Chapter Forty-Nine

Steve and Loki were the last to step through the portal, while everyone else was already taking in their surroundings. They were not under attack, surprisingly, it was actually eerily quiet. Bucky could hear wind and some water, dripping and streaming, something alive in this place. The place being a cave… well, that was an understatement. Bucky didn't know caves like this existed on Earth. There was bright light coming in from far above and even plants were growing on the inside, tropical plants, moss, fungi. The air was cool around them, the chill of a deep cave, but it was humid too, making his skin a little sticky. He knew he was going to sweat like crazy under his gear.

If it weren't for the situation they were in, Bucky might've called it idyllic.

'Are we on Earth at all?' he asked.

'Yes,' Loki said behind him.

'My GPS has no signal,' Natasha announced.

'HELEN can't find us either,' Stark added. 'Something's blocking us.'

'It is quite something to behold,' Vision said, looking around.

'Let us move,' Thor said. 'We need to spread out, find our way, the Darkholders must be hiding nearby.'

Vision, Wilson, Stark and Wanda lifted up into the air right away. While the rest of them drew their weapons and started moving forward to explore the giant cave they found themselves in. Bucky was searching for tunnel entrances, maybe even a door or a trapdoor. He was admittedly paranoid to begin with, but the quiet made him nervous. The Darkholders must be expecting them at this point, they had to be waiting for them.

They spread out a little and Bucky was glad that Steve and Loki didn't set out in two different directions, because it would've been frustrating having to choose which where to go. Following Steve always felt natural, but he still wanted to watch Loki's back, especially since none of the Avengers would, except for Thor. Leah stayed close to them, Barton and Natasha flanked Strange as he ventured forward, while Pietro stayed with Thor.

The longer the silence stretched the more oppressive it was. Bucky was convinced it would erupt into violence any second now. It put him on edge.

With a blur of red Wanda flew past them, going higher up inside the cave, then she hit something. The moment she touched it there was flash of pale yellow, and the glow of her magic cut off. Vision dove down to catch her.

'Wanda!' Pietro shouted, his voice echoing loudly.

'I'm okay!' she yelled back. She was too far away to see her face, but Bucky was going to take her word for it.

'There seems to be a barrier,' Vision said, staring up. Wanda's magic flared back up and Vision let go of her after another second passed. The first thing she did was to hurl a hex at the invisible barrier. And sure enough, the beam was absorbed by a pale yellow barrier, flashing as it consumed it.

'That explains why we're hidden,' Natasha remarked.

'And why we couldn't find this place before,' Leah added.

'We probably alerted them just now,' Loki said.

'Then let's say hello,' Bucky suggested. There were no objections, so they continued their search.

The cave was ridiculously big and there were too many nooks and crannies, not to mention the plants covering the walls. It would've been easy to hide something behind them. But there had to be a passage or a tunnel somewhere, there had to be.

'You smell that?' Steve asked suddenly. Bucky took a larger breath, trying to focus on the smells in the cave. It mostly smelt damp and musty, and of course there was the smell of the plants too… then he noticed it.

'Blood,' he said. His arm also had a very mild metallic scent, so no wonder he didn't notice it straight away. Loki and Steve were already searching for the source of the smell. Bucky walked in a slightly different direction to look. It had to lead them somewhere, this was the first sign of well… life. The blood had to be recent, old dried blood didn't have the same sharp scent.

'There,' Leah said, pointing at the cave wall. Bucky turned to look at what she was pointing at and immediately noticed the smudged bloody handprint on the stonewall. There was also big fern with two broken leaves, a few rocks obviously displaced, too dry on one side, moss scratched off the wall in patches. The signs of a fight were all over the place, the more he looked the more he could pinpoint. Someone also tried to hide all these signs, but they must've cleaned up in a rush. The ground was also soaked in blood and there was no cleaning that up once the earth absorbed it this much.

Loki was already up close to the wall, probably searching for an entrance, Steve stayed just a few steps away from him, looking at the same wall. Bucky kept looking around for other things that might've been out of place. There was no way to tell how long ago this fight happened, but something important must've been close-by. If there was an entrance around here it was either magic or some really good technology that hid it.

Well, one could argue where one ended and the other began, but Bucky didn't much care for that discussion. It if was something high-tech, it had to run on electricity, if it was magic there were completely different things to keep an eye out for. At this point Bucky was pretty good at spotting both. The barrier up top sure seemed magical, but if the Darkholders hired people like Arcade then there was no way to guess what else they might have up their sleeves.

