He's my life, my love, my soul, my home

Chapter 10

They were all tired by the time they got back. Even Thor, who somehow always managed to be chipper any time of the day, was feeling down. This mission took a turn for the worst, quickly escalating. No civilians got hurt, thank God, but it was harder than expected. Something wasn't adding up, and it was really bothering him.

Fury decided to be gracious (for once) and allow them to have a night's rest before the debriefing. Steve was fully intending to use that time for sleep, but he couldn't help but go over the mission in his head, over and over, like a mantra.

Something, somehow, was able to knock Tony out of the sky. The Iron Man suit should be able to withstand almost everything, but it fell, it went down, and wouldn't work anymore. The only thing that was pulled out the suit was a stray, single bullet, right in the center of the arc reactor. Perfect shot.

Something, somehow, had managed to put the Hulk to sleep, taking him out of the fight. Neither Hulk or Bruce was hurt, he was just unconscious. Thor, Natasha, Clint, and Steve had to pick up for the rest of the Avengers.

It was unnerving how the Avengers were almost beaten.

The mission had taken a weird turn, he got shot in the stomach, and if he was anyone else, he would have been dead already. Then, instead of the shooter finishing him off, he shot the enemy behind him, shooting his own ally. The shooter, then disappeared, seemingly no longer in the fight. He was able to get closer to the bottom, and when he did, he heard screams, screams that sounded familiar, but distant at the same time. When he finally got to the bottom there was nothing there, nothing there but walls.

When he looks back on it, he can't help but think that the screams were in his own head. Natasha had gone down, something similar to a Widow's Bite electrocuting her. Thor and Clint carried on and found to prisoners, two kids, not far from Steve's age, in cells, Wanda and Pietro. They were safe, but couldn't tell them anything about why they were there and who brought them there.

He thinks of Bucky, and what he would've done to help Wanda and Pietro. Bucky would've tried to keep them, to let them into their family, as a sister and brother, if they didn't have any family like they claimed. Once upon a time, he would've done the same thing, but he's different now. He's not Bucky, he's not the same guy as he was seventy years ago, that guy died when Bucky fell. Now he just made sure they were okay, gave them enough of his back pay to send them to college, and send them on their way. He wishes Bucky would be proud of him for that.

He didn't realize he fell asleep until Clint was there to shake him awake. "Wake up, dude," Clint said, "C'mon, we have to get to that debriefing with Fury." Clint shoves a cup of coffee (that won't do much for him anyway) in his hand, then herds him out the bed.

The Avengers, Hill, and Fury are already in the room when they got there, waiting patiently, or as patiently as those two can get, which isn't very much.

"Rogers," Fury greets, "Glad to see you can join us." He grunts in reply, plopping himself in the nearest open seat. "Alright, this mission was more difficult than expected. What's something that contributes to that?"

"Whoever those people are, they seem to know us. They knew our skills, our weaknesses, what to use to take us down. They knew what would distract and take us out from the mission, they were really able to do a number to us," Tony sums up.

"Something's not adding up here," Natasha remarks. "This castle has been abandon for a while, now all of a sudden it's being used and has powerful weapons, prisoners, and agents. That's not something that could be done in a day."

"And the thing that took out Bruce while he was Hulk; Wasn't that impossible? How was someone able to do anything like that? And it knocked Tony out the sky, that's not that hard to do if it has good aim, but, dead center of the arc reactor? The bullet didn't even go deep enough to kill him," Clint says.