The Corrupt and the Pure; Chapter 9: The Talk
[INFO]Title: The Corrupt and the Pure
Author: Del Rion (delrion.mail (at) gmail.com)
Fandom: The Avengers & Captain America (MCU)
Timeline: post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Genre: Drama, action, hurt/comfort
Rating: MA / FRAO
Characters: Steve Rogers (Captain America), Tony Stark (Iron Man). Also: Bruce Banner (Hulk), James “Bucky” Barnes (Winter Soldier), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), J.A.R.V.I.S., James “Rhodey” Rhodes (War Machine), Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), Thor, Sam Wilson (Falcon)
Pairing: Steve/Tony
Summary: When the Steve Rogers from an alternate universe appears in the middle of the Avengers Tower, two worlds are about to collide: one where Captain America became the tool of HYDRA and fell into a relationship with the hero Iron Man - and one where Tony and Steve are tentatively getting along. The latter are forced to reconsider their relationship when the Commander kidnaps Tony to replace his dead lover.
Complete.
Written for: A story commissioned by Susanne (ChickenHax @ AO3 / starkred @ Tumblr).
Warnings: Rape/non-con, major character death (alternate universe), graphic canonical violence, M/M sexual content, language.
~ ~ ~
Chapter 9: The Talk
When the Commander returned, it had been over an hour. Tony had spent the time making his way around his prison - which he had deduced was most likely a large shipping container illuminated by a battery-operated lamp in a corner. He hadn’t found anything to use as a tool or a weapon, and with his hands still tied behind his back, his range of motion was painfully limited.
It didn’t deter him from trying, naturally. A shipping container was filled with opportunities compared to a cave, and it would eventually provide him with something he could use.
He didn’t hear heavy footsteps or other sounds of foreboding before the door of his prison was opened and the familiar frame of Steve Rogers entered before closing the door firmly. Tony heard a lock latch into place, and he wished he had his hands free to make a more thorough inspection of whatever prohibited him from simply walking out.
Other than the Commander, of course; as it were, the lock was a minor hindrance compared to the super-soldier.
The Commander looked him over, and Tony didn’t even try to pretend he hadn’t just been over every inch of his prison. He stared the bigger man down, either willing him to look away or say something, not budging from where he stood near the back wall.
“This is not going as I was hoping it would,” the Commander finally stated.
“I can imagine,” Tony replied dryly. “How about we wrap up this little misunderstanding and you let me go?” It was worth a shot, especially when he could see the other man was beginning to realize that the replacement he had sought out was nothing like his Tony Stark.
The Commander shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can,” Tony insisted. “Just untie me and let me walk out.”
“I can untie you, but I can’t let you leave.”
Tony pursed his lips in annoyance. “Negotiation doesn’t seem to be your style in any universe.”
“This isn’t a negotiation,” the Commander stated and stepped forward. Tony tensed and backed away, but he didn’t have far to go before he hit the back wall of the container.
“Is this really the kind of relationship you’re looking for?” Tony snapped once he was quite effectively, not to mention literally, backed into a corner, the Commander looming in front of him.
“You’ll adjust to the idea, in time,” the other replied.
“Having someone force themselves on me? I don’t think so!”
Even in the poor light, it was easy to see the scarred face darkening. Tony spied the super-soldier’s fists tightening, fingers curled, and he wondered whether he was going to be punched sometime soon. Instead, the Commander let out a sharp breath and took a step back. “I could force you,” he said, but with a little less confidence. “It’s not what I’d prefer.”
“Maybe we can work around that,” Tony offered. As long as they were just talking, nothing else was happening, and he needed to change the situation more into his favor somehow.
The Commander nodded, which was a bit of a surprise - then gestured towards Tony. When he didn’t move, he gestured again. “You wanted me to untie your hands, right?” he prompted, and slowly Tony turned his back to him, tensing as he felt the Commander’s hands on his wrists, but as promised the bindings loosened and then unwound from around his hands.
After he was free, the other made no move to secure him otherwise, and Tony turned to face him, carefully rubbing his wrists. “Now what?” he asked, untrusting of his newfound freedom and that it would last.
The Commander hid whatever he had used to restrain Tony in one of his many pockets, looking uncharacteristically uncertain for a few seconds. It almost reminded Tony of his Steve - the patriotic, HYDRA-busting one. The brief glimpse reminded him that the two were the same, originally - until something derailed the Commander from his righteous path.
“Perhaps we should… get to know each other,” the Commander suggested.
