Winter's Fire. ~Book Three~

Chapter Six: The Redscue.

It had been two weeks since Red had been taken, and they still had nothing. All they found at the scene of the crime was a few strands of hair and some blood samples, but all the cameras visuals were cut, and all they had was the same audio from before.
"We've looked everywhere we can think of." Tony said as he put his head down on the table with frustration.
"I don't know why I thought they'd keep her in Brooklyn." Steve said as he leaned back against the table and crossed her arms over his chest.
"They obviously didn't." Tony said.
In the two weeks since Red was taken, so much had already happened. When they got her back, Steve would have to tell her that, not only had her mother been murdered, but Loki had laid down his life for Thor and a woman called Jane Foster. After a battle in London with the Dark Elves, as Thor called them, he came to the tower to tell them about what had happened since he left for Asgard, and that's where he was again, trying to help his father go on without Frigga.
While Tony worked on a program to find Red, Steve looked over to Levinia, who was sitting on the couch with her knees drawn up to her chest and her eyes on a cup of coffee that he had made for her a few hours earlier. She hadn't been eating well since she attended Frigga's funeral, and he knew that she was scared that she'd have to bury another family member whenever they found Red.
The three of them were the only ones awake in the tower since they were waiting to see if Tony's program was going to work Steve still wasn't sure what it was supposed to do, and that was probably because he didn't want to get his hopes up.
Steve pushed away from the table and went to the kitchen to make Levi some food, all he really could come up with, that would be easy to eat, was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some potato chips. It wasn't the most nutritious thing in the world, but it was better than nothing. He kept his eyes on her as he left the kitchen, she had so much on her shoulders right now, and all she really needed was her mom back.
"Levi." Steve whispered as he knelt down in front of her. "You need to eat."
Levi sighed as she brought her knees away from her chest and crossed her legs under her. She reached up to wipe at her cheeks as she looked him in the eyes and took a deep breath before she whispered back. "Every time I think about eating, it makes me feel sick."
Steve carefully set a hand on her knee and ran his thumb over it. "We're going to find her and she's going to be okay. She's stronger than you think."
"I know she's strong, I'm just worried that she's not going to be the same... or even alive when we find her." She whispered to him as she started to look like she was relaxing.
"I know," Steve stayed where he was with his hand on her knee. "But she's not going to be the same, no one ever is after going through this kind of trauma," he smiled as he let his hand fall from her knee. "She wasn't the same after she lost you, and she devoted her life to saving people because she hoped that somehow, down the line, she'd find you again."
She picked up the sandwich and started slowly munching. "I suppose you're right." She said after she'd swallowed. After a few more bites, she continued on to say. "I just wish that we'd find her already. As soon as I found her, I lost her again."
"We'll find her. I promise."
She looked down at the rest of her sandwich as tears welled up in her eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Steve." Levi sniffed as she finished the rest of her sandwich and leaned her elbows on her knees. "Have you guys found anything yet?"
Steve slowly shook his head. "Not yet, but we're working-"
Suddenly, he broke off as alarms sounded at Tony's work station. Both Steve and Levi rose their heads to look at the small lab, and Tony looked just as surprised as Steve felt. They rushed over to where Tony was and looked up at the screen. 
Tony had had a map of the world pulled up on one of his screens since Red was taken, and somewhere on it, a little red dot was pulsing as the alarm continued to sound, and honestly, Steve wasn't all that worried about the noise right now. 
"We got a hit?" Levi asked as she leaned against him, and he was happy to give her the support. Glancing down at her, he saw nothing but hope swimming in them. And he hoped that that meant he'd be able to get her to eat more than a few potato chips. 
"Uhh... yeah, but we didn't search for it." Tony said as he zoomed in on that little dot. Soon, they were able to see that it was being broadcasted to them from upstate New York. "The signal is coming from some warehouse," he went on to say. "Coming from inside the place." 
"Do we know why?" Steve asked. 
"I'll do you one better," Levi said. "Do we care? What if it's Red?"
