The Mess That We'll Become
Chapter 29:
"This is useless." Steve said into his coms as he jogged down another empty street. "I feel like we're chasing our asses."
"We're chasing something, Cap. I just don't think it's our asses." Natasha replied. Steve let out a string of curses and stopped, craning his neck first one way and then the other. The movie theatre had been a bust. By the time the Avengers had gotten there the mutants were gone, scattering themselves around the block and pulling out all the stops to separate the Avengers. The NYPD had managed to get civilians off the street and Steve hadn't seen the Lower East Side look this empty since the invasion.
The group they were chasing seemed to be made up of a pyro-mutant, a guy who could shoot darts from his fingertips and a woman who could make living, breathing copies of herself. They were all hell bent on creating havoc… but now it was quiet. There wasn't a peep and the air was electrified with anticipation of something much bigger still to come.
"Has the NYPD spotted anything else?" He asked, his gut tight. This was not how he wanted to spend his night. He wanted to spend it in the arms of a beautiful girl, his beautiful girl, working through everything they needed to. This was the opposite of that.
"Not a single thing. Do you think they just gave up?" Clint responded, his breath coming out in a short puff.
"They set fire to the library, Barton. This doesn't feel like a couple of kids on teen-fueled destruction." Bruce responded, still in human form because the Hulk hadn't been needed yet.
Steve clicked his tongue. It felt like something bigger, something none of them had worked out yet but he didn't know what.
"What's their end game?" Tony asked the question he was thinking. They had to have a motive, a reason for creating this mess. Sure, kids liked to go on joyrides but this was more than vandalism. People could be getting hurt. This wasn't some petty crime; this felt like it was part of something larger.
The sound of laughter came from Steve's right and he went running toward it. He skidded around a corner and into an alley where three teens were hunched over.
"Turn around slowly, hands up please." He ordered them. One of the girls laughed, the others echoing her and he realised they were all the same person.
"Whatever you say, Captain. Madam Hydra say's hello and enjoy." She grinned before she blinked and they were gone. Steve startled, swearing loudly. They'd left behind a package and Steve knelt down over it. There was a note attached and he picked it up gingerly.
Clock's ticking Captain, for both you and her.
- Madam Hydra.
Steve frowned, lifting the lid on the pseudo-gift she'd left. Why was his clock ticking and who was the "her"?
Inside there was an actual clock, counting down with 10 seconds left on the screen and it took his brain a second to click that what he was holding was a bomb. Obviously, this was his ticking clock.
"I have a bomb!" He yelled, dropping the device inside a dumpster before high tailing it out of the alley. He had about 5 seconds before it exploded in a spectacular display of bright orange flames and he dove forward, his shield saving him from the flames.
He panted from where he'd hit the floor and looked around, still finding the streets thankfully empty.
It hadn't been big enough to do damage but it was a message. Something big was coming. He couldn't help but think of Rory when he thought of the note. Did they know about the two of them? There was no way they could, unless –
"Cap! Cap are you ok?" Natasha called down the line and he pressed his finger to his ear.
"I'm fine, Widow. This is getting weird." He muttered. He pulled out his phone and dialled Rory's number. It range for far too long and he called again and again when it rang out.
His heart was in his throat and he took a minute to get his head on straight. There was a beep in his ear.
"Steve? Steve are you there?" Peggy's voice came down the line and he frowned.
"Peg?" He asked. "These are closed comms how are you –"
"Do you know where Aurora is?" The question left him feeling cold and he gripped his shield tightly.
"I'm hoping she's at the Tower? I can't get her on her cell…" He replied, glancing down at the crumpled paper in his hands.
Clock's ticking Captain, for you and her.
His breath came out in short bursts of panic and he steadied his hands on his waist.
"She's not here. She went to look at something almost an hour ago and I went looking for her and," Peggy cut herself off with a choked sob. "I think he has her, Steve."
"What?" He growled, his stomach feeling tight. "Who?"
"Her computer got a hit from facial recognition software… it looks like Zemo was… he was here in the city." The panic that flooded through Peggy's voice was palpable and Steve could hear Dugan in the background trying to calm her. He felt cold all over and he wasn't sure what to do next.
"I'll find her, Peg." Steve promised and he heard the line click off. "Their end game is to distract me." He spoke to his team as he readied himself to run. "They have Aurora."
