Steve was walking down the street in silence; he had to get away from Thor and Tony's arguing and think.
They had been so close this time, the blood hadn't even had time to dry on the floor but they couldn't find any other sign of Beth or her abductors.
So deep in thought Steve didn't notice that he was being followed, until he glanced back in a store window.
The man was staying a little way back just barely keeping Steve in sight, he was blond blue eyes and was nursing a broken arm with the remains of what had to be a nasty bruise on his face, Steve almost instantly recognized the man as Jason, apparently Beth had given as well as she got with the man.
But why was he following Steve? Slowly pieces started to click until he had a vague idea what the picture was he was looking at and he discreetly moved to less busy streets before disappearing on the man.
The guy wasn't very intelligent and ran forward to try and find him not noticing when Steve dropped behind him until he loomed over the man.
"start talking make it fast, make it true" the man whirled around reaching in his jacket with one hand but Steve caught his arm and squeezed hard "I will do a lot worse than break it if you don't start talking"
He thought the man would pee his pants, good.
"What do you want to know?" he stuttered shaking "where did they take Beth, don't even pretend you don't know who that is you dated her for the last few months"
His eyes were so wide it wouldn't surprise Steve if he passed out "I don't know what"
Steve's grip tightened until he felt bones grinding together and he cried in pain "either you tell me what I want to know or else I'll hand you over to her brother, he's a lot less patient than I am" if possible he shook worst "Okay! Okay... What do you want to know?"
Steve smirked a little finally they had somewhere to start.
Beth's condition didn't get much better but she was given basic tools, whatever supplies she asked for and more food.
Nothing on the fresh clothing though, she didn't mind too much.
She was kept in constant supervision the younger man with the dark marks on his face acting as her assistant, he didn't talk much but that was alright, she talked enough for both of them.
She retold stories about captain America because that always kept the attention of the young man; apparently he was a fan, big surprise there.
The first time he spoke was a couple days after she started working on the vita-ray chamber they had shoved her into, never mind she had no idea how to build one she was doing something a little different and shed seen the plans once.
She was looking at some diagrams she had drawn when the boy spoke "are you, like the captain?" she looked up and turned to the man then smiled a little "yeah, I have the same thing in my blood he dose, kind of. It's what they want and it's how I've survived this long"
Beth knew her ribs were more prominent arms thinned, she didn't like it but at least she was alive, no matter how much she looked like she used to.
"do you know him?" the guy asked she looked down and smiled thinking of all the times she made the man blush and nodded "yeah, were friends, I always try to make him blush when were in the same room because I think it's cute, the big tough soldier, the perfect soldier that's saved a million lives in his time, he always looks tough. But when he blushes he just looks..."
She searched her vocabulary so a fitting word shed found since shed been starving her mental strength had also started to diminish "young?" she looked at the man and smiled "human" she corrected and he looked down then up again "could I meet him one day?"
She smiled "sure, so tell me about you, what's your story?" the man started to close up ducking his head farther but then he paused and seemed to debate something in his head before straitening again and started to talk.
He was the adopted son of the old guy Bernard skein, his name was Nicolas, and he'd been nothing more than a lackey for years barely treated any better than she was.
She suddenly felt herself grow angry and made a mental promise new surge of hope in her chest like a fireball, she swore shed get this boy out of here.
Slowly the machine came into being until after a month it was finished a surprising laying among its innards she knew she probably wouldn't live to see it but she knew it would work perfectly even if not in the usual way.
Once the machine was finished they pulled her aside and they beat her, she had regained a little bit of her strength but it left her after the first kick to her head.
They chained her down to a table in a lab shed never been in before to a table in a crucified position it felt like something weighed down her arms as they hung off each side of the table, she couldn't lift then.
They attached the transfusion tubes to both of her arms and started to drain every precious drop of her blood.
She felt her eyes go heavy and her head fell back hard, maybe she couldn't keep her mental word.
She'd never been good at keeping promises anyway.
She felt the darkness surrounding her in a warm blanket and thought as her eyes closed she could hear someone shouting her name she imagined Steve coming for her with her brother and friends but knew it was just the blood loss talking, if they came, when they came.
It would be too late.