Caught In A Web

Chapter Nine - Far Too Young To Die

Well I never really thought that you'd come tonight

When the crown hangs heavy on either side

Give me one last kiss while we're far too young to die.

Far too young to die

-"Far Too Young To Die," Panic! At The Disco

- - -

Tony stumbled down the hallways, looking in every room, trying to remember which way he had come from. Hoping that he wasn't too late.

His hope was ebbing away when he turned another corner and found Steve. He found Steve carrying the limp body of his kid.

"Is- is he alive?" Tony cupped Peter's face in his hands and felt warmth, checked his pulse and found it faint.

"Yes, Tony. But we need to go. He won't last long without help."

Steve glanced up to Rhodey, who put his hand on Tony's shoulder, trying to turn him around. But Tony flinched away from his hand, and Rhodey withdrew it. Slowly, gingerly, Tony planted a single kiss on Peter's forehead. After a moment longer, he turned.

"Fine. Anyone else come?"

"Sam, Nat, Buck." They began striding down the hallway, Rhodey taking the lead and Steve covering the rear. He put a hand to his ear. "Time to go. We've got them both. Converge on me."

"Wait, there's still Stryker," Tony said as he remembered. "The slimy weasel, I bet he's slid off by now, or is in the process of it. Rhodey, please, you need to get out and catch the bastard. I promised I'd kill him."

Rhodey looked back to Steve, who nodded.

"We can't let him get away. Go, Rhodey. I'll keep them safe."

With that, Rhodey walked up to Tony and removed his helmet.

"You'd better be alive when I see you again, Tony."

"You too, Rhodey. Go!"

Helmet on, running start, and takeoff. He was gone.

There were still a lot of guards on the way to the exit. Natasha, Sam, and Bucky joined the group, Sam taking Peter carefully as Steve went ahead to fight.

"Where did you find him?" Tony asked Steve this as soon as they got a break in the guards. "Because where you were coming from definitely wasn't where he used to be."

"Some lab. He was strapped down to a table, something pumping into his arm, with a heavy weight on his chest. Barely breathing." Steve turned to Bucky. "Did you get it?"

Bucky held up the red book in his hand. 

"No more fuckers brainwashing me if I have something to say about it."

Tony smirked, remembering a joke that felt like it was from another lifetime ago.

"...Language."

-

There was a small army protecting the stairs, and they had produced guns. The six of them were met by gunfire as they tried to turn the corner to the exit, and they decided it was best to jump back and figure out an exit strategy.

"Peter needs to get out. That is the top priority. Sam, can you fly him?"

Sam glanced for a split second around the corner again.

"Yeah," he said, wincing as more bullets flew into the wall across from them. "Without the guns, at least, I could manage."

"So you need a diversion," Steve replied, readjusting his grip on his shield. "Nat, you think you and I could take down these guys?"

Natasha was enjoying this. She smiled, reloading her guns.

"I think we can manage."

Steve turned to Tony.

"Tony, I need you to stay back here until Nat and I have cleared some of them out. Buck, can you make sure he's safe? Sam, I'll comm you when you have your distraction."

Tony looked hesitant.

"Flying Peter over all of those guns? Is that the best plan we have?"

"It's the only one we have that might get him out in time. Please, Tony, don't endanger yourself here."

Panic was forming in Tony's chest, but he found himself nodding anyway. Steve nodded, signaling for Natasha to follow him, and then the deafening gunshots began again. 

Bucky looked at Tony and he knew not to touch him. He kept a comfortable distance between them and then quietly spoke.

"I know how it feels."

"What?"

"I know how it feels to go through all of that psychological trauma. The physical torture. All of that. So if you ever need to talk, I just want you to know that I'm here for you. Both of you. And that I'm really, truly sorry for not being fixed, for the brainwashing still working and everything that I did."

Bucky had gone through that. Tony had never thought about Steve's friend that way, he knew about the brainwashing but somehow had never connected it to all of the torture he had undergone from HYDRA. Never realized the significance of his pain.

"Thank you. I appreciate it. And I don't blame you for this, for Peter. This was Stryker."

And Tony didn't see it, but relief crossed over Bucky's face at that point. He hadn't realized how much he blamed himself for everything that was happening, and hearing that Tony didn't blame him lifted a weight that he didn't know he had been carrying.

Sam got his signal, and he flew. Bucky glanced around the corner and saw that he got Peter out the door, having flown most of the way upside-down to use his wings as extra protection.

And then they heard larger explosions, and most of the other gunfire stopped. Rhodey was back, and he was blowing the guards to kingdom come.

It was only a few minutes before he strode back to meet Tony and Bucky again.

"Still alive, Tony. Come on, it's time for us to go."

-

Tony looked around at the battlefield that was the hall before him. Many of the dead or wounded were clearly taken down by Natasha, barely looking wounded, while others were Steve's, subject to blunt force trauma. The rest were Rhodey's, taken down by a wide variety of his weapons.

Tony half-smiled again as he saw Steve bleeding from his calf. Not because Steve was injured, but because he was remembering a short video (what was it? A Vine?) that Pete had shown him a long time ago. One on how to take down Captain America, no less.

With some help from the others, Tony trudged up the stairs and found a trapdoor at the top,  wide open.

From it was streaming... sunlight.

Tony moved faster, going up and out and into the warmth of day.

Realized again how beautiful nature was.

Flinched as he unthinkingly removed his hand from his side and saw blood, felt the flash of pain, and collapsed into Bucky's arm.