"We heard, Steve. We're heading back to the tower." Tony replied, the worry in his voice evident by the shortness of his words.
"I'm going to check my apartment –"
"I'll come with you –"
"Go and help Tony, Nat. I'll be there soon." He ordered as he took off at a run. It took him almost 8 minutes to get to Brooklyn. That was 8 minutes too long in his book.
"Aurora?" He called out as he unlocked the door and threw himself inside.
His house was dark and quiet, completely untouched by anyone when he got there. He threw himself up the stairs three at a time and into his bedroom but that too was quiet. He couldn't even smell her perfume anymore because she hadn't been there for days.
They had her. Whoever this Madam Hydra was, she had her and she was doing it to get to him.
Steve pulled his phone out.
"She's not there, is she?" Peggy answered without saying hello.
"No." He said in a grim voice. "Peg, does Madam Hydra mean anything to you?"
"No, I've never heard of her… Why? Why what's going on, Steve?"
Steve grit his teeth and headed for the door.
"I'll explain when I get back to the tower, what's going on over there right now?" He asked as he jogged down the stairs.
"Tony is working on why Jarvis didn't stop Zemo entering the tower. Tim and Clint are reviewing cameras… I feel so useless. She wouldn't have gone without a fight, Steve."
"I know Peg. I'm on my way. Have Natasha search for whoever this Madam Hydra is." He stalked toward the door, ready to leave. The smell of spun sugar met his nose and he stopped in his tracks. "I'll be back soon, Peg." He muttered, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end.
He moved into his living room slowly, flicking on the light.
"Hello, Steve." The woman on the couch said in a light voice. He could only see her lips, which were a deep shade of emerald green and they matched the hair obscuring the rest of her face. The tickle of familiarity ate at his brain. Who was this woman? Why did he feel like he knew her?
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded, stepping into the room and readying himself for a fight.
She tilted her head, her hair falling away from her face.
"Really, Steve, you break my heart." Her low and throaty voice hit a nerve and his eyes widened as a wave of silky, sweet perfume washed over him.
"Doctor Holstein?" He queried, confusion evident in his voice.
"Not exactly." She shook her head, rising to her feet in one fluid movement.
She looked different now, dangerous as her yellow eyes met his. Her form-fitting stealth suit was an iridescent green that reminded him of a snakes skin and it moved in the same way. She moved in the same way as a snake now that he looked closer. She seemed to slither toward him, silky smooth and dangerous.
"My name is Madam Hydra. I lead the American faction of our organization."
"So you're the leak in SHIELD?" Steve asked, his fingers itching to reach for his shield or gun. He decided not to move, instead watched her to see what she did.
"They made it much too easy." She laughed, rolling her shoulders. "We heard you were awake and I applied for the job the next day. It's amazing what you people believe." Her yellow eyes flashed and a smirk pulled on her green lips.
"You're how you knew where we would be and what we were doing. You're the reason we were always one step behind." Steve spoke, watching as she stepped toward him.
She moved gracefully, her height making her appear to almost slither. She smiled, her lips pulling wide over white teeth.
"I knew it would drive you crazy. You see Steve, the best way to destroy something is to exploit their weaknesses and boy, do you have some huge ones." She smiled widely, her lips pulling unnaturally high along her cheeks. He could see her teeth were pointed and dripping with a thick, syrupy substance that he didn't want to test for himself. She was dangerous and every fibre of his being was screaming at him to run.
"I don't have any weaknesses." He grunted, his hands moving to the gun strapped to his thigh.
She laughed again, holding up her hands. Her nails were long and green talons that glinted in the light and he suppressed a shiver.
"Oh you really do, Steve. You don't like hurting people, you hate not being in control and you care too much, too quickly. We know why you were chosen for the Super Soldier Program," She leaned forward from where she stood and in an exaggerated whisper she said "It's because you're a good person… and that's your biggest weakness."
Her words stung Steve and he struggled to remain level headed. He'd trusted this woman with his thoughts and his feelings. Trusted her to help him while he struggled to adapt to this new world.
And it had all been a lie.
"That isn't a weakness, it's a strength." He grunted, his fingers tightening around the butt of his gun.
