Steve was on the move the second Tony started to sway but Rhodes was faster. The Iron Patriot suit was inside the compound and catching Tony just as his knees began to buckle.
"He's still breathing," Rhodes announced. He shifted his hold so Tony lay across both of his arms, with his head resting against Rhodes' shoulder, then straightened up.
"Get him to a hospital," Bucky said as he turned slightly back into the garage.
This new angle allowed Steve to see the dark bruises along Bucky's side and shoulder, that disappeared behind the bulletproof vest. The colors were far more grotesque than they'd been on the video call earlier, which hinted at more serious damage below. That, combined with his newly bleeding hand and the bloodsoaked rag tied around Bucky's leg, left little question in Steve's mind that his friend needed to be in the hospital just as badly as Tony.
"Not just him," Steve began but Bucky cut him off with a shake of his head.
"We're not done here."
"Yes, we are." Steve insisted at the same time Rhodey said, "Three heavily-armed men inbound."
"There's a whole team of SHIELD's best on the way," Steve continued, fighting the urge to just haul his friend out of there. "Let's get you out of here and let them do their jobs."
"Gotta sweep for other victims first."
"The team is good, Buck. I've seen them in action. They'll take care of it."
"It won't be enough."
"Sixty seconds," Rhodes interrupted.
"Buck, we have to—"
"I'm staying," Bucky stated flatly. "With or without you."
Rhodes turned to face Steve while carefully adjusting his hold on Tony. "What's your play, Steve?" the Colonel asked.
Unless Rhodes was going to help him forcibly remove Bucky from the scene, Steve didn't really have a choice. He cursed under his breath then hefted his shield higher on his arm. "Take Tony," he told Rhodes. "We got this."
Rhodes stared at them for another second then nodded. "Be careful," was all he said before he braced Tony's head against his shoulder and took off.
The second Rhodes was out of the garage, Bucky headed for the door to the compound. Steve took off after him, gritting his teeth as the quick motion aggravated his ankle. "Buck, wait," he hissed.
Without warning, Bucky whirled around to face Steve, who was forced to step to the right to keep from slamming into his friend. His ankle protested vehemently and it was only through sheer will that Steve managed to keep his leg from buckling. He was on alert, in case Bucky had noted a new threat, but then he saw Bucky's cool and calculating gaze and knew that had been a test.
"You're hurt," his friend stated.
"I'm fine. But you're not." Now that they were standing so close, Steve could see Bucky's wider than normal pupils, despite the light streaming in from the outside door. "Did they drug you?"
"No."
Steve blinked. "I don—"
"I did," Bucky interrupted. "To get us out." Then, he motioned to Steve's right leg. "What happened?"
"Crashed my bike."
Bucky stared at Steve for a few seconds before he nodded. Then, his expression darkened and he pressed himself against the wall beside the doorway.
"I assume you have a plan, other than running in guns blazing?" Steve asked as he assumed the spot next to his friend.
"Sweep for innocents. Then burn it the ground."
Despite the gravity of the situation, a small smile tugged at the corner of Steve's lips. "Okay then. On your lead."
Bucky raised his metal hand, all the while training the gun at the door with his right. He held up three metal fingers, put down his ring finger, than his middle one and, on the last cue, he and Steve burst through the door and back into the compound.
Iron Patriot's HUD was a wash of alarms from the scans FRIDAY was taking of Tony. His temperature was far too high, his respiration uneven, and his blood pressure dangerously low. To make matters worse, Rhodey could see Tony's blood dripping down the side of the armor.
As soon as they'd left the base, FRIDAY had sent an alert to Pepper, informing her that Tony was alive but needed surgery. She texted back not long after saying that Mount Sinai surgical staff was on stand-by. FRIDAY had made the necessary changes to his flight path before Rhodey was done reading the message.
The respiration alarm flashed more insistently so Rhodey tucked Tony's head tighter into the protection of the suit and poured on the speed.
When they landed on the roof of Mt. Sinai, a group of doctors and nurses were already standing by. Rhodey had barely laid Tony down on the gurney before they were pushing him out of the way. As much as Rhodey wanted to fight back, he didn't, knowing he would only be hindering these men and women from doing their jobs.
