists, but she was confident that she could keep that in control.

"You will be granted oversight for this project with five engineers working beneath you, and access to the laboratory at all hours. You may be assigned the Soldier as your personal bodyguard for this duration."

The Asset was not a price that she was willing to budge on, he was worth so much more to them than most anything else. He was the crown jewel in HYDRA's achievements over the last century, and Armin Zola's greatest legacy. He would not be allowed to fall out of their grasp again, through his work HYDRA would rise once more.

"Back when you guys were part of SHIELD, didn't you read my file? I don't want a team. A team gets in the way. I know you mean that you want people to make sure I don't blow the place up, but just use cameras. No one is as smart as I am." Maybe that sounded like an asshole thing to say, but Tony didn't just believe it. It was the truth. He could work well with Banner, but that was because Banner was almost as much as a genius as he was. No one else could compare. Not even the people who worked for Stark Industries and he liked to think that he hired the best and the brightest.

He wasn't sure what else to say. He didn't feel like he was being given a choice but that said, he really didn't want to do this either. Not with technology from who knew when or from who knew what people had initially touched it.

Tony pressed a hand to his hips, frowning.

"I want Banner." Now that was a very big bargaining chip. "And I want assurance that Pepper is breaking hearts with her mother and not locked up in some gross pink room."

"No Banner," she said, and it was an immediate shut down. Although HYDRA would love to get their hands on the Hulk at some point and work out exactly what made him tick, they did not have the facility to contain him and to give him to Stark would be tantamount to simply letting them both walk free. She was not arrogant enough to think that she had the resources to deal with that yet.

In the future, definitely. She looked forward to it. But it was clear from her expression that she wasn't going to give him something that could so easily be used against her.

"However, I can give you reassurances on Ms. Potts."

She would also make sure that he didn't have a team, she could believe that he was a control freak who felt he had to work alone.

Damn. Well he knew Banner would be a real long shot there. It was still a shame. He'd been looking forward to getting his fellow scientist all worked up and smashy. A little smile creeped across his face. He had to admit. This was a lot of fun. He was dealing with the devil but the devil made the best business parter.

"That still doesn't feel like enough. The Avengers will figure out I'm gone eventually. They'll probably find me eventually. And then I'll be hanged for treason which, by the way, not a good look. Just keeping my ex safe is the worst compensation. What about your toys? Are you going to let me know how the hell you busted into my armor without JARVIS' backdoor programming know? Inquiring minds really want to know. And uh, not to beat a dead horse, but coffee? Black. Thanks."

Having to figure a way out of here while being lorded over by a mindless super soldier was not going to be fun. At all.

"Actually. Coffee and one more thing. That kid we brought back? We're calling him Grant. I never got my chance to scan him. And we already know he's primed for the super soldier formula. Can I have a puppy? Pretty please? I'll walk him every day."

"You wish Steve Rogers to be brought here." The request was repeated as though she were tasting each word, trying to figure out where the catch was and why he could possibly want a skinny version of his friend. He would be of no tactical use, though it was possible that he could prove to be an issue where the Asset was concerned. It was also more possible that he would be missed than Stark, who was notorious for going off alone in a strop and making himself unavailable for weeks.

In the end she shook her head.

"You may not at the current time. If you meet your initial targets, we will discuss the terms again. You may have access to the laboratory, alone, and the Asset as a guard. These are my terms."

"Grant. Not Steve Rogers. Seriously. I am not fond of the bigger version," Tony said, knowing it was a long shot to get the guy on their side who had managed to break Bucky down as he had. But she hadn't said no either. And she was open to renegotiations.

Tony stepped down from the platform, around the chair, and held out his hand towards the woman before he pulled it back ever so slightly.

"Coffee. And a name. If you have one. I want to know who I'm suppose to see when I get pissy about the continued issue of the lack of coffee in this place." Tony wasn't even much of a coffee drinker but sometimes it stuck in his crawl when he wasn't given what he asked for. He wasn't used to that.

Working for the enemy was something he was more suited to than being denied in any way, shape or form.

Once she offered him assurance of a drink and her name, Tony would offer his hand again. "You drive a hard bargain when your potential business partners don't have a whole lot of say in the matter."

The name she offered him was Charlotte, likely not her real name, and the coffee she had brought to him was mediocre. Not fresh beans, just out of a standard instant coffee tin such as might be found in any work office. HYDRA might have a lot of funding, perhaps even as much as Stark Industries, but they made sure it all went to important causes. The comfort and pleasure of their staff was not an important cause.

He would be shown where the laboratory was, utilitarian space but with excellent equipment (though none of the computers would access the internet), and a small room would be set up adjacent to it for him to use as a bedroom from then on in order to keep him from wandering the facility at large.

It wouldn't be long before he was left alone with the tools to start creating an arc reactor, and a silent bodyguard in the corner.

Just how many times was he going to have to build an arc reactor from subpar construction material? Honestly, it was a massive pain in the ass. HYDRA really wasn't that interested in having him do anything at the moment other than make a power supply and he could seriously just do that in his sleep.

Though there was no way he was giving them what they wanted out of his own chest, or the element that made it so much more efficient than palladium had ever been, he did insist on being given back his suit of armor to cannibalize some of the materials from it.

Bucky generally ran his errands for him and Tony kept calling him Bucky. He kept asking him about Steve Rogers too, and when not asking questions, he apoke about the blond almost incessantly. Rarely were the stories good but he was trying to get something more than blankness out of this guy.

