My heart and soul goes out to everyone who was hurt because of the attacks in England yesterday, I have a friend in London and I'm so thankful she's okay. But I know there were fatalities, and I send my thoughts towards anyone who lost anyone in this horrible attack. All we can do now is stick together, and show that it won't fade us.

Wakanda

King T'Challa's Palace

Steve was expecting a call eventually. Well, more like he was hoping for a call from Tony. He hadn't asked anything else about Tony, he'd been avoiding the internet and news, he'd been too afraid to see, too afraid of what Tony may say. Even with all that, he still kept the phone on his person at all times. No matter what was going on, just in case. He could at least hope.

When the call came, he was with everyone. They had been on the couch together, talking about a few serious things, but mostly just staying silent, enjoying each other's company. The little flip phone rang, causing everyone in the room to jump.

"It's Tony," He said quickly, wanting to calm everyone, though that seemed to make them more antsy. Clint sent him a dark look, firmly saying,"Put it on speaker"

Steve answered the man's request quickly, turning the phone on speaker and answering the call. "Stark?" He called hopefully, hearing heavy breathing on the other line, and something that sounded like crying. Steve remained silent for a few more seconds before he awkwardly asked,"Tony..?"

"This is all your fault.." Rhodey's voice snarled angrily, causing everyone to look at Steve in confusion.

"Colonel Rhodes?" Steve asked, wondering if something had happened to Tony to cause Rhodes to need to use the phone. "Where's Tony? Did something happen to him-"

"Why the FUCK DO YOU THINK I'M CALLING, ROGERS!?" Rhodes yelled into the phone. "It's all your fault it happened to him! Something didn't just happen to him, you bastard! He's DEAD!"

After this shocking declaration, the sobbing on the other line grew louder. Steve realized now who it was, it was Pepper.

Natasha had brought her hand up to her mouth, T'Challa had leaned forward and was listening intently, Bucky looked awkwardly nervous, and the others said nothing. "What do you mean!?" Steve asked, panicking a little. "How did he die, he came back from Siberia, didn't he? Did he get sick!?"

"Have you been living under a fucking rock, Rogers!? He never came back! How could he have when you destroyed his suit!?" Pepper suddenly interjected into the conversation,"We've been searching for him since! We can't find him, and then all of a sudden we're sent a box from Hydra that has his HEART in it, Steve! HIS HEART! They killed him! You left him there and they killed him!"

Pepper's voice cracked with the last sentence, and she fell back into sobs. Steve felt his heart sink, as he realized what happened, and who did it. Those bastards.. But he couldn't blame it all on them, he was the the one that left them with the opportunity to do this.

"I.. I'm so sorry, guys," He whispered, tears beginning to fill his eyes,"I promise, I'll try to find a way to fix this, I really will"

Rhodey's hitched breath stopped for a moment, as he sneered,"Nothing you do will bring him back, Rogers. Nothing you can do will bring back my best friend.. He's dead.. H-He's dead.."

It sounded like Rhodey finally broke down, breathing hard and sobbing into the phone. Then the dial tone.

He looked at the phone in despair, tears falling down his cheeks. Natasha's eyes were wet, T'Challa was staring down at the floor, seemingly trying to take everything that he just heard in, Bucky looked horribly guilty. Clint and Wanda seemed unsure of how to react. Sure, they weren't really on a good note with Stark, but they didn't want him to.. To die. Sam and Scott just looked away, they didn't know Tony well, there was no real feeling for this death other than a small amount of respect for their fallen comrade, and anger over the death of someone who didn't deserve to die in such a way.

Steve looked at the phone in his hand, before turning and punching the wall with the other. Rhodes was right, of course he was. This was all his fault, if it weren't for him making such a rash decision, Tony wouldn't have died. If he had just calmed down.. Maybe Tony wouldn't be dead.

"Forget the Accords," Steve said firmly,"Forget the fights we had, forget any tension between teams. Tony was my friend, Hydra has always been an enemy. But now they've gone too far. We're going to destroy them, down to the last root. I will destroy them for everything they've done"

Nobody dared to disagree, nobody needed to disagree. For they all knew Steve's determination, they felt it. Hydra had truly gone too far this time, and they would follow Captain in taking them down, even if it took years. They could only do so much, with the governments of the world searching for them, but that wouldn't stop them. They had to do it, if not for them, then for Tony, and all the other lives HYDRA had destroyed.

HYDRA Base

Antarctica

The next few times Tony woke up were all small things. He never really left the stasis chamber, or at least, the room he was in. It seemed that the agents were still putting him together. It was usually just a simple check up. The usual 'walk around the room, fingers and toes, hand eye coordination.' Then they'd shut him back down. Tony never tried anything. He didn't have enough information to try and escape yet. He didn't even know where they were.