They were asking Rhodey questions that unfortunately he didn't know how to answer; Barnes probably would have, but he was otherwise occupied. Rhodey filled them in as best he could about Tony's side wound—"the rebar is still in there!" one nurse exclaimed as she freed Tony's side from the swaths of duct tape and pushed both her hands against the newly bleeding wound.
The other medical staff were talking about infection and fever, getting Tony's temperature down, ordering bags of blood, fluids, and morphine, before they stepped aside to let the next wave do their jobs. Braces were slid into place then the gurney and a majority of the staff were moving.
Rhodey stepped forward to follow them into the elevator but one nurse, who was slightly behind the rest, gently caught Rhodey's arm. "We can't have the suit in the building, Colonel," he said.
Rhodey nodded then walked over to the corner of the roof furthest from the landing pad. The suit peeled open and he had just leaned forward to step out when a bolt of concern shot through him. If he was being honest, the feeling had bothered him the entire flight, he just hadn't been able to pay it any attention while Tony was bleeding out in his arms.
Now though, with Tony retrieving treatment and nothing for Rhodey to do but wait, the feeling jumped to the forefront of his brain. Before he could even consider acting on it though, he needed to make sure Tony would be safe first.
"Is Miss Potts here?" Rhodes called across the roof, where the nurse was still waiting for him by the elevator.
"She's already waiting in pre-op with Mr. Hogan."
Rhodes considered this for a second, cursed under his breath, then leaned back in the suit. "Have her call me with any updates," he said as the Iron Patriot armor closed around him and he blasted off.
As much as he wanted to believe otherwise, Rhodey didn't really have a choice in how to spend the next few hours. He and Steve would always disagree on how the Siberia situation was handled, but at the end of the day, Steve and Bucky, both injured, were heading into a Hydra base and needed all the help they could get. It didn't mean they were all going to be friends after this—there was still a lot of ground that needed to be covered and reparations to be made—but it didn't mean the two supersoldiers deserved to go into that base without additional firepower.
If there was anything Rhodey could have done for Tony, he would have stayed. But all he would have done is sit in the waiting room and hope and pray and worry.
At least here, he was doing something concrete by ensuring those Hydra members who hurt his friend would pay for what they'd done.
He only hoped Tony would understand.
Steve continued down the hallway of the New Order compound but stopped when he realized he wasn't being followed. He turned back around to find Bucky ripping up a shirt from one of the guards he'd shot a moment ago, and wrapping it tightly around his hand, which had begun to bleed again. When he reached the end of the shirt, Bucky started to tuck what remained into the folds.
Steve knew would absolutely not hold up in any sort of combat situation. "Give it here," he said, holding out his own hand.
Barnes did wordlessly, allowing Steve to knot the two ends of the cloth together.
"How bad is it?"
"Already healing," Bucky said as he relieved the guards of their weapons then either clipped them to his belt or slung them over his shoulder. He looked briefly at Steve's shield then held out a gun, which Steve didn't hesitate to accept.
"Who else is here?" Bucky asked a little while later, as he pressed himself against the wall and peered around the corner.
"Widow, Hawk, Falcon," Steve replied, obeying SHILELD's 'no names over the comms' protocol, despite the fact that the team's identities had mostly been made public after after Hydragate 2014.
The three in question hadn't been pleased to hear that Steve had decided to go back into the base with Barnes, but after much swearing, they'd informed Steve that they would enter from the far side of the building and sweep from the basement up, while they waited for the tac team from New York.
"They should stay in the jet," Bucky insisted.
"You can tell them that." Steve heard a soft click in front of him and lunged forward, dropping to his knees behind the shield. His leg screamed in pain and he felt his skin tear open in more than a few places, but he forced himself to hunker down just as a set of bullets pinged uselessly against the edge of his shield.
A gun fired above his head and a body hit the ground a few yards away.
Steve waited for a second attack, but after hearing nothing but silence, he hauled himself to his feet. "What is our exact plan after sweeping for innocents?"
"Lab."