While she had a point, Steve wasn't given the chance to either agree, or disagree with her as Clint, Natasha and Bruce came down the stairs, from the lounge above them, and joined them in Tony's lab. 
"There better be a good ready for you three to be yelling." Nat said as they made their approach. 
Levi turned to look at her with a small grin. "You'd be yelling too if you were awake to hear what we just heard." 
Nat crossed her arms over her chest. "And what would that be?" She had also been having a rough time with all of the dead ends that they had been running in to, and almost every day, she and Clint had been going out and talking to Fury and one of his best teams about where they might be able to find Red. 
"Someone sent us a signal from a warehouse in spstate New York." Tony explained as he stepped aside to let the others look at what the rest of them had been looking at. 
"All right," Clint said as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against one of the surrounding counters. "And who sent it?" 
"Don't know," Tony said with a shrug. "But to repeat what Levi said, do we really care? It could be Red." 
"It matters because we don't know what we'll be expecting." Bruce said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
Levinia looked up at Steve with a wide grin as she reached over to grasp his hand. She gave it a small squeeze as she whispered. "We found Red. 
And that was something that repeated in Steve's head. They found her, and they were coming. 
+++
As soon as they saw that Red was possibly being held in update New York, Levi felt her heart flutter with excitement as her hands-one still in Steve's-sparked with electricity. She looked over to Bruce with a small glare. "What does it matter? We know where she is." 
"Possibly." Bruce corrected her, though he kept his voice gentle. "And it matters before we can't go in blind." He sipped at his coffee. In her mind's eye, she imagined slapping it out of his hand, that was a mean idea, but it was amusing to think about. 
"Even if we go in knowing exactly what's going on in there, we won't be prepared for what they can do, I think we should just go and get her." She said as she tightened her grip on Steve's hand, who ran his thumb over her knuckles. Even as her electricity crackled and sparked between her fingers and over his. 
"I know you want to go and get her now-believe me, I do too-but Bruce is right, Kid." Tony said as JARVIS got them the correct location. "As much as I wanna charge in there, guns ablazin', we have to think this through." 
Levi took her hand from Steve's as she turned around with a short. "Fine." Before she went back to her nest on the couch and sat back down. "I guess we'll plan." This was something she was all too used to anyway. When she was with Thanos, she had come up with many battle plans, but this was the first time she was rescuing someone. 
The rest of the Avengers gathered around her on the couch and together, they slowly came up with the plan to rescue Red. After zooming in on her location, they found that she was being held in a seemingly abandoned warehouse that was in the middle of nowhere, and they couldn't see any visible defenses. 
And while everyone else was getting ready to go, Levi was in the medbay with Steve to get a first aid kit ready for when they got Red back. "What do you think we could find in that place?" She asked as she put a set of needles in the box.
"I don't know, but it's probably nothing good." Steve said as he looked down to her. "But we'll get Red back, and that's all that matters." 
Levi slowly nodded and took a deep breath before speaking again. "I'm not looking forward to what's going to happen after we get her back." 
"What do you mean?" He asked as he grabbed a foil blanket and glanced at her. 
"We have to tell her that Loki, and her mother, have died..." She closed up the kit and turned to face him. "And she wasn't able to say good-bye to either of them." 
"It's gonna be hard on her, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there." He turned to fully face her. 
He was so big compared to her, he towered over her, and if she was with anyone else, she would have felt intimidated but with him, all she wanted was for him to hold her. To tell her that everything would be okay, that she'd be okay. "But we will get her back, and then I-" Steve cleared his throat and glanced away from her face as he corrected himself. "We will be there for you... to help you get back on your feet." 
Levi raised an eyebrow at him as she took a step closer to him, forgetting their current task at hand for a moment. "You'll help me get back on my feet?"
"Yeah, we all-" 
"No, Steve... I mean, you'll help me?" Her heart stopped in her chest as he leaned down toward her. 