The first time he woke up for longer than a few minutes was.. Well, he didn't know. He'd sort of lost track of time. They opened the stasis chamber, going through the usual routine, but instead of putting him back, they told him to follow them.

Seeing no other choice when surrounded by soldiers and technicians, he decided to not try and fight just yet. He followed silently, mind conjuring up several escape attempts but never trying to act on them. Instead, he focused on his body.

It was strange, to be moving with no effort. Sure, he needed to move, to walk. But there was no exhaustion, no feeling of bones moving. In fact, he didn't feel much of anything except on his hands. But even that wasn't much. They were trying to give him a sense of touch, he didn't see why that was necessary but he wouldn't complain. He had pain receptors, but those only ever acted when they activated them. He knew this because of his first few attempts of attacking them.

Tony was brought to a very 'state of the art' looking workroom, filled with machinery and technology of every kind. He looked around curiously, and a frown grew on his face when he saw remains of his suit on the table. Of course they took the suit..

"A1, sit on that table in the middle," The engineer orders. Tony finds that he really hates that name. A1, Android 1, whatever. It makes him sound like an object. Which, in this sense, is mostly true. He can't really be classed as human anymore.

He sat on the table, and the Engineer took his arm in his hand. Tony watched with rapt attention. As morbid as the situation was, he couldn't help but be curious about his new body. It was so human, yet so robotic. He wanted to see how it worked.

The engineer looked up at Tony as he opened up the arm, a smirk on his face. "I know that look, don't worry, when Red Skull gives the order, we'll teach you how to maintain and repair yourself, if you behave," He added the end rather quickly, as if to give Tony hope and knock it down.

"And if I don't behave?" Tony sneered, hating the robot-like voice that came through his voice instead of his own.

The engineer shrugged, pulling up a hologram and picking up tools. "Well, if you won't listen, we have a program to turn you into just a robot until we want to turn it off. Of course, we can always shut you down if you get too violent. So if you don't behave, it doesn't really matter, we still have you," He said calmly back.

Tony frowned, looking away once more. But he quickly looked back, seeing the engineer pulling apart the palm of his hand. "What are you doing?" He asked curiously.

"Putting in your repulsors. We've removed them the best we could, and maybe when you behave we'll let you fix them yourself better," He explained.

Tony frowned, squishing his artificial cheek in his other hand. "I don't understand, if you're just making me into a robot like my suit, why not just do the same thing you did to Barnes?" He questioned.

It seemed the engineer was getting tired of his questions, as he pressed down on one of the wires that held pain receptors, causing Tony to wince. "We've learned our lesson from that, humans remember. But robots are much easier to keep on a leash, even ones that were human before," He said calmly, going back to working.

Tony decided not to test his luck by asking another question, and just watched. The item was attached to his arm, and the repulsor showed from the palm, much like the repulsor on his suit.

The engineer moved out of the way, pointing to a area on the wall. "Fire it," He ordered, wanting to test the product he had been working on.

Tony stared down at the glowing blue item embedded in his hand. How was he supposed to fire it? Was it like the repulsors on his suit? Did he just.. Whim it?

He tried to think of shooting it, and it began to glow almost instantly. Tony jumped, aiming it at the wall quickly. The blast flew forward in a blast of uncontrolled light, exploding violently and sending machines flying.

The engineer turned and looked at him, writing down something on the clipboard, before asking,"What did we do wrong in our modification? I know you know."

Tony's mind suddenly felt sluggish, he tried to register the man's question, but couldn't think of anything. "You.. You need to.." He slumped forward, his eyes closing.

"Shit, that uses up a lot of power, doesn't it?" The engineer said quickly, before looking at the soldiers who had been waiting nearby. "A1 needs to return to the stasis chamber, he's out of power"

He felt himself being taken away, but Tony was too sluggish to register what was happening. He just felt himself shutting down, the world fading away again.

He never had dreams anymore

Tony woke up a little while later. The second his eyes opened, he was being pulled out of the chamber and taken back to the engineer's room. Red Skull was there, making Tony frown as he was brought to the front of the room, standing in front of the table he had sat on not long ago.

He looked down at the table. In front of him was the broken arc reactor from his suit, sending a wave of fear and bad memories through him. He shook it off, looking at the red man and the engineers with him. "Fix it," Red Skull ordered.

"Why?" Tony challenged instantly, not afraid to challenge a demand like this. He crossed his arms, tapping against his metal elbow with suspicion.

"Why?" Red Skull echoed back,"Why wouldn't you? I could force you to at any time, and if you don't then you'll just keep running out of power, you'll be of no use to us"

"Maybe I wouldn't run out of power if I was still a fucking human," Tony sneered, rudely snatching the pieces of the arc reactor from the table. There was no electric shock, but there was a sneer from some of the engineers.

