Chapter 27
The room was completely silent, and no one felt really tempted to change it.
Thor fidgeted. In two days only he´d found himself in two different white rooms and he couldn´t shake the feeling that soon it was going to be for real. This time it was Natasha on the bed, and in all aspects she mirrored Loki the day before. Some healer had washed the blood from her side and her hands, and she remained still and pale between the linens.
And that was the main problem.
Natasha, strong, proud Natasha had chosen to keep on sleeping.
He watched as Bruce ghosted a hand over her forehead, measuring the heat she gave away, and frowned.
"Is she unwell?" He asked with a frown of his own.
The doctor shook his head. "She´s fine, I checked her papers..." He muttered. "She should be awake."
And she should. Maybe what she had learned at the Chitauri hideout was such a terrible truth that it held her from them? Maybe she tried to follow Clint before it was her time?
"Tony tracked Clint´s communicator to the place it last reported from." said Steve, stroking the woman´s fiery hair with an ease he didn´t feel at all. Tony stepped forward.
"It´s an old park in barely inhabited neighborhood. Apparently the surrounding factories made too much toxic waste for anyone to stick around." He explained. "And well, here´s the best part. the signals I got come from under the park."
Thor nodded.
"The Chitauri favor darkness and a little chill. It makes sense that they would seek refuge underground."
Steve looked at him. "We´re planning on breaking in, preferably soon since Clint could still be alive, but we need as much information as we can get. This time we´re fighting in their field." He explained. Thor received his hopeful look on full force, and he felt almost ashamed when he had to shake his head.
"The Chitauri belong to a very different branch of the Tree, friend Steve. Not much is known about the creatures that dwell amongst the Roots. Maybe my brother could give us something, but I highly doubt we can pull the Son of Coul away again..."
"Bruce can get in..." Steve tried once more, but the man in question shrugged.
"Not so soon after my first visit. They´ll know something´s up."
Silence fell again. Everyone knew what the others were thinking. Thor looked at Tony from the corner of his eye, only to find his face broken in a most devious grin.
"Now this s my idea of a make-up."
"Are we completely sure we can´t just explain the situation and hope they give us free way to talk to him?" Steve asked, unsure.
"Are we completely sure they really want to take action against the Chitauri?" Bruce answered in a grim mutter. Steve tipped his head.
"We´re talking about rescuing one of their highest agents, they were investigating on their own, after all. Besides, they promised protection for Loki..."
"When they come to get him, not vice versa. I doubt they´ll be eager to let go of their test subject and get involved into another intergalactic conflict before time."
"Still, breaking him out is excessive." Steve stated, watching Tony´s grin melt down into a pout. "We don´t know if all the Chitauri left are down there. For what we know, there could be thrice the number of burrows, and stripping Loki of the organization´s protection is just foolish."
Steve reasoned well, as always.
"Why not a preliminary peek?" Bruce quipped in gain. "You know, testing the waters. You go in with Thor, it might sound ironic, but taking the armor and the other guy on account I think you two are more likely to succeed on a stealth mission. We´ll wait and..."
"Should I remind you that that might be exactly what Thing One and Thing Two tried yesterday?" Tony kept frowning, out of worry this time.
"They´ll be together, and that should be enough. Natasha and Clint are the best at what they do, yes, but they were two separate humans against who knows how many heavily armed aliens in a strange environment." Bruce turned to Steve. "You tell us what you find, and we´ll act on that. If we think we might get rid of them for good, we alert S.H.I.E.L.D. and or break Loki out, depending on their answer."
"I don´t like this." Tony argued one last time.
"No one likes it." Thor patted his shoulder. "So it is decided, then. Let´s go save our friend."
--
They searched for hours but in the end it was Thor tripping over it for them to find it. Steve stretched out a hand to help the bigger blond to his feet, but Thor pointed quietly to the ground.
It looked like a common rock, but when Thor´s hand inched closer to it, a tremulous blue glow coming from its insides illuminated a series of runes carved on it.