He seemed genuinely surprised to see that she wanted him to help her, but the thing that surprised her the most was that he wasn't leaning away from her, even as she leaned up toward him with her hands on his chest. They tugged on his shirt as he reached up to gently cup her cheek. "Yeah," he said softly. "I'll always be there for you." 
"Steve..." Levi whispered back as she closed her eyes. She wasn't sure if it was the stress of the situation at hand getting to them, or if he was actually feeling something for her too. All she knew was that she was waiting her entire life for him, and she was beyond ready to feel his lips on hers. 
And just as they were about to kiss, Tony burst into the room. "Guys, we're-wow okay." He said as soon as he both stepped into the room and watched the two of them jump apart. "Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your little moment." 
Levi's cheeks started to flare up, but as soon as it appeared, she threw up am illusion to hide it as she turned to grab the first aid kit. "There was no moment to ruin." She said as she turned to look at Tony and Steve. "We should get going, we don't have much time to work with." 
And after she and Steve got suited up and got into the Quinjet with the other, the group headed toward upstate New York as she felt a storm raging inside her with mixed anxiety and anticipation. 
She hoped that they got there in time. She hoped that they weren't too late. 
+++
"It's a five mile walk from here to the warehouse." JARVIS said as the group gathered around the entrance of the Quinjet. The while ride there, Tony had been keeping an eye on Steve and Levi, he knew what he walked in on and that little tidbit of information was another thing that added to the pile of stuff he would have to tell Red. 
How do you even tell someone you're involved with that their best friend and daughter are making googly eyes at each other?
"All right." Tony said as he led the way out of the Quinjet. "Lets get this show on the road." 
Miles ahead of them was Red, waiting in a warehouse for him and Steve to come and save her, and hopefully she was alive. That was the minimum of what he was hoping for, that she was, at the very least, alive after going through God knows what the last two weeks she's been gone. 
The walk to the warehouse was uneventful and uninterrupted, and all the while, JARVIS told them that Red was still in there. And eventually, when they made it to the building, they found that the only weird part was that it appeared to be unguarded by both people and tech. 
"This doesn't seem normal." Levi said as the group looked up at the seemingly run down building.
Natasha slowly shook her head as she readied the Widow Gauntlets on her wrists. "It really, really doesn't." 
Steve glanced at Tony from over his shoulder. "We should prepare for anything." He took his shield from his back. 
Together, Steve and Tony walked up to the warehouse doors and pulled them open. Much to Tony's surprise, there was an absence of alarms and angry guys with guns. They slowly walked together with the only thing lighting their way being the archreactor on Tony's suit. 
Soon, they got to a fork in the hallway. One went to the left, while the other went right. Levi turned to face the group. "Steve, Tony, you're with me." She said before she turned to face Natasha. "Nat, you take Clint and Banner and go left. We'll cover more ground that way." Levi struggled with her words as she turned back around to face the hallway Tony, Steve and Levi would be going down. "I... I give us an hour. If we don't find her... we leave." 
That was a call her mother would have made, and at this moment, she looked so much like Red, it was almost startling. Red would have been proud. 
Going down the hallway Levi had assigned the three of them, they found door after door lining the walls. 
Behind one of these doors was Red. Or that was the hope. 
+++
Their path was mostly lit by the lights on Tony's suit, and the only other light source they had were the lights over their heads that were flickering and sparking as they walked down the hallway. 
Feeling spooked, Levi moved to stand between Steve and Tony with a hand held out in case anything big and scary jumped out at them. 
"I guess it wasn't you doing this after all." Tony said as he glanced down at her. 
Levi slowly shook her head. "Nope. It, for once, wasn't me." She hated that she felt scared, especially when her mother was the one who had every right to be the scared one right now.
She looked up at the two of them as they stopped outside three doors. "One for each of us." Tony said as he looked at the doors. 
"We should open them together." Levi said as Steve stepped in front of her with his shield raised, while he used his free hand to open the doors. 
The first one revealed an empty office. The computer screen was still on with an office chair in the middle of the room. 
