Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, they followed any possible lead on finding Beth but all turned up dead ends.
Steve had a sneaking suspicion they kept moving her, it was reinforced when they discovered traces of her DNA on bandages they found two months after shed gone missing in a ware house in berlin when two weeks before that they found her blood in a closed down factory in Detroit in a small windowless room.
Tony was getting desperate and worried beyond reason but they all were, Steve though for some reason if they weren't torturing her they might have been using her blood for something that could be worse than torture.
They had all discussed reasons as to why she would be taken, she was female had been tossed around until Natasha spoke up saying she was also female and weaker than Beth so if that was the reason it would have been her they were looking for not Beth, so they decided it had to be something specific for her but no one could think of what it could possibly be, not at first.
"Erskine's formula" Steve said during one of their meetings food staying mostly untouched by all of them, accept for Thor nothing could stop the gods appetite.
Everyone looked at him and Tony's eyes lit up with realization "but she wasn't given the actual formula, at least not what they gave you, it was a formula extracted from your blood that they... oh my god"
Tony's face went pale as he suddenly relised what Steve had been thinking for weeks "but why didn't they come after you instead?" Bruce asked in Tony's silence "because I had the full formula, simply put I'm too strong" so they knew why and they had something to go one.
They needed to look for someplace with high electricity use to run the machines needed to proses and maintain any samples they had processed.
But while they knew what they were doing they didn't know how close they were to finishing and that it was entirely possible that they could finish at any time and no longer need her, so a new since of urgency pushed them, it didn't help the stress levels or their tempers.
One thought continuously raced through Steve's head, he was the reason she was in this situation it was he taking the formula drawn from his blood that made her get taken, it was his fault and he had to find her.
He had to.
Beth had no idea how long shed been in captivity, she just knew that she'd been takin someplace, they moved randomly but the location was always a mystery to her, they were either drugging her or covering her head.
Sometimes even both.
They gave her enough food and water to ensure she recreated her blood supply quickly, randomly giving her a small amount of vitamin C, but with her advanced metabolism she lost muscle mass and weight, she needed more so finally she did what she had to do.
They were going to kill her after they got what they wanted anyway so why not ensure she did what she had to do so shed stay alive just a little longer.
"I'll help" she told the man when he arrived with her daily food and water, the man was young had dark marks on his face almost like tattoos and he seemed surprised when she finally spoke after so long, he put down the tray he carried and ran out.
The old man returned with him in tow a few minutes later "I hear you're finally willing to cooperate miss stark" she gave the man a strong hard look "only on a few conditions"
The man smiled "I won't be letting you go anytime soon" she rolled her eyes but it made her dizzy her blood volume was way low "duh, I'm not stupid, I want more food, more water, maybe the possibility to get clean clothing"
The man looked excited "and you'll tell us what they did?" he questioned she narrowed her eyes then hung her head "better, do everything I asked for, and I'll build you the machine they used on me"
She was pretty sure the man would have squealed if he was a woman.
She just closed her eyes again as they left the room, she'd just made a deal with the devil and challenged him to a game of chess.
She could only hope she was smart enough to stay three moves ahead.