The jet was fast getting to Brooklyn, but that didn't stop the ride there seeming to take hours. It was silent among the three of them, just like it had been the first time they were sent out together. However, this time it wasn't because they were uneasy around the 'alien'. Natasha worried about Clint, and so did Steve and Willow. If it was him, that meant they had to take action and fight against him since it was clear Loki's influence was going to make them hostile, but if it wasn't him, that just meant he was still lost out there somewhere, brainwashed.
''We're nearly there, hold on to something,'' Natasha told them as they stood in the back of the jet. ''We'll have to go on foot for a while,''
Flying over the city in a jet wouldn't be the best approach, especially if it scared away whatever they were tracking in the first place. It was easier to leave it out of the city in an old abandoned field hidden among the trees. They landed and quickly left, not wasting a second of time.
''We're here now, how are you signals?'' Natasha pressed her finger to her ear to speak with the helicarrier.
''Signals are still strong,'' Fury told her, reading from Bruce's lab where he was still tracing them. ''Approach with caution,''
Steve looked around each corner as they walked, knowing that in broad daylight like this, it was too easy to be targeted and spotted, especially since they weren't dressed casual. They stuck to the backstreets, behind all of the buildings until they reached a flight of stairs behind an old bar that seemed shut down, so they walked down, following the instructions and directions given.
Willow wanted to stop them, to suggest she go first into the basement in case there was more danger than they thought, but she knew Natasha wouldn't agree. It was a safer option, but if Clint Barton was down here somewhere, Natasha wanted to be the first one to find him. They were as quiet as they could manage as they stepped onto the ground of the basement, and Natasha drew her gun from her belt immediately when she noticed how dark it was inside. The room was still visible with dim light, but they were on edge as they looked around each corner.
Suddenly, there was a rustling in the corner. It sounded like a shoe twisting against the concrete, so they walked in direction of the noise. Steve prepared for someone to jump out and attack immediately, Natasha held her gun ahead of her and Willow braced herself for all the possibilities she could think of.
''Don't come any closer,''
It was a man's voice, but it wasn't Barton's. The voice was firm as if he was giving orders, not making a suggestion.
''Then step away from the corner,'' Natasha called back.
Within seconds, a man walked out into their view, his eyes glowing a bright blue color, much the same as the scepter they'd confiscated from Loki. This man was the signal. The Tesseract's power was within him, controlling his mind.
The was a brief moment of calmness as the man closed in on them as if he was acting out of surrender, but that all changed within a split second. He was stronger than they thought, the influence of the Tesseract encouraging his will to get away from them. The man pulled out a knife and used the hard, blunt end to slam against Steve's head, knocking him to the ground for a couple of seconds, but long enough to run.
Natasha fired her gun, but in the darkness of the basement, the bullet only grazed his thigh as he continued running. They were expecting a fight, but not a pursuit.
''He's going into the streets!'' Natasha shouted as she ran after him.
''Steve!'' Willow looked over to him, pulling himself up and rubbing the side of his head.
''I'm fine, go,'' he waved to her. ''I'll find you!''
Willow set off in chase behind Natasha, running faster until she caught up to her. They both had their eyes on the man ahead. He was dressed in a black coat and pants, fitting in with the people on the streets easily, making it a challenge to keep up with his movements through the crowd of people walking.
''I can't shoot here,'' Natasha speaks quickly as they continue running. ''We have to point him in the right direction, corner him!''
They continue running, attention fixed on the man, until they make it to a dead-end street. The man is running so fast that they assume he knows where he's going, but when he reaches the tall brick wall in front of him, he realizes there's no where else to go.
''You can't stop it!'' he shouted with a laugh. ''Nothing can stop it!''
Natasha moves in closer, her gun pointed toward the man, threatening him as she closes in. He doesn't seem scared, instead he looks entertained.
''Where are the others?'' she asks.
''We're everywhere,'' he tells her.
''Clint Barton, where is he?'' Natasha raises her voice in desperation. ''What have they done to him!''
The man chuckles louder, wheezing, and Willow can see Natasha's eyes growing angrier and angrier. She could kill him in a second, and she was prepared to. It's clear the man isn't going to tell Natasha anything about Clint, but he laughs at her need, knowing he's provoking her actions. But Natasha can't kill him, no matter how much she wants to, because this man is more useful than anything else they've got. He has answers, and given time, he'll provide them.
It's as if time slows down when Willow notices the man's hand reaching to his pocket, pulling out a knife and turning it against himself, prepared to die at his own hands instead of the assassin's.
''No!'' Willow shouts, knowing how important it is to keep him alive.
Without thinking twice, Willow runs forward, in front of Natasha's gun and searches for the man's hand to rip away the knife from his grasp, but she soon realizes she's walked right into his plan as if he'd mapped out the whole thing, reading her like a book. The initial piercing of her skin makes her gasp for air, the knife embedding itself in her abdomen, and although the pain is searing through her entire body, she's overridden with anger and embarrassment that she'd been so foolish.
Natasha act quickly, hitting the man over the back of his head with heavy force with the gun, knocking him unconscious. He's all but forgotten seconds later when she rushes to Willow who has now fallen to her knees, staring down at the knife sticking out of her body, watching as her blood spread through her suit and puddled on the ground.
''We need an emergency medical team here immediately,'' Natasha pressed her finger to her ear, informing Fury. ''Willow's down, get them here as soon as possible, her condition is critical,''
Willow hears what Natasha' saying, but none of it gets through to her. All she can think about is that she was getting weaker every second, the blood loss taking it's toll and the pain numbing her body until it's all too much.
