Summary: As the team try to come to terms with Michelle's death, a new terrifying threat is looming over them. Clint and Grace are forced to confront their darkest fears and enemies, as they prepare for their baby's arrival. Co – Written With snowqueen79. Clint/Grace, Bucky/Sophie and other pairings.

The Cradle Will Fall

Chapter 10

Sophie felt sick after watching that video, and had gone outside for some fresh air, when she saw Lilia sitting outside with Howard. Her face was pale, and she hummed softly to Howard.

Sophie wordlessly sat down next to her, and the three of them were sitting in a comfortable silence. The only sounds were Howard's soft coos, as he slept in Lilia's arms.

"Larisa was my only surviving family, and now I've lost her too, Sophie because of HYDRA. All I have now is Tony and Howard and all of you. I've lost all of my family." Lilia said numbly, the loss of her cousin heavy on her heart.

Sophie wrapped an arm around her tightly, and simply held her as she saw Tony come over towards them. He rubbed Lilia's back, and held her as the four of them sat in a grieving silence.

Bucky didn't sleep that night, he was restless and felt uneasy as his suspicions about Victoria Hand were confirmed. To make matters worse, she was working with HYDRA and Hammer, when he sensed something was wrong and heard Jarvis speak.

"Sergeant Barnes, I am detecting a group of at least ten hostiles approaching the compound. Mr Stark has instructed everyone to meet in the safe room." Jarvis said warningly, Bucky woke up Sophie and they grabbed the cats, before running to meet the others.

Fortunately they were all there, Clint's expression was grim, and he was holding Grace's hand tightly as she held Connor. Steve didn't look much better, as he looked at Natasha and Joseph.

"Do we know who they are?" He asked grimly, Tony nodded and pulled up the security footage, as Thor looked horrified and Erik looked distressed.

It was Jane Foster, Bobbi Morse, Tomas Calderon and the woman who had shot Sophie a week ago.

"Doll, you sure you're up for this?" Bucky didn't want Sophie rattled anymore by the woman who looked exactly like the woman he loved.

He also didn't like the idea his girl could get hurt if there were any confusion.

Sophie swallowed hard, nodded. Bucky's gaze raked over her, she was dressed in a black t-shirt, black sleep pants. He shook his head. The woman looked like Sophie's reflection was also wearing all black. Stripping off his red t-shirt, he put it on her.

"Put up your hair, Sophie," Nat advised her. "It's night-time and we need to be able to distinguish you."

With shaking hands, Sophie knotted her hair into a high ponytail.

Bucky nodded his approval.

Steve started calling out positions. "Bucky, take Clint, Grace and Sophie with you to guard the bottom floor."

Bucky nodded, not grumbling that his best friend was sending them to where they'd see the least amount of action. He understood why.

Their girls were struggling right now, and Steve would never miss an opportunity to keep him out of harm's way.

"Really?" Clint grumbled, looking unhappy. But then he gazed from Grace to Sophie, who really was struggling with the situation, and his expression sobered. "Let's go."

They stopped by the armoury, Clint grabbing his bow and arrows while Bucky selected a rifle for himself. He grabbed the new electroshock batons Tony had designed for each of the girls. The grips on the batons designed for Sophie Bucky had a hand in designing himself, making sure their resident genius made adjustments for her impressive wingspan and the impact of her hits.

Bucky wanted her to feel confident right now. She was already rattled, and they never seemed to catch a break.

Grace took the ones designed for her and got ready, her gaze shifting to her sister. Bucky shook his head. The look-a-like bitch tried anything with Sophie tonight and Grace would be fighting him to get to her first. Bucky would like to take that problem out as soon as possible.

"Let's go." Clint lead the way with Bucky bringing up the rear. He tried to swallow his disappointment at being at the bottom level and unlikely to see any action but for the girls, yeah, he owed Steve. He'd rather keep them out of harm's way even as their pride wouldn't let step back.