'We need to scan the cave more thoroughly,' Vision said from above, he was floating just five-six feet above them. 'I'm not even certain what we are looking for.'

'You look for what you can, we have others to look out for the magical crap,' Bucky told him.

'Fair enough,' Vision responded.

'There, use the shield,' Loki said, making Bucky turn his attention back to him and Steve. He wasn't sure what they found first, but then Steve forcefully wedged the edge of his shield into a crack of some sort. It was not a straight line, but it also looked a little unnatural maybe. It was obviously something.

Once the shield was in as deep as it would go, Steve moved it, using it as a level to widen the crack. It had to be an opening. As soon as there was enough space Loki put his hands in to pull on it. It took a few moments, but Bucky didn't get the chance to offer his help, because there was a hiss and the thing gave, and started moving on its own. Not magical then, because that definitely sounded hydraulic.

There was a beep as soon as the door was half-open. Bucky knew that beep.

'Get down!' he shouted. He grabbed Leah around the waist as he jumped to the side to get out of the way, and not even a second passed when bullets started flying. The heavy sound of an automatic gun spitting out led was almost deafening after the silence.

'Get in cover!' Stark yelled at them from above and Bucky distantly heard a few more hisses that signalled opening doors. Fuck.

'Is that a goddamn minigun?' Wilson yelled.

'Sentry guns, stay down!' Stark yelled back over the noise of gunfire.

As the other sentry guns activated there were suddenly bullets coming from everywhere. Bucky felt some dust and moss rain down on him as the bullets tore into the ground. They had to move.

'Come on,' he urged and stood up, practically lifting Leah back on her feet again. She didn't need help running though. The question was where to run or hide. He didn't know how many sentry guns they were looking at here. Suddenly the wide cave with the tall walls and the barrier up top seemed like a damn slaughterhouse. They were the fish in a really big barrel with way too many guns aimed at them. There were not many places to hide and the bullets just kept coming.

Wanda was down on the ground now, she had her red shield up, protecting herself and her brother, partially Thor, but he was probably not in that much in danger. Strange, Natasha, and Barton where out of sight. Wilson kept dodging bullets up in the air, but one of the sentries definitely locked onto him.

There was a small explosion that drew Bucky's attention as he ran. Stark managed to shoot one of the sentry guns out from its hole, so that was one down. Hopefully he would get to all of them quickly.

Bucky and Leah reached a wall that seemed relatively secluded and well shielded from the guns, for now at least. He kept his eyes and ears sharp, because the sentry guns could easily switch targets. Hell, maybe they were not automatic at all and someone was taking shots at them.

There was another explosion as Vision took out a sentry gun. Bucky looked up at him, saw the gem on his forehead still glowing. Iron Man was locked onto a new target too by now. Thor seemed to have had enough of standing around, because with a spin of his hammer he was up in the air, Mjölnir glowing with power. He should be able to fry some of these damn things.

With two guns down Bucky finally heard the voice, shouting from somewhere in the cave. The echo and the remaining sentry guns made it hard to hear it.

'Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!'

'What?' Leah frowned.

'He has brought back their wickedness upon them. And will destroy them in their evil; The Lord our God will destroy them!'

'That's not a Darkholder,' Bucky commented drily, because he only had one guess. Not many people would shout Bible quotes at them like this, here of all places. Curwen, it had to be.

Doctor Strange seemed to have realised the exact same thing, or maybe he recognised Curwen's voice.

'Isaiah!' he shouted. 'We have a common enemy!'

'You are no better than the Darkholders, Strange!' the man answered from somewhere. Bucky bet he was hiding in one of those holes that opened up for the sentry guns. 'You charlatan found your place among these false gods and abominations. You all should be cleansed from this world, just like the Darkholders.'

'He seems crazier than last time,' Bucky said.

'Someone might've ignited his mind with hatred,' Leah told him.

That made a lot of sense. Curwen was extreme, but not a maniac. He usually went after the worst of the worse, and tolerated others as necessary evil or a means to an end. He definitely didn't sound that reasonable right now.

'You shall not eat anything with the blood; neither shall you use magic, omens, or witchcraft!' Curwen shouted at them again.

'I didn't think he would find the Darkholders before us,' Leah said. 'He's been absent for so long.'

They didn't run into him for a long while now, that was true. Sure, they still kept him on their list of "potential enemies", but Bucky didn't really think it would come to this. Maybe someone really did mess up his head.

