The sun started to light up the sky as they made their way out of the small canyon where the trail had lead them. Emerging felt a bit victorious but it was dampened by the sight of miles and miles of desert terrain, though thankfully not sand dunes.
"Which direction?" Tony asks. His throat is all ready parched and starting to itch for water, but he won't complain, he swears it to himself.
"By my estimations we have a twelve day hike to the city of Arar across this desert due east. But without provisions we'll never make it." Clint's biting his bottom lip as he looks around. The dirt covering his blue sleeveless shirt seems to have doubled since they left the cave. Tony didn't think Clint's cargo pants or his own tailored slacks would ever be the same again.
"Okay, but there is a second option, right?" Tony really didn't like the way Clint's dusty face scrunched up when he frowned.
"Yes, the other option is to head south," Clint turned right and pointed further away to a large mountain that had been hidden by night and the canyon walls.
"Okay, that's another mountain. People live there?" Tony asks, squinting to look at it.
"There's a small town on the other side. It should take us three days, if we move quick," Clint admitted, but then he frowned looking north and back into the canyon.
"Why wouldn't that be the best option then?" Tony asks, knowing he's not going to like the answer.
"Because the sedation gas didn't smell," Clint says, and sighs.
"I-how is that an answer?" Tony demands. If the heat had cooked the archer's brain they were so very screwed.
"Because that gas was high-end! No one who had the money to buy that kind of merchandise will be dumb enough to believe we marched out into the desert to our deaths. They will know we are heading over that mountain, because that's our only option! They'll be hunting every second we're on that mountain, and they will have the advantage," Clint looks angry now, and Tony can sympathize.
"How high-end was that sedation gas?" Tony asks, curious.
"Honestly? Stupid high. You could afford it, but most could not. I've encountered a lot of knock-out gas, and almost all have a slight smell if you've been trained to know to smell for it. Two don't have any detectable scents, but one leaves a flowery aftertaste, and unless you're tasting roses and not telling me, it's the second option," Clint crouches down on his haunches as he looks around again.
"Okay, so more than likely whoever is coming after us has the resources to keep at us until we're dead or recaptured," Stark summarizes. He sends a familiar shiver of terror down his back.
"And then some," the archer stands again. There is a line creased along his forehead, and Tony has a moment where he just wants to kiss it away. Really this whole captured thing would go so much better if it wasn't happening during his crush of the decade. Of course the universe decides to throw them together when he was struggling to put his feelings into some semblance of sense.
"Is there a third option?" Tony asks. He pushes all other thoughts aside, and hopes his inappropriate nature doesn't make him do anything stupid before they are rescued.
Clint shakes his head, and looks back up toward the tiny hole in the mountain wall where they had come down from. He looks back to the other mountain in the distance. There was no better option. If they didn't die from a lack of water, it might be possible for him to get them up and over. Clint hates to think about the other possibilities, the ones where whoever had taken them actually catches up to them. It wouldn't be pretty, but if he can see them coming, he might be able to give Tony enough of a head start as a distraction. Glancing at the dark-haired man, Barton knew that he would try to protest, but Tony's continued safety was the only priority, whether the other man knew it or not.
"We have to move," Clint says finally, spurring action from himself as much as getting Tony to move forward too.
Just as they take their first steps, an explosion rings out from above and behind them. They glance up towards the cave where they had been held in time to see smoke coming out across the sky.
Neither of them say anything as they immediately break into run toward the distant mountain.
The car pulling into the airport should have brought some relief for the tension building in Natasha's calves and around her temples. She wants to rub her temples to try to ease the ache, but can't with so many people looking for her to keep it together. Everything about the situation makes her want to scream and beat on people until she gets Clint back. Her whole life had been people trying to hurt her, but Clint had been the first to want to protect her. She had let him and to the current minute, even through the Battle at Midtown and aliens, magic, and insanity, she had never regretted the decision. Now there was a familiar ache that the he could be taken, hurt or worst had crept into her bones and settled in for the length of the mission.
"Wheels up in five minutes," Coulson says, addressing Pepper and Happy. All Natasha can do is wait. She rolls her shoulder and lets her fingers slide over concealed knives. A dark part of her is growling and pacing at the chance to let loose, to find her best friend, her partner, her balancing stone…there were not strong enough words for Clint. It was why people often mistook them for a couple. Even though Clint was gay and she couldn't see him in a sexual manner, they had tried once. It had been awkward and neither of them had gotten their clothes off before it was clear that they were never going to be like that. It was better that way, Natasha needed him many ways, to need him for sex too would have strained their relationship, especially since they were constantly being separated for missions and the like.
A beep snaps her from her thoughts, and Natasha watches Pepper pull out her phone. It isn't unusual for the CEO of Stark Industries constantly harangued by work, so Natasha goes back to watching the car drive toward the private air field.
Once the car stills, there is a new flurry of activity. Agents of SHIELD are helping load the plane, making sure nothing unwanted is smuggled on board. Coulson goes to speak to another Handler about how Pepper and Happy should be transferred. Happy, unused to being transported as something other than the help, tries to help out the others, only to get in the way. He eventually stands at the bottom of the steps, waiting for Pepper to board the plane.
For a moment, Natasha is too busy checking out the ground personnel to notice that Pepper has exited the car, but hasn't gotten farther than the door. She's standing there, still absorbed in her phone when Natasha glances over. She narrows her eyes as she sees a tear slip down the blonde's cheek from behind a pair of expensive sunglasses.
"Miss Potts?" Coulson asks, taking a step towards her. Nat hesitates, until a sob escapes the woman before her hand comes up to clasp over her mouth. Phil catches her before she drops to her knees, he gently holds her as Pepper starts to cry. Snatching up the phone from the loosened grip, Natasha sees a replay button for a video on the screen. She taps it without thought, even as Happy moves behind her to watch over her shoulder.
At first the video is too dark to see anything. It's clear the camera is moving, but mostly it is shadows and what Nat thinks is dirt. The assumption proves right when suddenly the light comes on and she can clearly see a cavern. Her eyes moves frantically, taking in the proportions of the area before the camera shifts to the door as two men entered, dragging a third.
There was no mistaking that blonde hair or chiseled jaw. Her stomach churns as there is shouting in a language she doesn't speak. Two more men comes in dragging a dark-haired man, they drop him in the dirt, but not before they pull back his head to show clearly that it is Tony Stark.
More men shout, they all wear wraps around their heads and faces, only eyes can be seen as they bicker. There seems to be a disagreement about what should happen next. Natasha watches the camera move through the door again, and she sees it shut and locked. It moves through a tunnel before it cuts off. The video picks up a second later, still in the tunnel. The screen follows a wrapped cord on the ground, she can't place it for a moment, and then it clicks. It is a detonation cord bundle.
The screen goes white for a second as the camera adjusts to being out in sunlight. The men go down a little trail, where the cord ends a switch. The screen swivels back to the opening and Natasha barely has a moment to suck in a breath before there is an explosion shooting out dust and rocks out onto the trail. They wait until most of the debris has settled, before they move back up to the opening…or what remains of the opening. Large rocks block what was the opening, making it impossible to see where there had even been an opening.
Everything goes black and white text appears. "You could have saved him."
Finally the video ends and a replay button comes up.
Behind her Happy sniffs, and she bets her paycheck that he too is now crying. The dark part of Natasha grows silent, steady, and calm. A quiet fury settles into her skin, and the tension she carried is gone. She promises herself vengeance and the dark side of her thrums in agreement.