A/N: Before you start reading, I would like to explain some things. I needed a character for Bruce and General Ross was the only one that worked, so I used him even though I don't know much about him so I'm sorry if I get something wrong or you think he is OOC.
Disclaimer: I still don't understand why you have to write this thing but... I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.
Bruce watched the red-haired woman's eyes shut as she passed out. He gently lifted the unconscious form in his arms and put her down next to him on the floor, in the darker corner of the room/cell. He let his eyes wonder once again over the room they were in. Still no way out besides the door Nat had been thrown inside through.
At least he found Natasha. But he couldn't get in touch with the others to let them know she's fine... or at least still alive. They probably worried about him too if they were still in the room he had last seen them.
"They took her" Clint's words sunk in painfully slowly.
No one said a word for a long time. Why her? Why her and Clint? Why take all of them? The only explanation possible at the time was that they had thought she was going to break easily than Clint and tell them what they wanted to find. That was everybody's explanation for Clint and Nat's kidnap: finding out S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets. They had no idea how far from the cruel truth they were.
"What do you remember? How'd they caught you?"' asked Steve. Always the frank one, No beating around the bush. Bruce was glad for that as no matter how much he wanted to know that, he was still processing what happened to be able to ask questions.
"At first, the mission was like everyone we've done. Get in the base, do what we had to and get out how we could."
"Without any extraction plan." stated Tony in an emotionless voice, but the rest knew better. Tony was furious, but he either was too tired to let it show or he simply didn't want to.
'"Yeah." Clint admitted, but seeing the murderous looks he got, he felt the need to explain their actions. "Haven't you ever wondered why S.H.I.E.L.D still call us for missions?'"
When he realized no one was going to answer that question, he went on "Well, we're kind of the only ones that volunteer for that kind of missions. Don't give me that look. We're not, maybe we were. It's just... how do I put this so that you freaks would stop pressing the matter forever?.. well, for starters when Coulson lived and we were his team, Strike Team Delta " the rest could swore they'd seen Clint smile a little at the mention of his former team "Well.. We were just runaways and Coulson took us under his wing. "
"Me first, then Nat. We had, and still have blood on our hands. I'm not talking about the bad guys we get rid of for S.H.I.E.L.D, but innocent people we've killed before Coulson found us. I guess we just felt like we need to do what other agents couldn't, as we had done horrible things in the past, no one else would have done." but when he had seen Steve and Bruce wanted to argue he cut them off.
"'If you even try to say we have nothing to feel responsible for, everybody makes mistakes, you've changed, we all have blood on our hands, that kind of speech, I swear I'll punch you."
That shut them all up for a while, again trying to process everything that was said. Bruce would have enjoyed the silence if it hadn't been covering the question that was in their minds 'Where's Natasha?' so he broke the silence.
"You never finished your story. How did you get caught?"
"Well as I was saying, we got in the base." Clint's tired voice echoed through the big, empty room. "We both felt something wasn't right. After years of doing this job, you kind know when isn't. The base's in the middle of nowhere, as you had probably seen when you got in. We were on guard, expecting something to happen, somebody to jump on us, or something. Nothing happened, so we started looking inside the rooms. I memorized the place. I think Nat too. That's going to help us when we try to get out' Clint's optimistic thinking made then all feel a little better.
"When we entered this room, we made a mistake. After so many empty rooms, we let our guard down for a second and all I can remember is something hard hitting me. Then I passed out. When I opened my eyes, Nat was already conscious, so we started to talk, in more languages at once, in case someone was listening. We started to make a plan. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned, when they took her first out. When they hit us, I recognized a voice just before I passed out. It was my brother Barney. That's why I logically assumed it was a trap and that he wanted to get revenge on me. They took her instead, so I must've been wrong."
It seemed like every time Clint finished a story, they weren't able to make a sound. In the suffocating silence, they almost heard each other's thoughts. The new silence was interrupted by the hard, metallic door opening, revealing two dark figures.
Clint tried to stand, but failed miserably. He shouted at them instead
"What do you want with her? It's me you want. I've seen Barney. Why take her instead?"