Stark took down another sentry gun, a lot less bullets were flying now, so Bucky tried to figure out where Curwen might be. He turned to Leah.

'You o-'

'Just go, James,' she said immediately. 'I can actually look out for myself.'

'Never had a doubt,' Bucky told her. He's never been particularly protective of her or anything, but she also seemed a lot less untouchable now than before. She still wore the marks of what the Old Man did to her. Wounds like that, even if they were not literal bloody wounds, made everyone seem more vulnerable.

He stuck close to the wall, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible, while he tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. He also would've liked to catch a glimpse of Steve, not that he was too concerned. That shield of his was one of the best things against bullets, and Steve knew how to use it.

'Isaiah, you can still stop this!' Strange yelled. Yeah, like that was going to work. 'Only the Darkholders win if we fight one another!'

Curwen didn't seem to listen at all and Bucky wondered again how badly his head was messed up.

'But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;' Curwen kept speaking, nor even answering Strange. 'Therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten.'

Bucky finally spotted Steve and Loki. They took cover not far from the first sentry gun, both of them unharmed. They were also still sticking close to one another, which was... odd, but not unwelcome. Whatever it was that they discussed beforehand they really did have an understanding now. Steve caught his eyes when Bucky moved closer, then turned his head. Bucky followed his line of sight. There was a rectangle opening a bit further up in the wall, a little bigger than the ones with the sentry guns in them. Bucky nodded back at him.

'If you want to fight, then fight!' Thor shouted. 'If you think we are as vile as the Darkholders, then come and face us!'

Normally, Bucky would've found declarations like this useless or even counter-productive, but in this situation it could be to their advantage. Maybe all Curwen needed to stick his head out was some taunting, and Thor was good at that.

Curwen didn't seem to react at first, but as Vision blew up the last of the sentry guns, things got real quiet and Bucky heard his voice again from above. The words were indistinguishable now, but he was still talking, quiet and rushed. Bucky eyed up the wall that lead to where Steve pointed him. Being a sniper required Bucky to get up to high places swiftly and quietly, so he had plenty of practice. With nobody shooting at them he was able to get pretty high up in no time.

He heard a soft "whoosh" and turned to see Vision levitating right behind him, but he followed Bucky's lead instead of barging forward. Despite being relatively indestructible, he had the good sense to not act rashly. Maybe he's always been like this, or maybe their run-in with the Old Man made him aware just how easily he could be in danger, just like everyone else.

Curwen was still mumbling something, so Bucky hoped he was not keeping his ears too peeled. He had to leap to a different spot on the wall to get higher up and that couldn't be done quietly. Bucky still landed securely, almost at the edge of the opening.

There was a second "whoosh" and bright red light in the corner of Bucky's eye. He didn't even need to turn around to know it was Wanda. He pulled his handgun and ducked his head up to glance inside.

Curwen was staring at the ceiling; his arms spread wide, his skin and clothes covered in blood. Not his own blood though, not all of it, Bucky didn't think so. There were bodies lying around him and pools of red covering the floor. Bucky spared a thought to wonder if they were Curwen's people or Chthon's followers. It didn't matter either way. He pulled himself up since Curwen was not paying attention, and he walked closer quietly, gun up and ready. There were two soft steps as Wanda and Vision landed behind him. Maybe Bucky didn't trust them completely, but their presence gave him a pretty good sense of security.

Curwen still didn't seem to notice them, his white hair was hanging low in chunks, matted with blood, and his left eye was a bloody mess. Someone stabbed him there, or just shoved their fingers in, it had to be painful, but Curwen definitely didn't seem to be in agony. It never meant anything good when humans didn't act like humans.

'I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.' Bucky finally understood what he was saying. He was probably just quoting things still. 'I am the sword, the Sword of the Lord.'

'Curwen,' Bucky called, pistol still firmly aimed at him. He would not hesitate to put a bullet between his eyes, not after his stunt with the sentry guns.

Curwen dipped his chin to lock his uninjured eye on them, then a wisp of red flared up next to Bucky and hit Curwen straight in the head. He stared at them for another long moment, then sat down in a daze, his eye not really seeing anything, just blinking at nothing. Bucky turned back to look at Wanda.

'Seemed simpler,' she shrugged. True.

Bucky lowered his gun and marched inside the room, stepping over some of the bodies to get to the computer in the far end. The whole room seemed like some sort of small security hub, just the sheer amount of cables on the ceiling was telling.

'What could've happened here?' Vision asked.

