Tony was a lonely and prideful man, he didn't have that many people surrounding him, plus, the way his father cared for him turned him into an absolute mess.
The only reason people were trying to hang out with him was because of his looks and his genius. His money also played a big part. He only had a few people that were close to him and recently someone made an entry into his circle of people that were close to him.
The man's name was Cedric, He was a self-proclaimed magician who had an army of spells on him to deal with nearly every situation, he was also the reason Tony was alive right now, well not anymore since he found out the new element.
Cedric helped him when he was at his lowest, provided he had him sign a none disclosure magical contract but Tony had a feeling Cedric did it for a good reason, most of the things were in his favour.
At first, Tony was scared that Cedric might use his Armor for a bad purpose but that was not possible when he found out what kind of a man he was.
Cedric was a kind man who wanted to have as many people as he could, Tony once asked about how he made potions and was then told that these potions were as expensive as gold and diamonds, Tony couldn't help but develop respect for the man.
Along with Cedric was The Green Pea who saved him way back in the Afghani territory, He even saved Yensen who was about to be blown up, Tony still regretted Doubting the guy, but He wouldn't apologize, Thats wasn't Tony's Style.
Tony didn't want to see one of his friends worried, if it were anyone else, he might have let it be, but this was his worried friend, not just anybody, this was his saviour as well and he wouldn't leave him be
"You can tell me anything, What happened?" Asked Tony as he looked at the worried Cedric with wonder, he had not seen the man worry about anything.
"Sigh!, it's nothing, I have to go, see you later," Cedric said as he began to fly away,
When Jack was in the air, he heard Iron Man's Thrusters so he looked back to see Tony flying his way.
"Come on, you can talk to me about anything, is it girl problem, huh," asked Tony. It was in his nature to joke about things.
Jack shrugged his head as he looked at Tony for a good minute before he decided it was fine to tell Tony.
Jack knew that the worst that could happen was Hydra coming on his tail, but he was not afraid of them as long as he could escape using Apparation if things went south.
"What I am about to tell you is top secret, it involves SHIELD "
"SHIELD! What about them?" asked Tony
"Tony...SHIELD is compromised, in reality, they are completely overrun by Hydra" said Cedric
Tony couldn't help but exclaim as the severity kf the situation fell on him
"Are you sure about that" Tony couldn't help but ask a second time, SHIELD was something that his father had a hand in, he didn't want it gone
"I am afraid it's true, I can't give you any proof though, but I want you to know tha-" Cedric was about to explain himself when Tony butted in and stopped him
"Relax, if you say it's true, then it's true, you dont have anything to prove to me, besides I think I know your character well enough," Tony said to Cedric who couldn't help but show a smile as he really felt lucky to have Stark as a friend.
"And besides, you are a friend, and friends should trust each other" Tony said
At the same time, he began searching throughout SHIELD like crazy
Cedric knew what Tony was searching for so quickly stopped him, upon being asked why, he explained to Tony how hidden a snake Hydra was and told him to just be aware of HYDRA, and not to trust SHIELD
HYDRA hid in plain sight for years and was now like a virus inside SHIELD, using it to deal with unwanted problems, And then there was the winter soldier, one of the weapons of SHIED, Cedric had a headache just thinking about what will happen between Bucky and Tony and how it might affect his relationship with Tony because deep down he knew that if push comes to shove, he will save Bucky because Bucky deserved a chance
After talking with Tony some more and promising to meet him atleast thrice a week, He left, Cedric also gave the broken Gauntlet back to Tony who was shocked.
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