Chapter 13
Steve was thrown inside one of the glass cells in the Tower harshly, body heavy and slow, unable to even stand properly.
He turned around to stare at Dark Dean’s harsh face from behind the glass, then trailed his eyes around the rest of the cells to find his family and friends unconscious inside all of them.
“Where did you take my team?” Steve demanded firmly, as he trained his eyes on the king.
“We took your Castiel, then sent the rest to a concentration camp in my world.” Dark Dean answered evenly as he eyed the captain curiously.
“Why didn’t you take me with them? Why bringing me back to the Tower? You should have taken me with them!” Steve yelled as he slammed his fist against the glass in frustration. The glass didn’t even crack. Dammit, Tony did a really good job building these cells. Not to mention the collar around his neck, making him weak.
“You are in no place to make demands, Captain.” Dark Dean stated harshly as he frowned in disdain. “Remember, in my world you are just a glorified sex toy. I have no ounce of respect to you.”
“Why didn’t you let me be with them?” Steve demanded again, ignoring the man’s words as he focused on his rapidly beating heart. Only his heart, since his fucking ring was too still. Obviously, unable to bring him Tony’s heartbeat from across worlds.
“Our Stark wants a new soldier.” Dark Dean smirked cruelly, as he eyed Steve up and down. “He has a goal. To enslave every Captain America we encounter as we conquer the multi-verse. He wants to make an army of you, but mostly an orgy, apparently. That’s his only request, so I will indulge his kinky, but intriguing plans anyway.”
Steve’s heart sank and felt a cold shiver ran through his body, but tried hard to not let any of that show on his face. “He won’t be able to break me.”
“Certainly you will be a lot harder than our Steve Rogers. That one was already half broken when he saw the world I build. That, thankfully, traumatized him to the point that the process was easy enough. But you-“ Dark Dean took a step closer to the glass cell as he stared hard at Steve. “-You are going to need more work. Cracking open your best friend and take his heart will be a nice start. Killing all your family and friends will be adding salt to your new wound. Then, with the death of your Stark, you will be merely a shell of the man you are now.” A cruel, ugly smirk took place on his face. “Then soon enough, you will be a new sex toy to our resident genius.”
With that, he turned around and marched out of the room, leaving Steve on a verge of a panic attack, unable to take a full breath in. Helpless to do anything, but wait for a miracle.
***
Back in the other world, things seemed to be going to hell.
The six of them trailed their eyes around the miserable place they found themselves in. the huge military camp, the hundreds of armed soldiers, a sea of indistinct shouts that seemed to be coming from everywhere around them, the loud cries of the miserable looking prisoners surrounding them, eyes squinted from the direct light that kept hitting their faces.
“Eyes front!” a soldier shouted, as he knocked a prisoner to the floor with the butt of his gun. Making the other prisoners flinch in fear.
“So, this crap hole is their dark world.” Clint commented with a grimace.
“It’s hard to believe a place miserable like this actually exists. In any world.” Charles murmured, eyes trailing over the prisoners’ faces.
“I wish I can share your sentiment, Charles, but to be honest, I expect anything by now.” Dean muttered bitterly, as he eyed the cuffs around his wrests.
“Keep moving!”
“All prisoners stay away from the gate!”
The shouts continued as the soldiers led another group of prisoners.
Tony’s eyes trained on the prisoners, noticing there was stars and triangles taped to their chests with different colors each group.
“Stars and triangles?” Tony asked with a frown, trying to figure out what it means.
“Badges used to identify purported crimes that these poor shits ‘committed’ to land in here.” Bucky explain, looking nervous and tense. “The Nazis used to do that during the war.”
Dean kept trying to get out of the cuffs, while Charles clutched the collar around his neck and tried to pull it off.
Tony noticed one of the prisoners was staring hard at Charles, almost in a confused shock. He also noticed that there was a star on his chest.
“Hey, you.” Tony called out to the strange prisoner, who turned to look at him, only to freeze with obvious fear. Understandable, probably thinking Tony was his bastard self. “What’s that star for? What did you do?”
The man eyed him carefully, looking nervous.
“I am Jewish.” He answered, like that was answer enough. Which it was.