He knew arguing was pointless. They were his weaknesses. His friends, being out of time, his nature… they were all weaknesses and now Aurora was being exploited for it.
"I don't know how I survived listening to you deliberate and stress over the tiniest things. How does this work, why do I feel this, do they like me… ugh, boring." Madam Hydra rolled her eyes and made a choking motion with her hands at her throat. "But it wasn't the things you said in the sessions that gave me what I needed to bring you down we needed to bring you down – it was what you were doing outside of them. Or should I say, who." She laughed and Steve's heart stopped.
"How did you –"
"Oh you weren't as subtle as you thought, not when you were being watched all the time. I had access to Stark Tower cameras. I had access to the cameras set up inside your apartment." She smiled as his eyes widened. He hadn't known about the cameras inside his apartment and he wondered if she'd put them there. "I must say, you fall in love very easily, Steve and now we're going to destroy her and make you watch. It'll make you complacent and then it will break you so you're never a problem for us again."
Never in his life had he been more scared. Not even his accident had scared him as much as he was right now.
"What have you done with her?" Steve yelled and dove for her, forgetting the gun and the shield on his back in favor of his brute strength.
He never wanted to hurt a woman but this one was playing with him. She was exploiting everything he'd ever told her and he couldn't take it.
She laughed and ducked out of his way. The two parried for a moment, Steve threw punches but she blocked them easily. Steve was fast but the Madam was faster, like a cut snake, and he could see her eyes flashing in the most reptilian way.
He gasped as she spun away from him, her nails catching him in the side. The skin burned immediately as she cut through his suit and he clasped a hand to his side. He pulled it away and found green slime mixed with blood.
"Watch out, I'm poison." She laughed, dancing away from him. "We've been working on something that will get past your serum, Steve. It's been difficult but Zemo is a fine scientist –"
Zemo. She was working with Zemo. It made sense. It benefitted them both; Zemo wanted Aurora and Aurora was a way to get to Steve. He felt panic creep up his throat and he swallowed it down fast, keeping his focus on the dangerous woman in front of him.
"I will kill you if you hurt her." He breathed heavily, in through his nose and out through his mouth as pain radiated from the wound.
"Oh but you won't know where to find her if you kill me."
Steve stopped advancing and she stopped retreating. The living room was being destroyed but he didn't care.
"Where is she?"
"I'll never tell." She said in an irritating sing-song voice. Something in Steve snapped.
"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!" He roared, moving on fast feet to grab her and pin her against the wall, an arm over her throat. The pictures Aurora had hung rattled on their hooks, but still she smiled. She gasped erotically as he pressed down on her throat, letting out a small moan and a laugh.
"You'll never know if you kill me." She gasped again, choking to get air into her lungs.
Steve could hear himself breathing heavily and he so desperately wanted to crush the woman's throat but she had a point.
Right now she was the only one who knew where Aurora was so he eased off. Not completely, but enough that she could talk.
"You will tell me where she is right now." He demanded, his fist punching a hole in the wall beside her head.
Viper squirmed under him and her hands moved up his sides. He reached down to grab them with his free hand.
"He has her you know. That was our agreement after I found out who she was tailing as her mission." Viper spoke and Steve listened. "He's a psychotic man, but god does he have some brilliant methods." She explained. She was loving this, her expression nothing but pure glee and it made him sick. "He's going to finish his fathers work. He's going to bleed her dry and he's going to help Hydra make more of you." She sounded delighted as she played with his fingers while he held her down. She was quick and dexterous and he was not. The effects of the poison were wearing on him.
Steve panted, his throat seeming to close over. She wiggled a hand out from his and placed it against the side of his face.
"I tried to steer you away from her, Steve but you fought me." She said softly, almost sympathetically and Steve sneered. "It was almost like the harder I pushed the more you wanted her."
"You manipulated me." He spat.
"Bingo. You made it easy. Both of you did." She let out a sigh. "For two people who work in espionage, you guys weren't subtle after you started fucking like bunnies." She snickered and Steve sneered, baring his teeth at her.
Steve growled and abandoned her hands in favor of wrapping his fingers around her neck. He needed to hurt this woman, make her suffer for all the terrible images she was putting in his mind. His fingers tightened around her throat but still she laughed at him.
