Sorry about the wait, guys! College has been keeping me very well occupied while it's kicking my butt. Anyway, I finally got a new chapter for you!

Warning: Depressive thoughts, slight language, angry Pietro

Raelynn POV

The cold, dark room made me shiver, but I keep my mouth shut when the guard asks if I'm cold. What I feel doesn't matter anymore; I'm nothing more than glass waiting for someone to shatter me. I had no idea how long I'd been there, strapped to that chair, letting my tears soak my blindfold and run in streams down my face until I had no more left to shed. I hadn't slept in what felt like years and I could still feel the sting of Heinz's knife cutting into me. Whatever he did, it left a trail of blazing pain from my collarbone to the crevice between my breasts, right over my heart. With every breath I took, the pain spread and now I can't even tell the difference between the pain and the numbness that had completely overtaken my mind. Every thought I had just vanished as quickly as it came, and if I was not wearing the blindfold, I'm sure I would have been staring off numbly into space.

By this point, I almost wanted them to kill me.

When the shouting started, I barely heard it over the sound of silence that was overtaking my mind. I dismissed the yelling quickly, knowing that it was not involving me. I didn't even react when the door banged open, quickly followed by the sound of something hitting the ground with a great thud.

"Oh my God," I could barely hear the man's voice say, "Raelynn."

Pietro POV

Breaking into the lab was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Many men scattered as soon as they saw the Captain. Even more ran off when they caught sight of Natasha.

"These are HYDRA soldiers, why are they running," Steve asked through the comms.

"Because they're not soldiers," Natasha replied. "They're scientists. From the Red Room."

I did not know what the Red Room was, but I could tell from the way she spat the words out, that it was horrible. I had lost sight of the rest of the team as I ran inside and down the stairs toward the main chamber that Raelynn and I had first been held in. However, the blonde was not there. Almost nothing was. The tank that had held Raelynn's unconscious body was now gone, as well as many of the monitors that had been hooked up to it. The scientists were a distraction, I realized, so that they could get the equipment out undetected.

"The scientists were distraction," I said through the comms, pressing my finger to my ear as I was still not used to wearing one. "They were moving equipment out. I do not know why, but it must be important." I didn't give them time to reply before zooming off to search other parts of the underground facility. All I wanted to do was find Raelynn.

"Does this mean that HYDRA and the Red Room are working together?" Steve's concerned voice echoed through my ear. None of us had a response, but it was an unspoken agreement. They were.

I found myself in a long hallway, guarded my multiple men with guns. I felt a smirk play on my lips before I took off at a run and knocked one of the men closest to me unconscious. The shouting only began once I got back to my hiding place and the other soldiers had noticed what had happened. I couldn't discern exactly what they were saying, but I didn't have enough patience to wait and see what they were yelling about. Taking a deep breath, I ran out from the wall of the adjacent hallway that I had been hiding behind and proceeded to knock all ten of the military men out in all of two seconds. Not taking any time to celebrate my victory, I went on, only stopping when I came in front of a large closed door at the end of the hallway.

I hardly had a second to catch my breath before I opened the door, quickly engaging the guard. It didn't take long for me to hit his head hard enough against the hard brick wall to knock him unconscious. Turning around, my eyes landed on a small, crumpled body and my heart nearly stopped. There, beaten and bloody, tied to a chair, was Raelynn. Many of her bruises were already a dark purple, nearly black color, the most prominent of which being a hand print on her left cheek. She was blindfolded, and tears rolled softly down her face in a peaceful manner, rather than violent. They slid down her cheeks easily like streams of silent acceptance. She was bound to a chair by her hands and feet, the ropes rubbing her skin raw to the point that they bled.

"Oh my God," I whispered in disbelief, "Raelynn." I approached her slowly, my mind still reeling in shock. She flinched at the sound of my footsteps, and I didn't miss the look of fear that crossed her face before it returned to her previous indifference. I rushed forward and began to untie her feet. When I finished with untying her hands, however, Raelynn did not move. She merely remained in the chair with her arms resting on the arms of the chair and her ankles still touching the legs as if she were still tied down. She must be in shock, I realized. I moved forward, placing my arms under her shoulders and behind her knees, lifting her and making sure her head was resting on my shoulder. She was lighter than she was two days ago, her body seeming smaller also. My heart sunk; I shouldn't have left her here. If I had just taken her with me, everything would have been okay. She would have been okay.

"I got her," I said, hoping that my comm worked. "Returning to quinjet now."

"All right. Fall back, guys. Nat, finish downloading everything on those computers. Stark, clean up. I'll meet you back at the jet." Everyone went about their tasks in silence and I look down, checking on Raelynn before running back to the clearing in which we parked the quinjet. I boarded the ship, laying the small blonde down on a cot before taking the blindfold off. Her eyes were closed, dark circles surrounding them as if she hadn't slept in weeks. I sighed, stumbling back until my back hit the wall. This was all my fault. If only I hadn't left her.

"What happened?" Cap asked as he boarded the jet. Of all of us, he was the only one with in-the-field medical expertise.

"It-it looks like they tortured her," I said, my voice wavering as I fought to get the words out.

"Looks like she has a bit of blood loss and some broken ribs," the soldier said, his large hands gently pressing against her fragile ribcage. "Sleep deprivation and malnutrition, too."

"How?" I ask angrily, my accent becoming thicker in my rage. "She was there two days. How can she be... be like this?"

"Pietro, we have no idea how long she was actually there. It could have been weeks, even years for all we know," Rogers placed a hand on my shoulder, attempting to talk me down. "All we can do now is heal her up."

"Friday, contact Dr. Cho for me, see if you can get her to the Training Facility." I gritted my teeth, trying my best not to be angry at Stark. I took a deep breath and pushed my hatred to the back of my mind; I'd confront that another day.

"I'm going to kill every one of those bastards," I growled, turning to stomp out of the quinjet when a smirking redheaded Russian was standing in my way.

"Shut the door, Rogers. Stark can find his own way back," Natasha said, brushing past me. "And didn't Steve here tell you that he didn't like that kind of language?"

This is the longest chapter I have written so far, and I really hope you guys are liking this story. If you have any critiques or suggestions, feel free to drop a review (it'd make my day)!

I tried to end this on a bit of a light Natasha joke, seeing as the rest of the chapter is kind of dark. (I'm a fan of angst, sorry...)

See you guys next chapter!