'Nothing good,' Bucky told him.

'They all have weapons,' Wanda said. 'I think they turned against one another.'

'Probably not out of their own will,' Vision added. 'We need to be cautious.'

'How long is Curwen going to be out like this?' Bucky asked. They already knew they had to be cautious, what they found here didn't really change anything.

'As long as I want him to,' Wanda responded.

That was good enough, so Bucky turned his attention to the computer.

'It's probably time to get our comms up,' Wanda added. 'Just in case.'

'I'll let everyone know,' Vision nodded and leaped off the edge to fly back down.

'Do you think you can protect anyone from something like this?' Bucky asked.

'I don't know,' Wanda answered honestly. 'Can Loki?'

'Your guess is as good as mine,' Bucky said.

'I'm sure yours is much more accurate,' she huffed. She was right in a way, but Bucky really didn't know the extent of Loki's powers, especially since things kept changing and evolving constantly with every death.

'The comms are up,' Wanda told him not even a minute later. Bucky stared at the computer screen without responding. He wondered how long this place has been around, it had to be years at least, maybe much longer. Maybe other Darkholders used it before and it's been passed on to new ones. From what he could tell everything here was an odd mixture of ancient and modern. There were sentry guns and pitfalls, heavy mechanical doors and reinforced hydraulic ones, so not everything could be reached from afar. Plus whatever powers the Darkholders had, all the weapons and artefacts they might have gathered... demons maybe. No wonder Curwen and his people were taken down in the entry hall.

'Barnes, comms,' Wanda repeated. Bucky reached down to his belt and fished the thing out of one of his pouches.

'You all copy?' he asked once it was safely in his ear.

'James, tell us what you found,' Loki said almost right away.

'No more sentries, but those were the least of our problems anyway,' he said.

'What of Curwen?' Strange asked.

'He's not going to cause trouble,' Wanda told him. 'Do you want to ask him any questions or should he go to sleep?'

'I think we have a few questions,' Steve said. 'We better find out what we're up against while we have a moment to breathe.'

'I'll take him down,' Bucky told them. 'There's no way further in from up here.'

Bucky assumed Curwen and co retreated here before they went nuts, maybe they were under attack and thought this was a way further inside. Well, they managed to activate the sentry guns, but not much else. Or maybe Steve and Loki triggered those when they opened up that door, it was hard to tell from the current status report, cause all the guns were shot to hell now. This was a handy guard position, but limited, so once Bucky had all relevant information from the computer there was no point staying in here. He pulled his gun and put a bullet in the screen, one in the keyboard and two in the panel next to it, just in case.

'What are you shooting at?' Pietro asked, sounding worried.

'Just some computer, relax,' Wanda told him. 'Not a fan of technology?' she looked at him, smiling.

Bucky didn't comment, he just walked back to her and Curwen and grabbed him by his clothes, pulling him back to his feet. All black, still looking like a priest, what a joke, no real priest had this much blood on their hands.

'Okay, lead the way then,' Wanda said with a sigh.

Bucky pulled Curwen along as he walked back to the edge of the small room, trying to avoid stepping on the bodies. Wanda seemed to handle the blood and gore fairly well, but maybe she just had a really good poker face, or she was good at compartmentalising. Vision was already hovering outside in the air, waiting for them.

'I could take him down, it might be quicker for you.'

Bucky had no reason to argue, so he just shoved Curwen forward. The priest was pliant, not reacting to the treatment. Vision grabbed him around his chest and descended. Bucky gestured for Wanda to fly out.

'That's an awful lot of blood,' Wilson commented through the comm.

'There was an awful lot of blood up there,' Vision answered simply.

Bucky took one look at the bloody room and the pile of corpses, then dropped down from the room. It was not that high up, he could easily land on his feet without trouble. His ears popped and his stomach made a strange little drop mid-air. The altitude changed inexplicably and his body was reacting to it, his eyes went blurry for a second as he landed... on pale yellow grass.

He straightened up looking around, muscles tense and his gun up. He didn't even really expect to see Steve, Loki or any of the Avengers anymore, so he wasn't that surprised when he confirmed that he was alone. The sky was purple and orange, the wind on his face dry and warm. It was quiet, no bugs in the grass, no birds in the sky. He would have seriously considered that he was hallucinating, but he knew wouldn't be that lucky.

'I don't suppose anyone can hear me,' he said, just to try it out, but of course there was no answer in his ear.