The next room appeared to be some sort of breakroom, with open bags of chips and cups of coffee that were still putting off steam. It was almost as if whoever was in these rooms had left in a rush, it was eerie. Had they known that they were coming for Red? Did they take her with them when they left? 
As Steve opened the third, and last, door, Levi reached up with sparking hands to stifle a shriek of fright. 
In the middle of the room stood a table with burnt and bloodied straps attacked to it. She could see patches of dried blood on the floor and when she raised her gaze to the walls and ceiling, she saw that they were scorched as if someone took a flamethrower to them. 
"This is where they held her." Tony said from behind her and Steve. 
"But... where is she now?" Levi whispered as she felt her stomach churn. She was going to throw up if she kept looking at this room. 
Steve set a hand on the small of her back as he guided her out of the room and pulled the door shut behind them. "Maybe she got away and she's hiding." 
"Yeah..." That was the kind of lie she needed to hear. Levi swallowed any vomit that was rising up in her throat as she turned to face the rest of the corridor ahead of them. "This place is totally creepy." She said as she reached behind her to take Steve's free hand. 
And with that, with Levinia still walking between Tony and Steve, they continued on their search for Red.
+++
As Natasha, Clint and Bruce walked their half of the warehouse, she pulled a gun out from a holster on her hip as they walked down the corridor. Twenty minutes ago, they had found fresh scorch marks lining the walls and ever since they found them, they'd been following the trail that Red must have left for them. 
"Well, they definitely had Red here." She said as she glanced at the wall beside them. "And there's a possibility that she still could be." 
"What do you think they did to her?" Bruce asked as he held the flashlight up a little higher. 
Clint reached behind him for an arrow and notched it. "Nothing good if the place looks like this." 
Natasha sighed and stopped walking to turn around and look at them. There was no point in keeping up the search if all they were going to find were blood trails and scorch marks. "We don't have much more time before we-" 
Suddenly, a door at the end of the hallway sung open with a bang. Upon turning around, she saw that it was Red with her hands and arms engulfed in fire as blood slowly dropped down her body and onto the floor. 
Red tilted her head as she looked at them, Natasha squinted at her. The Red she knew wouldn't have just stood there after being tortured and missing for two weeks. She would have come running toward them after realizing that they were all there to rescue her.
"I knew you guys would find me." Her voice sounded off, she sounded almost monotone. 
Natasha look over at Clint and kept her gun held at her side. "Hey, Red, you okay?" 
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just barely got out, who's all here for me?" She asked as she slowly walked toward them. 
The three of them glanced at each other before they looked back at Red. Something felt seriously wrong with this situation. 
"All of us." Clint said as he looked at Red. His bow was still held at his side, he was ready to shoot that damn arrow if it was necessary. "We can take you to them. Levinia has been worried sick about you." He started to slowly walk toward her. 
"That's good," Red said as she walked toward them to meet them halfway. "I suppose we should go back to them." 
"Yeah... how about you let the fire down and we'll take you to them." Nat said as she holstered her gun and held her hands out toward her. 
Red slowly shook her head. "No, I don't think so, Natasha." She suddenly moved her hand and body as she threw three fireballs at them. 
Bruce ducked out of the way and into a doorway. "This is the worst place to go green." 
"We could use a little green!" Natasha yelled as she drew her weapon and aimed it at the literal flaming redhead. "Look, Red, I love you, but that doesn't mean I won't shoot you!" 
"Shoot her?!" Bruce yelled as chaos continued to ensue in this hallway. 
Clint lifted his bow and took aim. "She might not give us a choice, Banner!" 
"Cap! Tony!" Bruce yelled in the coms. "We have a situation." 
"Where are you guys?" Steve said, being the first of their group to answer the frantic yelling of the panicking doctor.
"Did you guys find Red?" Levinia asked next. In the background, they could hear the three of them running. 
"Mmm, I'd say she found us." Clint said as he took the arrow off of the string and put it back into its quiver. 
