Soooooo… I barely got this chapter out today lol didn't expect this weekend to be so busy, but it was. Stayed out at a hotel with my parents and brothers for my little brothers Junior prom. Felt like a proud mama all over again ;_; Pretty much swam for 2 days, sunburned to hell and back and slept on the floor of the hotel room. Not ideal but it was a free mini-vacay before the week started.
We literally just got back home and quickly pulled this up for you all! So, please forgive me for any grammar errors lol there are probably a few here and there but I'm literally running off of 2 hours of sleep in the last 2 days ;_;
Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of its characters, though I desperately wish I did ;_;
The group had fallen into a choreography they had done so many times, fighting off soldier after soldier, blood splattering and coating the pure white fluff covering the ground. Quickly, they found themselves separated and entering the underground facility, decapitating any Hydra soldier in reach. Hulk naturally stayed outside, killing off anyone stupid enough to make a run for it while Rhodes took to the skies, keeping a sharp eye out for anything out of sorts.
"Romanoff, Hawkeye, clear the lower levels. If anything moves, kill it. Thor and I will clear these floors while Starks finds and taps into their database. Set your explosives. Rendezvous outside in 5 minutes. NO later." He emphasized the time before turning and running off with Thor at his heels, Stark zooming down the opposite hallway while Clint and Tash took to the stairs.
Everyone easily cleared their area, Clint and Tash barging through a side door they had come across, their various weapons drawn at the ready.
"This area wasn't in the blueprints." Tasha whispered seriously from beside Clint who nodded, his eyes training across the dark hallway. Something wasn't the right. The air was thick with a smell that neither of them could pin, though familiar, while the chill in the air almost challenged the temperature outside on the frozen hills. Tasha gripped her gun just a bit tighter as they rounded a corner, finally seeing a light spilling from a cracked open door just at the end. Clint gestured with his head quietly for her to follow as she easily nodded in agreement. Quietly the pair carefully snuck through the hallway, ducking in doors to make sure they were clear before meeting each other back in the hallway.
"It's a vault." Clint whispered in realization as they finally reached what they had guessed was a doorway only to see the large thickness of metal that you usually saw in banks, the spin dial sticking out from its backside. The two traded confused looks before Clint adjusting his grip on his bow, peeking his head around the large door into the brightly lit room.
Both slipped into the small room, their eyes flashing from wall to wall in anticipation for someone or something to jump out. When nothing did and Clint announced it safe enough to search, they began going through various things that littered the makeshift science lab as they nicknamed it.
"Bruce would get a kick out of this stuff." Romanoff commented under her breath, grabbing files and the like, folding and shoving them into the concealed holder on her hip before glancing over her shoulder when Clint called out to her. He had found another conjoined room. Natasha quickly drew her gun, striding over to his side before slipping to the other side of the doorway when they both heard a small sound inside.
"Someone's inside." Clint addressed as Natasha nodded, taking one last breath before kicking the door completely open, the pair jump inside at the ready, weapons at the ready. Nothing. No one. Tasha passed her partner a confused and hesitant glance before they finally got a look at the room. The other room looked like a science lab while this one looked to be made into a hospital room of some sort. A surgical suite if they could guess from all the equipment that was lying around on sterile tables.
Clint made to step forward to investigate, only for that same noise from earlier to fill the room. Both reacted quickly, their weapons at the ready as they aimed at the back of some sort of chair set at the center of the room. Clint made momentarily eye contact with Tasha before gesturing with his head for her to slip around the other side of the chair. She nodded quietly, her boots not making a sound as she did.
As the pair got close enough, they saw the paleness of a person strapped to the large chair like machine, their head completely hidden under a woolen bag, tied at their throat. It was easy to guess the gender of the unknown person seeing as the outfit those Hydra agents put her in, gave little to imagine. Shorts that were stiff with filth and shorter than even Natasha was used to, her top, which looked to have been an old hospital gown was dangerously short on her lanky form. Cut into a crop top, her breasts pressed tightly across the front. Clint looked alarmed up at Natasha whose brows furrowed at the sight of scars upon scars littering the woman's form. They had tortured her that much was evident.
Natasha took a hesitant step forward, almost jumping out of her skin as the person moved, the clanking of the metal chair echoing through the room. Once again, guns were at the ready as Natasha trained her gun, aimed at the woman's head through the bag.
"Who are you?" Clint ordered from behind his bow as Natasha met his eyes briefly. Stepping forward when they got no answer aside from a groan of obvious pain, that was when Natasha had finally noticed the gash that had been covered with a simple towel at the woman's abdomen.
"She's injured." Natasha pressed, keeping her gun up before reaching over to gently pull the towel away to see the festering injury across her torso.