The Red Skull smirked, and said,"Yes, that's true, but your human body was old and weak. Expendable." Tony felt a sharp spike of sadness blast through him, for he knew what was the truth, but Red Skull continued,"Your Android body is much more durable, and you will be around for a very long time now, perhaps forever, and be very helpful to our cause. But first, you need a reliable power source, so you are going to fix that. This isn't an option, A1, and our engineers will watch and learn."

Tony wanted to refuse, he really did. But if he was going to have any chance of getting out of here before without shutting down, he needed the arc reactor. What cruel irony was this? He sighed, before finally speaking,"I'm going to need to melt it back down"

They watched him carefully, agreeing to giving him items he needed only after he explained what they were for. They watched him like a hawk, not letting him do anything without permission. Eventually, he poured it into the thin cylinder casing, watching the blue glow. This felt eerily similar to Afghanistan, way too much.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Put it in," The Red Skull ordered, making Tony frown in confusion, his mind already growing sluggish. What did he mean?

Looking down at the black outfit he was wearing, he unzipped the front a bit, finding the perfect hole for an arc reactor to go, right where the old one was.

Ignoring the sadness that hit him, he plugged the arc reactor in, feeling the sluggishness that once held him vanish away. He felt awake again, fully powered, like he'd never shut down again. One of the engineers piped up, asking,"How do you feel? Fully charged?"

"Awake," Tony corrected, narrowing his eyes but still nodding. He knew he wasn't a human anymore, but just hearing the way they referred to him was making him feel angry. He hated this.. He really did.

The engineers turned around, talking over everything Tony just did. They referred to him as 'A1' or 'it', and it was making him mad. He wanted to go home, he didn't want to be Hydra's tool. He brought his hands up, staring at the blue repulsors on his palms, when an idea came to his head.

He couldn't attack them.. But that wasn't stopping him from attacking around them, right?

Tony didn't give himself anymore time to doubt it, as he brought his hands up, shooting at the ground in between them. The repulsors weren't fixed yet, sending debris flying in the air as the floor collapsed. Tony felt no shock, his circuits remained silent. He needed to run, now, while he had the chance.

Tony jumped through the hole, turning to the closest wall and shooting through the metal. It gave away with a very satisfying noise, and he jumped through it without thinking, only to realize how high up they were, in a mountain. Thousands of feet of steep slope below. He wasn't going to survive this fall!

He screamed, flailing as he fell, crashing into the snow below. He didn't know how long he tumbled, expecting to die from the sudden physical trauma. It was only when he slid to the bottom, clutching his head in his hands with his body curled up in a ball, that he remembered something. He wasn't a fragile human anymore, he was a robot, an android. There were no organs that could get damaged, nothing that could bleed.

Tony couldn't be killed by something like this. With that in mind, he stood up, covered in snow, and ran away as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was going, in the wind with snow blowing into his face. He needed to get away, he needed to run. He didn't know where he was, or where he should go. He just had to get away.

When he looked back, he saw nobody was coming after him. That should have made him feel better, but it only made him feel nervous. Surely, when they were pouring so much effort into him, they were planning something for him, right? Why did they just let him run?

He got his answer not even an hour later. He did not collapse from exhaustion, but his body locked up from the cold. It was the iron man suit all over again, when he nearly fell from the sky because of the cold. How could he have forgotten that!?

It was too late to remedy it. In a blind, desperate hope to try and get away, he kept pushing. Slowly, though, his body shut down. Too frozen to move, he fell to his knees as his parts shutdown. His whole body didn't shut down, he was still awake, but he couldn't move. He was frozen.

This was cruel, he had been foolish. Red Skull had known he was going to try this, he knew Tony would fail. There was nothing as far as he could see, just snow, snow, wind, and more snow.

The Android lost track of time as he knelt there in the snow, too cold to move, but unable to die. He felt like he was going to go crazy, there was nothing, nobody was coming from any direction. It was empty, he felt empty, as it set in slowly.

He couldn't get away.

They wouldn't let him.

It was a while later that he finally saw a light, and a large truck drove up. The back opened up, and out walked some very warmly dressed soldiers. They stood around him for a moment, before one of them asked,"Have fun, A1?"'

Tony didn't respond, he didn't think he was able to, so he just glared darkly. The men dragged the frozen android inside the truck. It was warmer in here, as the soldiers all took off their warm coats. He felt them drive off, and slowly his body began to unlock.

He couldn't try anything, as his body only completely returned to a functioning state when they got back to the base. They grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him out and dragging him into the hidden mountain building. He tried to struggle, but his body didn't seem to be listening to him.

