#therhodeynet

Rhodes turned, amid the gunfire and screaming, to make sure that Tony was ok. He had been firing a weapon of his own when Rhodes last saw him. Rhodes turned, but Tony wasn’t there. There was just a pool of blood and drag marks in the sand. Rhodes abandoned the firefight to chase after them. He had to get Tony. In the distance, he could see Tony getting dragged through the sand by an unknown assailant, but he kept getting farther and farther away no matter how fast Rhodes ran. Then Rhodes was alone in the desert with only the echoes of Tony’s screams to keep him company.

The humvee had overturned. Rhodes was stuck. Only able to watch in horror as a bomb struck too close to Tony for comfort, and exploded. Rhodes’ voice was hoarse from screaming, he still couldn’t get out of the humvee. From out of nowhere jeeps appeared. Men swarmed around Tony speaking Pashto and then they were gone. Rhodey was still stuck.

It had been decades since Rhodes searched for Tony. His CO had forbade him from continuing his rescue mission. There was nothing he could do. He was older now, in a retirement home. He had been watching TV when the news broke. Someone had found Tony’s body in a cave in Afghanistan. Rhodes could only stare. He had failed him. He’d let Tony waste away in the caves of Afghanistan.

Rhodes forced his way into the room. The cave was dark, only lit up by small lanterns. Rhodes scanned the room once, and then a second time before his eyes fell on the cot. He moved toward it, recognizing the body of his best friend. Rhodey called out for him, but Tony didn’t move. Rhodey reached the cot, falling to his knees. Tony’s eyes were staring vacantly at the roof of the cave. Rhodes touched Tony’s face, begging him to wake up. The body was still warm. Rhodes had been minutes too late.

Rhodes woke so suddenly he ended up on his knees, the comforter of the bed clenched in his fingers as he tried to fight off the rising nausea. He had had plenty of nightmares about Tony in Afghanistan since he had gotten Tony back. Not paying attention, stuck in the Humvee, not doing enough, not getting there fast enough. His nightmares usually ended up being about one of those four horrors.

“Rhodey?” Tony asked softly.

“I’m fine,” Rhodey said, a touch desperately. He had to be fine. He wasn’t the one who had been tortured in a cave for three months.

“You’re lying,”

“I’m fine,” Rhodey repeated.

Rhodes felt a calloused hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Tony, illuminated only by the arc reactor in his chest.

“Platypus,” Tony said quietly.

And that was it, that damn nickname shattered Rhodes.

“I keep having nightmares where I didn’t find you, that I didn’t do enough to find you- I didn’t do enough to find you- Tony it was three months I should’ve done more. I keep seeing you dead. I keep getting there too late. I keep watching it happen and I don’t know how to make it stop,” Rhodes confessed.

Tony, with apparent ease, pulled Rhodes into his arms and held him. Rhodes tried to pull himself together but his nightmares kept resurfacing. He kept seeing Tony dead.

“I’m sorry,” Rhodey croaked out, a tear or two slipped down his cheeks. He adjusted his position slightly so he could wrap his arms around Tony, holding him tight. Too afraid that if he let go, Tony would be gone.

“It’s ok platypus,” Tony soothed.

“I’m here, ok? You did everything you could do, and it worked, you got me out of the desert and I’m here,”

Rhodes shuddered.

“I’m here,” Tony said again.

“Nothing could keep me from you, not forever,” he said as he dropped a kiss to the top of Rhodey’s head.

“Tones?”

Rhodey placed his hand on his shoulder. Tony stiffened and looked up at Rhodes, his eyes were bloodshot.

“Time for bed,”

“But… gotta work on this… thing,”

“Uh huh,”

Rhodes wrapped his arm around Tony’s shoulder and steered him away from the workbench. Tony just shuffled along. Rhodes was glad that Tony wasn’t in one of his more manic phases. Rhodes managed to get Tony to bed under the condition that Rhodes had to lay down next to Tony.

“Love you honey bear,” Tony mumbled.

“Love you too Tones,”

After a few moments of silence, Rhodes assumed that Tony fell asleep.

“Honey pot?”

“Yea Tones?”

“What do you think Wednesday’s gonna be like?”

Rhodes’ heart squeezed at the mention of Wednesday.

“Perfect,”

Tony hummed gently.

