Chapter 8

Liz watched the metal contraption coming down for a third time. Every time the electricity ran through her body, there were different memories that would come up. Small details from her childhood were slowly starting to get fuzzy. Everything around her was a blur- time, conversations, locations. She didn't know how long the sessions with the contraptions were, and the more distant memories became fuzzy, the more everything in her life seemed to blur together.

Despite how blurry things were, Liz tried to pay attention to conversations around her, listening for anything that would give her a clue as to where she was, where Steve was, and what they were trying to do to her.

Monocle Man had come and gone a few times with different doctors. They'd taken blood, would check her vitals, at one point someone tried to clean her stitches. Metal Arm never left the room. Liz would try to talk to him, but he never said a word. He just- stared. His gaze never left her. He never removed his mask. All she could see was his lifeless eyes.

Liz looked up hearing foot steps around the corner. Monocle Man came back in and looked at her, "Now Miss Stark, are we ready to try again?"

Liz tried to move, but the metal restraints came back down over her arms. She snarled at Monocle Man and thrashed her head as the head piece began to move down again. Metal Arm came over and seized her by the hair. Liz screamed in pain, before the metal contraption sent the electricity through her head.

~0~

Steve threw his shield, sending three men into a wall. They lost the element of surprise when Tony blasted through the wall. Alarms were going off, telling people to evacuate. Steve looked around. Evacuation could mean them moving Liz. There were people in lab coats running in different directions, trying to let the team deal with the chaos of the people in ballistic geer. Steve wasn't sure what, but these people were hiding something.

"Banner what's the view from outside look like?" Steve said, slamming his fist into another guard.

"There's not much Captain, they're organized in the way they are evacuating. Like they've practiced. They've got some boxes being evacuated but they're not huge." The doctor said.

"Any sign of Liz?" Tony asked, his blaster deflecting off of Steve's shield, nailing a set of doctors.

"No."

"Barton, Romanoff, do you think you can keep these guys occupied?" Steve looked at the spys.

"What do you think we've been doing?" Natasha shot him a smile. Steve gave a smile back.

"Tony, you take even floors, I'm going to take odd. Let's start snaking down to see if we can find her."

"Right," Tony said, blasting a hole in the floor next to him and jumping down.

Natasha looked back at Steve, "Go find your girl."

Steve paused for a moment, this mission had been about getting Tony's sister back, but he knew Natasha could tell he had feelings for her. He nodded, and ran toward the stairs. By the twenty fifth level, Steve could hear screams.

"Stark, I think I got her, sublevel 25." he said

"On it," Tony said.

Steve pushed the door open slightly, trying to check around the corner. Liz's screams became louder, as he opened the door all the way. There was a long hallway in front of him, lit with fluorescent lights, and concrete was made of concrete. The reflection from the light left a greenish hue over the hallway. The hallway had a branch off to his left. In front of him, he could see a few doors lining the hallway. Towards the end there was a door open on either side, and he could hear Lix screaming. As he moved forward, he stopped therefore the branch off to the left. As he turned, a guard fired a few shots. Steve ducked back behind the corner, he slid his shield off his forearm, throwing it at the wall adjacent to him, ricocheting into the guard in the branching hallway, causing the man to fall. He walked over to the man, and as he knelt to grab his shield, he noticed something on the man's helmet- a skull with six tentacles. Steve inhaled, sharply, running his fingers over the symbol on the unconscious man's helmet.

Liz let out another strong scream, bringing Steve back to reality. Steve got to his feet, taking off to the room at the end of the hallway, seeing Liz completely naked. She had restraints around her arms and legs, and over her face there was metal pressing down. He saw her bandages around her shoulder and leg. Steve grabbed his shield, and smashed the metal piece over her face, ripping it away as it fell. Liz's screams started to quiet to a whimper.

"Liz, Liz can you hear me?" Steve asked, and he tried to yank the restraints from the chair but they wouldn't move, "Liz, I need you to let me know you can hear me," He cupped her face gently, looking into her glazed over eyes. "Banner, get the jet prepped, she's in bad shape."

He took his shield slamming down on the restraints.

"Cap how bad is she?" Tony asked, his voice laced with concern. He still hadn't gotten down to them yet.

"She's conscious but unresponsive." Steve picked Liz up in his arms, holding her close. He was just thinking how much he wanted her to be okay. "Stark meet us back at the jet."

Steve worked his way up the levels as he looked down at Liz's pale face. She had a black eye, a handprint around her neck, blood around her nose and mouth, and bruising along her jaw. She had bandaging on her shoulder and leg where she had been shot before. There was bruising where all her restraints had been like she had tried to break out of them, "I'm so sorry Liz. I never should have told you to run. Just hold on."

Steve ran into the quinjet, and Tony jumped to see him. He rushed side by side with Steve as Banner got the table ready for her.

"Oh my god, what did they do to her?" He asked, as Natasha brought up the ramp to the quin jet.

"I don't know Tony," Steve looked over to him.

Bruce was removing her bandages, and running scans. Tony locked eyes with Steve, and Steve watched his face change from concern to anger. Tony lunged at Steve pinning him to the wall, "This is all your fault!" He yelled.

Steve pushed Tony back, as Clint stepped in front of him, "Stark, there was nothing he could have done okay? She's alive, and that's the important thing. Now you can either sit around pointing fingers about whose fault this is, or you can help Banner take care of her."

Tony glared at Steve, before turning and walking over to Bruce.

Steve sighed, looking back at Liz. Bruce had covered her with a thermal blanket they had in the trauma victim kit. Bruce shined a light over glazed eyes, writing something on his tablet, before he placed a monitor on her finger.

"You okay Cap?" The archer asked.

"Hmm?" Steved looked towards him, "Yeah, I'm good. I'm going to go help Romanoff."

He walked up towards the cockpit of the quinjet and thought back to the man near where Liz was. The emblem on his helmet. It reminded him of the Red Skulls symbol. He shook the thoughts from his head and sat down next to Natasha.

"You okay?" She asked not looking away from the skyline.

"Yeah, fine." He said.

"You're a terrible liar," She said looking over to him.

"Just got a weird feeling back there."

Hope you guys are enjoying, please leave a comment to review, give me some ideas. Hope you're catching little hints to future characters! I'll start leading into the phase two movies here in the next couple chapters!