Then there was a noise in the distance, a familiar snarling that meant nothing good for him. He couldn't see anything appraoching, but there were a few slopes and hills not that far away so he couldn't see that far, even if the land was barren otherwise. Sill, it was probably a good idea to start moving in the opposite direction and see where that led him. He only took one step forward when a flash of light blinded him for a moment. He put his metal arm up to protect his face reflexively.

He couldn't feel any pain, nothing burnt or cut his skin, there was no pressure or other damage, so he opened his eyes again. His arm was glowing with Gaea's colourful symbols, from red to violet, pulsing with power. The colour spread out on the metal seeping into the plates from the symbols, like they were dissolving a little.

'My sister really does protect you.'

Yelena's voice touched distant memories in his mind, the echoes of the past they shared, but the deep rumble underneath it was all Chthon and there was nothing familiar about it. He turned to stare at him. The clothes looked nondescript and combat ready, definitely something Yelena picked out for herself before all of this happened. Chthon probably didn't care about appearances enough to change them.

Bucky didn't lift his gun, because there was no point, not against Chthon. He wasn't dead yet either, which made him a little suspicious.

'Oh, you are trying to figure me out,' Chthon said then, eyeing him strangely.

He heard the snarling from far away again, but it seemed a little closer now... maybe not, sound seemed to travel a little strangely here, maybe it was the emptiness.

'Don't worry, they won't come, not until I want them to.'

Bucky just stared, not saying anything.

'Gaea made sure I couldn't touch you personally, but I don't really need to, do I?'

Yeah, not when he could make demons do it for him. So again, why was Bucky still alive? He could only think of one logical explanation.

'Bait, huh?' he asked.

Chthon smiled and the expression looked foreign on Yelena's face.

'I'm not quite that predictable,' he said. 'My followers are more than prepared to deal with your allies. They won't interrupt.'

'So what?' Bucky asked, voice as neutral as he could make it.

Chthon didn't say anything, but Bucky did catch him glancing at his arm, still alight with Gaea's magic. Bucky heard the thuds of feet, heavy clawed feet, running towards them. The sound made his skin crawl and his muscles tense, he couldn't help it. He was all too aware of his chances on his own. The sky turned more purple and blue now, less orange, but somehow it was still as bright as before.

Chthon was doing something, Bucky could feel it in his gut, but he couldn't tell what it was exactly. The demon walked closer after a long moment of silence, and Bucky took a step back, but it was pointless. He was in the middle of nowhere, definitely not on Earth anymore, and the only reason he didn't have N'Garai chasing him across these fields was that Chthon didn't order them to attack him yet. Not yet, because he had something else in store. Bucky couldn't figure out what it was, so he didn't know how to fight it.

'I should thank the Trickster for bringing you this close,' Chthon said. 'And I will, once you've taken me home.'

Bucky looked down at his bionic arm, Gaea's magic still bright and warm, protecting him. He wondered what would happen if he touched Loki's rune. Would Chthon give him the chance to do it? Would Loki be able to tell where he was, and come to him like always? He had no idea, but he didn't have much to lose. He took another step back and pulled his glove off. Chthon didn't follow him, but there was a snarl right behind Bucky, a clear signal to stop moving.

He still touched the rune, let if flare to life, glowing golden. It was almost impossible to tell it apart from Gaea's symbols, it was just one more glowing spot, a slightly different colour. If nothing else, Loki would know that he was alive for now.

Chthon probably noticed what he did, but he didn't seem to care. He took another step closer and Bucky stepped back, the snarl from behind him was much louder this time and it was joined by another... then another.

'I only need you alive, not unharmed,' Chthon said. 'So I would be careful about my decisions if I were you.'

Bucky scoffed. 'Really? "Easy way or the hard way"? Not the first time I hear that one.'

'I'll remind you later that I have given you a choice,' Chthon said.

'Screw you,' Bucky answered simply. The N'Garai closest to him growled threateningly and Bucky turned, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The sound seemed to shatter some of the unnatural stillness that surrounded them. His guns were average, but his bullets were not. The odds were not in his favour at all, but his other option was to just bend over and give up, let Chthon do whatever he wanted. Fuck that.

No matter what Chthon planned to do, he was not gonna get anything from Bucky. No, his demons would have to take him down first, and Bucky planned to kill as many of them as he could before that happened. No matter who had him in their hands before, they always had to drag him kicking and shouting, they had to beat him down until he couldn't get up anymore. He never went down without a fight. He didn't plan to start now.

x-x-x

To be continued...