“You want to talk - or the other thing?” Tony asked, to make sure. “Because if you’re thinking of the latter, I gotta say, your attention span is really short.”
“Talk,” the Commander snapped.
“Okay,” Tony agreed before the other could change his mind. “I have questions - like what happened at the Tower after you knocked me out?”
“You’re concerned for the other one,” the Commander guessed.
“Don’t read too much into it,” Tony retorted. “If it were any one of the team, I would ask the same question.” Tony could guess how the fight had ended, seeing as he was here, even though he wasn’t sure how that was possible: even with him out cold, Steve Rogers was a formidable opponent, not to mention J.A.R.V.I.S. in control of one of his suits. That Tony had still been taken didn’t bode well.
“I didn’t kill him,” the Commander said, as if reading his mind. “I could have,” he added, “but I didn’t. He and I are the same, after all.”
Tony suppressed a snort. “Aside from your chiseled cheekbones, I don’t think so.”
“I told you about my past,” the Commander insisted. “Up until crashing the plane…”
“Maybe it’s the stuff that happened after that defines you - not the choices you made to get there.” Still… “How exactly did America’s golden savior end up as HYDRA’s errand boy?” Tony knew he needed to cut back on snide commentary in the interest of keeping himself alive and unharmed, but this man did get under his skin just like the regular, non-HYDRA Steve Rogers.
“Wipes,” the Commander replied.
Tony raised an eyebrow, trying to guess what that meant.
“A HYDRA practice for memory erasure and brainwashing,” the other explained. “In the beginning - after they revived me from the ice - I resisted. I don’t remember much of that time, but in the end, they took it all from me. The man I used to be, the ideals I lived to uphold.” A rueful smile that was more like a grimace twisted his face, and the weak light wasn’t doing his scarred appearance any favors.
“But you do remember things,” Tony commented.
“For decades, I didn’t. I was HYDRA’s perfect soldier, driven to do my duty and serve their cause, and whenever the doubts began to rise, they put me back in the chair.” The Commander looked at him intently, all of a sudden - as if Tony’s face was something he was happy to fixate on for the rest of his life. “Then I met you: cocky and brilliant, ready to die for your cause - but fighting tooth and nail not to. You spent hours taunting me, throwing my past in my face even when I didn’t remember it.”
“That… sounds like something I would do,” Tony admitted.
“Bit by bit, I started remembering - and I hid it,” the Commander said. “The fragments that started coming back to me were confusing, but as long as I didn’t alert my handlers, they didn’t do a full wipe to erase it all. The memories started mounting up, and you kept throwing gasoline on the fire to keep it burning.”
That also sounded like something Tony would do. “Did you turn on HYDRA?” he asked. “You mentioned not following their rules anymore.”
“I was considering it, but you don’t just walk away from HYDRA,” the Commander reminisced. “If I made even one mistake, they would have wiped the slate clean and started again - and there were too many new memories that I couldn’t afford to lose.” His hand twitched towards Tony, but stopped before it could start reaching. “Memories of you,” he concluded, voice a bit strained.
“I’m not him,” Tony reminded him again. “Just like you’re not the Steve that I know.”
“What about Bucky?” the Commander asked. “Did he become the Winter Soldier?”
“Yeah,” Tony nodded. “Also, if they used the same practices here, that would explain why Steve had such a hard time connecting with him - and why he thinks there might be hope after all; Barnes could start remembering, given enough time.”
The Commander nodded slowly. “Have you met him?”
“No,” Tony shook his head. “Saw some footage, though. The arm seems pretty cool for being a HYDRA concoction.”
“The Fist of HYDRA,” the Commander muttered.
“Jealous?” Tony asked.
“He killed you,” the Commander snapped.
Tony had almost forgotten that part of his tale. “So you were still friends, even after HYDRA messed with your heads?”
“We worked together, and the little bits and pieces we got back… At some point the engineers stopped trying to meddle with it, seeing as we recognized each other, over and over.”
“And then he killed me? That seems like an odd thing to do for someone who’s supposed to be your BFF.”
“He never recalled the man he was - not the way I did,” the Commander explained. “They had him since he fell in 1944.”
“Damn,” Tony murmured. “So, you just left him there while hitching a ride on the Tesseract?”
The Commander didn’t say anything for a while, so Tony began to guess there were some regrets concerning that. When the other man spoke again, the venom in his words took him by surprise, especially knowing to whom the Commander was referring: “The next time I cross paths with Bucky Barnes, I’m going to destroy him for killing the man I loved.”