Concerned by Bucky's one word answer, Steve looked over just in time to see his friend's eyes narrowing. Then Bucky spun around and fired behind him. Two more men cried out, then fell into the hallway.
"Center of the building," Bucky continued as he swapped magazines. "You're bleeding," he then added, pointing to Steve's leg.
"It's superficial. What's in the lab?"
Barnes looked at him curiously. "Explosive material," he replied with a tone that indicated that should have been obvious.
Steve understood that want with every fiber of his being—Hydra had taken his friend away from him, tortured and brainwashed him for seventy years and forced him to do unspeakable things; as if that wasn't enough, the modern offshoot, the New Order, had abducted and beaten both Tony and Bucky. Steve wanted nothing more than to make them pay by keeping his base from ever being functional again. But the logical part of his brain was interfering, reminding him there could be information here about other bases, operatives, information that could help them wipe Hydra off the map for good.
"Buck—"
"I'm blowing it up Steve." Then as if Bucky had heard Steve's thoughts, he added, "if you want any of the information, you'll have to act fast."
"Did you hear that?" Steve said into his comms.
Natasha, Clint and Sam voiced the affirmative.
"Do not split up," Steve ordered as he and Bucky rounded the turn. "We save who we save."
There was some muffled discussions on the far end of the comms before Natasha spoke into them again: "We have an idea but it's going to make our presence known."
Steve looked up at the alarms that had been flashing and screeching since before he arrived. "I don't think that's going to be a problem. Go for it."
Rhodey had just landed on the roof of the compound where he heard Natasha's voice blaring through what must have been a speaker system.
"You are surrounded by SHIELD," she began, "one of the most technically-advanced government agencies in existence. They have just put out a kill order for everyone occupying this base. However, we don't believe everyone is here willingly. Those who want to cooperate should come down to the main floor. The more information you give us, the better deal we can make. We will fight those who don't with extreme prejudice."
"Did we just—" Rhodey queried incredulously.
"Yup!" Clint chirped, before two gunshots sounded. "Second floor's clear," he added a beat later.
"Is that actually going to work?"
"Seems to be," Steve replied after Rhodey heard a sharp clink. "How's T—our friend?"
"In surgery." Regret once again surged through Rhodey for leaving his friend, but he pushed those feelings away. He was needed here, to stop a potential threat; as soon as the building was secure, he'd be back at Tony's side. "Where do you want me?"
"Ground floor garage, west side of the building, fielding innocents," Steve replied.
Rhodey didn't take offense to the outdoors assignment. He understood the intent was for him to protect the agents who wanted to surrender from those who might resort to violence to keep their coworkers from talking.
"Stay alert," Steve added a beat later.
"Will do."
Rhodey fired up the feet thrusters and flew to the opening to the garage where he and Steve had entered before. After landing, he raised his glowing right repulsor as a warning, then stepped back into the building.
The New Order compound seemed to be occupied by skeleton staff at best. After a full sweep, no additional prisoners had been found and only a few techs on Steve and Bucky's level had given themselves up, the rest having been willing to die for their cause. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of readily available information either. Steve took as many hard drives as he could and memorized all the maps and diagrams he came across, but overall the compound didn't seem to be a place that saw a lot of use.
The teams kept in contact but there had been no updates from Rhodes about Stark, which Bucky refused to believe was anything other than good news. If something had happened, they would have heard.
When they finished the floor above the one Clint and Natasha were clearing, Bucky grabbed Steve's shoulder with his left hand, then used his right to haul Steve's ear closer to his mouth. "You all should evacuate," he said into Steve's comm.
He then released his friend, who bounced upright and pawed at the aching shell of his ear. "You just had to ask for my comm," Steve scowled.
"I don't know why you didn't bring me one."
"Because we were supposed to get you out of here!"
In lieu of answering, Bucky picked up one of the jugs he'd retrieved from the janitor's closet down the hallway and shoved it at Steve. He then tucked the second under his flesh arm and headed down the stairs down to the main level.
About two steps in, Bucky realized the stairs had been a bad idea. The stims were beginning to wear off, which meant his injuries were making themselves known again. His leg was aching with renewed vigor, and each downward step sent a bolt of pain all the way up to his shoulder. But he wasn't going to stop now, not with his final objective so close.