“God, he really is taking the Hitler role to full heart.” Natasha muttered nervously.
“We need to get out of these things.” Clint said, as he gestured to the cuffs in his hands.
“It’s impossible. I tried everything.” Dean muttered bitterly with a shake of his head.
“These power dampening collars are driving me mad.” Charles groaned, as he tugged sharply at the collar.
“Wait, why are we wearing those collars?” Clint asked in confusion. “Aside from Charles, none of us have any powers.”
“Don’t know, but it doesn’t matter.” Natasha frowned as she trailed her eyes on their surroundings again. “There are too many guards here anyways.”
“They are gonna kill Cas.” Dean burst out suddenly, as he looked at them desperately. “And they took Steve too, obviously for another sick reason.”
“We will get out of this.” Tony stated as confidently as he could, while trying to ignore his rapidly beating heart and the fact that he could no longer feel Steve’s heartbeat in their wedding ring, which meant that he was either not in this world or worse. “I promise, Dean. We won’t let them hurt Cas, and we will find Steve.”
“We will get back to our world before then.” Natasha said firmly, looking confident.
“How? We don’t even know how we got here.” Bucky sighed nervously.
“No, we don’t. We are going to figure it out.” Charles interjected, looking determined as he exchanged a look with Dean and Tony. “We will find a way to get out of this place and we will get back to the people we love.”
“God, I hope everyone else is okay.” Clint murmured, making the others exchange worried looks at his words.
***
Erik woke up at the sound of a ball bouncing repeatedly against a glass surface.
He blinked his eyes open slowly, before everything came back to him suddenly, then he was sitting up with a sharp gasp and wide eyes. Only to find himself in an enforced glass cube and his friends and family in a similar position around him, each one in a cube.
“Nice to see you finally awake.” Steve greeted him from the cell right next to his, where he was sitting cross legged on the floor, with a bitter look in his eyes.
“Steve. Charles. Where is Charles?” he asked in a choked off voice when he noticed that his husband was no where to be seen. Then he noticed the absence of more important people. “Wait, Tony, Dean and Castiel. Romanov, Barton and Barnes. Where are they?”
“They were taken to our doppelgangers’ world.” Steve answered bitterly, staring down at his hands in his lap. “All except for Cas. They are weakening him at the moment to be able to crack open his chest and take his heart to save their Castiel.”
Erik felt a cold shiver ran through his body at the amount of terrible news sent his way.
“The guy just woke up, Steve. Take it easy on him.” Sam sighed as he tried to get comfortable on the floor of his cell, that he looked comically too large for.
“Wait, let me get this straight.” Erik shook his head sharply, ignoring the pain that shot through it, while trying not to focus on the sound of a ball hitting a wall repeatedly. “My husband and friends are currently in a dark world, ruled by your doublegangers, who are pretty much the reincarnation of the Nazis. Castiel is about to have his heart surgically removed from his body, and we are trapped here in a dungeon built by Tony Stark?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Steve sighed tiredly.
Erik blinked for a few seconds, before suddenly bursting out in a long trail of curses in every language he spoke. Which apparently were a lot.
“You are going to make a fortune from him when he pays for your Swear Jar.” Thor commented as he stared at the enraged mutant.
“I don’t understand half of what he is saying. Although, I caught a few filthy curses in German and French so far.” Steve was blinking at the metal binder, not even trying to calm him down. It was pointless anyway, no matter what he says, the mutant will not calm down.
“I should have fucking went on that goddamned mission! Of all the people you could have taken, you took Charles?! Who couldn’t even run properly yet? Are you fucking kidding me?!” Erik shouted that in German at Steve’s face, effectively sounding like any self-respecting Nazi. He apparently forgot the English language in the middle of his rage.
“Sorry, I don’t speak German. Try another language.” Steve lied innocently, not really wanting to deal with any kind of blame right now.
“A soldier from World War II can’t speak German? Bullshit and you know it!”
“I am too exhausted to switch to another language at the moment.”
“Fucking hell, who is throwing a damn ball?!” Erik erupted again, when the sound of throwing ball kept repeating stubbornly.
“Why? Is it bothering you?” Logan, the one with a small ball, asked as he kept throwing the ball against the glass of the cell.