It didn't seem to be working. What broke Bucky the last time was Steve himself. Face to face. Not the name.

Damn.

"I'm never going to find out if he's a good kisser now. You're dashing my dreams, Barnes. Okay. I need a better tool. I need to make my own. And more coffee. Get me some nanite Carbon tubing and you might want to put sugar in this cup because damn it's bad."

The Soldier isn't like a real person, he doesn't care how often he's talked to or what name he's referred to as, none of it is relevant to him. All he will do is follow any orders given to him, silent and efficient, and then go back to standing at his place at the door. He fetches parts, he fetches coffee, and he listens to Tony Stark talk nonsense until precisely nine pm.

Then he steps forwards and intercepts Tony with whatever he's doing, voice low and eyes suddenly intense on his.

"They change the watch at nine, we have thirty seconds."

They trained him, after all. They trained him to be their perfect little Soldier, and they trained him how to infiltrate any organisation in the world. How arrogant to assume that he couldn't infiltrate theirs.

"Tell me what you can make with the materials here."

Tony took exactly two of those seconds to nod and smile at Bucky. All right then. This would work or it would backfire horribly and he would be screwed. Either way, he liked these odds and he let them bathe over him before he glanced around the room. "Timed explosives. Remote detonators. EMP charges. I can make a GPS satellite link up to Veronica too but I have no way of plugging it in. It can transmit its location and the door code. Oh right. And I can make a code scrambler to get the code."

That was a lot of talking for twenty-eight seconds. But Tony was a fast talker and be he was quick to get out only the pertinents. He could build a better coffee pot too but he let that slide. For now.

Tony returned to his seat at the work bench.

"So what's for dinner tonight? What time is it anyway?" He already knew what to build and in what order. And this time he had to do it smarter. They'd be checking. HYDRA had to know how he got away from the kidnappers that started this crazy journey by now, right?

So decoder first. Then transmitter. Then EMP explosive. Bucky would have to do the whole hard part.

The moment that thirty seconds is over, Bucky returns to his upright posture with a blankness returning to his expression that seemed complete. He wouldn't be speaking to Stark again that evening. He knew that they were not an ideal team, the man hated him for what he had done to his parents and for leaving when Grant and Steve needed him, but they were all one another had for the moment.

He just had to protect Stark long enough for him to make what they both needed. Because it did need both of them to get free.

Only another two hours passed before the door opened and a young man in uniform stepped in, offering Tony a small smile and standing just close enough to the Soldier to make it seem as if he were comfortable with him, but just far enough away to broadcast clearly that he was as scared as if he were in a room with a rabid dog.

"Compliments of the evening, Mr. Stark, but as a reward for your hard work a movie night has been set up for you to enjoy over dinner. Please follow me."

"I really hope it's either The Little Mermaid or Jaws. Ooh, or the fourth Star Trek movie. The one with the whales. Do I get to pick or are we regulated to whatever Putin things the Siberians are allowed to watch? And popcorn-- Bucky, get me some popcorn? Extra partially hydrogenated soybean oil. I'm really craving some saturated fat with my fake butter flavor tonight."

Tony put down his tools and used the hand sanitizer he had insisted on yesterday before he followed the agent out of the room. His smile was a little awkward, but that was only because he hated the smell of the generic gel in his hands. Really. HYDRA needed to step up to brand names. They were brand names for a reason. The extra fifty cents was worth it.

But try telling Charlotte that!

The woman barely let him get away with the extra sugar!

So he thought nothing of the little trip through the facility. Or the leather chair in the center of the room. "Looks like you're standing. Try not to sing Under The Sea too loudly," he tlold Bucky and took a seat.

It was not, at least, the conditioning chamber. There were no electronic parts to whirr into position and begin to wipe him clean off all he had been, but there was restraints that came up and out of the arms and legs and fasten him in place.

Bucky left to fulfil his orders, to find popcorn in the exact variety that his current handler had told him to do, leaving Stark to it. He knew that what was coming would not be pleasant, but he couldn't shield the other man from every pain in this place. They would both have to endure in order to survive.

The entire wall in front of Tony became a screen, a projection appearing on it in large detail. CCTV cameras over a country lane, a car being driven off the road by a motorcycle, an efficient killer literally beating a man to death and then putting him in his car so carefully, emotionless eyes as he then strangled the passenger. And then the final shot, the barrel of a gun, before the feed went dead.

And then it started over again. And again.

So far, he'd done literally everything required of him. He was working in the reactor. He slept and he ate and he kept himself healthy. He was pleasant. Maybe he'd trusted Bucky too much? Those twenty or so seconds had condemned him. Tony exhaled as the first viewing ended and the next began. No. They didn't know. This was punishment for calling Bucky by his name, an attempt to decondition him. Tony had to believe that or he would give the rest away.

The fourth take, he spoke up. "You know that I know he did it, right? You have access to my security footage. You know he broke into the Tower and told me all about this." A lie. Bucky told him at the compound but he was hoping that, maybe, they would take the time to correct hi. So he would know if the compound was compromised too.

But there was nothing. No acknowledgement. No response.

Seven times did not desensitize him. Nine made him angry. Thirteen finally had him in tears, raging against the cuffs he had been held so gently with. He'd bruise. "Enough! Jesus Christ, enough!"

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