Trapped in the Shadows

Chapter 42 - Destroyed Hydra Once and For All

Third Person POV:
Eventually the pain of losing (Y/N) turned to numbness inside of Peter, his mind going completely blank. All he could do was stare at her unresponsive body as tears slipped down his cheeks. He even failed to notice the large explosion that happened on the ground below the quinjet, falling into a state almost as unresponsive as (Y/N).

F.R.I.D.A.Y. landed the quinjet on Tony's command, allowing the rest of the team to board. Tony was the first to enter, his suit disappearing as he rushed to (Y/N)'s side. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of his daughter who, now that Peter had closed her eyes, looked as though she may have just been resting.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., report on her vitals," he ordered, his voice breaking.

"I'm sorry, sir," came the only response.

He pounded against the side of the quinjet in frustration, turning to anger when there was no other way left to process the emotions running through him. He spun around to Peter and began advancing on him, "you! You were supposed to stay with her and protect her! How did this happen?! Why didn't you stop it?! I thought you loved her!"

"Tony, back off, it wasn't the kid's fault," Steve tried to reason with the heartbroken father, placing himself in between him and Peter.

Peter gave no response, not even flinching as Tony yelled at him. It was his fault, he was supposed to protect her. And instead, he had let her die. He deserved the blame and the angry shouts of the father who had lost his daughter. Part of him wished that Tony would just end it there, although he knew that Tony would never kill him no matter how angry he got.

A thick silence fell over the Avengers as they gazed upon their fallen teammate. Natasha was the first to speak, fighting a losing battle to keep in charge of her emotions. "We should take off, bring her back home."

She left the rest of the team so that she could manually fly the quinjet back home as opposed to letting F.R.I.D.A.Y. handle it. The truth was she couldn't let the rest of the team see her break, but she knew that the tears weren't going to be willed away. She had lost her little sister, someone that she had trained and taught so that a thing like this wouldn't happen. The first person after Clint that she felt could be considered her family.

Once up in the air, she let autopilot take over and the tears broke free. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to keep her emotions inside, but it was pointless. A reassuring hand was placed on her shoulder and she looked up to see Clint, who had tears in his eyes as well. She gave him a smile, trying to distract from the pain, "you should go back to your family, stop risking your life when it is so fragile."

"I've tried the whole retirement thing, didn't really work out too well," Clint sighed, slipping into the co-pilot seat. "Besides, this way I know that I'm doing all I can to keep them safe. Still, I can't seem to do enough, can I? I was so focused on protecting my biological family that I didn't even think that I could lose one of you."

"Her death wasn't your fault," Natasha replied, realizing the weight of his words. "You were fighting on the opposite side of the base, there was nothing you could have done."

"Yeah, so then why are you blaming yourself?"

Back in the hanger, Tony's anger melted away and all that was left was the guilt and depression. He got up from the seat that Steve had ushered him into and approached Peter again. "I am sorry, Pete, I didn't mean to blame you. I am sure that you did the best you could, I just wasn't thinking straight."

"It was my fault, Tony. I thought I was protecting her, giving her her best chance of escape by holding back the Hydra four while she continued out through the hanger. I wasn't expecting her to run into anyone on her way out. I-I let her continue on alone and by the time I caught up with her, she was already gone."

Tony wrapped his arms around Peter and he collapsed into his embrace, a new wave of sobs overcoming him. Tony lost some of his strength as well, all that he could manage to do was hold on as tightly as he could to the only person who had loved (Y/N) as much as he had. The boy who had grown to become like a son to him and who he had entrusted with his daughter's heart.

Unknown POV:
I withstood the loud noises and the wind created by the landing aircraft so that I could meet my guests immediately. However, I was slightly annoyed when all that disembarked were the four creations and a handful of regular Hydra operatives. I masked my disappointment with indifference and walked up to meet them.

"I take it Lascombe failed, then?" I inquired of the Hydra four.

Tactical Force stepped forward, "we were distracting Spider-Man while he spoke with Shadow so we do not know the details of what happened, however she did not seem to be fairing well when Spider-Man was carrying her from the base. Judging my the condition of Lascombe's corpse, I would say that Spider-Man's anger indicates that Shadow is dead."

"Well an unfortunate set back to be sure, but no matter we have other plans we may proceed with. Were you able to get the last two pods on board before taking off?"

"No, the Avengers blew up the base. We were lucky to have gotten out alive ourselves."

I sighed, "Lascombe really couldn't have done anything right, could he? I am grateful to hear that Shadow is dead if she cannot be working with us, that is our biggest threat eliminated. As for you four, you will continue as planned working under my command until I can finish our new project. But we will stall, let the Avengers think that we are finished and strike when they are least expecting it."

"Should we be concerned about the information that Shadow made off with? The Avengers will be able to access it, whether she is dead or alive."

"No, that will not be necessary. There was nothing stored electronically that could lead them to us. As far as the Avengers are concerned, they blew up our final base and have destroyed Hydra once and for all."

-

(A/N): I debated writing that first part in third person, but I wanted to show multiple people's reactions and that was just the easiest way to do it. Plus someone numb with grief is a difficult person to tell a story though. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Any ideas who the person at the end is?