When Clint headed for the elevator, Bucky called to him, pointed to the stairs. They hauled down several flights of stairs but all it did was get his adrenaline going.

Bucky grabbed Sophie by the elbow when they reached their destination, kept his voice low. "If that woman should find her way to you at any time during this, leave her to me."

"Bucky, what –"

"Leave her to me," he insisted. "For all we know, they're cloning people, and this is a new mind-fuck they've concocted for us. I don't want you taking that on. She shows up, you let me deal with her. Tell me you understand."

"I understand," she whispered.

Bucky nodded, meeting Clint's gaze. "Ready?"

Clint shrugged. "As I'm going to be."

"Jarvis," Bucky called to the AI. "Give me a view of up top."

"Of course, Sergeant Barnes," the AI's reply was immediate. A screen appeared before them and on it were four views of where the other Avengers were stationed.

Steve took Thor with him and that was probably for the best. With Jane Foster in play. Thor's emotions would be erratic, and he didn't even know where Erik Selvig was. While everyone believed Selvig knew Jane was the with the bad guys now, he still couldn't be counted on where the young woman he considered to be his daughter was concerned.

"We're not going to see a lot of action here," Clint said while they watched their team members on the screen.

But then she made an appearance, just behind Jane Foster. Bucky watched in anger as the woman who was identical to his Sophie darted around Jane, going straight for Steve. His pal wasn't unprepared. They watched Sophie's double try to fight Steve hand to hand but she couldn't keep it up for long. Not with Steve's strength. When three other heavily armed HYDRA agents came up to flank her, Steve found himself with four on one.

Like he didn't love that.

But as they watched, Sophie's double disappeared from the camera view where Steve and Thor were. He searched for her on the other three views and his heart accelerated.

Come on down, bitch. I'm waiting for you.

He waited calmly and he dodged a blow to the back of the head, rolling away as he saw Sophie's double appear in front of him. She smirked at him, as he glared at her.

"Hello soldat, ready to return to HYDRA? We've missed you, and I for one have a score to settle with you, Ronin, Natalia and my siblings. You have betrayed the cause, and for that, Winter Soldier, you will suffer!" The woman declared coldly, her eyes ruthless as she lunged at him.

Bucky blocked her attack as the fight between them became brutal, the woman kicked him in the stomach but he blocked her blow to his throats with her knife.

Clint came to help him but she turned her attention on him, and blasted him into a wall as she glared at them both. Her eyes had turned a crimson red, and pure hatred glowed in them.

"It looks like you two have a death wish. I just wonder how my youngest sister will cope with losing her husband so soon, after losing her first child?" The woman taunted cruelly, Bucky saw Clint look angry and charged at her.

The woman screamed in pain, when Bucky shot her in the left side of the stomach, she clutched her side. She glared at them, as an explosion was heard upstairs.

What was that?

Sophie had been covering Bucky, and Clint when Bucky began fighting her supposed sister who was vicious. She ran over to help, when Jane blocked her path and glared at her.

"You're not going anywhere, bitch. Besides, you're no longer important and neither is your whore of a sister!" Jane declared as she started opening fire at her, but Sophie webbed her on the wall.

Peter ran into the room, an expression of panic on his face as he looked at them worriedly. Sophie felt her heart sink at the worried expression on Peter's face, he was breathing heavily.

"Tony's been hurt, and Lilia's been taken!" He said breathlessly, the woman who looked like Sophie, smirked and laughed.

"You pathetic Avengers, we were the bait and you fell right into our trap! None of you were the targets!" She taunted cruelly, as two SHEILD agents arrived to arrest her and Jane.

She just hoped Tony was alright along with Lilia and Howard.

Grace had not protested when Rhodey had asked her to watch over Howard, she scooped the baby boy up and rocked him while Clint held Connor. Everyone was injured, or simply exhausted.

Clint had bruises on his face, and Bucky looked battered as Sophie patched him up. Grace held a flannel against Clint's bruised face, as a worried Helen entered the hallway.

