Chapter Ten: Extremis

"Nothing," Tony muttered as he checked his computer. "Nothing at all. Jarvis?"

"Negative sir," the AI responded. "I have searched the area from where Katherine Pierce was last seen, but there has been nothing out of the ordinary since Miss Pierce was captured."

Tony literally felt Steve stiffen next to him. Even Tony couldn't help, but feel sorry for the guy, he had barely slept or eaten ever since Katherine had been taken over a week ago. Even Tony had growned frusturated that it had been almost a week since Katherine was captured and not even Jarvis could find her.

"Damn it," he mumbled. "Shouldn't SHIELD place track collars on their agents or something?"

"They can attract too much attention," Natasha was still avoiding Steve's glance. "And beside the enemy can tamper so that they work against us. Are you sure you're checking that thing right?"

"Of course I'm sure," Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm Tony Stark and if Jarvis and none of Fury's lackeys can find her then that means that-"

Pepper shot Tony a warning look and he stuttered. "I mean, there's still a very good chance. . .don't look at me like that I'm not a very good liar."

Pepper put a reasuring hand on Steve's shoulder. "Don't worry, Steve. Fury is doing everything he can to make sure that we find Katherine and bring her back safely."

Tony's computer started to beep.

"Sir," Jarvis said. "Someone has sent you a message with a video attached to it."

"Open it Jarvis," Bruce instructed.

The message opened and the video began to play. It was about Katherine.

When Katherine woke up again both her arms and legs were attached to a metal table and both her arms and legs were restrained. She looked to her side and saw about six other people. Four girls and two boys each in the same position as her though they looked like they hand't eaten in days.

She looked to the nearest girl next to her with bright orange hair and scared green eyes. "Who are you?"

"Kristen," the girl responded with a sligh Swedish accent. "And you?"

"Katherine. Katherine Pierce. Agent of SHIELD."

"Aren't you suppose to have gotten out by now?" she asked confused. "Since you're an agent and all."

"Well, I got a little sidetrack," she snapped. "What do they have you in for?"

"Same as you." she replied. "Extremis."

"Extremis?" she asked confused.

"It's a type of virus, an infection of some sort," Kristen said. "It was developed by Aldrich, supposely Luke and Cole perfected it. I hope they did." she said her voice trembling.

A chill went down her spine. "What do you mean, you hope?"

Kristen looked at Katherine with an annoyed expression on her face as if wondering why Katherine was so stupid, which olny irritated Katherine's temper even more. "You do know what happens if the experiment goes wrong? Your whole body burns and then you explode-you burn to death."

She shook her head. "No, no I can't-that's not possible."

"What's done is done," she said coldly. "Nice meeting you, Katherine of SHIELD."

The restraints on Katherine's arms and legs tightened and the metal table began to lift up. "No, wait please I'll burn!"

"Oh, well." A man in a white uniform approached her, he was holding a needle filled with red liquid. "Experiment 019," he said as he injected the liquid into Katherine's arm.

Katherine watched as the liquid was slipped inside. Almost instantly she felt a burning, unbearable pain in her arm and she started to scream.

The video began playing, it was olny a minute long, but it felt like an eternity. They watched as Katherine, along with other people were strapped onto the metal tables and injected with a red liquid, olny to result in screaming.

"Oh, God," Pepper said quickly as she sat back down in her chair. "Who would-"

"This has Aldrich written all over him," Tony said tightly.

Clint raised an eyebrow. "The guy you killed?"

Bruce tried to study the scene. "It seems like they tried to recreate the Extremis."

"But ten times more powerful." Natasha growled.

Steve gulped trying to ignore the fact that Katherine, his Katherine was screaming in pain while being tested on like a lab rat. "What does the message say?"

Tony clicked on it. It messy handwriting was written: You will never get her back.

-End of Chapter Ten-

Please review! For those of you that don't know the Extremis is a virus, that makes its victim into a type of super soldier, but not like Steve Rogers-more like Pepper Potts in Iron Man 3.