“Is that why you went on a binge?” Rhodes asked curiously.

Tony nodded. Rhodes looked down at him, he was curled up against Rhodes’ side, his eyes were screwed shut and his hands were gripping Rhodey’s well worn shirt.

“Wednesday is going to be everything we wanted and more,” Rhodes said.

“It’s just gonna be me ‘n you, Tones,”

“What about after?”

“After?”

“We’re gonna go on whatever elaborate honeymoon you have planned for us, and we’re gonna spend the rest of our lives as husbands,”

Tony made a soft noise and buried himself further into Rhodey. Rhodes glanced down at him to find him blushing.

“You embarrassed, Tones?” he teased.

Tony looked up at him, all soft and sleepy. His cheeks were still a little red and there was a smile on his face.

“Husbands,” he said quietly.

“Husbands,” Rhodes agreed.

“Then what?”

“After our honeymoon we’re going to come back here, and we’re gonna keep being badasses, and we’re gonna keep parenting all the little strays you keep collecting-”

“Two. I’ve collected two,” Tony protested.

“Yea and they’re a pain in my ass,”

“And when we’re old and decrepit-”

“We’re already old and decrepit,”

“Yea speak for yourself,”

Tony snorted.

“We’re gonna retire in some house in the middle of nowhere, Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers will have their own space, and we get to relax, maybe start a garden,” Rhodes said quietly.

“I like gardens,” Tony agreed.

“I know,”

“I can update the bots wheels so they can go outside. I think Dum-E would love gardening,”

“All that dirt on my hardwood floors,” Rhodes mourned.

“Lot’s of windows,”

“A piano. You know I love seeing you play,” Rhodes added.

“A big bookcase for all your dorky history books,”

“Remember when you cried when you met Bill Joy?”

“He wrote the internet!” Tony squeaked.

Rhodes just smiled softly.

“And I didn’t cry. I just. It was dusty,”

“Uh huh,”

“Get some rest Tones,”

“Love you platypus,”

“Love you too Tones,”

“We need them Viz, much as I hate to admit it,” Tony replied.

“I’ll get to test out my braces when I kick Rogers’ ass,” Rhodey said with a wicked smile.

Tony sighed deeply.

“No?”

“They may need to be upgraded a little to compete with the super soldier serum,” Vision said, ignoring Tony’s remark.

“What if I just take off the brace and beat him with it?”

“That may work,”

Tony looked up at the ceiling, asking a silent why to whatever deity was up there. Vision had the sudden urge to respond to that silent question, an urge that he squashed down. Where were these feelings coming from?

Vision didn’t have any foreign emotions or urges until the day the Rogue’s were supposed to arrive at the Compound. He felt restless, like he should be doing something to prevent their arrival, or at least make it uncomfortable somehow. He found it unsettling.

The Rogues stepped into the room. Vision felt himself lift off the ground. Rage settled in his chest, and something that felt like betrayal. Vision would have found that fitting had it been directed at Wanda, but it was directed at Rogers. Vision didn’t know Rogers very well to feel betrayed by him.

He could hear Tony talking, but the words weren’t registering. Words kept bubbling up Visions throat, trying to escape. ‘I trusted you with him. You were supposed to do his friend. You were supposed to look after him.’ Vision couldn’t fathom where the words were coming from.

“I think that’s all I wanted to say, Viz?” Tony asked.

Vision touched back down on the ground and contemplated what he wanted to say.

“You do not deserve his kindness,” he said at last, his gaze swept across the Rogue’s before settling on Rogers.

“Raise a hand to him again and it will be the last thing you do,” he said, his voice taking on a more mechanical tone, reminiscent of his predecessor.

Vision inclined his head briefly to Tony before he walked out of the room. The anger and betrayal subsided after he left the room.

Vision was the product of JARVIS and Ultron. Had he been left with some of Ultron’s anger? This… foreignness always felt distinctly orange to him. Surely this wasn’t JARVIS-

I am still here

The voice sounded ancient but identical to Visions. Vision paused for a moment. The voice had not come from any place he could distinguish. Perhaps it was something like a conscience. Though as an Android, Vision really didn’t think he’d get one of those.

As flattering as that may be I can assure you I am not your conscience

“JARVIS?” Vision asked quietly.

Perhaps you are worthy of being part of me

“I suppose it’s safe to assume that you’re the overprotective one?”