"Tony's stable, luckily the bullets didn't hit any organs, but he'll need to rest for at least two days. Any word on Lilia?" She asked hopefully, Steve shook his head.

"No, but we'll be questioning Jane and the woman in the morning, Lilia wasn't the only one taken tonight. One of Coulson's team was kidnapped three hours ago, her name is Skye Johnson and her husband, and son are coming tomorrow morning." He said grimly, and everyone looked worried.

"I just hope we find them soon, Steve. Before anyone else gets hurt by the Watchdogs and HYDRA." Sophie said quietly, Bucky wrapped his arm around her tightly.

Lilia woke up to see that she was in a sterile bedroom and only in a hospital gown, her clothes and shoes were gone. Where the hell was, she? The last thing she remembered, was seeing Tony being attacked by Pepper but someone had attacked her. Was he and Howard alright?

"So, you're finally awake?" A male voice asked snidely, and she turned around to see Justin Hammer in front of her.

"What do you want?"

"So, you do have a backbone in there," Justine taunted her, grinning behind his glasses. His dark eyes looked small and mean. "All this time I'd heard you were this meek little mouse that the great Tony Stark had betrayed Pepper with. Maybe not, huh?"

Lilia shook her head, not understanding. "Told by who?"

"Pepper," Justin told her matter-of-factly. "My new business partner. And let me tell you. I made a great choice. Come to find out, Pepper was the brains of the outfit anyway. Never should have wasted my time worrying about Tony Stark."

He was working with Pepper? Lilia froze in fear. That meant Pepper had access to her. Pepper would likely want her dead more than anything. Would she make it out of this? Would she get to see Tony and Howard again?

"Might not be a problem," Justin held a syringe in his hand, moving closer to her hospital bed.

"What… what do you mean?" Lilia stammered, her heart beginning to fly that she didn't remember much about the group attacking the compound. She didn't see Tony before they took her. He was okay, right?

Justin shrugged as if he were discussing the weather. "I'm just saying that was a substantial explosion and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if old Iron Man didn't make it out of that one."

Tony could be dead? Lilia shook her head, wanting to jump off the bed and smack that needle right out of his hand. It was then she noticed she was strapped down to the bed.

Meek little mouse, huh? Pepper wanted to tell people that. Well, that's not what she'd be giving them.

"So this is it? We're back to experiment on women in perverted ways again?" Lilia laughed but it was a dry, manufactured sound that didn't hit the note she wanted. "Can't you collectively think of something more original to do? You'll never engineer anything as amazing as any one of the Avengers. Why even try?"

Justin's brows shot up from behind his glasses. "That's more like it." He grinned and that smile gave her more bad vibes than his resting bitch face did. "I don't want you to be a scared little lamb. I want you to fight me, Lilia. It makes things ever so much more fun."

Fun? These people were out of their minds. And with Pepper as one of the leaders? Lilia just prayed there was a sliver of hope that she'd make it out of this alive. The only one Pepper personally hated more than her was Tony himself.

And what if he were dead?

No. No, no, no. Lilia wouldn't let herself think that way. Somehow, she didn't know how, she'd get out of this. And back to Tony. And if they could catch a break, Tony was alive and – she hoped – so pissed off that he and Steve and the rest of the team would find a way to end HYDRA, the Watchdogs, Pepper and all of it.

She had to believe that. Because if she didn't, they won.

"So, ready to get going then, feisty?" Justin made a goofy at her as he moved closer with the needle.

"What's that?" she didn't want to know.

"This?" He held it up like he was doing a demonstration for a class. "This is spider DNA. It's from the Latrodectus geometricus. Do you know what that is? Did you take Latin, feisty?"

Lilia's mind scrambled even as she couldn't believe she was having this particular conversation. "I know it's a spider. Brown spider. Some type of brown spider?"