"Silly Captain. Don't you know that vipers are deadly?" Her words were a hoarse whisper and before he could decipher what she meant, her nails were plunging into his neck. His skin and veins burned as the poison flowed right into his veins.
He yelled out, throwing himself away from her but it was too late. The damage was done. He could feel the poison travelling up his arms, making them feel heavy and hot. His torso itched and he slumped forward, unable to hold himself up anymore.
He blinked as Madam Hydra stood over him, her face dimming as blackness clouded his vision.
"Don't worry, Captain. You'll have front row tickets to the show, I promise."
Everything was blurred and hazy as Aurora started to come to. Her body felt heavy and sore and she could feel something scraping over her feet.
Concrete she realized a second later as she caught glimpses of the ground. It was concrete and two people were dragging her along, holding her under the arms.
"Put her in the chair." A voice commanded and then she was dropped, her neck snapping back painfully as she was unable to hold her head up. She let out a gargling groan, the only noise she could make due to the scrap of fabric tied tightly between her teeth. Her tongue rolled against it, making her want to vomit as she stared at the dirty, white ceiling.
How did she get here? She'd been having such a lovely time at the charity benefit Stark had thrown, especially once she and Steve had made up. They'd kissed and they'd danced and then… He'd been called away. Avengers Assemble, she remembered Tony saying that… and then her phone had buzzed and she'd gotten a hit on the scans she was running and then –
She let out a strangled scream as she sat upright in her chair, her teeth biting hard on the gag. Adrenalin rushed through her veins and she struggled against the hands cuffing her to the sides of the chair. The metal clanged and rattled as she pulled but it was too late, she was stuck.
"Shhh, my dear. Everything is going to be alright." Zemo's said, his breath tickling her ear as he leant down to her side. She snarled like a caged tiger, straining against the cuffs toward him. She wanted to kill him, to hurt him in some way but he merely laughed at her attempts.
"Your serum metabolizes sedatives much faster than I anticipated." He smiled. "This is twice I've drugged you and now you're fully awake." He sounded delighted and he clapped his hands. Rory snarled again, fighting with everything she had to break free. Zemo reached over and pulled the gag from between her teeth.
She spat at him, wetting her lips.
"Where the hell am I?" She said, glaring up at him with more intensity she ever thought possible. She couldn't tell much about the room she was in. It looked like an old hospital ward but it was bare and dirty. The floor was stained a horrible brown colour, almost as if blood had been spilled and then half heartedly cleaned up. The whole room was eerie but somehow familiar and it gave her chills.
"Somewhere very special to me." He nodded seriously, pushing some hair off her face. She jerked away from him, causing him to scowl. "It should be to you as well, Aurora. Don't you recognise where we are?" He nodded around the tiny room.
"Nothing about this is special to me." She sneered, her lip curling. Zemo knelt down beside her, the scar on his face twisting as he smiled. He leant in close.
"Uh ah Aurora, think please. We're in an abandoned hospital, the middle of Massachusetts." He added and she whipped her head up in surprise.
"Massachusetts?" She questioned. That was honestly a surprise. She figured she was in Germany or some far away place where her friends would never find her. There was hope now that they could find her before she died.
"Danvers to be exact." He nodded and watched her with bright, expectant eyes.
Aurora frowned. Danvers was where her parents had died… in a hostpital… very much like this one.
Her eyes went to the bloodstains on the floor and the memory hit her like a ton of bricks.
"Oh god, no." She gasped, her vision doubling again. She closed her eyes, the memory playing out behind her eyelids.
They'd been dragged to this room. Her mother hadn't let her go, clutching so tightly to her that it had hurt. She remembered telling her mother to let her go but her mother had begged her not to watch as she'd pushed Aurora behind her legs. Then The Bad Man had stabbed her and she'd fallen to the floor. Aurora remembered screaming from fear and anger, watching her mother bleed out and die while listening to The Bad Man laugh.
That laugh had haunted her for the next 20 years.
"You remember, don't you?" Zemo sounded delighted and pushed his head closer to her. Aurora raised her eyes to him and she could see every single fleck in his ice blue eyes. "She was no use to me but I had a lot of fun killing her. You screamed for hours and hours –"
Aurora lunged forward, her forehead slamming into Zemo nose hard enough to make it crack. Blood spurted out a moment later and he roared in pain. She felt a surge of triumph, watching his blood drip to the floor.
