Lay Down This Armour.

Three

Present day, White House.

To say they were relieved was an understatement.
' He died in the snow,'
After hearing that flat reply, they were dreading seeing more of their people dying at the hands of their former teammate.
' But I will avenge him for you,'
All the artillery at their disposal turned on HYDRA and started decimating. All the stragglers who started fleeing didn't get far. One agent moved to Tony, and started shouting words in Russian.
' No! Stop him. He can't finish those words,' Bucky yelled, knowing exactly what trigger words sounded like. The team started gunning for the man, but they doubted they could get to him in time. He smirked as he said his last word, standing behind Tony, who had powered down the artillery.
' Mechanic. Follow your or...'
With lightning speed, a metal hand was around the man's throat, slowly crushing his trachea. His panicked eyes looked into desolate blue ones. He tried to claw the hand off, but he knew he was staring death in the eyes. He was pulled forward, his face right in his attacker's face.
Pepper was both frightened and happy at what was awaiting the man who had tried to regain control of her lover's mind.
'Have I told you your voice annoys me?' they heard the chillingly conversational question,'Well it absolutely grates on me. I dreamt of tearing your tongue and trachea out of you every time I closed my eyes and I think i remember telling you about it and promising you it would happen. Isn't it funny that we find ourselves in this situation?' he smiled, all teeth and no humour. The man was now lifted off the ground with disturbing ease none of them had ever thought of relating to the billionaire.
' Pepper, we need him alive for questioning,' Natasha said as she moved to stand beside her.

' I don't want to push him, Nat,' as they watched the man start to turn blue.

' You have to try. He is the highest ranking here and he can give us valuable intel,'

' Okay,' she breathed,' walk with me,' as she started to move towards Tony. They stopped a short distance from him.

' Tony. They need him for questioning. Please don't kill him. He will go through much more. Trust me,'

He stayed quiet for a moment.
'You want intel, I will get you intel and others to interrogate. This one? This one is mine. I will end him today,' he dropped him and twisted him, his hand grasping the wheezing man's hair. Tony's knee drove into his lower back, a terrible crunch signifying a broken spine before the man's howl drowned it.

'Shh shh,' he mockingly soothed as he ran a supposedly calming hand through the screaming man's hair. Tony let him struggle in agony for a few moments, letting him really feel the excruciating pain, before drawing him up and muffled the man's screams with one hand over his mouth. He leaned in and spoke softly, though it carried to Pepper and Natasha.

' Let it be said i am nothing if not a man who keeps his word,' to the squirming man before the hand muzzling him dug into the man's throat. It was pulled swiftly, dragging the trachea and tongue out. The goon was dropped to the ground, the trachea thrown on his lifeless body. After crouching to clean his bloody hand on the corpse's clothing, Tony turned to them.

'I will turn myself in to you in fourty eight hours. You will have your intel and prisoners in the course of that time. I will contact you,' he said to Pepper and Natasha. His wings unfolded from his back before he started to hover.
' Tell your flyers to stay out of my way,'
' Falcon, Vision. Stand down,' Natasha said into her comms. He then flew off. Pepper sagged to the ground crying and Natasha went down with her. The team folded around them.
' He wants two days to gather everything he can find and bring it to us. He will surrender then,' Natasha said as she held a sobbing Pepper. Hope dropped to her side.
' Hey Pep. You did great. Let's get you away from here,' she soothed.
Pepper nodded, took a few calming breaths and started to get up. The three women walked away from the carnage.
' Its over. We finally have him back,' Steve breathed.
' Do we really?' Johnny Storm asked quietly, looking at the literally broken corpse a few feet from them.
Noone answered.

Hoards of HYDRA files started piling into SHIELD servers almost twenty four hours later. SHIELD teams were sent out to apprehend top tier HYDRA officials. It was the single biggest intel dump SHIELD had ever had. Coulson did not even know what to begin doing with the intel. The Avengers had retreated to the compound, their jobs done for now. All they had to do was wait. The next chapter of their lives was about to begin and they had no clue how it would go. Half the team were anxious to see how they would intergrate with the billionaire turned weapon. The other half were curious if he would try to strangle them in their sleep or forgive them.