Tony supposed he might have felt flattered by the dark passion in his words if he weren’t blatantly creeped out by it.
to be continued…
Story info
Author: Del Rion (delrion.mail (at) gmail.com)
Fandom: The Avengers & Captain America (MCU)
Timeline: post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Genre: Drama, action, hurt/comfort
Rating: MA / FRAO
Characters: Steve Rogers (Captain America), Tony Stark (Iron Man). Also: Bruce Banner (Hulk), James “Bucky” Barnes (Winter Soldier), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), J.A.R.V.I.S., James “Rhodey” Rhodes (War Machine), Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), Thor, Sam Wilson (Falcon)
Pairing: Steve/Tony
Summary: When the Steve Rogers from an alternate universe appears in the middle of the Avengers Tower, two worlds are about to collide: one where Captain America became the tool of HYDRA and fell into a relationship with the hero Iron Man - and one where Tony and Steve are tentatively getting along. The latter are forced to reconsider their relationship when the Commander kidnaps Tony to replace his dead lover.
Complete.
Written for: A story commissioned by Susanne (ChickenHax @ AO3 / starkred @ Tumblr).
Warnings: Rape/non-con, major character death (alternate universe), graphic canonical violence, M/M sexual content, language.
~ ~ ~
Chapter 9: The Talk
When the Commander returned, it had been over an hour. Tony had spent the time making his way around his prison - which he had deduced was most likely a large shipping container illuminated by a battery-operated lamp in a corner. He hadn’t found anything to use as a tool or a weapon, and with his hands still tied behind his back, his range of motion was painfully limited.
It didn’t deter him from trying, naturally. A shipping container was filled with opportunities compared to a cave, and it would eventually provide him with something he could use.
He didn’t hear heavy footsteps or other sounds of foreboding before the door of his prison was opened and the familiar frame of Steve Rogers entered before closing the door firmly. Tony heard a lock latch into place, and he wished he had his hands free to make a more thorough inspection of whatever prohibited him from simply walking out.
Other than the Commander, of course; as it were, the lock was a minor hindrance compared to the super-soldier.
The Commander looked him over, and Tony didn’t even try to pretend he hadn’t just been over every inch of his prison. He stared the bigger man down, either willing him to look away or say something, not budging from where he stood near the back wall.
“This is not going as I was hoping it would,” the Commander finally stated.
“I can imagine,” Tony replied dryly. “How about we wrap up this little misunderstanding and you let me go?” It was worth a shot, especially when he could see the other man was beginning to realize that the replacement he had sought out was nothing like his Tony Stark.
The Commander shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can,” Tony insisted. “Just untie me and let me walk out.”
“I can untie you, but I can’t let you leave.”
Tony pursed his lips in annoyance. “Negotiation doesn’t seem to be your style in any universe.”
“This isn’t a negotiation,” the Commander stated and stepped forward. Tony tensed and backed away, but he didn’t have far to go before he hit the back wall of the container.
“Is this really the kind of relationship you’re looking for?” Tony snapped once he was quite effectively, not to mention literally, backed into a corner, the Commander looming in front of him.
“You’ll adjust to the idea, in time,” the other replied.
“Having someone force themselves on me? I don’t think so!”
Even in the poor light, it was easy to see the scarred face darkening. Tony spied the super-soldier’s fists tightening, fingers curled, and he wondered whether he was going to be punched sometime soon. Instead, the Commander let out a sharp breath and took a step back. “I could force you,” he said, but with a little less confidence. “It’s not what I’d prefer.”
“Maybe we can work around that,” Tony offered. As long as they were just talking, nothing else was happening, and he needed to change the situation more into his favor somehow.
The Commander nodded, which was a bit of a surprise - then gestured towards Tony. When he didn’t move, he gestured again. “You wanted me to untie your hands, right?” he prompted, and slowly Tony turned his back to him, tensing as he felt the Commander’s hands on his wrists, but as promised the bindings loosened and then unwound from around his hands.
After he was free, the other made no move to secure him otherwise, and Tony turned to face him, carefully rubbing his wrists. “Now what?” he asked, untrusting of his newfound freedom and that it would last.
The Commander hid whatever he had used to restrain Tony in one of his many pockets, looking uncharacteristically uncertain for a few seconds. It almost reminded Tony of his Steve - the patriotic, HYDRA-busting one. The brief glimpse reminded him that the two were the same, originally - until something derailed the Commander from his righteous path.
“Perhaps we should… get to know each other,” the Commander suggested.
“You want to talk - or the other thing?” Tony asked, to make sure. “Because if you’re thinking of the latter, I gotta say, your attention span is really short.”