"Can you read them?" Steve whispered, and went to touch it, but as soon as his hand surpassed Thor´s, the runes disappeared. "What the..."
"It must be enchanted to lock itself at human proximity..." Thor muttered, inching his hand closer again to.
"Then Clint´s a duck or what?" Tony grunted, and his voice repeated it through their earbuds. Thor shook his head.
"The spell must have sensed the traces of Chitauri magic that still linger within him." He guessed.
"But can you open it?" Tony asked again.
"Probably. After all, it reacted for me." And Thor dedicated another second to studying the runes once more, before calmly palming the rock and pushing it down into the ground.
Tony and Bruce stared in silence as the ground beneath Steve and Thor were swallowed by the ground beneath them. Tony laid the suitcase he´d brought on the ground and sat next to it, as he tapped his communicator to check that the rest of them were working properly. Steve´s affirmative that they were in turned it useless.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
"Don´t we all?"
--
Even through the layers of thick black cloth Steve felt the temperature´s descent as they walked deeper and deeper under the ground.
At first it looked like they had just fallen into the burrow of a Very Big Rabbit, but as his eyes adapted to darkness, Steve noticed they were standing in a rounded chamber with a variety of entrances. However, before he could see more, Thor pushed him behind a rocky corner, and he heard them a second later; the sound of muffled feet against the rock.
It took the Chitauri patrol a whole minute to reach them, and by then both blonds had pressed themselves so close to the wall they were almost invisible in the shadow. They walked past them without giving them so much as a look, and disappeared from view as they climbed out.
"Which one?" He asked, when they finally dared coming out.
Thor shrugged. "They came through the one in the middle."
"Fine, then." Steve gripped his gun tighter and reassured himself that the shield was strapped at his back. Tony had covered it and Mjölnir´s head with a coat of dark oil so it wouldn´t reflect any light, and he hoped it wouldn´t make it too slippery to hold and throw.
The passage was dimly illuminated by glowing orbs on the walls, and Steve was grateful for his enhanced vision when he tripped for the first time and noticed the rocky lumps in the ground.
After a while, the blank extensions of wall at both sides, with no possibility for either hiding or escaping, began to make him nervous.
"Thor?"
"Hm?"
"We should have found someone by now." Was all he said. They stopped, and looked ahead to where the end of the tunnel was still far but already in sight, if the increase of light was a sign to go by.
"Either this is the good way and we´re being exceptionally lucky, or it´s a trap road..."
"And we´re about to be ambushed." Steve suggested. Thor turned to him with a smile and he found himself mirroring it.
"I think we know which one it is." He answered with a low rumble of laughter.
It was pretty weird, how the mood had eased after the first few minutes of silence. Steve found he felt strangely light, as if nothing he did really mattered.
In this state Thor and Steve took a last deep breath and walked into the light.
--
"They´ve been in there for too long." Tony muttered. "I´m going to buzz them."
"You´ll get them in trouble. They´ve got their emergency buttons, haven´t they?" Bruce didn´t bother looking up as he spoke. "Let´s wait a bit more"
--
They stepped into the shadow once more, painfully still as they both were aware that whether they would or wouldn´t be discovered was a matter of sheer luck. They stood at the mouth of the tunnel, the entrance of a stadium-sized cavern illuminated by the same glowing orbs they had encountered so far.
At first Steve thought it was just a trick of his eyes, but a second later he understood he was watching the cave boil with thousands and thousands of Chitauri, their pale skin glowing dimly under the light.
"For Gungnir´s sake..." Thor muttered behind Steve, who turned halfway to look at him.
"What do you say? Three, four thousand? We iced more during the invasion." He commented, hoping for an optimistic answer.
"I don´t think we should fool ourselves, friend..."
"Yes, me neither..." He sighed and turned back. "Do you see Clint anywhere?" Again, Thor shook his head, and Steve nodded. "They wouldn´t have him here... He must be somewhere down any of the other corridors."
"In case he´s still..."
"I´m definitively not fooling myself on that one, buddy... But I do think they need him to find your brother. Or I hope so."