"It's bad Clint." She added in realization, slipping her gun back into her holster though Clint kept his position with his bow. Natasha inspected the wound a bit longer before looking around the room for something. She quickly found a piece of clean gauze and tape, going back over to the woman to help dress the wound as best as possible. As soon as Natasha's hands touched said woman's skin, she gasped in surprise by the heat coming off of her. Clint was startled out of his pose, stepping dangerously closer with his arrow tip almost pressing against the woman's temple.
"She's burning up." Natasha added, more to herself as she began fiddling around with the metal bindings on the chair. The woman groaned as the chair moved, her legs twitching under her briefly as pain shot through her form.
"It's okay, we're here to help." Natasha promised, peering at Clint, silently telling him to help her. Clint sighed, hooking his bow back onto his shoulder before maneuvering around the room in search of something to pry the woman out.
"3 minutes." Steve's voice came through the com as Clint found a computer that had looked to be hooked up to the strange chair.
"We found a survivor, hostage, intensely wounded." Natasha explained seriously into the com, gesturing for Clint to hurry as he pressed a few buttons, watching in relief as the chair hissed, the bindings coming loose.
"Bind and retrieve as gently as possible. We'll do a debriefing once we get home." Steve commanded, though the two assassins knew the drill.
Clint was at Natasha's side quickly after placing a few explosives around their area, setting it precisely. Natasha caught the woman as she fell forward and out of the chair, moaning once more.
"It's alright. You're safe with us." Clint added in reassurance, helping to lift the woman to her bare feet, one arm over their shoulders.
"Should we take the bag off?." Natasha whispered over to Clint as they began to pull her out of the room a bit more eagerly as they listened to the familiar beeping of the various explosives littering the walls.
"We'll wait till we get outside." He grunted out causing the other woman to nod in silent agreement.
"1 minute Romanoff, Barton." Steve announced a bit more eagerly as he still had not seen the pair exit the building just yet.
"We're on our way." Clint grunted as they helped the woman up the stairs before reaching the top.
Thor, Steve, Bruce, Tony and Rhodes all sighed in relief as they found their comrades entering the safety zone of trees just outside the property of the underground base.
"Friendly?" Rhodes asked in hesitation as he noticed the extra body being dragged between the two.
"No idea, she was restrained in a metal chair and intensely injured." Clint explained as they quickly made their way towards the jet waiting for them just beyond the trees.
"Tie her up, no one leaves her side." Steve instructed as they quickly climbed into the jet, taking off moments before their explosives went off, sending the jet shaking a bit.
"Cutting it a bit close, don't you think?" Tony commented sarcastically from his spot at the helm. Natasha snorted as she finished tying up the woman's ankles before allowing her to lay on her side, watching her wound worried.
"Why does the woman have a bag over her head?" Thor was the one to ask as Clint looked over from his spot where he was rolling his shoulders out.
"It wasn't a good idea to remove it just yet." Natasha added as she stood guard in front of the woman's unconscious form.
"Remove it, maybe it's one of the SHIELD agents that went missing." Bruce added from his spot against the opposite wall where he was shakily pulling on a fresh shirt to warn off the cold temperature/ Clint nodded, walking past Tasha before carefully untying the knot around her neck before pulling it carefully from her head. Strange platinum white hair fell around the woman's features, hiding her face from view as Natasha leaned forward, gently pushing her hair from her face.
It was like a gun went off in the jet. Everyone was silent enough that even the soft hum of the jet was beginning to sound louder and louder as the seconds ticked by. Tony all but pushed Clint and Tasha to the side, his suit falling off in pieces as he dove at the woman, tears spilling from his eyes.
There was no mistake, even with the different color hair, it was Sky.
"Sky! Sky! Can you hear me?! Open your eyes sweetheart?! Come on!" Tony shouted in a panic, pulling her form up to hold against his chest as he slipped to sit beside her. Even as he shook her, ignoring the protest about her injury, said woman didn't move or open her eyes. They continued to lay shut, her long lashes a bright contrast against her extremely pale skin. Tony glanced up and down her form, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish out of water, unable to say anything as a sob bubbled up his throat and broke before the tears began to frantically fall.
Steve stood there, his world silently crashing around him as he stared over at the woman that greatly resembled the woman that was stolen from him. He opened his mouth to speak, but found that he couldn't say nothing as he was suddenly blinded by the wetness in his eyes. Before he knew it, he was at her side, yanking her forcefully from Tony's arms and into his. He didn't care if the others saw his tears but he cried and he cried hard, burying his face into her hair, praying to any deity that she would be alright.
In the end, he didn't have to care, if he had looked around the jet, he would have noticed the happy tears yet pained expression on everyone's face.
Sky was back, but at what costs?
Hope you all liked it. Barely got this chapter out before the day was done. But I did!
See you next Sunday!