That was replaced with fear a second later as he pulled out a gun and fired a shot into her shoulder. She screamed out in pain, her world spinning as her ears rang sharply.
"Come now, it's not a vital shot." Zemo crooned with a chuckle. "Just enough to make you compliant."
Rory's eyes snapped open and she straightened, squaring off to face him. She kept her face neutral despite the pain. She couldn't let him see her in pain. It was what he wanted.
"I will never be compliant." She shook her head defiantly, her eyes flashing. Tears prickled her eyes but she swallowed it down.
The gun rose again, levelling with her head. "You will be." His voice was soft, terrifyingly soft, as he spoke. "Because as much as I want to spill your blood and get good and messy in it while you watch me, I will put a bullet between your eyes if you don't behave."
She swallowed hard. She wanted to fight him, to fight him until she died; but she needed to live. She needed to live so she looked down at her shoulder, watching the blood stain the white shirt she'd been placed in. She wondered vaguely when they'd changed her clothes.
"I guess this is where we will start the pain threshold tests." He smirked, taking out a recorder. "This is Helmut Zemo with Subject 2013. Initial pain threshold test, one bullet to the left shoulder. Cried out but is dealing with pain now." He clicked the button off and reached for her shoulder. He pressed his finger to it and she sucked in a deep breath. "Light pressure applied." He narrated. "No change." He pushed harder and she grit her teeth so hard she thought they might crack. "Very good Aurora. You are a strong person."
His hand slipped into the collar of her shirt and she felt his finger push into the wound. She screamed, the noise ripping from her throat before she could stop it. It sounded inhuman, too loud and too wild to have come from her but her throbbing throat told her it had. His hand removed quickly.
"Pain threshold high. Must push to see when her point of passing out is." He spoke into his recorder, turning from her and Aurora's head dropped forward. Pain coursed through her, making her vision hazy but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of passing out. She could do this. She had to do this if she wanted to get out of this alive.
Steve was missing. The team had realized the Captain was gone when he hadn't returned after an hour and couldn't be reached via his cell. Natasha and Clint had gone to his house to investigate and had found the home in disarray. Peggy stood and watched for the hundredth time the moment when her friend had been taken from his apartment, her stomach churning that he was now missing too.
Behind her the team had broken off into small groups around Tony's penthouse as they worked to figure out the entire mess.
Tony and Bruce were fixing Jarvis, who had been bugged with an encrypted chip that made him run normally but with selective overrides that meant security protocols were overridden.
Clint and Natasha were researching Madam Hydra in the dozens upon dozens of archives that SHIELD had. Jessica was helping where she could. Apparently she knew the woman well, having been trained under her before she'd escaped.
Arthur and Dugan were sifting through all of Aurora's research to see if they could work out any possible places Zemo would go to finish whatever it was he had started.
"The chip looks like it's been in here the whole time, which is why Rory's back-hacking didn't work." Tony scowled, throwing the chip on the table. "I want SHIELD out of here, immediately." He pointed at Fury, his eyes blazing with anger that his precious building had been compromised. "This would never have happened if you hadn't brought SHIELD into my building."
"How do you know Hydra didn't use the invasion as a distraction and it was just coincidence we came here?" Fury countered coolly. "We don't even know if it's Hydra who's taken them or if it's just Zemo on his own."
"Oh please, Nick. They wouldn't have been able to get Steve without some major muscle." Dugan scoffed, rolling his eyes. "It's Hydra and their head honcho has been in your midst the entire time. That girl said herself that Zemo is a high roller as well." He cast his eyes on Jessica, who shrank under his gaze. "Maybe she's working for them too."
"No, no I'm not I'm –" She started to argue her hands rising in defense.
"She's not Hydra, she's not even SHIELD for gods sake!" Natasha rolled her eyes at her former team leader. "If you're going to blame her you could throw fingers my way too –"
"Getting off topic, Steve has been –"
"That is not the point, the point is –"
"– taken and we should probably –"
"– that it just seems very fishy that she comes along –"
" – get back to finding them!"
" – and knows everything about
The uproar was immediate, every single person in the room wanting to voice their panic as opinions. Their leader was gone and a good friend was in the hands of a psychopath. They were running out of time but didn't know where to start.
