Sorry it took so long for this update. My beta and I are both so busy we barely have any free time at all. It's a short chapter, I know it, but I've almost finished to translate the next one, and I hope you won't be disappointed with this.

Thank you very much for your feedbacks and, as always, I thank cara-tanaka for her help!

Chapter 20: Shade of green

There had been four days. Four days spent looking for Tony, when hope and despair kept being intertwined and were all what they had been able to feel. Hope to find him alive, with his mind and body still intact. Despair of arriving too late, just to find a lifeless body or a broken man. And now, they were exhausted.

Among them, there were two assassins with years of training, there was an immortal god, there was a perfect soldier with superhuman abilities. But even people like them were beginning to suffer the continuous tension and the series of fake tracks and search after search without any successes. The uncertainty was the worst; not knowing how Tony was, was a nightmare, it was worse than a body to mourn for.

And now, they were all tired to the bone.

Their real breakdown had happened soon after the discovery of Schmidt's lair. In that place, they had found an empty, bloodstained prison that had remained in their mind like a torment, nourishing their guilt. If only they had been faster, if only they had managed to capture an Hydra agent earlier, if only they had made him talk in less time... too many 'ifs' which could never become true, because no one could change the past.

The truth was that they had arrived one or two hours too late and now Tony was who knows where, kept prisoner by Thor's crazy brother and he probably was being tortured, bent to Loki's will, or maybe already dead – and Bruce couldn't think about this possibility, because the mere thought of Tony being dead was enough to dangerously accelerate his heart and to paint his mind of the green that would engulf everything.

He closed his eyes for a moment, holding his breath and thinking about one of his favorite equations to keep the Other Guy's shadow away from him. He knew how to control himself, he had had years of practice in keeping his dangerous alter ego at bay. But he couldn't completely erase the hot rage that was pounding in his chest, together with a nameless fear. If Tony was dead, even he wouldn't be able to stop the Other Guy. Probably Banner would disappear forever, leaving in his stead only the green monster who would destroy town after town, because the loss of his best friend would be a wound too deep to bear.

He had known Tony for a little more than an year but, Betty aside, the bond he had with Tony was his most precious bond and the billionaire himself was the most important person in his life.

Before meeting him, Bruce had been sure he was condemned to a life of solitude and always on the run. Tony had shown him how it was to have a home and some friends to return to. To have somewhere he belonged to. Tony had been the only one to stay close to him from the beginning, when even Natasha had been tense and cautious in Bruce's presence.

Sure, now Natasha, Steve, Clint and Thor were his friends, something precious he hadn't had for a long time. Their friendship had born slowly and then had become deeper step by step after they got used to relaxing in his presence and began trusting his self control.

But Tony had been his first friend. He had always been there for him, since their first meeting and he had never been cautious with him – actually, Tony tried to awaken the Other Guy every other day, when he was bored. Behind the selfish mask of an arrogant billionaire, Tony was the kindest person he had ever met. Of course, the kindest in his own way.

Tony had always refused to act like Bruce was a walking threat to everyone and he was sure that the billionaire's behavior had been the reason that made him approachable to the other Avengers. It was thanks to Tony that he had changed from lethal threat to their friend.

And now, Tony wasn't there anymore.

He took a deep breath while trying to be as unnoticeable as possible. He kept the air in his lungs, counted to ten and exhaled slowly.

After four days of restless and desperate searching for Tony, they had exhausted every hint, every trace, every sign of Loki. They had searched every possible place where Loki could be hidden that had been recorded in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database during the last year of fighting against him. And now, in the last debriefing which had ended a few minutes before, Fury had officially ordered them to stop looking for Tony and to keep their eyes on Doom, since it seemed like the mad Latverian villain was preparing for an attack.

Steve had violently opposed Fury, and the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director had just dismissed his protest with some harsh words.

Bruce hadn't protested.

He had just tightened his fists, controlling his breathing and noticing Clint's face, as tense as his bow string, Thor's grip on Mjolnir, so tight it seemed like his hand was one with his hammer, and the way his shoulders were bent like they were crashed by an unbearable weight; and Natasha's expression, which was unreadable as always, but which had seemed like it was more cold than usual.

For the first time since Schmidt's retrieval, they were all together, in one of the rooms of the Helicarrier, with nothing to do and nothing they wanted to speak about. Tony's absence was a painful silence that oppressed all of them.

Thor was a dark, silent shadow of his former self. He was standing still, at the edge of their group, his hand tight on Mjolnir and his eyes fixated on who knows what memories. Bruce was so used to being the spectator of their little group, sitting on a lonely chair which was a little faraway from the others, that had realized immediately how distant the god had been during the last days.

Clint was cleaning his bow for the seventh time; his lips were bent in a grimace and his eyes refused to meet the others' gazes.

Natasha was completely still. She had her arms crossed over her chest and would seem a beautiful statue if her chest weren't slowly moving at the rhythm of her breath. After sparing a glance towards each of them, Steve was staring at her, like he were looking for some words to interrupt the silence.

"Do you think that Loki killed him?", he finally asked her, giving words to the fear that all of them were carrying inside their minds.

Natasha didn't change her expression while she was reflecting on Steve's question.

"No", she answered after an instant of silence. "If Loki had killed him, he would have let us know or showed us his body. Stark has to still be alive".

Thor nodded. He seemed about to speak, but before he said a word, the big screen on one of the walls suddenly turned on, showing the strict face of Fury.

"Schmidt has just woken up. Romanoff, I want you in his detention cell on the second floor", Fury ordered, before the screen switched off again without waiting for Natasha's answer.

Bruce shifted his gaze towards her, like the rest of them. The Widow didn't say anything but had a merciless smile which was more eloquent than any words.

Soon they would have their answers.