New York (Nico and the Avengers)

51. The end

Tony's POV

When I straighten up Nico's gone and it looks like I was the only one here. I step out of the alley and look around. I'm in NYC, and I can see my tower from here. I have no idea where Nico is and also no way of finding him so I decide to head home.

When I return the guy at the front desk stares when I walk past him. I just nod and he tries to control his shock. After all, usually people who get kidnapped don't walk in under their own power with no one having rescued them. And although I was rescued they clearly weren't talking to the tower so it looks like I broke out, again. Thankfully no one else seems to recognize me so I manage to get in the elevator unmolested. Thankfully no one questions why I'm taking the private elevator as well, or they can't get to me in time.

"We need to find him!" I hear Steve insisting from the meeting room when I enter our floor. I already told JARVIS to keep quiet so I can surprise them.

"We know Steve, but we're doing all we can and he's off the surface of the planet, if I didn't know otherwise I'd think he was on Asgard, Tony's never off the internet," Natasha says.

"Guess who's back?" I say and everyone turns.

"Tony?" Bruce says like he can't believe it.

"Yep, how are you guys?" I want to question how they could survive without my presence, but I'm pretty sure that would be in bad taste at the moment, after all this wasn't a business trip or something this time.

"How?" Clint asks.

"Nico. somehow he got the twins to help him rescue me. They got an army on their side somehow, but Nico just climbed over to my cage and pulled me through the cage and to the girl. The boy ran him over and then came back to us, I don't know how but he pulled us from the side of the camp to the outside without breaking me out first. Then we walked all night, and I'm pretty sure I got some blisters. Finally they split up and he somehow pulled me to a random alleyway and ran off while I was vomiting."

"Why were you vomiting, did you get poisoned or something?" Pepper asks anxiously.

"No. however Nico teleports is not nice, it felt like my face was peeling off!" I notice Steve and Bucky exchange a glance at that. "What do you guys know?"

"He talked to us, but he made us promise to never tell anyone, sorry."

"Please?" I say.

"Sorry, but I gave my word," Steve says and that's basically impossible to break so I can't get it out of him. Maybe I could get it from Bucky, but I doubt it.

"Speaking of Nico, do you know if he's planning on coming back or where he's going?" Clint asks.

"First of all, feet off the cushions. I don't care how you sit but if you're sitting on the chair back you need to find somewhere else for your feet, I don't want dirt where I'm going to sit. As for that he said that he felt trapped here and he wasn't coming back, and that what he was doing couldn't wait. Do you guys have any idea what he's doing or where he's doing it?"

"Not really, but I doubt we'll be able to track him down, he obviously knows how to hide."

"Yeah, but I'm still worried about him."

"We'll keep looking, and I alerted shield, but I doubt we can force him back. I think we just have to wait for him." Natasha says as she looks out the window.

"So...there's nothing to do."

"Yeah, unless we somehow get a lead or he gets a lot stupider...he's gotten away for good."