“Yes!”
“Oh, okay.” Logan just kept throwing the ball a little faster than before.
“You piece of shit, stop!”
“Break through the cell and stop me, Daddy Shark.”
“Are they going to do that the whole time we are in here?” Bruce asked. Looking miserable.
“Cut it out!”
“Cut what out?”
“The ball throwing, you animal!”
“Sorry, I don’t speak French.”
“Probably.” Steve sighed in answer to Bruce’s question. Trying so hard to calm his rapidly beating heart.
He didn’t care about what Dark Tony was planning to do with him. He was more worried about Tony and his friends in the dark world.
He was also worried about his best friend, who was about to lose his heart.
And he was unable to save any one of them.
***
Castiel woke up slowly, eyes squinting against a red light that was directed at him.
He looked down on himself to find that he was strapped by the arms and legs to a surgery table, and he was completely powerless to even try to break out of the bindings.
“Nice Tower you got here.” A familiar voice said from behind him, but it was all wrong. Filled with cruelty instead of the usual warmth of that voice. “Of course it is nice, it was built by a version of me, so it is expected. Even if that version was too weak for my liking.”
Castiel strained his neck, until he saw Dark Tony coming towards him with an ugly smirk on his face.
“Where are my friends?” Castiel demanded as he glared up at the man.
“Your friends are in my home world.” Dark Tony just shrugged as he enjoyed the look of panic that crossed Castiel’s face at the news. “I wouldn’t worry about your friends too long, because-“ he leaned down to whisper in the angel’s ear. “-They are not going to be alive much longer.”
He leaned back and Castiel felt dread rise up inside him, then pulled at his bindings more harshly, but with no use.
“That’s because of that red light.” Dark Castiel’s amused voice rang in the room, as he approached Castiel with a small smirk. “It will make you weaker than you can possibly imagine.”
Castiel panted from the effort as he stared up at his doppelganger, who stumbled on his feet for a second, before stabilizing himself again.
Dark Tony gave him a look, that the dark angel just brushed off.
“You did all of this just to get me?” Castiel asked in both shock and anger. “Do you know how many innocent people you killed?”
“Their lives to save mine?” Dark Castiel just chuckled as he raised an eyebrow at the strapped angel, before moving to sit on a chair. “Well, they should feel honored.”
Castiel kept struggling weakly against the straps, while his doppelganger stared in amusement.
“It is a strange sensation, isn’t it?” Dark Castiel whispered with a smirk. “To feel vulnerable.”
"And it’s just gonna get worse.” Dark Tony added as he flipped a scalpel in his hand, moving to stand over the angel. “This red light will continue to soften you up. Until pretty soon, I am going to crack you open like a walnut.” He leaned over to get his face close to Castiel’s. “Then, I am going to take your healthy heart, and put it in him.” He gestured towards Dark Castiel, who seemed to enjoy the whole scene.
“Come on, we need to get you going.” Dark Tony nodded towards the Dark Angel.
“Good, that will give me time to talk to-well, myself.” Dark Castiel let out a laugh, as Castiel tried to hide the cold shiver that ran through him at the words.
***
In a vent close to ceiling of the room, Raven turned to Charlie with wide eyes, after they heard the conversation that took place in the med bay.
“Did you hear that?” Raven whispered frantically, as she turned fully to Charlie. “Everyone on Team A are in the Dark world!”
“And Cas only has a few hours, before they go full Mengele on him.” Charlie continued with a horrified look on her face.
“We gotta stop them.” Raven stated firmly, trying to hide her fear.
“Got any ideas?”
“I don’t know.” Raven shook her head with a sigh. “Just give me some time to think.”
“Raven, I am all for girl power and everything, but how you and I are gonna stop the meaner, Nazi versions of four of the strongest people in our lives?” Charlie murmured in confusion.
“Maybe we don’t have to.” Raven said with wide eyes as she seemed to have a plan. “We just need to get to the dungeon, get Hank, Steve and Erik out. Hank could turn off the power in the entire Tower, while Erik and Steve could get us all out of here.”
“Do you know how to get to the dungeon from here?” Charlie asked hopefully.
“I think so.” Raven answered while looking around.
“Lead the way, McClain.”