Peggy wanted to cry but instead she turned away from the image of her granddaughter being taken and turned to face the fray.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Her strong voice cut over the arguing team, silencing them immediately. "Is this how this team runs?" She looked from one Avenger to another, glared them all down. "You argue and natter and waste time? My granddaughter is missing and that bastard has her so if you will all focus and get back to finding them, it would be much appreciated." She leant forward on her hands and her head hung between her shoulders.
She felt too old for this. Too old to be running a mission, too old to be contemplating going on one, too old to be worrying if her family was going to die. She was tired and weary and it was all because of that man. That awful man who had ripped her heart out once and was about to do it again. Dugan stepped behind his wife and placed a hand on her shoulder. She straightened, leaning into him and bringing her hand up to grip his. "We have to stick together, all of you. Aurora is a friend and Steve is your Captain." She said in a soft voice, watching as they all nodded in agreement. "It will do you well to remember that."
"I don't understand why they've taken both of them." Clint spoke up after a moment of silence. "Aurora I get because it's an old family matter but Madam Hydra posing as SHIELD Psychiatrist to get to Steve? I don't get it."
"Hydra's number one enemy has always been Steve." Peggy said. "What better way to bring him down than to learn his deepest secrets and then exploit them?" As she said it, she caught Natasha's eye and the Widow raised her eyebrows. Peggy's stomach dropped. None of the others knew their secret and she debated telling them.
"So why both of them at the same time?" Dugan asked, scratching his head. She squeezed her husbands' hand.
"They probably struck a deal." Clint said, shrugging a shoulder. "Zemo wants Aurora and Hydra wants Steve. Steve and Aurora are close. If they take them together and use Rory against Steve, they can kill two birds with one stone. It's what I would do, tactically, anyway." He folded his arms, looking stone-faced and furious.
Peggy winced at his choice of words.
"No one will be killed tonight." She said in a steely voice. "We need to figure out how to find them."
"Steve's suit." Tony said suddenly, jumping up as if he'd been electrified. "Steve's still in his suit."
He scooted his chair across the room and booted up another computer.
"Wanna tell us when you're doing Stark?" Clint called out to him.
Tony didn't look up as his fingers flew over the keys.
"After we almost lost Capsicle again in the ice a few months back I figured it might be a good idea to fit location devices in all your suits."
"You did what?" Natasha sounded more impressed than shocked, letting the slight invasion of privacy slide because it was actually a good idea for the team.
"Yeah I know, I probably should have asked but honestly I didn't think I'd ever have to boot one up so soon. I mean, the program isn't even finished yet!" Tony glanced at her, looking apologetic for once.
"There's a program?"
"Encrypted so no one could hack it and find us."
"Like no one could hack Jarvis?" Arthur snorted.
Tony ignored the jab and continued clicking his fingers over the keyboard, merely saying "No one actually knows it exists yet, this laptop isn't apart of the mainframe. I didn't want SHIELD to get their hands on it." He threw a look to Nick, who folded his arms.
"How long will it take if the program isn't finished?" Dugan asked, his hand finding Peggy's and holding it tightly.
"Hopefully no longer than an hour." Tony answered honestly, dismay evident in his tone.
"We might not have an hour, Anthony." Dugan growled, making Tony jump. He turned and looked at his Aunt and Uncle, the two people who'd stepped up as his second parents more times than he could count. He needed to do this for them. They couldn't lose Aurora and neither could he. None of them could.
"I get that, Uncle Tim. Which is why I need to concentrate."
Peggy placed a hand on her husbands shoulder. "It's a start, darling." She murmured, pulling herself into him. She felt like she was falling apart. Steve and Aurora were both gone and Aurora was being used as pawn in a game meant to break Steve.
Her stomach felt sick at the thought and she prayed with everything she had that the outcome of this wouldn't be the same as last time. She'd be damned if she let it happen again.
Steve awoke to someone slapping him sharply across the cheek, each slap harder than the last. It left a stinging fire that burned deep and he opened his eyes to find sparkling yellow ones staring back at him.
"You're awake." Madam Hydra smiled widely, her fangs flashing in the bright light as their eyes met. He jerked his head around sharply, his neck cracking in several places.
He jerked to reach for The Madam but stopped short when he found his hands shackled tightly to the metal table he was seated at. He looked at them in confusion, testing his strength against the bonds to no avail. Somehow they were stronger than he was.