“Talk,” the Commander snapped.
“Okay,” Tony agreed before the other could change his mind. “I have questions - like what happened at the Tower after you knocked me out?”
“You’re concerned for the other one,” the Commander guessed.
“Don’t read too much into it,” Tony retorted. “If it were any one of the team, I would ask the same question.” Tony could guess how the fight had ended, seeing as he was here, even though he wasn’t sure how that was possible: even with him out cold, Steve Rogers was a formidable opponent, not to mention J.A.R.V.I.S. in control of one of his suits. That Tony had still been taken didn’t bode well.
“I didn’t kill him,” the Commander said, as if reading his mind. “I could have,” he added, “but I didn’t. He and I are the same, after all.”
Tony suppressed a snort. “Aside from your chiseled cheekbones, I don’t think so.”
“I told you about my past,” the Commander insisted. “Up until crashing the plane…”
“Maybe it’s the stuff that happened after that defines you - not the choices you made to get there.” Still… “How exactly did America’s golden savior end up as HYDRA’s errand boy?” Tony knew he needed to cut back on snide commentary in the interest of keeping himself alive and unharmed, but this man did get under his skin just like the regular, non-HYDRA Steve Rogers.
“Wipes,” the Commander replied.
Tony raised an eyebrow, trying to guess what that meant.
“A HYDRA practice for memory erasure and brainwashing,” the other explained. “In the beginning - after they revived me from the ice - I resisted. I don’t remember much of that time, but in the end, they took it all from me. The man I used to be, the ideals I lived to uphold.” A rueful smile that was more like a grimace twisted his face, and the weak light wasn’t doing his scarred appearance any favors.
“But you do remember things,” Tony commented.
“For decades, I didn’t. I was HYDRA’s perfect soldier, driven to do my duty and serve their cause, and whenever the doubts began to rise, they put me back in the chair.” The Commander looked at him intently, all of a sudden - as if Tony’s face was something he was happy to fixate on for the rest of his life. “Then I met you: cocky and brilliant, ready to die for your cause - but fighting tooth and nail not to. You spent hours taunting me, throwing my past in my face even when I didn’t remember it.”
“That… sounds like something I would do,” Tony admitted.
“Bit by bit, I started remembering - and I hid it,” the Commander said. “The fragments that started coming back to me were confusing, but as long as I didn’t alert my handlers, they didn’t do a full wipe to erase it all. The memories started mounting up, and you kept throwing gasoline on the fire to keep it burning.”
That also sounded like something Tony would do. “Did you turn on HYDRA?” he asked. “You mentioned not following their rules anymore.”
“I was considering it, but you don’t just walk away from HYDRA,” the Commander reminisced. “If I made even one mistake, they would have wiped the slate clean and started again - and there were too many new memories that I couldn’t afford to lose.” His hand twitched towards Tony, but stopped before it could start reaching. “Memories of you,” he concluded, voice a bit strained.
“I’m not him,” Tony reminded him again. “Just like you’re not the Steve that I know.”
“What about Bucky?” the Commander asked. “Did he become the Winter Soldier?”
“Yeah,” Tony nodded. “Also, if they used the same practices here, that would explain why Steve had such a hard time connecting with him - and why he thinks there might be hope after all; Barnes could start remembering, given enough time.”
The Commander nodded slowly. “Have you met him?”
“No,” Tony shook his head. “Saw some footage, though. The arm seems pretty cool for being a HYDRA concoction.”
“The Fist of HYDRA,” the Commander muttered.
“Jealous?” Tony asked.
“He killed you,” the Commander snapped.
Tony had almost forgotten that part of his tale. “So you were still friends, even after HYDRA messed with your heads?”
“We worked together, and the little bits and pieces we got back… At some point the engineers stopped trying to meddle with it, seeing as we recognized each other, over and over.”
“And then he killed me? That seems like an odd thing to do for someone who’s supposed to be your BFF.”
“He never recalled the man he was - not the way I did,” the Commander explained. “They had him since he fell in 1944.”
“Damn,” Tony murmured. “So, you just left him there while hitching a ride on the Tesseract?”
The Commander didn’t say anything for a while, so Tony began to guess there were some regrets concerning that. When the other man spoke again, the venom in his words took him by surprise, especially knowing to whom the Commander was referring: “The next time I cross paths with Bucky Barnes, I’m going to destroy him for killing the man I loved.”
Tony supposed he might have felt flattered by the dark passion in his words if he weren’t blatantly creeped out by it.
to be continued…
Story info