What Ever Happened to Steve

"Stark, if you don't shut it now I will make you suffer." Natasha threatened, keeping her voice low.

"Come on Nat, admit it. I'm definitely the hottest!" Tony replied smugly.

"Just drop it Tony. We are looking for The Doctor, not comparing who is the hottest Avenger. This is serious, he's at the biggest SHIELD base in the world. There are some serious prisoners here that if he let go would cause a lot of damage. So grow up for two seconds Tony and focus!" Natasha snapped.

"Ooh, kitties got some claws!" Tony joked, laughing to himself.

"Stark!" Steve cut in, "Nat's right. This could be our last chance to get whoever this Doctor is. That was the point of getting Clara, right? If we don't get him now, he could disappear for another fifty years and we'll never figure out who this guy is."

"Your just mad because The Doctor melted your favorite handgun," Stark mumbled.

Feeling beyond frustrated, Natasha replied simply, "Your not the hottest by far, Thor wins in that department and Pepper agrees" Tony didn't say a word after that.

Natasha was left to her own thoughts wandering around the East side of the building. The three of them had split up in the Washington SHIELD base after Tony had figured out why the Doctor had hacked in his computer. He was after his friend Clara. The three were connected by earpieces that the other Avengers could join when they found them.

Natasha began to wonder if anyone liked her enough that if she got in some sort of trouble like that they would stop at nothing to get her back. Barton might, but he was different after Loki possessed him. Maybe so different that he would abandon her. Tony and Thor would probably if they had too. Bruce and Steve would feel obligated to, and not because they were all friends.

Natasha was about to call the area clear when she saw someone run past her hallway, a task obviously in mind. He wasn't wearing a tweed jacket, but something about how the man was running arose suspicion in her mind.

"I might have something, stand by." The Black Widow whispered, instantly following the man.

It wasn't long before she recognized the man. It was the insecure run that gave it away.

"False alarm," Natasha whispered, "It was just a worker."

"Why are you still whispering then?" Tony whispered back, mocking her.

Nat rolled her eyes at Tony's 'humor', "Something is still off, and Clara's cell is around here meaning The Doctor might be too. Don't worry, at least I can handle myself." Natasha ended with a smirk.

Steve sighed from the other line, wondering how the two worked so well together when they seemed to be always arguing, "Stark, finish your area and head back to the lobby and see if you can find him wondering around there. Nat, head to the basement and see if maybe he got lost and ended up down there. I'm going to talk to someone, maybe see if they've seen The Doctor."

"Sure Gramps," Tony replied, "Whatever you say."

"Copy that." Natasha responded, resorting to her normal response.

The radio went silent. The Black Widow resumed stalking her prey, his footsteps were loud, making it all but hard to follow. She would have made herself noticeable, but something was holding her back. Her instincts told her to wait.

She followed the man for a few more minutes, staying one corner behind him. He stopped in front of a reinforced forced door, and typed in a password to a pad beside it. The door slid open and he slipped inside.

A reinforced door and a code to open it only meant on thing, a cell. The man had entered a restricted cell, and judging by his uncomfortable walk, he was going to break someone out.

"I'm so sorry," Bruce muttered under his breath, awkwardly picking up the girl with the red hair. He didn't quite know what her name was. Her file had said something like Diana, but her licenses ha said Charlie. Maybe she was part of witness protection program, maybe she just didn't like her name.

Bruce decided to swing one of her arms around his shoulder, and he'd hold her up by the waist. There was a less likely chance of her punch him in the face this way. He did not want to Hulk out today.

Dr. Banner began his long journey to Clint's car, dragging the girl out the door of the cell. Charlie wasn't necessarily heavy, but it was a good two miles dragging her to the parking lot.

"Fancy meeting you here Dr. Banner." a soft voice said from beside him.

Scared half to death, Bruce spun around. In front of him was another head of red hair.

"Natasha?" Bruce asked, more surprised that she was here than anything else.