"Nuh uh, you're not going anywhere. Those are adamantium clasps. Even with your super strength you can't break free." She smiled and ran her tongue over her teeth. Her green eyes dragged over every inch of him as if she were hungry and didn't know where to start first. She was enjoying this, he realised after a minute of staring at her glee-filled face and he sneered at her.
"Where the hell am I?" He demanded, finding his feet also locked tightly to the legs of the chair he was in.
"We're still in America, if that's what you're asking." She replied, straightening up and smoothing her lab coat. "We're about to have front row seats to a great show, Captain. You have front row seats to the start of a New Hydra." She moved out of his line of sight and he realized they were in an Operating Theater. It was old and dirty so he guessed they weren't in a functioning hospital but the instruments on the small table in the middle of the room were shiny and new.
He looked around, his eyes trying to find any clue as to where they were but other than a plain tiled floor that was weathered and dirty, and a ceiling that was falling apart, he had nothing more to go on.
The O.R. doors across from them opened and a gurney pushed through. He recognized the 'Doctor' as Zemo and he snarled.
"Captain, you're just in time!" The German said happily, a wide smile on his face. The person on the gurney struggled and lifted their head.
"Steve?" She gasped and he recognized her, a blinding panic flashing through him like wildfire. Aurora. They had her and they were going to hurt her while he watched helplessly.
"Aurora?" The name left his lips before he could stop it and he strained against the cuffs. "Aurora?! Don't you hurt her you son of a bitch. I swear to god I will rip your head from your neck. I'll fucking KILL you –" Madam slapped him hard, sending his head flying to the side.
"That's enough of that." She hissed and he grit his teeth. "The Doctor needs to concentrate!"
Zemo just laughed and there was a squeak as the breaks were applied to the gurney.
"Move him closer, Viper. He needs to see this. He can't miss a second." Zemo instructed and then the table and chair Steve was sitting at rolled forward, Madam Hydra pushing him from behind.
He took in the scene before him, his stomach a tight ball of nerves and panic. She was laid out on the table as if ready for surgery. A drip hung on her right side, a clear liquid funnelling something into her veins. She looked like she'd been beaten; her left eye half swollen shut and a spectacular array of bruises down her jaw. She was dressed in a medical smock that had fallen open to her sides to reveal her torso and chest, which was also showed bruises on her ribs and legs. He was going to kill the person responsible for his.
"What are you going to do to her?" He asked softly, trying to contain his panic so that it didn't affect her. She was lying quietly on the table, her head twisted so she could see him but she wasn't saying a word. He didn't know why, maybe she couldn't because she was drugged, or maybe they'd been beating her for hours and she'd lost the will to fight.
He didn't know what was harder to think about.
"You'll see." Madam Hydra smiled, reaching out to caress the side of the face she'd just slapped. He jerked away from her, testing his restraints again but still they didn't budge.
Rory's scream ripped through the room, making Steve jumped out of his skin. He struggled to see around Viper but when he did he felt sick. He had her thumb in a twisted piece of metal and was tightening the screw until finally there was a sickening crunch as it went through the nail and bone and flesh.
"Very good!" Zemo sounded delighted and he picked up a recorder. "Pain tolerance for Subject: A. Dugan is still quite high despite all other tests."
"What other tests?!" Steve demanded, the skin on his wrists breaking and bleeding with the exertion from trying to break them. At this rate he was more likely to take his hand off than break the chains.
"The other pain tolerance tests we've run Aurora through, of course." Zemo glanced at him. "I needed to see how far I could push her before she passes out. It's crucial to this procedure –"
"What the hell kind of procedure are you attempting here, you psychopath?!" Steve couldn't help it. He needed to distract Zemo.
"Not attempting, doing." Zemo said with a small sigh. "I've never had a subject able to stay awake before. It's fascinating what even a small amount of serum can do for a person."
Steve met Aurora's eyes and found them empty. After her initial scream she'd said nothing more, just continued to stare at him even though the angle her head was at had to be uncomfortable.
"What are you going to do, Zemo?" Steve's voice was low and his entire body shook with rage. If there was one thing he was going to do, it was kill that bastard. Never had he felt such a need to rip someone limb from limb before but now it coursed through his veins and kept him focused on getting them out of there.
