AN: FYI – I don't know the extent of a reaper's powers, so I'm maybe taking liberties with that aspect.
This chapter was beta'd by the awesome Morrismsteph! Any remaining errors are obviously mine, but if any of you want them, you can have them!
A smirk slowly slid over the reaper's face as she acknowledged Dean, "Winchester." Taking in the assembled heroes, she observed, "An interesting assortment, even for you." Her eyes stopped on Steve, who flushed and squirmed a bit under her piercing gaze, "Very interesting."
"So, can you –" at Billie's condescending glance, Dean quickly amended, "Will you help?" He gestured to the unresponsive Bruce, whose colour was already pallid, and lips tinged blue.
Having stopped in shock at the sudden appearance of whatever the hell 'Billie' was, Natasha and Clint quickly returned their efforts towards resuscitating Bruce.
Casting a dismissive glance at the prone man, Billie met Dean's eyes, "To help implies a degree of selfless generosity you know for a fact I don't possess. So no, I will not help you." Her lips quirked up at the collective slumping of shoulders from the group, save for the Winchesters, who were braced, anticipating her next words, "I will, however, consent to a trade."
Sam grabbed Dean's arm, stopping him from jumping straight into another idiotic deal, "We don't need her, Dean. Tony and Thor can save him with the suit."
"You can save the dying. You can't save the dead," Billie stated, utterly unmoved by the resulting chaos caused by her revelation of Bruce's death.
The group turned to look at Bruce's motionless form, Tony immediately abandoning the suit to rush to his side. It was obvious she was right. Bruce was dead. Unable to stop himself, Tony let out a sound of anguish at the terrible sight of his brother in all but blood lying lifeless on the ground.
For as long as he could remember, Tony's reaction in the face of overwhelming pain was to either lash out or drink himself comatose. Lacking access to alcohol, he turned towards the most logical targets. With tears in his eyes and voice, he glared at Sam and Dean, "You killed him! All you had to do was finish the exorcism, but instead you killed him with that goddamned knife! What good are you two?!"
"It was killing Sam!" Dean defended instinctively, before reaching into his very shallow well of tact and sensitivity and pulling out some kindness, "I'm sorry. Truly, I am, but I couldn't let my brother die. I just couldn't. Not when I could save him. I really thought stabbing Bruce in the thigh would prevent the knife from killing him."
Billie rolled her eyes at the drama and with a few chastising 'tsks', cut off Tony's next words and gathered everyone's attention, "If you had bothered to pay attention to the man you were all so desperate to save, you'd see he clearly died from internal injuries."
Looking at Bruce, it was obvious she was right. Dark bruises littered his torso and chest, indicative of internal bleeding.
"That knife didn't kill him. The demon did. Before you killed it, I'm assuming it sought to inflict as much wear and tear to its meatsuit as possible. Probably ruptured his organs just for the hell of it. Barring those injuries, your friend would've survived – the knife wouldn't have killed him."
Tony looked at Bruce and then at Sam and Dean, "Sorry. I'm an asshole."
Dean just shook his head while Sam assured Tony, "No apologies necessary."
"Okay, Billie. What's it gonna cost for you to bring Bruce back?" Dean knew it wasn't going to be cheap.
"Oh, just a favour. One little IOU of my choosing to be determined and collected when needed."
Resignation and dread overtook both Sam and Dean's expressions. That was a steep price tag.
At the brothers' hesitation, Tony erupted with anger, his remorse over blaming the brothers for Bruce's death forgotten, "What the hell are you waiting for?! Give this woman whatever she wants!"
"She's not a woman," Sam stated. "She's a reaper."
Billie casually waved at the collection of heroes, who were all staring at her in shock.
"Reaper? As in 'Grim, The'?" Tony incredulously posed. He, along with the rest of his teammates, cast another assessing look at the beautiful woman. Dressed in a brown leather jacket, tight black shirt, and fitted blue jeans, she was a far cry from the skeletal, scythe-wielding specter of death commonly associated with Halloween costumes. "Not to be rude, but I was expecting more billowing cloak and, oh, I don't know, less skin?"
Shaking his head, Sam corrected Tony, "Billie's not The Grim Reaper, she's a reaper. As in the species. There's loads of them. She's not Death. He's…uh…dead," he finished awkwardly, making to avoid the glare Billie shot at him at the reminder of her boss' death.
In the face of Sam and Dean's continued hesitation, she offered, "Look, I'll sweeten the pot." She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them only to stare wordlessly at the Winchesters.
Bemused, Dean queried, "Uh, what?"
Holding up a finger demanding patience, Billie didn't offer any explanation. Her bargaining chip appeared a moment later in the form of a beaten and bloodied Castiel. Stumbling forward upon landing, he was prevented from face-planting onto the pavement by the two accompanying reapers holding him up.
"CAS!" Sam and Dean shot forward, only to almost run straight into Billie, who had positioned herself directly in front of Cas, blocking him from Sam and Dean.
"You bitch!" Dean spat, "You had Cas this whole time?"
Billie huffed impatiently, "No, you simpleton. He was being held by demons. I merely retrieved him. So we either have a deal or he goes back to the cozy ring of holy fire I just plucked him from - up to you."
Billie knew she had them. Obviously, they were going to save Cas from holy fire, but Sam took a moment to shrewdly assess Billie's desperation to obtain a favour from the Winchesters.
"What could you possibly need a favour from us for? You've made it perfectly clear what you think of us."
"There are strange things afoot, and until I know what's going on, having one Sam and Dean Winchester up my sleeve is a nice little contingency plan. And if you end up proving completely useless…well, the cannons are always in need of more fodder."
"Why do reapers care about random demons stirring shit up topside?" Dean had never known reapers to give a rat's ass about anything other than ferrying souls.
"They're merely a symptom, not the disease," Billie's face creased with worry as she spoke.
"A symptom?!" Flabbergasted, Tony continued, "What 'disease' has this kind of symptom?"
Disregarding Tony completely, Billie impatiently pressed Sam and Dean, "Do we have a deal or not, Winchesters?"
"It's not Lucifer, is it?" Sam warily asked, wanting at least that much confirmation before he and Dean agreed to anything.
Billie shook her head, "Lucifer is still in the cage. If I'm certain of one thing, it's that he's not behind any of these events."
"I don't know if I'm relieved or not," Dean despaired.
"Uh, I'm voting for relief. It's the devil. What the hell could possibly be worse than literal Satan?!" Poor, naïve, ignorant Clint.
His words were met with an ominous silence before Billie mockingly tutted, "Oh, honey."
Nobody bothered with Clint's clueless, "Huh?"
Wanting to get this show on the road, Dean conceded to Billie's request, "Alright, alright – hand over Cas, heal Bruce, and we have a deal."
As shit as this situation was, getting Cas back was always a win in Dean's book. Looking at the angel, it was clear he was in rough shape. Not only physically, but his grace had obviously taken some sort of beating as the numerous cuts were still oozing blood instead of healing. He looked ready to pass out, barely hanging onto consciousness as the two reapers propped him up like a puppet.
"Excellent. I'll be in touch," With that, Billie nodded to the reapers, and the two of them promptly disappeared, leaving Castiel to crumple to the ground in a pile of limbs and trench coat. Dean rushed forward to check him over.
Before Billie could leave, Sam yelled, "Wait!" and quickly checked, "You don't happen to know where Crowley is, do you?"
Raising a sardonic eyebrow at Sam, Billie stated, "Of course I know where Crowley is, but that information will cost you, and I know you're not willing to make a second deal with me for one measly king of hell." Without waiting for confirmation, Billie vanished from sight.
Sam huffed out a frustrated breath before walking over to help Dean pick up a fallen Cas. Looking at the still-stunned Avengers, Sam barked out, "Somebody check on Bruce!"
A flurry of panicked rushing met his order as the Avengers flocked to their downed teammate.
Looking at Bruce, it was immediately apparent to everyone that he was no longer post-mortem. His colour had returned, the bruises indicating internal bleeding were gone, and his chest was rising and falling as he breathed on his own.
"Bruce! Can you hear me? Wake up!" Tony gently jostled his friend and almost passed out from relief at the pained groan that met his words.
"Ughhhh..." Bruce continued to moan as he slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the concerned faces of his teammates all peering down at him. "What happened?"
"We'll fill you in later, B. Just tell us what hurts."
Bruce managed to moan, "Everything," before passing out.
"BRUCE!" The team absolutely lost it, which was understandable considering the last time Bruce passed out, he died.
At the commotion, the two hunters and one angel looked over. Cas was doing much better. No longer surrounded by holy fire, he was able to focus enough to heal his body and stand on his own.
"He's alive. Just exhausted. He will be fine given enough rest," Cas informed the frantic group, having used his grace to assess Bruce. Turning his attention to Sam and Dean, he spoke, "I must return to Heaven immediately." He raised his hand, halting the immediate protests from the brothers, "I must warn them. It is unclear what's coming, but its power level is immense and I believe the Host is in its sights. Time is of the essence. I will meet up with you afterwards." As per Cas' normal exit etiquette, he promptly left Sam and Dean without another word.
"Friggin' great. Thanks for that, Cas," Dean grumpily began to pick up their discarded weapons as Sam made his way over to the Avengers.
"You guys okay?" Taking in each member, Sam was a little worried to see just how pale everyone looked. Tony, Clint, and Natasha were still on the ground, hovering over an unconscious Bruce. Thor was stoic and unmoving as he stood guard, surveying the street. Bucky and Steve stood together, silent. Beside them was a slightly shaking Spiderman, who Sam focused on, "You okay there, Spiderman?" He walked over and placed a stabilizing hand on the kid's shoulder.
Startled out of his thoughts, Peter jumped at the hand that landed on his shoulder, "W-what? Oh yeah, I'm good. No problem."
"You sure? Demons and reapers…it's a lot to take in," Sam acknowledged before continuing gently, "It's okay if you're scared."
"Who's scared out of their mind? Not me!" a clearly terrified Spiderman denied. He then began to argue with someone Sam couldn't see, "No, I'm not, Karen! You are! No, you're the one who's scared!"
Peter's one-sided conversation drew everyone's attention and provided some much-needed levity to the situation.
"Aww, Webbins, don't worry about it. We're all a little shook up." It was absolutely true, but Clint couldn't help but poke Pete's attempt at machoism with a mocking tone.
"I'm not shook up, you're shook up!" At everyone's pointed look at his shaking hands, Peter quickly hid them behind his back. "You guys suck." He did lean into the metal arm that Bucky threw around his shoulders, though, and was obviously bolstered when Natasha stepped up and shielded his other side, bumping shoulders.
"Don't worry, Mother Russia will protect you," Bucky stated, laying on the accent thickly. While his promise may have sounded like a joke, he was completely serious. He and Natasha pretty much adored the youngest Avenger (the entire team did). He reminded Bucky of his younger siblings and, while she never said as much, Bucky suspected Peter pinged whatever maternal instincts Natasha had left after the red room.
"Ty dazhe ne russkiy," Natasha stated. (You're not even Russian)
"Dostatochno blizko," Bucky shrugged. (Close enough)
The moment was interrupted when SHIELD's medical team finally arrived at the scene. After that, everything seemed to happen in a blur. Bruce was loaded into SHIELD medical transport, and Sam's wounds were tended to onsite before everyone (minus Bruce) was seated around a table in SHIELD's main conference room. Director Fury and Agent Coulson were at the head of the table waiting for everyone to collect themselves.
An awestruck Spiderman was the first to speak, unable to contain himself any longer, "OMG! I can't believe I'm in SHIELD! This is so awesome! Ned is gonna flip out!"
At Peter's teenaged voice, Tony went from slumped in his chair with his eyes closed to sitting up, fully alert. "Peter? What in the hell are you doing here?! Get back to school!"
Too busy arguing with each other, neither Tony nor Peter thought to hide the teenager's name from Sam and Dean.
Peter groaned as Tony's parental instincts kicked in, "Nooo! Mr. Stark, please! I want to stay for the debriefing. Please? I promise I won't tell Ned!"
"Nope. You've already missed enough school. I've seen your Spanish grade, kid, and I'm embarrassed to know you." Tony took out his phone and sent a quick text, "I've got Happy waiting outside to take you back to kindergarten. Now shoo. I'll be calling your aunt later to discuss just how much therapy you're going to need after today."
Grumbling, Spiderman stood and mulishly slunk out of the room, "I can't believe I have to go, yet naked guy gets to stay. At least I'm wearing pants."
At the reminder of his state of his attire (or lack thereof), Sam flushed and squirmed in his seat, "Right, can I, uh, get my clothes back?"
Coulson immediately stood and retrieved the bundle of Sam's clothing which he had ready in the corner. "My sincerest apologies, Mr. Winchester."
Sam wordlessly accepted his clothes and took a moment to pull his jeans on over the spandex shorts and replace Dean's tattered flannel with his own shirt.
"Now that the minors are gone and everyone's as decent as they're going to get, let's start with you, Thor." Fury wanted to get this debriefing over with before another demon decided to make his life difficult, "Care to explain how it was you arrived at the damn near perfect moment?"
A very serious Thor revealed, "I've requested Heimdall keep an eye on the Avengers whilst I am on Asgard. He saw as Bruce's control was overwhelmed by a foreign entity and witnessed you all fighting a losing battle against a darkness the likes of which we've never encountered."
"Time out," Tony interrupted, his hands in a 'T' formation. "So there aren't demons on Asgard?"
Clint let out a petulant, "No fair."
"How does that work?" From his seat between Thor and Natasha, Tony spoke to Sam and Dean, who were seated on the other side of the table next to Steve and Bucky.
Dean just shook his head, "Honestly, I have no friggin' idea. To put it mildly, Chuck is an odd duck, so I don't know what's going on with other worlds. Cas probably knows."
"Speaking of, where is Castiel?" Fury had some questions for the socially awkward, yet highly unnerving, Angel of the Lord.
"Back in heaven, trying to figure shit out," Dean shrugged.
"Well, what shit have we managed to figure out here on Earth?" Fury hated not having information. The World Security Council was going to be on his ass about this soon enough, and if he didn't know details, the twitchy yuppies would probably try to nuke New York again.
"You need to see it to believe, Patches. Jarvis, you got that video feed ready to go?" Tony spoke aloud to the room.
"Yes, sir."
Fury's one eye twitched in aggravation at both the 'Patches' and the fact that Stark had once again uploaded his AI into SHIELD's system. They had literally just purged Jarvis out of their mainframe not two days ago. The damn AI was like a cockroach.
"Great, thanks, J." To everyone else, Tony stated, "Instead of rehashing everything verbally, like a couple of Dark Agers, Jarvis collected CCTV footage of the fight."
As he had earlier in the day (he couldn't believe it was the same day), Tony flicked his phone towards the middle of the room, launching a holographic video feed of the battle.
They watched as Bruce was possessed and forced to transform into the Hulk. The team was pretty much useless until Spiderman showed up and, after saving the idiot kid, web-grenaded the Hulk into temporary submission. They got to see Thor's arrival a second time, which had them all cheering and clapping. The reappearance of the kid (little moron) and then as he was flung down an alley and Steve rushed to save him. They watched as Sam and Dean bravely approached the demon as he struggled in vain to remove Mjolnir. There were groans from the room's occupants as they were subjected to Dean's terrible Mjolnir-inspired "Hammer time." ("Shut up, I'm hilarious.") Fury and Coulson took particular note of just how quickly Sam and Dean bounced back after being flung into the side of a building - especially Sam, who was pretty worse for wear and clearly in pain from his bleeding side. They watched as the Hulk was finally stopped and a solemn Steve quietly rejoined the group after having confirmed the child's death. The arrival of Billie was just as shocking on video, as was the appearance of Castiel, and then Billie's resurrection of Bruce. The feed cut out once SHIELD arrived at the scene.
As they watched the part of the video showing Steve's return from chasing the flung kid, both Sam and Dean stiffened in their chairs. As soon as the video ended, the two of them raced through a conversation that baffled the rest of the room:
"Well, shit." - Dean
"Yeah." - Sam
"I've got four rounds." - Dean
"I've got the cuffs." - Sam
"It'll have to do." - Dean
The two Winchesters then exploded into a flurry of action. Dean whipped out his gun, turned to his left, and kicked Steve's chair away from the table. He fired all four rounds, shooting out Steve's knees and elbows. As Steve screamed in pain, Sam brandished the cuffs and clapped them on the distracted Captain America, binding his hands in front of him.
During those 15 seconds of sheer madness, the rest of the room yelled in shock and (too little, too late) rushed to stop Sam and Dean.
"Wait! It's a demon! Cap's possessed!" Dean yelled as he was tackled to the ground by a furious Bucky, who kicked the gun out of Dean's hand and then shoved Dean's face into the carpet. Dean winced in pain as his arm was twisted up behind his back, Bucky's metal arm wrenching it to the point that Dean was seriously concerned it was about to pop.
"It's true," Sam croaked out, struggling to draw breath as the Black Widow choked him with her thighs. "Look at the video – his eyes flashed black once he came back from chasing after the kid."
That had everyone drawing up short.
Shakily, Tony ordered, "Jarvis, run it."
Jarvis enhanced the moment in the video as Steve's eyes flickered black before blinking back to their normal sky blue when Bucky turned to talk to him.
Stunned, everyone looked towards Steve as his pained screams warped into deranged laughter.
Releasing Dean, Bucky stood up and took a tentative step towards his oldest friend, "Steve?"
Blinking Steve's bright blue eyes to reveal glistening black, the demon laughed, "You're all so goddamn easy. Oh, pardon my language. This guy's a fucking stickler for that shit."
AN: Hopefully you enjoyed that chapter! I'd love and appreciate any feedback :)