When the quinjet touched down in Germany they all disembarked Steve tony Clint Natasha and Bruce entering a safe house to comb together their plan, they had 24 hours before the base moved again.
This time they were in an underground lab below a warehouse, she would be either in a lab or a holding cell. Both at opposite ends of the basement.
Steve was nominated to go with Natasha toured to lab section while tony and Clint would go for the holding cell.
Bruce would stay there waiting for them to return check Beth for injuries and then they would get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible.
They were all carrying explosives because if they had managed to create a serum it needed to be destroyed, within 20 minutes of arriving they were geared up and on their way to the base, Steve was carrying her armor for in case she was able to fight though he doubted she would be.
Clint took out the guards in only a couple of minutes and they were inside.
The only way down to the basement was an elevator which they all stepped on then they split up once the doors opened.
They worked smoothly together not needing to speak, the lack of sibling banter was depressing in Steve's ear.
He thought it was strange the way they were without finding any security for so long, but the moment he thought that they came up on a crew of five guards armed with stun batons and ak47s but they took them down quickly, one well aimed shield throw nocked half of them out and Natasha's widows bite dealt with the others.
They were close to the labs when their comm buzzed faintly with static "holding cells are clear accept for a young kid, says he knows her"
That was Barton's voice "bring him, were at the labs now" Steve glanced through the clear portion of the door saw a curtained off area and a couple of scientists with guns on their hips he slunk back and looked at Natasha held up to correct number of fingers then made a vague motion to where the people were Natasha nodded then slid through the door he heard a few small scuffling noises before it went silent and he went inside.
The men were laying on the ground one with a strange angel to his neck, the other bleeding out, Natasha was dusting her hands "I'll look for Beth, you plant the charges" the woman nodded and went to work as Steve walked to the curtained off section to revile more curtained off rooms and sighed to himself.
He had cleared half the curtained off sections when he heard a soft sound and went straight for that specific one, it was directly in the back he meant to be slow pushing aside the curtain but when his enhanced sense of smell caught something metallic he knew something was wrong.
The only way even he could smell blood was if there was a lot of it.
He shoved aside the partition and stared at what lay before him, Beth was strapped down to what almost looked like a dissection table her arms stretched out and chained down two red lines going from her elbows to a container of some kind.
Her skin was pale where it wasn't covered in dirt or grime, her clothing was tattered. Her hair a mess of tangles, her skin was deathly pale and it didn't look like she was breathing.
In his hurry to approach her he dropped his shield it landed with a clang "Beth" he almost shouted suddenly beside her he touched her face, her skin always felt a little cold but now it was like ice.
He reached out and ripped out the transfusion lines pressing on the marks until they stopped bleeding and then reached for the chains that seemed to come apart like strings he ripped off the straps holding her legs down then returned his gloved hands to her face.
"Beth? Come on Elizabeth eyes open" he lightly smacked her face and her eyes twitched but she gave no other indication that she even herd him "tony I found her, they were bleeding her out, I stopped the bleeding and she's alive but she's not responding" there was a moment of silence then her brothers voice came on.
"Put her suit on her, it was retrofitted with Jarvis and a few other things to stabilize her, it might even get her up"
His brow furrowed "how do I do that?" he questioned and heard a sigh "press it against her chest press on the center it should be automatic" Steve turned to the bag they made him carry and pulled out a square thing, it was blue and grayish silver and he put the darker side down on her chest then he felt his hand sink a little.
The square that must be her suit gave a hiss like sound then rather like Tony's suit it started to cover her body the visor covering her eyes in a clear panel then there was a voice.
"Warning. Blood pressure low, condition otherwise appears stable, imminent medical attention suggested, deploying adrenaline shot on mark"
Steve's brows furrowed at the mechanical voice then it spoke the work 'mark' again and a few seconds later her eyes snapped open entire body tensing and shuttering, she tried to sit up but couldn't quite manage.
Steve leaned over her looking at her eyes and saw them dilated "Beth?" he tried she blinked several times taking in huge gulps of oxygen then recognition flared "Steve? What" she tried to sit up again, this time with more effect then swayed Steve reached out and steadied her "oh, now there's two of you" Steve couldn't help but chuckle.