"Close," Justin said excitedly. "It is a brown spider. It's a brown widow spider. Ever heard of those?"

Lilia shrugged, trying to keep him talking. "I don't think so. Are they like black widow spiders?"

"They are," Justin mused. "Only their venom is double the potency of the black widow. Know why you don't hear about them? Because when they bite you, only a small, tiny bit of venom is passed into you. Not enough to do real damage. Not like the black widow."

He moved closer. Enough for her to smell cheap aftershave and toothpaste.

"But I'm not going to use a tiny, imperceptible dose on you," he told Lilia, the malevolent grin back in place. "I'm going to use a truckload, okay? So, do me a favour and try really hard not to die. Okay?"

Lilia thrashed on the bed as he moved close to the bed. It was a pretty good fight and she was strapped down. But in seconds a couple of big orderlies ran in, holding you down so Justin could get to the vein in your arm and stick the needle right in it.

The pain shot through her the minute the minute the poison first went into her veins. Her screams filled the room and when Justin and the orderlies let go of her, it didn't matter. All she could do was writhe in pain on the bed and scream because of the pain.

Justin mumbled something as he followed the orderlies out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Lilia thought he said something like "Remember not to die."

Death, at the moment, sounded like sweet relief.

Her body felt like it was on fire, sweat beaded on her forehead and she sobbed in pain. She felt like she was being burned alive, and her heart was beating furiously.

Tony would find her, he wasn't dead. He, and Howard were fine, and so were the others. She tried to stay awake, but it was just too hard and painful to keep her eyes open.

'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Tony and Howard. I tried my best, I really did.' She thought exhausted as she fell unconscious.

Bucky didn't know what was worse, Tony badly hurt and resting in the medical bay or the fact that Lilia was captured and possibly being tortured by Hammer and Pepper. It made him sick, just thinking about what his friend was going through at this moment. Sophie was helping Christine search for any leads, on Hammer Industries, while Steve was leading the search for Lilia.

Grace was caring for Howard and Connor, while Clint was put in charge of questioning Jane, the clone that looked like Sophie and Natasha was questioning Bobbi.

Bucky was glad that he wasn't in the interview room, he might have actually ended up strangling the bitch.

"Bucky, any news on Lilia?" Rhodey asked quietly, Bucky shook his head helplessly as he looked at the computer screens. Jarvis was pulling up all files on Hammer's locations, but they had nothing yet.

"Nothing yet, but Bruce has asked Shuri for help in creating a vaccine for this virus. Grace is looking after Howard and Connor in the living room with Helen, Jane's being medically assessed." Bucky explained grimly, Rhodey nodded in thanks and a ran a hand over his face, he was so tired.

He just hoped they found Lilia soon.

Tony woke up to see that he was in the medical bay, and that the lights were dimmed low. He swallowed as he remembered Hammer blasting at him with his suit repulsors, Hammer had certainly cleaned up his engineering skills.

But where was Lilia and Howard? Were they alright?

"Tony, are you ok?" Rhodey asked concerned, Tony nodded weakly as Rhodey gave him a glass of water. He sipped from it shakily and closed his eyes for a minute and then opened them.

"I'm fine, Rhodey. Is everyone alright? Where's Lilia and Howard?" He asked worriedly, sensing that something was wrong. Rhodey took in a deep breath and looked at him gravely.

"Howard and everyone are fine, Tony but Lilia got taken by Hammer, and Pepper. We're looking for them right now, but we haven't found anything yet." Rhodey said quietly, Tony swallowed and nodded in thanks.

At least Howard was alright, and Grace was looking after him.

Clint found himself helping Bruce with tracking down any sign of Hammer, and Pepper when Natasha found him. Her expression was grim, and she swallowed.

"Tony was sent a live stream video of Lilia, we're all watching it in the conference room." She said quietly, her face pale and the two men followed her into the conference room.

Tony was there, his face pale as he held Howard in his arms and Fury played the video. The room was dark, with no windows and the only light was from a dimly lit lamp.