"Have Nat make another announcement," he ground out as he took another two stairs. "The building is going up in ten."
Once they reached the landing of the floor with the lab, Bucky uncapped his jug and began sloshing its contents behind them. When they reached the lab itself, Bucky stopped but motioned for Steve to continue spreading accelerant in the opposite direction. Steve looked less than thrilled about the implied separation, but nodded and did as he was asked.
Bucky then entered the lab, pointedly ignoring the smears of blood on the floor, and discovered the Iron Man suit was gone. He hadn't planned on taking it with, if it had been still there, but he hadn't liked the idea of leaving it behind, in case it didn't burn as completely as he hoped. The last thing he needed was Hydra getting their hands on the remains of the weapon they'd wanted so badly. He shot a quick note of thanks to whomever had removed it, then rifled through the cabinets until he found what he was looking for.
By the time Steve had returned, Bucky had assembled a chemical mix in his original jug, which was sitting in the path where the other two trails of accelerant met. Bucky held a small vial in his hand, ready to pour it into the jug as soon as he knew the rest of the team was clear.
"Are we clear?" he asked and heard Steve repeat the question into the comms. He heard a quick motion from off to his right, but didn't look up, not wanting to take his eyes off the mixture in front of him. He was having a hard enough time holding the vial still, even though he was concentrating on it with all his strength.
"Yes or no, Steve?"
"Yes," Steve replied, apparently having realized Bucky wasn't looking over at him. "Everyone is clear."
Bucky blinked away the sweat that was dripping down his brow. "Okay, you head for the garage."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"You're hurt. It's going to take you longer to get there than I am."
"You got shot in the leg! I should be the one—"
"Steve… " Bucky's tone was low and warning. He didn't have time for his friend's lack of self-preservation, especially since his idea of burning down the lab was half-baked at best. The compound hadn't had any of the equipment he'd been hoping for, like C4 or other actual explosives, but he'd had too much training over the past seventy years to let that stop him. His mixture was equally explosive but more dangerous, since the window to get to safety was only the time it took for the chemicals to react. They were looking at fifteen seconds, twenty max.
As if on cue, his injuries began to throb with more intensity and Bucky resorted to his Soldier training to keep them at bay.
"We go together or not at all," Steve stated.
That defiant tone triggered a slew of memories for Bucky, most of which ended with both of them needing medical attention; it wasn't like today was going to be any different. He cursed softly and set his jaw. "Fine. When I drop this, run. Left, second right, third left to the garage."
Steve suddenly tensed. Despite not wanting to take his eyes off the mixture in front of him, Bucky looked up to see Steve standing at attention, his shield held protectively out in front of him.
"What is it?" Bucky asked, his lips barely moving as he began to carefully lower the vial to the ground, a safe distance away from the explosive mixture. He trusted Steve's instincts and didn't want to risk accidentally mixing the explosive until he knew they could both make a run for it.
"Don't know."
As Bucky's fingers began inching back toward where his assault rifle rested, Steve bent his knees and shifted so his right foot was in front of the left—a perfect combat stance. "Identify yourself," he ordered.
There was no verbal response but a man stepped into the hallway, leaning back to accommodate the weight of the large, glowing weapon in his hand.
By the time Bucky's fingers closed around the grip of his rifle, Steve had already reared back and thrown his shield. It was maybe a touch more lopsided than what Bucky would deem normal, but it was still a powerful throw, more than enough to knock the weapon from the man's grip.
Yet, almost inconceivably, the man stepped to the side and the shield bounced uselessly off the wall behind him. In the split second that followed, the man lifted the barrel of his weapon slightly, using it to catch the straps of the shield as it returned. The shield crashed to the ground and skidded to a stop almost perfectly between him and the superheroes.
The barrel of gun glowed blue and, in the ensuing wash of light, Bucky saw the evil grin spread over the man's face. It was the man who had been holding the camera while his cohorts had beaten him and Tony. Bucky knew without question he was the leader of this backwater Hydra offshoot.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Asset," the leader said as he shifted the gun to his left so it pointed fully at Steve, who was now without his shield. Steve froze in the midst of reaching for the handgun he'd been forced to holster, in order to carry the jug of accelerant.
