Tony! Tony!"

Tony Stark woke with a jolt. Pepper was right beside him, shaking his arm. Only after that Tony realized he was still clutching the white sheets and there were drops of sweat on his forehead.
"You were screaming." said Pepper, looking at Tony with a worried expression.
"I'm fine, Pep. Go back to sleep." The worried expression on Pepper's face didn't go away, so Tony planted a little kiss on her forehead and said "I'm fine, okay? You need to sleep, you have a long flight tomorrow."
"Alright" said Pepper with a rather sad smile on her face. Tony was right. She needed to rest. She was flying to Europe first thing in the morning for a board meeting. She lied back down as Tony exited the room.
He had no idea where he was going, he just needed to get out, get some fresh air. He tiptoed to the door before any of the Avengers heard him and came to see what he was doing in the middle of the night. They had moved in shortly after the Battle of New York. Bruce came first, as he had nowhere to go and he actually enjoyed being around the billionaire. Tony was the only person who didn't look at Bruce like he was a bomb that could explode any minute. He trusted Bruce to control the other guy and even made jokes about it. Everyone else thought it would hurt or intimidate Bruce, but he actually quite enjoyed it and laughed at most of Tony's jokes. Nobody else had approached him like this before. Bruce had said no to coming to the tower at first, to be polite, but after seeing the lab and the floors Tony designed for each of the Avengers, he had agreed.

Natasha and Clint came short after, intending to stay only a few days until they found new covers and a safe house, but the billionaire had already designed floors for both of them, so why not stay? After spending two days at the tower, they had agreed. Thor came a week after Natasha and Clint, saying he wanted to stay in Midgard to learn their traditions. Steve was the last one to come. He actually didn't want to owe anyone anything and he thought he could manage on his own. But staying in his empty little apartment for two days all alone with nothing to do, he thought maybe moving to the tower was a good idea. Tony enjoyed being around the team, even if they didn't go along sometimes and their personalities were very different. He felt like he had a proper family for the first time.
A black van passing by Tony loudly distracted his thoughts. He had walked a long way without even thinking, he didn't recognize the street he was standing on. He hadn't even changed his clothes. He was trying to figure out a way to go back to the tower when something heavy hit his head and large hands carried him to the black van as he lost consciousness.

"Have you seen Tony?" asked Bruce to the first person that entered the common floor, which happened to be Steve.
"No, why?"
"We were supposed to work on something in the lab together but I can't find him in the tower. Jarvis said he left in the middle of the night." said Bruce.
At that moment Natasha and Clint entered the common floor together and Natasha quickly noticed the worried look on Bruce's face.
"What's wrong?" she asked curiously.
"We can't find Tony." Steve said.
"I'm sure he's fine, probably wandered off somewhere." said Clint.
Thor entered to the common room and repeated Natasha's words when he saw four of his teammates all standing up in a circle.
At the exact same moment, a grey gas covered the floor and left the Avengers unconscious.

Tony was watching in horror as his teammates all lost consciousness and dropped on the floor in seconds. He was tied to a chair in a small room, with nothing but a large screen and camera facing where Tony was tied.

"How did they override Jarvis?" he whispered to himself. It was one of the best systems in the world; Tony had designed the AI himself. There was no way someone could hack it and bypass all the security systems in the tower. The tower would have locked itself down, giving the team a chance to defend themselves.

Now Tony was starting to get worried, the air around him felt thin and he felt the arc reactor's heaviness on his chest, choking him, leaving him with no air to breathe. It was so obvious; the black van had just passed right in front of him. Any of his teammates would have noticed something wrong, maybe looked out for danger, but he had done nothing except standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking in the air, making himself an extremely easy target. Now his teammates were captured because of him. He had messed up once again. He felt like crying, not just a few tears but collapsing into sobs, as men dressed in black with snow masks came on the screen and dragged their teammates.
"How did you override Jarvis?" shouted Tony to no one in particular. The white room was empty, there was nobody with him. A voice suddenly started talking, making Tony jump. "You showed me." Tony desperately looked around the room but saw nothing. The voice laughed. "I'm inside your head Anthony. We're all inside your head. And I'll show the terror it holds to all your teammates, so they can see the real Tony Stark."

"If you hurt them I swear I will kill you with my bare hands." Tony wasn't sure if he'd screamed or whispered, or if he had actually spoken out loud or not. He felt a massive headache and his throat suddenly felt very dry. Maybe he was disoriented because of the head trauma.
"Don't worry Mr. Stark. I won't do anything to them. You asked me how I managed to override Jarvis. You showed me. You designed both the Avengers Tower and Jarvis. You knew their weak spots and how to pass them, and since I am in your head, so did I." The voice laughed. "Get ready, Mr. Stark. Your teammates will be joining us shortly.

The first one to wake up was Natasha. Her eyes were blinded by the light as soon as she opened them. She kept her eyes opened as they adjusted to it and saw her four teammates, sitting on chairs facing a screen unconscious, just like she was. She was about to get up and look for an exit as a voice echoed through the walls. "There is no point in getting up Agent Romanoff. You'll not find an exit in this room." Natasha didn't know what was going on here, who this guy was and how she couldn't see him but could hear his voice echoing although he wasn't in the room, but being a part of the Avengers and seeing all sorts of weird things, nothing could surprise her anymore. "Every room has an exit. How could you put us in here if there is no exit somewhere?" There was a silent pause and then the voice responded, very pleased with himself. "This is only an illusion, Ms. Romanoff. You are all inside Mr. Stark's head, and I'm here too."
"What the hell is this guy talking about?" Clint responded. He had just woken up and started looking around the room. A year ago, he didn't believe life outside Earth had existed, shortly after he met two gods from Asgard and a race called Chitauri invaded the Earth. So yeah, he thought to himself, this guy could actually be saying the truth. Natasha looked at her side and saw all of their teammates awake, terrified to even get up and look around. "Nice to see you too, Mr. Barton."
"Agent."
"I'm sorry?"
"I prefer to be called Agent Barton, if you don't mind." There was a long, pregnant pause. Natasha smiled to herself.
"Well then, Agent Barton, want to take a little look inside Mr. Stark's memories?"
The screen in front of them flashed open, showing Tony bound to a chair, in a room identical to theirs. Tony was looking at the screen, his chocolate brown eyes showing the terror they held. Tony looked at each of his teammates; they were all staring back at him with the same expression. Scared, shocked, confused but also very brave.
The voice spoke again. "Ready or not, here we go."