Thor patted his arm.
Below them, the Chitauri went on with their business. Some seemed to be fixing or polishing weapons and armors, some sparred in a circle traced on the ground, brandishing their weird shaped blades, and the rest was arranged in closely knit circles, no doubt talking if one was to judge from the heavy buzz-like murmur that vibrated through the air.
"We should head back... It don´t think we´ll find Clint easily if the rest of the base is as crowded as this place."
"As you say." Thor muttered.
The men turned around and stated their way back... But not before a low buzz emerged from Steve´s communicator, along with Tony´s voice.
"Are you allright?"
Steve slammed his hand against his earbud in hopes of concealing the sound, and turned to check that there had been no Chitauri uprising at his back.
"Jesus, Tony... We´re on our way back now, please don´t buzz again." He heard the man´s rambling and thanked his luck when Bruce picked up the discarded mic.
"We were worried. You´ve been in there too silent for far too long. Are you on your way then?"
"Yes. We´ll see you in a minute." He tapped the earbud to shut it, and sighed again. "Let´s-oh god!"
A few steps from him Thor struggled in a silent match with two Chitauri, trying to simultaneously cover their faces to prevent them from making any noise, and avoid being pierced by their blaces.
"I could use some help..." He grunted with the effort, but Steve was already disarming the aliens, and soon took one from his grasp. "Hold it still..." Thor ordered, blowing hair out of his eyes and rising the hammer.
Steve did. His gun might have been a much cleaner option, but the bang would´ve brought them all the attention they had avoided so narrowly.
Mjölnir´s head crushed meat and bone in a single blow, and the alien body fell limp in his arm. Thor took a moment to clear his vision and regain his grip, before passing him the second. This time, though, even as Steve held it as firmly as he could, the Chitauri lifted its head to look at its executioner in the face.
Thor held his gaze, his eyes hardened, and he lifted the hammer.
It all happened in a second.
Thor brought Mjölnir down, and cut the deafening screech the Chitauri had let out.
Steve dropped the body and wiped his hands clean on his pants. Both of them stayed silent until the sound they were waiting for reached their ears. Thousands of feet trampling the ground and multiple screeches cut through the air, along with the sound of metal against metal.
Steve let out a pained laugh, and Thor smiled.
"A race for the exit?"
"I hope your hammer can carry some passengers."
They took off without a look back just as the first Chitauri crawled into the tunnel.
--
Black.
It had been black ever since he´d tried his hand at escaping the day before. Had it really been just one day? He had to find Nat, she had probably gone down to look for him after he didn´t come out. He´d only gotten so far before getting caught, those bastards knew how to tiptoe(A hit to the back of the head had sent him into the black first, and then not even the pain had brought him back.)
His hands were tired but firm (Always firm. Always a good shot. He didn´t even wonder why they hadn´t tied them.) as they reached for the blindfold and tugged it off with some difficulty.
But it was still black.
He tried parting his eyelids.
Black.
He waved his hand in front of his face and felt the slight disturbance in the air caressing his cheeks. But it was still black.
Wherever he turned, however much he squinted.
Black.
His hands were still firm as he took them to his face, but much to his bitter satisfaction, his eyes were still there. Jolly.
They did it, he thought. There was no way he could escape now, blind as he was.
Blind.
Useless.
Dead.
His chest sank under a sudden pressure, and he gasped for air, desperate. His fingers dug themselves into the very ground he was lying in, and he forced himself to breathe.
It would be all right.
It had to be.
Bruce or Tony would know what to do.
Natasha would cut off Loki´s balls with a rusty spoon unless he agreed to heal him.
He´d get out.
He´d get out in time to help them with the fight.
He was still Hawkeye.
At this thought, he let out a broken, sarcastic laugh and touched his eyelids again, just to be sure his eyes were really underneath.
Hawkeye smiled confidently, and continued to think of his team and the big, epic fight they were just about to get into.
Clint curled on himself with his shaking hands fisted into his shirt, and shut his useless eyes as hard as he could.