"Bruce." Nat replied curtly, not asking but telling. Bruce tried to utter some excuse, but Natasha beat him to it, "I was wondering what you were doing down here. It' mostly holding cells and gyms, neither of which you go to." Bruce opened his mouth to deny the last part, but got cuff off again, her voice icy cold, " I figured it out though. You think you are smarter than the rest of us. You think you can take them away and control them, when you can't even control yoursel-"

"Natasha!" Bruce yelled, grabbing her shoulder with the hand that wasn't wrapped around Charlie's waist, " This wasn't my idea! Clint called me earlier, freaking out. He didn't tell me why, he just told me to get Charlie and Clara out!"

Natasha opened her mouth, staring Bruce right in the eye with wide panicked, "Steve! Steve respond! What happened Tony!"

Bruce gave her a confused look, wondering who she was talking to. Her hand went up to her left ear and she looked like she was straining to hear something. An earpiece. She was talking to Tony and Steve through an earpiece.

" What happened to Steve!" Bruce fretted, making the connection.

"I don't know! We've got to go!" Natasha wrapped her arm around Charlie's waist, creating an 'X' of the two arms.

The three of them raced down the hallways, shoving past more than one Agent. No one gave them a second look. Natasha kept begging Steve to stay with them, for him to say anything. Charlie began to moan when the two of them went too fast, and Bruce prayed that she'd stay under for just a bit longer. He prayed that Steve was ok. He prayed that all the strange things that had occurred would end soon.

Tony doubted that he had run faster in his life before now. His Iron Suit case was weighing him down, but he didn't want to put it down not knowing what was waiting on the other end.

Something had happened to Steve, something bad. The earpieces had been connected to JARVIS who monitored the brain. If any pain showed up, the earpiece would turn on so the GPS in it would work. There had been an extreme amount of pain, and JARVIS made sure Tony knew.

Steve just fell down the stairs, the hard concrete stairs that would hurt anyone Tony tried to convince himself. Maybe just stubbed his pinky toe on the edge of a wall.

"Turn left here, Sir," JARVIS told Tony, his voice emotionless.

Following JARVIS' command, Tony turned left and stopped dead in his tracks. The hallway was white. Bright white. It was an extreme contrast to the dark hallways outside. The area had been under construction for a while; they were building a living quarters for the Agents.

It wasn't any of those things that made him stop in his tracks though. It was the blood. It stained the walls in such a sickly way that Tony was too scared to look down and see where it came from. Instead he closed his eyes.

He thought of all the people who had died in his life. His parents, the military convoy he was with, Yinsen, Stane, and so many others. He couldn't lose another friend.

Opening his eyes, Tony looked down hoping Steve was alive and well and that it was someone else's blood. Steve was lying on the ground, his back pressed against it. His chest didn't move, his eyes were glassy, and there was too much blood. Tony didn't even bother checking for a pulse. Steve was gone.

Pounding footsteps echoed the halls as Tony stared at the roof, unable to look at the body below. The running footsteps got closer and closer till they stopped beside him. Tony turned to see Natasha put a hand up to her mouth in shock, and whisper something in Russian. Bruce let go of the girl he was holding up with Natasha and run towards the body.

"What happened?" Natasha asked, turning her head to look at him.

"I don't know," was Tony's simple reply.

The two stood in silence for a second. A moment of silence for their fallen friend. It was almost completely silent except for the CPR Bruce was attempting to perform on Steve.

A sudden yell from Bruce knocked them out of the silence. He was yelling one simple word.

Tony looked down the hall at Bruce. His skin was turning green and everything seemed to be growing. Tony, finally out of the shock of his friends death, grabbed the girl Natasha was holding, and fled down the hallway, pulling both the girl and Natasha in tow.

An angry roar followed them down the hallway. The sound of a crumbling building came seconds after.

The word Bruce had been yelling was run.

A/N: Well, this story is coming to a close at last! A few more chapters and that's it... Or is it? It's up to you guys to decide! Do you want a sequel, in which I add even more fandoms and other good stuff, or should I just finish this book and be done with it? Decide now or forever hold your peace!