fossilised | For Steve

"A possible business partner for the future."

Her voice was slightly accented with something Eastern European, perhaps, but her English was so excellent that it was barely noticeable. She didn't sound at all concerned that she was kidnapping one of the Avengers using his own technology.

"We have high hopes for a long and lucrative career together, but this can all be discussed when you arrive. Please, Mr. Stark, take this opportunity to rest and recover your wits. You'll want to be at your best when you arrive."

Tony was always at his best, even when he wasn't. He didn't give into panic or worry, even when JARVIS failed to answer him and none of his systems actually responded. The helmet was exceptionally dark without the HUD on and though he could see through the slits of the eyes behind the switched off LED mesh, he couldn't make out anything but clouds and partial sky or ground.

It was uncomfortable to be stuck there, unsure of where his cushioning was coming from or how to brace for changes in direction. His body was mostly incased and while he could wiggle his toes, he couldn't wiggle his fingers. Or shift his weight into the body of the armor.

That was a problem.

"How do you serve nuts on this flight? And where are the restrooms?" Tony wanted to be by himself and so now he was. He sort of hated irony.

There was no response from the mysterious woman on the other end of the line, and Tony was left in silence and solitude as he flew over countries and oceans. Even with the high speeds that his armour could travel, he would still be in the air almost four hours before it began to descend.

The only thing that would be visible was snow.

As far as the eye could see there was snow, deeper in some places that Tony was tall, and unbroken. No buildings, no footprints, no tyre tracks. Just snow. Eventually the armour was brought in to land at a concealed steel set of doors, which banged close behind him. The repulsors shut off and he would be left standing. The faceplate would be raised, but he would be unable to control the suit still.

"Good morning, Mr. Stark," the same woman's voice greeted him, and now in person she was a middle aged woman with dark brown hair and glasses. "We have a room for you to freshen up in and your requested 'nuts', should you still be hungry. Follow me."

And the armour would.

[Qucikie, heading into the office!]

"You're impressively attractive and scary," Tony said, though his wits still felt dull and his head was starting to ache from the lack of alcohol and his sinuses unhappily informing him that he shouldn't have gone from warm weather to cold without a little bit of medication to keep everything from being congested.

Too late now, of course, and given that he still didn't have any idea where he was (Norway, Russia. Antarctica?) and had no control over his own body (that needed to be addressed with the next model of armor), he wasn't in a position to complain just yet. Or to give away how lousy he was feeling.

Hopefully no one had tapped into the suit's ability to scan the occupant for a biometric reading. He didn't want to have his impairments currently outlined to whoever managed to break into his security.

"Love what you did here. Green lighting is always underutilized in evil villain bases."

"HYDRA has evolved a long way past the roots it had in Nazism, and our recent restructuring has forced a lot of changes." And by restructuring, she means being taken down by Captain America in a humiliating loss of decades of work. "We are not the evil organisation that so many erroneously believe, we wish only for order and peace in the world. Is that not what you are also seeking, Mr. Stark, peace in our time?"

She leads him, by way of the armour, through corridors to a room painted in pastel shades of pink. It's fairly pleasant, if small, with a bed, a desk with a chair, a small attached bathroom, and a bookshelf with a small selection of books. There's no computer, phone, or television.

"I will leave you to get settled in. The armour will release you shortly."

And it would. But it would not respond to his commands, and the door to the room was locked when he left.

"So this is what? A rebranding pitch? Collaboration proposal?" Tony knew better than to decline right off the bat. He needed to let his mind get over the clouds brought upon by too much scotch so he could daringly escape before anyone else on the team noticed or cared, get a location lock on this base, and blow it up. He was a sucker for explosions. He couldn't help it.

Tony unlocked his knees as he was walked down the corridor, unable to turn his head to see more than straight ahead. He liked a challenge but this wasn't much fun.

"Because I've got to tell you, there are better ways to go about this. As far as kidnappings go, and I might be an expert in being kidnapped at this point in my life, but this one isn't too bad. I mean you did hack me. And steal my stuff. And I'm going to have to probably kill most of you for that, but I appreciate the kid gloves."

When the armor stopped moving, Tony tried to made it fall over or do something but it was stuck in place until the woman left. Only then was he allowed to stumble out. He picked himself off of the floor and frowned, turning back to the armor before the metal closed back up. He spent the next half an hour trying to get back in, resorting to book throwing and leaping off of the bed onto it.

