Prologue

There is only one sensation that Tony Stark is aware of.

Pain.

He has known pain before, whether it is the agony of the shrapnel shifting in his body when the reactor is gone or failing, or the feeling in his lungs when he's been forced under the surface of the water for too long, or any of the injuries he's sustained being Iron Man, and that's a pretty long list. Pain is something Tony can say he knows.

He has never known it like this before.

The first week hadn't been so bad. He'd still had the ability to speak, back then, and although his smart mouth had earned him more blows than he would've received had he stayed silent, he felt good to know that there was still something he had that was his, something he could control. He's doesn't have this anymore.

By the second week, his eyes are so swollen form the blows to his face that he struggles to see anything. They still haven't said anything to him, haven't made the demands that he's been expecting from day one. He calls out in the dark, screaming until his throat is raw, yelling for anyone that just might help him, but all he hears is the sadistic laughter of his captors, and he asks them what the hell do you want from me? And his voice breaks on the last word.

Week three, and he loses the ability to speak. They've ripped out one of his teeth, and the pain is so intense that he can't even speak anymore, and moving his jaw at all is just agony. His mouth is bloody and raw, and he comes dangerously close to choking on his own blood more than once. His body his numb because he hasn't moved in weeks. He tries to just sleep as much as he can, and when he does sleep, he dreams of Pepper, and home, and just not being in agony, and it's nice until he wakes.

It's the fourth week now and Tony is broken. This time is not like Afghanistan; he's tied up constantly and there's no Yinsen to speak to and keep him some semblance of sane. They've used many different methods, but their favorite method of mindless torture, it seems, is the electro-shock. They remove that arc reactor and replace it with a car battery (they could at least try for some originality) and that alone is painful; it's like a burning that won't stop when the naked wires contact the metal in his chest. Then they have another battery, and they attach the live wires to his body and it's all just agony and screaming and pleading for mercy and sometimes even death. He's long since lost hope that his team, the people who supposedly care about him, would come get him. Maybe Rhodey would find him again, like he did the last time, and sometimes he thinks that it wouldn't even be so bad if they killed him, because then it wouldn't hurt anymore.

Tony closes his eyes, and he sees Pepper's face, and doesn't notice the flash of the camera.

A/N: Okay, so there it is. I'm not really sure where this came from, I just started typing, and this is what happened. What do you think? Should I keep going, or just forget about it and work on Babysitting Duty? Let me know in a review, all you have to do is write in that little box down there. Next chapter should be up in a day or two.