"Vivisection. Live autopsy." Zemo replied with a delighted grin. Steve's teeth crunched together. He wanted to be sick. He couldn't watch this.
It dawned on him quickly that this was the plan: Zemo got to experiment on Aurora, and Madam Hydra – Viper – got to break Steve. He would have to watch her be cut open and then eventually die. The strongest mind couldn't come back from that. It would make him weak and compliant and then they would kill him easily because he would welcome death.
It was an ingenious plan, a horrible but effective way to get what they both wanted.
"I can see by the look on your face that you've pieced together our little agreement," Viper gestured between herself and Zemo. "You're not as dumb as you look, Steve." She said softly, touching his face again.
"Just kill me, please. Leave her out of it and kill me." He lifted his head and looked at Zemo. "Use my blood. Her blood is worthless compared to mine –"
"This is more of a personal matter, Steve." Zemo gestured between himself and Aurora. "Rest assured I will have access to your blood after Viper has had her fun." Zemo smiled, picking up his voice recorder. "Right, where was I?" He said absently. "Subject 2013: Aurora Dugan. Daughter of Subject 2011, Timothy Dugan who's autopsy was performed in 1991. Five feet, seven inches. 156 pounds. Red hair –"
"Hold on, Aurora." Steve said in a soft voice, hoping to sooth the poor creature on the table in front of him. She blinked slowly, her eyes glassy but still holding onto his. "We'll get out of this." He promised her, never meaning anything more in his life.
"I've got something!"
Tony's voice echoed through the penthouse suit of Stark Tower as he threw himself out of the elevator. He'd kicked everyone out of the lab within 5 minutes if starting to work on the program because he'd needed absolute silence (and some ACDC to concentrate) and they'd all come upstairs to pace around the private floors.
He skidded on the marble and found everyone crowding around Rory's research to see if there were any leads in that that could help them.
"Where are they?"
"Danvers, Massachusetts." Tony replied, clicking a button and pointing it at the nearest Stark Screen.
A map came into view, a red pin dropped right in the center and he pressed another button to make it zoom in.
"There's an old –"
"The hospital." Dugan's voice was horse but it was Peggy's choked sob that made everyone turn and look. "He's taken her to the abandoned Danvers State Hospital."
"Something special about that place?" Arthur asked, rubbing his eyes. None of them had slept, the sun having come up a few hours earlier but none were quitting. They needed to bring their friends back before they slept.
"That's where he took my son and that's where I watched him die." Dugan's words hung heavy in the air and everyone tensed up. "This is very personal."
There was a silence that seemed to hang heavy in the air before Peggy squared her shoulders.
"Tony, pull up the blue prints for that hospital please. You can't go in there blind. I want three teams to go in; Avengers, Strike, and an evac with medical personnel." She pushed her hair from her eyes, her jaw set in determination as she gave the orders to the people in front of her. "Get in contact with Hill and get her to set that up." She ordered Fury, who nodded and picked up his phone with no argument.
Dugan said nothing as he watched Peggy give the orders and he didn't blink an eye when she strode from the room behind the Avengers. Peggy Carter had been born for the field and now she was protecting one of her own there was no taking her away from it.
"Are you sure she should be going in?" Tony asked as they boarded the quinjet on the roof of Stark Tower. "This is a little personal, her judgment is clouded…"
"Just try and stop her, son." He patted Tony's shoulder lightly. "Your Aunt has only once backed down from the field and that's because you kids were her world. This is too personal for her not to be there."
Tony nodded and adjusted the Ironman Bracelets on his wrists, settling in for the short flight to the big fight. He just hoped they got there on time.
Author's Note: So, like I said... heartbreaking. Next chapter out soon. I'm tweaking it a little. Also, to the anon who apologised over and over I appreciate the kind words but unless you go by the handle 'sargentslaughter' it's not you ok? Don't stress! if you're on anon and genuinely writing nice things, constructive things, it will be posted. Anything else will be deleted.
Anyway, enjoy! If you like it, tell me. Share it with people. Tell everyone. I'm proud of my work. It's not the greatest but this is my practice and every single person reading this means the world to me.
Playlist:
Unstoppable - E.S. Posthumus
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Pompeii - E.S. Posthumus
Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge
