Chapter Four:

Pietro's POV

When we land, I speed off the plane and look around the building. Nothing. No sign of Elena. I go back to the group, running my hand through my hair.

Tony heads to the panic room, the one place I couldn't enter and opens the door.

Pepper and Cassie are sitting on the floor. Cassie jumps up when the door enters and runs out. "Daddy!" She shouts, running into Scott's arms.

"It's okay, sweetheart." He comforts her.

Tony helps Pepper off the ground. "Are you okay?" He asks.

"Yes. We are both fine." She says.

Cassie voices the concern on everyone's minds, "What happened to Elena?"

No one knows how to answer the little girl, but Scott comforts her. "She's going to be alright. The Avengers are going to find her." He says. "We're going to go home and let the team work."

Scott passes Tony, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck. You know how to get in touch if you need me."

"Thanks," Tony says as Scott leaves with his daughter.

I'm pacing now, burning a hole in the floor. "So, what are we going to do now?" I asked impatiently.

Tony is at the computer, typing incessantly. "I'm trying to see if there's any footage of what happened."

Pepper interjects. "Somehow, FRIDAY and the security system was shut down."

"I have no idea how that's even possible," Tony sighs, "but it looks like only those systems were hit. I'm able to pull the footage of the camera above the panic room."

The video plays. It shows the girls entering the room with two agents behind them and two other agents already in the room.

One of them speaks through an earpiece, "We have the asset."

I can only assume he's referring to Elena and it makes my blood boil. She was just an object, a possession, in their eyes.

Another man enters the camera's views. Elena tenses at the sight of the man. He's tall and although he's dressed similar to the other agents, there is an air of superiority around him. I already hate him.

"Do you think that's her handler?" I hear Tony asks Steve.

"Probably. Nikolai Zamfir, I believe." Steve responds.

I see Elena prepare herself to protect Cassie and Pepper.

"Ah, playing hero, I see." The man, Nikolai, says. He turns to the agents, "Round them up and let's go."

The one closest to Elena goes to grab her and she easily gets out of his grip and pushes him into another agent. She's prepared to fight the other, but Nikolai holds up a hand to tell them to wait.

Nikolai laughs arrogantly, "you can take out all the men in the room, there are more outside the building."

I see Elena swallow hard, "You don't want them," she reasons. "You don't want the Avengers chasing you down, that's what taking them will bring."

I shake my head, was that a ploy or does she really think that we wouldn't hunt down all of Hydra to find her?

Nikolai makes a snide remark about her accent. I never really thought about it, only when she was really upset did it ever slip and that only happened once. It was hard to imagine that this was the same organization that gave me my speed was the same that turned her into a weapon and one that could blend into any environment.

He continues. "You're right, I don't really care about them. Although I'm sure someone in Hydra could use the little one as a future asset." He smiles at the little girl, and she buries her face in Pepper's shoulder.

This sadistic bastard.

Elena clenches her fists. "You'll have to kill me to get to them."

"And let's say I let them go, then what do I get."

"Wouldn't the Avengers not spending every moment hunting you down be enough?" Elena answers.

He chuckles. This bastard makes me want to scream, I'm shaking with anger.

"Let the two of them in." He says to his men.

Pepper whispers to Elena and from the footage I can't tell what she says. Elena whispers back and Pepper looks upset.

I glance over at Pepper as she watches herself. She shakes her head and rubs her face, clearly unhappy with what happened.

I turn back to the footage. "So, now it's just us." Nikolai says. "Now are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way."

"I've never heard of the easy way." Elena says. I'm proud of her confidence in a horrible situation.

"You've gotten feisty. It'll be fun to beat it out of you." He motions for his agents to move.

I swear if this bastard does anything to her, it'll be the last thing he does. I'm hot with anger and this feeling of helplessness. She's with him right now and… there's nothing I can do, but watch this stupid video.

The four agents come at her, but she manages to take them all down. "You need to get better agents it looks like," Elena quips.

"I'm working on it." He says. "You must have gotten soft; they all still look to be breathing." His comment reminds me of something that's almost hard to believe at this point, that she had killed people for Hydra. It just didn't seem like Elena, the girl I knew.

Nikolai and Elena start fighting, but something is off.

"You're not the only one enhanced now," he says with amusement, and he holds her up by the neck. "I was going to surprise you when I got to the base. The scepter was a little too dangerous, but the super serum has been providing good results. But when I got back you had escaped with the Avengers. You didn't think I was going to let that slide, did you? I spent a lot of time finding a way to break in here, when the Avengers were gone, through all of Stark's security, just to get to you."

"I'm flattered," Elena says sarcastically.

"You should be. You know how I feel about you. I love you." He tells her.

"Obsession is not—" She starts.

Suddenly, he kisses her. She tries to push him off, but struggles. All my anger before was hot, but now my skin feels icy. I swallow back bile.

I feel someone touch my shoulder and I flinch away, only to look and see my sister. I let her place her hand on my shoulder.

I turn my head away as he touches the skin of her stomach, but I'm brought back to the sound of her being thrown to the floor. An agent injects something into her neck.

She panics and grabs for his gun. She manages to grab it, but she doesn't have many options.

She points it up at her head and pulls the trigger. My heart stops, but nothing happens.

Nikolai laughs above her. "New guns." He says. "Fingerprint activated."

Elena passes out and Nikolai motions his agents to carry her out of the building.

A few seconds pass of us watching an empty room before Tony shuts off the footage. The room is tense.

Steve is the first one to speak, "How did any of this happen?" His voice is low and strained.

"I don't know." Tony said, quietly.

"We'll find her." Natasha said. "And she'll be okay. She's a strong girl."

"Yeah," Tony says despondently and walks out of the room. Pepper follows.

Soon, everyone leaves the room and I stand here unsure where to go.