Natasha cocked her pistol and ducked out of the way as Red threw more balls of fire and they flew passed her face. She slid across the floor on her knees as she took cover in another open doorway. "We are on the south-east side of the warehouse, we have eyes on Red." She peaked at Red from her cover, spotting a few injuries on her arms before she took over again. "I can see severe injuries on her arms and there are possibly more. She's lost a lot of blood." She got ready to step out of her cover. "I'm engaging." 
"Don't aim to kill, Natasha." Tony said. 
"I don't plan on it." Natasha muttered as she slid out from her cover and rolled to her feet. She ducked and weaved to avoid getting hit with fire. When she's as close as she could possibly get, Red lunged forward with her hand closed in a fist and caught Natasha in the jaw. 
She staggered back as Red made another quick movement and kicked the gun out of her hands. Natasha grabbed her foot and shoved her toward a wall next to them, but Red flew up and out of her grip before she hit anything. When she landed on her feet, Red kicked her as hard as she could in the stomach. 
Natasha staggered back but grabbed her arm and threw her against the wall as she kicked her legs out from under her. Red yelled out in pain as she fell to her knees. "Stand down, Red." Nat muttered through gritted teeth. She didn't know exactly what Clint and Bruce were doing, she had the vague idea that they were trying to get a door open. 
Red struggled in Natasha's grip as she growled. "Nikogda." Never. She gave another jerk in Natasha's arms, trying to throw her head back to hit Natasha in the face. 
Natasha wrapped an arm around Red's neck and tightened it. She needed to try and incapacitate her, just needed to cut off the airflow long enough to make Red pass out. 
"Nat!" Clint yelled as they got the door open. "Put her in here." 
Upon dragging her over, Natasha saw they they had found a utility closet. She quickly threw Red inside and slammed the door shit as Red woke up and threw herself against it. Together, she and Clint pressed their bodies against the door to keep it closed. 
"I didn't know she could speak Russian." Bruce said after a long moment of silence. 
Natasha shook her head as she panted for air. "Neither did I." 
And they fell back into silence as they listened to Red bang on and throw herself against the door in an attempt to get out. 
+++
As they rounded the corner, they could hear Red screaming and something hitting against the door. In Tony's mind, the worst thing that could have happened was that Red was dead, he never even considered that maybe, just maybe, she was brainwashed. 
"I'm guessing that Red's in there?" Tony asked as Red screamed and hit the door again. It became clear to him that the banging sound they were hearing was the sound of her body hitting the door that Natasha, Clint and Bruce were leaned up against. 
Natasha looked up at him from her sear on the ground. "Whatever gave you that idea?" 
"I don't know," Tony said with a sigh and a shrug. "Maybe it was the screaming. You three move out of the way so JARVIS can read her vitals."
And as soon as they were out of the way, JARVIS scanned Red through the door and showed him what injuries she might have. "She has broken ribs on both sides of her body, deep lacerations on her arms, shoulders and back, and she's slowly bleeding out." JARVIS told him. 
"All right." Tony said before he looked at Clint. "So... why is she locked in a closet?" 
"She found us and started attacking, so we threw her in the closet." Clint simply said. 
Tony shrugged. That seemed as good a reason as any. "Ready the taser, JARVIS. I'm going to try and incapacitate her." He glanced around to the group surrounding him. "Get ready, we all know that she's going to come out swinging." 
Steve took hold of Levi and turned them around with her being held between his body and his shield as he held her close to her body. Once he had them covered, and everyone else seemed ready, Tony slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door. 
Red hesitated for a moment before she moved to lunge toward him, as soon as she made that movement, Tony let loose the taser. Twelve wires shot out of his wrist and hit different parts of her body. After a few seconds, Red fell down to the ground and was clearly unconscious, he retracted the wires and carefully picked her up. 
They silently left the warehouse with Red sleeping in his arms. 
They did, in fact, find her alive, but now they had something bigger to take care of. Her possible, and very likely, brainwashing.