"Lizzy?" tony asked over the comms and she suddenly smiled "hey little brother, were you playing with my suit again?" she questioned there was a chuckle "only improving a few things" she rolled her eyes "the adrenaline shot was a nice touch"
She reached out and grasped Steve's shoulder letting him support her as she rose up "how'd you calculate how much to give me?"
"Well whatever a normal person needed I tripled it" she froze "what?" she asked slowly "hey hey hey I can hear you getting upset, and I would like to point out I tried it on Steve first!"
Steve glared at nothing "you did what?" he herd tony curse over the comms and start sputtering but sudden gunshots stopped him "oh, there's security" Clint said "rogers get my sister out of here" she shifted a little then stood on her own "he will do no such thing, I have a good hour at the least until the adrenaline wears off, I can fight"
In the time Steve had known Beth he'd noticed her voice changed depending on who and what she was talking to or about and the voice she just used was her no bullshit iron jacket voice, there was no arguing with her.
"we need to hurry anyway" Steve looked at her as she started walking out of the room nodding to Natasha "why?" she shifted a little "they had be build something for them, I didn't take the orders well, might have crossed a few wires and made it a little unstable"
There was silence a moment then "that's the sister I know and love!" she shook her head fondly as she walked like she knew where she was going "Steve there's another boy here his names Nicolas" she started but her brothers voice came back.
"he's with us!" she nodded once then security appeared, she recognized one of them and her face twisted into anger the visor going black and mask coming out to cover her lower face she held up on arm fisted and the thing around her wrist glowed "you deserve this"
The laser fired and went through the man's head vaporizing a large amount of it; she didn't even imagine it would be that satisfying.
Steve's shield went passed her head hit the hall wall and knocked into two peoples heads before coming back while she and Nat went after the others.
She was weak but she still had enough strength to break bones.
It took a good 20 minutes to get to the main area of the bunker "we have 10 minutes!" Natasha yelled over the fighting as they met up with tony and Clint they started for the elevator but it was destroyed they thought they were trapped until Nicolas spoke up "there's another way out through the main lab"
She looked at the boy and made a hand motion panting slightly "lead the way" they followed him through the twisting halls to wear the machine she built was set up the guards were concentrated there and they had to fight tooth and nail to get through them.
It was then she heard a humming noise "the activated the machine!" she warned and dove for cover behind some boxes a heavy weight landed on top of her and then things seemed to jump and flash white, her ears were ringing when something graved her arm and hauled her up she glanced around the machine had blown up just as she thought, a charred body on the ground with a lab coat made her smile despite herself.
She heard yelling felt something pulsing and something wet on her hands she couldn't name.
Then there was another explosion and she was suddenly not on the ground anymore and she was moving, she caught half a glimpse of Steve's uniform, of Nicolas in front of them flanked by Clint and Natasha, she could faintly hear the ironman suit but she felt warm for the first time in a while and she closed her eyes.
Steve knew the moment she passes out because his center of gravity shifted but he was quick to adjust distracted by running for his life away from an explosion.
He was the last out the warehouse door the explosion throwing him off his feet he turned and landed back first holding Beth close to his chest, the landing knocking the wind out of him he saw debris falling and pulled up his shield holding it over them.
Her herd several loud thunk's then everything was silent and he looked up the warehouse no more than a burning husk, he glanced back saw the others picking themselves up off the ground then his attention was drawn to the figure still in his arms.
She was leaned on his chest the mask retracted and her cheek against his collarbone, she could feel her huffing slowly and he could smell her hair, not that he had a choice there since the wild strands were tickling his nose now he knew why she pulled it back before putting in her helm.
A mechanized voice suddenly spoke up from the half silence "respiratory low, blood pressure dropping, suggest immediate medical attention" it was enough to snap him out of it and he nearly leapt to his feet running for the quinjet were Bruce was waiting.
On the way the voice spoke up only once more "respiratory unresponsive, pulse undetected" his heart went to ice and he pushed himself to run faster.
She couldn't die.
Please don't let her die.
Please...