They dragged him into a room, a large room with several doors. It was completely empty. He heard walking, and looked up, and narrowed his eyes angrily. There was doors above him, with a platform and railing. There he was, Red Skull. He was staring at Tony with the most satisfied look on his face, he knew exactly what would happen when Tony tried to run. That's why he didn't send anyone.

The soldiers pushed him forward, making the android stumble. They left the room, and Tony looked up at the man, ignoring the closing doors behind him. The Red Skull brought his hand up, clapping his hands slowly, in a condescending way. "Congratulations, A1, on acting before actually thinking. Are you actually a genius?" He sneered,"Because if not, I'm afraid we'll have wasted a lot of research and resources on you"

"My name is not A1, my name is Anthony Edward Stark," He snarled back,"I'm not your little soldier, I'm not your little toy. I'll never work for you willingly, I'll never stop trying to get away from you!"

The Red Skull didn't say anything, he didn't emote at all. Instead he sighed. With a cruel, sadistic type of sorrow in his voice, he said,"That is really tragic, A1, I was hoping you would do this of your own free will. But I guess I'll just have to show you why your choice doesn't matter anymore."

The man brought up a small button in his hand, clicking it. The second he did, Tony's body locked up. He felt frozen, as if he was waiting for something. Then, the words escaped Red Skull's mouth, damned words which would escape his mouth many more times, and break Tony even more.

"Activate Protocol 'Accords'"

The second he said them, Tony's body changed. He was no longer in control. His vision seemed to become blurry. There was only one thought on his programmed mind in that moment, it was to destroy. To kill.

One of the doors opened, revealing an older looking women in chains, terrified and sobbing. Tony didn't get a chance to think, as he turned, his repulsor glowing as it blasted her. The sheer force of it blew her up on the spot, blood and gore flying up everywhere.

If Tony was human anymore, he may have thrown up. But it didn't stop there, he didn't even get a chance to register what he just did. Another person, this time an elderly man. He yelled something in Russian but it was too late, Tony's metal hand slamming into his face and slamming him against the wall, he slumped down with a bloody face and didn't get up.

"You see, A1, you just don't seem to realize what type of situation you are in," Red Skull began to lecture,"The people around you now are useless, almost every one of them. Eventually they'll all die, they're all expendable. But you aren't anymore, you're an important part of our goal "

This time it was a young man, just older than the Android body. He was dead before he could scream for help. But Red Skull continued,"Your importance makes you a very large part of Hydra's future, it isn't about you anymore, it's about Hydra. Your desires, and the person you once were, do not matter anymore. You are A1, and that's all you are from now until the end. You are Hydra's greatest creation."

Three more bodies had dropped, three more people he mercilessly murdered without being able to stop it. People who screamed and cried, but never got a chance to say their final words, to be free before their deaths. Now, the door opened, and it was one that made his heart drop.

A little girl, she couldn't be older than four. Tony's body wasn't listening to him, as he reached forward quickly, grabbing her by her throat and squeezing. "Stop it!" Tony screamed out, watching the girl sob as tears filled his own eyes. "Please! Don't make me kill anyone else! Please, I-I'll listen! Don't make me kill her! I'll listen! I don't want to hurt anyone, p-please!"

The child choked around his hand, reaching up and grabbing at his arms. But the Red Skull sighed sadly. "Oh, A1, no matter what you want, it doesn't matter if you're doing it willingly or not," He whispered,"But everything will always go according to plan here"

The girl's neck snapped in his fingers, as she went limp. Tony's eyes widened with shock, tear streaming down his cheeks. He dropped the girl's body, suddenly regaining the ability to move.

The android's mind seemed to have fallen into shock, as he stared down at the bodies around them, lowering his head and staring at the ground in shock, arms hugging himself. There were tears sliding down his cheeks once more, but he didn't seem to notice them.

Red Skull then asked,"Will you return to your stasis chamber or do I have to get the soldiers to drag you back?"

Tony's arms, which had been hugging himself, shuddered at that voice. His arms fell to his sides, his eyes emotionless, as he walked towards the empty door without a word. He was too afraid, too afraid to fight, too afraid of what he might be made to do if he didn't listen.

So he didn't fight, exiting the door with the two soldiers that were waiting. The door shut, and the Red Skull smiled. "We've made good progress today, I believe we can now move on to Stage 2," He said to the engineers who had been just out of view.

"Yes sir!" They said firmly, leaving the room to begin what they were asked.

Red Skull stayed for a moment, staring down at the bodies below. "Don't worry, you were all worthy sacrifices to help us break A1," He said calmly,"Soon, he will understand his situation, and we will finally be able to come back. It is time for Hydra to rise once again"