Lilia was lying on a bed, wearing a hospital gown that reached her knees and she looked horribly ill. Her skin was pale and sweat was beading on her forehead.

"Lilia," Tony said pained, everyone looked horrified and Peter was trying to get a fix on their location, when he found it.

"I found it, Mr Stark! They're in Montenegro, Kotor!" He said excitedly and relived that they had found out where she was.

"Steve," Tony rose with Howard, carefully handing him to Sophie. "Let's get going."

"You don't need to be going anywhere, Tony," Steve told his friend gently from where he sat by Nat and his sleeping son.

"Stop me," Tony told him before marching out of the room with Peter on his heels.

He could honestly hear the kid thinking behind him as he made his way to the elevator and to his lab. When the kid followed him into the elevator, he blew out a heavy exhale.

"Spit it out," Tony said finally.

"Mr. Steve is right," Peter said timidly. "Maybe you should let us go rescue Lilia. You're hurt."

His side hurt just thinking about it. The explosion had blown him through a wall, tossed him onto a broken off steel beam and he knew he was damned lucky to have survived that. He had broken ribs, not a lot to be done with that. The long gash in his side that was even now seeping blood was the concern. They didn't want him to move around a lot. He could bleed out.

"I am going," Tony told Peter nicely. Then he had an idea. "You could help me actually."

Peter's eyes rounded in excitement. "I can?"

Tony nodded, motioning the younger man to follow him out of the elevator as the doors opened to the floor of his lab.

Before he could even think about throwing a suit on, he needed to take care of the bleed. They knew where his girl was, he couldn't waste a moment.

Stripping off the sweater he'd pulled on, he showed the stitched-up gash to Peter who winced.

"That looks like it hurts," Peter told him.

"It does. And there's not a lot I can do about that. But the pain will keep me going, keep me focused." Tony regarded Peter seriously.

"Helen could help me, but her cradle takes time and we don't have that right now. I need your help."

Peter nodded vigorously. "Anything."

"The bleeding is what I'm in danger from. Spider's web will maybe help staunch the bleeding and keep my dumb ass from making it worse."

Peter nodded his understanding. "I can do that," Peter assured him, studying the wound that ran from just under the armpit on his left side down to the end of his ribs. Tony knew he wanted to get the best angle.

"The question is should you?"

Tony groaned at the sound of Steve's voice, Bucky right behind him.

"I'm not going to stay here and run server raids while you get my girl, Cap," Tony informed him. "And I'll potentially get hurt a lot worse if I have to fight my through you to get to her. But I will."

Steve and Bucky exchanged a look, Bucky's was all "I told you so."

"You're not going to be any good to Lilia or Howard if anything happens to you," Steve continued on, arms crossed over his substantial chest.

"Then you'd better make sure nothing happens to me," Tony told him with a wink.

Turning his attention back to Peter, Tony urged him on. "Okay, position me. Where do I need to be for you to do this."

Peter came up and positioned Tony with his side facing him, having him hold his arm up. A drop of blood ran from the top of the wound down as the kid considered what he wanted to do next.

There were no more interruptions from the super soldiers. They watched as Peter shot small bits of webbing at the gash and Tony appreciated his concentration. It stung like hell but by using several small shots of webbing, the stitches had a better chance of holding.

"There," Peter told him. "You should have a better range of movement this way."

Tony nodded as Steve came up to inspect his work.

"It's good work," Steve told Peter. "It can't poison him or anything, right?"

Peter shook his head. "No, Mr. Steve. It won't hurt him at all."

Steve nodded his approval. "Help us keep an eye on him, will you?"

Peter lived for approval. When it came from Steve or Tony, his eyes glazed over, and he began to fangirl. Cute, but annoying.

"I'd be honoured to, Mr. Steve," Peter vowed.

"Get everyone together, Cap," Tony told him, "we know where she is. Let's go."

Enjoy, and review :)