When neither of the men answered, Steve stood up and like at a sign, the others, with Clint's exception, stood two, but they were still a little bit light headed. They waited for their captain's next move. When Steve threw the first punch, Tony and Bruce did as well. Bruce, however tried not to get angry, because if the Hulk decided to enter the game, seeing as they're caged, it would bring painful memories and probably kill everybody in the room. When Steve's fist collided with one of the two men's face and Tony and Bruce took down the other one, more men entered the room. Somebody grabbed Steve by the neck and punched him in the stomach, while others grabbed Tony and Bruce. After struggling a while, they realized they had no chance. The men let go of Steve and Tony and hit them in their stomach once more. They put a piece of cloth onto Bruce's nose and mouth. Bruce's eyes fell heavy after a few breaths. Steve grabbed the guy's holding Bruce ankle and asked. 'Where are you taking him?' as if the men would ever answer. He hit Steve once more and left the room.
Clint stood there wide-eyed. "What the hell just happened?" he asked, his voice sounding strange even for his own ears.
"They took him too" Tony's answer came from the other side of the room.
Bruce looked at the red-head that was unconscious next to him. He hoped she was all right. He searched for wounds and found just a few cuts that were deep, but not deep enough to be a danger for her. He knew her body would manage with them as he cleaned cuts much more ugly and from what a normal person would pass out, yet she had been standing and giving him instructions on how to clean them properly. She had, however, many bruises and a few possible broken ribs. As he was searching for wounds, he didn't notice she woke up.
Natasha opened her eyes and would have closed them again if she hadn't felt somebody near her. Her eyes snapped open and prepared herself to attack.
"It's ok, Natasha, it's me" Bruce's soothing voice reached her ears and she closed her eyes and sighed. After a few seconds she opened her eyes again.
"How did you get here?"
'Just like you did.' grumbled Bruce.
"Did they torture you too?" Natasha's question brought once again memories from just after the men took him away from his teammates.
"I suppose you didn't expect me, Dr. Banner" the one person Bruce hoped wouldn't have to see again was there. The day was getting better and better. Bruce prepared himself for the Hulk to come out, but nothing happened.
"You, of course, wonder why your true face can't show up. Well I am proud to tell you that I can't tell you anything about that." the imposing man, general Ross almost laughed. Bruce wanted to keep talking to him, but the general left. The doctor was getting more and more confused as he looked around the room he had been taken. It was almost like the one he had been before with the others, but on the wall in front of him was a TV. Bruce briefly wondered if Natasha had been taken in that room too and where was she now. The sound of the TV being turned on startled him. He looked around the dark room, but realized he had been left by himself. The two men that had been with the general must have left with him.
The TV captured his attention again when a hiss, sounding very familiar was heard. Bruce's eyes snapped back to the TV and opened wide in anger, fear and just enough confusion.
"How do you like this, spider? Isn't this the way you tortured him? It is, isn't it?"
Bruce's vision turned slightly green as he watched Natasha grimace in pain. Her face was paler than usual and despite her hair color, Bruce though he could see blood behind her left ear. Bruce was jerked away from the image as he felt a sharp pain in the right side of his head. Then another in his back. He knew the sensation, but usually he would have transformed into Hulk already. His eyes closed in fear and pain as he realized how he was going to be tortured. He was going to have to watch his friends being tortured, without having any possibility to help them and if that wasn't enough he couldn't hulk-out but just sit and fell both physical and mental pain.
"Bruce?" Natasha's voice made him snap out of his trance-like state.
"Yeah, they did." The concern in Nat's eyes made him try to make her feel better. "But not as much as they did to you. For me it was more of a mental torture. They made me watch you getting tortured."
Even though Bruce knew Natasha was used to torture and kidnapping, she got hurt and managed to bear only as much as any other person. She was just better at acting like it didn't hurt her at all. But that only made them angrier.
Natasha felt more sorry for Bruce than for herself. Had she been in Bruce's place she would have tried to tear down the place. Bruce was far more collected than her. With all her professional training in acting, if there was one thing she never fully learnt it was controlling herself when angry. She had put herself and Clint in many dangerous situations because of that. Clint never mentioned it because he knew how much she blamed herself for those times, but also because he had the same problem. Coulson had always been the only one that made them keep their cool during missions. Now that he was gone, their missions would end badly most of the times.
"How did you manage not to Hulk-out?" she was more concerned than curious actually.
"They did something to me. I don't know what yet, but I couldn't and can't hulk out." Bruce now stared into the darkness that was around them. Natasha had always known that Bruce lost all the hope that he could get angry like an ordinary person. She also knew that Tony spent weeks trying to find something to help him. He never found anything.
I never planned for Obadiah to appear. It just sort of happen :D. The idea came to me today and I just had to write it. IAnyway, I hope you guys like it.
