I can forgive them because I love him.

The disappearance

          It's been about four months since Tony was kidnapped while he was at a conference in England. They found him in Russia in a seemingly abandoned factory. He's been acting rather strange since he was rescued a week ago. He was quiet and jumpy even timid. He would flinch hard when anyone had even just brushed against him. He would stutter nervously or even just clam up altogether when someone tried to talk to him. He refused to look people in the eye and when he did it was only a rapid glance. He rarely went to the lab at all, he spent most of his time hiding in his room. Whatever happened to Tony, it broke him.

          The team quickly noticed the changes in Tony but had no clue of how to go about it. It took about three weeks before Clint couldn't take it anymore and his curiosity took control. He knocked on Tony's door but there was no answer. He tried again. Silence. He then turned the knob and to his shock, the door opened to a default room. It was as if Tony was never there. Clint was officially freaked out. Tony was missing again.

          Clint bolted to their common room where all the other Avengers (besides Thor) sat. "Guys! Guys! Tony's missing again!" Steve was the first to get up after bookmarking and closing his book. "Clint. Calm down. What do you mean he's missing again?" Cap tried to calm the assassin down enough to explain. "Dude, look at his room!" Clint demanded. Steve did as he was told only to drop the book he was reading. He stared, wide eyed into the clean room that left no trace of Tony Stark.

          Steve rushed to Tony's lab followed by the other (present) Avengers, only to find it spotless and empty. All his inventions were gone, his blueprints were gone, hell, even the trash was gone. There was a small layer of dust on the tables and desks and shelves. There was again, no trace of the genius.

          They all had no clue what happened nor how it happened without any of them noticing. They quickly asked Jarvis where Tony was. He replied but it didn't help them get any relief. "I don't know where Mr. Stark is." He usually called Tony sir but they didn't really notice.

          Agent Coulson walked up to them. "Hello Avengers. I see you found the new SHIELD lab." The team looked shocked and worried. "Where's Stark, Coulson?" Natasha glared cautiously. Phil simply replied. "Gone." Steve snapped at Phil. "Gone where?" The agent remained calm. "That's classified. Even I don't know. In fact, I doubt that SHIELD even knows where Mr. Stark is." He replied. Now that was shocking. "Colonel Rhodes will take the place of Ironman. He, however, will be known as War Machine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be on my way." The agent then turned around and left without another word.

          About two months later, Rhodey was officially moved in. He refused to move into Tony's room. It was now kinda used as a small museum for all they had of Tony. Sure, it was strange, he wasn't even dead but they wanted to honor him as a member of the Avengers. Whenever they got a new magazine talking about Tony, they had the article framed. Recently, it's all been about his disappearance. Rhodey brought some things from some of his adventures with Tony. As months when the on, he told the other avengers all about the shenanigans that he and Tony got into. All the laughs, the arguments, the stress, the good times, the bad times and how Tony stayed his friend no matter what they went through. There was one thing, however, that he didn't tell them.

          Rhodes knew what happened to Tony and where he was.