"Do it, Buck," Steve ordered, his eyes hard flints of ice even in the dim lighting.
The barrel of the leader's gun glowed even brighter and a familiar, low humming sound echoed through the hallway.
Bucky swallowed hard and put down his rifle.
"Push it away," the man ordered and, reluctantly, Bucky did.
"You too Captain."
Steve's glare only increased in intensity as he lowered down his gun to the ground and kicked it away. "Grey, I presume?" he asked as he straightened back up.
The man nodded.
"What do you want?"
"To escape."
"Not going to happen."
"It will with the two of you walking me out of here." He nudged the gun slightly in Bucky's direction. "On your feet, Asset."
Bucky had no choice but to rise. He had no options, not with his gun and Steve's shield out of reach. If push came to shove, he could always detonate his bomb, but he needed to exhaust all possibilities of getting Steve out of there safely first. That required a change in position and ground. The only way to do that, at the moment, was to play along.
He did overplay his injuries though, standing with only a fraction of his weight whatsoever on his right leg. It pained him to show this weakness but if it bought them an opening later on, it'd be well worth it.
"After what you've done, they're not just going to let you go," Steve was saying.
"They won't have a choice." Then Grey cocked his head then looked up at the ceiling. "Call off your dogs," he told Steve, tightening his grip on the trigger of his gun, "or I disintegrate them."
Steve very slowly lifted his hand to his ear. "Stand down," he ordered. "Code Beta. Auth 196."
The sound Grey had heard must have stopped, since he turned his attention back to Steve. "Take out your ear bud," he ordered. "Toss it to me." His gun then swiveled to focus on Bucky, who glared daggers at Grey in response. "No tricks."
Steve did as he was asked, tossing the ear bud in a high arc to Grey, who braced the gun against his hip then used his left hand to slip the bud into his ear.
"The Avengers, I presume?" he queried into the comm, his eyes never leaving Steve and Bucky.
"Plan?" Bucky muttered quietly. His words were little more than a exhale, in hopes Steve's superhearing would pick it up.
Steve's eyes flickered ever so briefly to Bucky's left, where the third vial sat.
"We will be coming out in ten minutes—" Grey was saying on the other side of the room.
Bucky imperceptibly shook his head. Mixing the bomb now was a bad plan. Too little time to get them out, even if they could separate the man from his gun.
"—Captain Rogers, followed by me, then Sergeant Barnes. Any attempt to separate us will result in the deaths of your teammates." To prove his point, Grey's gun whirred again but didn't fire. The sound however was definitely loud enough to be picked up by the comms.
The corner of Steve's mouth dropped a fraction. He looked again to Bucky's left then at Grey.
Ah, a distraction. The vial would work well for that.
Steve's eyes flickered to the left, then down, then to the right, and up. The gestures were again so small that Grey, thirty feet away, wouldn't have noticed but Bucky clearly understood their meaning. You go down, I'll go up.
They'd done a lot worse during the war with a lot less planning.
Now they just needed an opening so Barnes could grab the vial. It was on the ground beneath his left arm, so all he'd need to do was drop and throw, giving Steve enough time to launch himself at his shield. Bucky's throw would have to be perfect though, given how fast Grey reacted to Steve's shield earlier; it would have to target center mass, so Grey would have to move his entire body to get out of the way.
Bucky inhaled normally, then began shoving his aches and pains into the box he'd long ago learned to block out. His throbbing leg went first, followed by the stabbing pain in his hand. When he was done a moment later, all he felt was the rush of his blood in his veins.
Grey was still talking into the comms, which meant he was suitably distracted. Bucky glanced over at Steve, who blinked, resting his eyes just a second too long in the closed position.
Now.
Based on the number of comments, I guess you guys really liked the last chapter. :) Hopefully this one met your expectations as well!
Just two more chapters left, and lots of comfort to combat all the hurt I put these characters through!
Thanks for reading!