No dice.

"I take it back! You guys are terrible at this!"

Tony would be left alone for the next twelve hours. If he explored his little room then he would find a plastic glass to fill with water from the taps, and four paper bags with various foods in them. Nuts, sandwiches, fruit, and some cookies. Nothing particularly exciting, but they clearly didn't mean to starve him here. In the small chest of drawers were also three sets of jeans and several t-shirts in his size, as well as soap, sponge, toothbrush, and toothpaste.

Whether or not he slept in those twelve hours, showered, changed, or did nothing but rant and rave while trying to get into his armour, the door would eventually slide open and a familiar man with one metal arm would step inside. He wore a mask and carried a gun, a man that Tony had never actually met himself, for this was the Winter Soldier.

Alongside Bucky was that same woman from that morning.

"Good evening, Mr. Stark, how are you feeling?"

Tony had showered. Sort of. He'd been fully dressed at the time and tried to get some of the plumbing apart. The shower, like the sink and the toilet, had all of the working parts behind the wall. Everything was on motion sensors and though he tried to pry that out to get the wiring, he was stuck. So yes, he had changed. The Metallica shirt was a nice touch so he wore it over a long sleeve black tee. They were somewhere locked in perpetual winter it seemed, north of the Wall, so he wanted to be prepared. His hair dried naturally and he'd busied himself looking through all of the food for foil or heavy plastic to make into a connection circuit but, again, he was stuck. The mattress itself wouldn't open and give him access to the metal springs and there was only so much he could do with paper when he didn't have the ability to melt the edges.

He exhaled slowly as the doors opened, prepared to let shoved was there have it with some verbal assault meant to demoralize them about the shape of their nose when someone he recognized without recognizing them came in. Tony's eyes narrowed slightly.

"This is why I told you to go back to Steve," he said. But no. Bucky had to go and get himself captured again. "You're the worst assassin. You need to go to Natasha's School for Better Spies. I think even Barton has you beat on smarts and that's saying something. Ever hear the term Birdbrain? That's him. Don't listen to whatever else he tells you about having good vision or something."

The Soldier didn't react at all to Tony's words to him, he just stared through the man as though he didn't exist, finger on the trigger but gun not yet pointed at Tony. He was here as a bodyguard only, he had his orders, and anything the prisoner had to say was utterly meaningless to him.

She came and took a seat on the chair at the desk as the door locked again, legs crossing one over the other.

"The Soldier is not your concern, Mr. Stark, we wish to talk to you about arc reactor technology. There are so many applications for it that may be able to help the world heal, and you are the foremost expert in the world."

They needed him, they wanted his services. Better willing than not, but they could do not if necessary.

"So his name is James Barnes. Commonly nicknamed Bucky, which isn't really an improvement. I'd have gone with Jimmy myself. Or maybe Barnsey but that makes him sound a little like a street artist social commentator." Tony traced the outline of his beard slowly, looking over Barnes with his shoulder to the woman. She probably expected a little respect but Tony wasn't giving it to her.

Instead, he leaned close to the Soldier's face, scrutinizing him. He was trying to see if he flinched. Or if his breathing changed. He needed to see some form of life here.

"I think you have your facts wrong anyway. Not just about his name but about how much of an expert I am In the field of clean energy. I'm not an expert. I'm the only name in the field right now. I'm the only person who's managed to perfect sustainable, near perpetual energy. Unless you want to bring in that car guy conspiracy theorists think had his perpetual motion rig covered up by Big Oil." Tony shrugged, hands in his pockets. "Gotta say I'm not looking to branch out with my IP right now. Lot on my plate. You understand."

There was no hint of recognition or humanity in those eyes, he stared through Tony as if he were nothing and nobody. Though his apparent ease was all a ruse and he could have his gun up and shooting in a literal heartbeat, but having a billionaire inventor up in his face didn't bother him at all.

"Of course we understand. Very well, Mr. Stark, I shall arrange to have you taken home. It was a shame we were not able to work well together."

She smiled, just a hint of the shark about it as she addressed the Asset.

"Find Lopi, tell him to bring in Ms. Potts, Mr. Stark has declined to work with us."

The Soldier turned to leave immediately.

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.

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