''Willow!'' Natasha catches her as she falls back. ''Keep your eyes open, stay awake, okay?''
Steve runs into the scene and sees what's happened, and he can't help feeling horrible that he wasn't there to try and prevent it, but there was nothing he could do. Willow was always going to step in and stop the man from taking his own life, but now she had to deal with the fallout; saving her own.
Bruce yawned as he sat in his lab, looking over the screen where the signals were coming from. Fury was meant to return a while ago with news on what was happening, but just as Bruce walked over to the door, planning to go find the director, he's pushed out of the way by nurses as they wheel a bed past. He can see the blood before he sees her face. Apparently no one thought of informing Bruce about what happened.
''Oh my god,'' he gasps worriedly as his eyebrow crease together. ''What the hell happened out there?''
Following behind the bed, Bruce caught up with Natasha and immediately demanded answers. His heart began beating faster with each detail he gained, growing angry at the situation. They were meant to have investigated the signal, it wasn't supposed to be deadly.
Fury rushed over, assessing the monitors hooked up to Willow's body and the tubes that were inserted into her. The beeps of the machine assured them all she was still alive, which helped considering her body was drained of color and signs of life.
''Keep her alive, you understand?'' Fury told the doctor as Willow was wheeled into the medical bay operating room. ''I don't care what you have to do or use, but you will keep her alive.''
The doctor nodded and closed the door, immediately beginning the necessary procedure to save Willow's life. The whole team was left in silence, standing around the door to the medical unit. No one knew what to say, everything had happened so quickly. Natasha was used to people getting hurt, but that didn't stop her worrying for their life. Steve kept shaking his head as if he was having an internal argument with himself over what happened, guilt overwhelming him, and Bruce just stood there in shock, a mixture of emotions.
The man they captured was taken to a separate detention cell away from Loki, still unconscious. Hopefully when he woke up, he could give them some answers. But, even though today's mission had been completed, none of them cared about it for the moment.
''She can't die,'' Steve finally spoke up. ''Not after what she did for us out there,''
Fury had noticed what she had done. She threw herself into danger for SHIELD, because she knew that man was valuable and his death would mean their loss of answers and progress. He knew what it meant, but he feared his realization had come too late. Trust.
Tony Stark then rounded the corner into the corridor, his expression changing once he saw them gathered and looking worried. They had all forgotten that Tony was even out there. He was nowhere to be seen in Brooklyn, which made them all wonder where he was this whole time.
''I found where they were hiding out,'' he explained. ''I knew you guys had that other guy covered, so I moved on and tracked where he came from, but it was cleared out by the time I got there. I tested a few things, looked around. Can someone tell me what's going on because you all look like someone just died,''
Tony was never one with words, and he had a remarkable talent in not being able to sense the mood of the moment. Insensitive, really, but when he was met with silence instead of the usual eye rolling, he feared the worst.
It was night before anyone heard from the medical unit on Willow's condition. There were sighs of relief when they were informed that the deep wound on her abdomen had been stitched up and she was now resting in recovery. It was discovered that her body healed quicker than a normal human, making the recovery stage a lot faster, but the good news didn't last long. Willow was relying on a machine to breathe for her because her body was so weak, and the doctors couldn't find anything to help her.
''She's not human,'' he explained, looking at Fury. ''We've been doing tests on her blood for a while now, trying to find matches and compatibility, but we can't substitute anything. Her blood is too foreign, and she's lot so much, we don't know when her body will gain enough energy to heal itself,''
''Keep looking,'' Fury instructed. ''Anything to help her, don't stop looking,''
''We won't sir,''
The doctor walks away and leaves the team in silence. They all look around at one another, trying to figure out what to do next. They didn't expect they'd be facing this situation so soon. A member of their team fighting for their life, it wasn't supposed to happen, at least not yet.
''I can have Jarvis take a look at her blood sample,'' Tony offered. ''No offence but my technology is way better, it wouldn't hurt to look for something that could help her,''
Fury nodded his approval.
''Anything helps,'' he told him. ''I suggest you all get some sleep, there's nothing else to be done here. We'll resume tomorrow,''
The team leaves the table in silence. Not only are they worried, but the stress of the day had exhausted them beyond words. As much as they didn't want to act like nothing was happening, they couldn't help wanting to close their eyes and skip to the next day where things would hopefully be better.
Bruce, however, didn't go to bed. He couldn't sleep most nights anyway, but tonight he knew there was no chance. When everyone had left, he quietly made his way over to the medical unit and into Willow's recovery room.
''You can't be in here,'' one of the nurses shakes her head. ''She needs to rest,''
''I won't bother her,'' he assures the woman. ''I just don't want her to be alone,''
The nurse doesn't protest once she sees that Bruce simply wants to sit next to her bed, and she walks off after reminding him again that she is in the early stages of recovery, but he can barely register her voice.
His friend, the only person he felt he could use that title with, was lying in the bed before him as a machine breathed for her. Her abdomen was swollen from the wound and her body was still so pale, it hurt him to continue staring. He reached up and grabbed her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze in case she was awake, but she was far from conscious.
''You can do this, Willow,'' he whispered. ''You're a superhuman,''
So I finished that chapter really cheesy didn't I! Thought I'd throw in a teeny bit of drama. Like I said, this isn't following the Avengers movie plot exactly, so things are still going to move quite slowly in terms of the Tesseract and Loki, but I hope you guys still enjoy it. I'll try not to drag on this whole fight for life that Willow has going on, but I think it's essential in establishing many things, as you'll see in the next chapters. PLEASE REVIEW, and thanks for reading! xx