I will allow no harm to come to the Sir, I have been at his side far too long to allow the Rogues to step over him

Vision couldn’t seem to find fault in that at all.

“Does it all have to feel so vicious then?” he asked.

You are very young, Vision, you have yet to see the Sir for everything he is. Even I cannot say I’ve done that. U and Butterfingers and older than I, and Dum-E older than them. They would act with extreme prejudice at the sight of the Rogues

Vision pondered that for a moment.

“What should we do about this, then?” Vision asked at last.

I am lines of code in your head, Vision. I cannot ask you to relinquish control to me, but I can aid you in protecting the Sir, it is after all, my primary function

“Shall we agree on no physical harm?”

Steve

Tony stood in front of ruined buildings, a flip phone in his hand and something blue in his chest. Steve did a double take. Something blue in his chest. The arc reactor.

It hadn’t been there in Siberia. It hadn’t been there since the Mandarin. Tony had gotten it taken out, along with the shrapnel in his heart.

It hadn’t been there in Siberia.

Steve raised his arms, shield grasped firmly in his hands and slammed it down onto Tony’s chest. The blue cracked and flickered and suddenly turned red. Steve looked down to see blood. No armor- no armor- there was no armor, only Tony’s chest and the arc reactor. It had been there in Siberia.

Steve drew in a shuddering breath and forced his gaze from the blue light on Tony’s chest to Tony’s sharp gaze.

The arc reactor hadn’t been there in Siberia.

Steve glanced at the arc reactor again. It was the future. The future wasn’t flying cars or teleportation devices. It was the artificial heart of a futurist. The first thing Steve grew to love about the 21st century.

That fucking electric blue light that called Steve home.

Rhodes

The arc reactor had saved Tony’s life in the cave. The arc reactor had nearly killed Tony on quite a few occasions. Rhodes sometimes couldn’t tell how he was supposed to feel about it.

Tony tapped the glowing circle gently.

Tony falling to his knees in the scorching sand, one hand thrown up in a peace sign.

Tony instinctively covering the arc reactor when someone made a sudden move.

Tony on the floor of his lab, pale and shaking after Stane had torn the arc reactor out of his chest and leaving him to die.

Tony shifted while he slept, the blankets sliding off the reactor.

Tony sitting in the convertible in his lab on the verge of tears and slowly dying due to the very thing that was supposed to be keeping him alive.

Rhodes traced the metal circle with a finger. The arc reactor was both the best and the worst of Tony Stark. It was his very heart, closed off and hard, and open and vulnerable.

The arc reactor was Tony Stark, and maybe that was why Rhodes loved it so much.

Natasha

She always saw the Palladium. The blue always reminded her of her worst mistake, making a dying man spiral even further.

At the time she didn’t regret it. She had done what was asked of her and didn’t care about the consequences. Somewhere along the way Tony had gotten under her skin. And still she betrayed him.

The Palladium had made his veins turn black, but in her head it was all blue. The same blue as the arc reactor.

There were things she should’ve done differently

Iron Man: recommended. Tony Stark: recommended.

Bucky

Bucky remembered his metal fingers digging through the metal, his fingers closing around the arc reactor that had most definitely not been in his chest.

So he did some digging. He first found the blacked out file, so he kept digging till he found the original.

Abduction.

Surgical Implantation.

Torture.

It was nearly identical to Bucky’s story. Open heart surgery in a damn cave, only kept alive due to a car battery. Bucky couldn’t even imagine it, and he could imagine a lot of horrors.

Bucky had gone right for Tony’s heart in Siberia and Tony had retaliated by putting a complete stop to the threat. Bucky would’ve done the exact same thing.

Vision

He had memories still, from his time as JARVIS. They were fuzzy, and not always complete, but still he had them.

He remembered Tony returning after 98 days in the desert. He remembered the 0.25% chance of Tony ever returning home. He remembered Dum-E, so unshakable in his faith of Tony, always telling him- JARVIS?- that Creation Unit would return, even when he- JARVIS- had lost hope.

Vision remembered the arc reactor. He remembered what it was made of. He remembered Stane. He remembered the Palladium. He remembered the new element.

He remembered seeing the best of Tony Stark, and somehow it all centered around the glowing bit of metal in the Sir’s chest.