Chapter 15
A vent opened from the ceiling of the dungeon, finally managing to stop Erik and Logan’s screaming matches, as everyone glanced up at the ceiling.
From it, jumped Raven then Charlie, landing swiftly in the middle of the room.
“Girls! You are alright?” Steve exclaimed in relief when he saw them.
“When I told you to hide, you did a very good job.” Erik commented, looking impressed.
“Do you have any news of the team stuck in the other world?” Sam called out desperately, terrified for his brother, fiancée and friends.
“We will get you guys out first, then we will talk.” Raven assured, as Charlie rushed to the controllers to try to open the cells.
“Behind you!” Logan and Thor shouted, as they noticed two armed soldiers rushing towards the two women.
“Freeze!” one of them ordered firmly, raising their guns at them.
Raven and Charlie took a step back, before the former shifted herself into one of the soldiers, managing to startle them long enough for the two women to jump forward, grabbing their guns and slam them to their faces.
When the two soldiers fell to the floor, unconscious, the trapped heroes whooped in pride.
“That was badass!” Wilson exclaimed with a grin.
“I know!” Charlie chuckled, as Raven shifted back to herself to grin at her.
“Did I mention that you girls are my favorite couple?” Rhodey winked at them with a smile.
“That will break Tony’s heart, Rhodey.” Steve smirked over at him.
“He will get over it!”
“Come on, get us out.” Erik urged them, eyes darting around for more soldiers.
Charlie rushed to the controllers and kept pressing several times to open the cells, but nothing was happening.
“Damn it, you have got to be kidding me!” she yelled in frustration, when all her attempts went to waste.
“What is it?” Raven asked nervously.
“Their Tony changed the cells doors codes! No matter what I do, it won’t budge.” She explained in increased frustration.
“So, we are trapped, until their Tony decide to let us out?” Hank murmured with wide eyes.
“Or if our Tony came back.” Bruce sighed, his words making Steve flinch at the obvious ‘If’.
“Girls, forget about us for now.” Steve said firmly, trying to control his scattered emotions and panic. “It’s up to you to save Castiel. He doesn’t have much time!”
***
The six of them followed behind the AU Erik and Raven, who didn’t try to speak or glance at them, not to mention feeling exhausted and confused as hell. They were walking through a complicated underground tunnels, that seemed like the two mutants knew by heart.
“Are we going to talk about what’s happening?” Clint asked, as he looked at his friends helplessly. Hoping for anything.
“Honestly? I have no idea what we should discuss first.” Dean sighed in frustration, while shutting his eyes in exhaustion. Fuck, that was becoming a really long day.
“We need to recap then.” Tony started with a deep frown, as he tried to rearrange his thoughts. “We are trapped somehow in this Dark World, where there are evil doppelgangers of Dean, Castiel, me, Steve and Bobby so far. Dark Castiel is dying and planning to take the healthy heart of our Castiel to save himself.” He placed a calming hand on Dean’s shoulder when he tensed at that.
“Then, we are saved from a concentration camp by doppelgangers of my husband and sister, who we still have no idea what are their statues in this world.” Charles added grimly, eyeing the aforementioned doppelgangers carefully.
“I wonder what happened to their Charles.” Natasha murmured absentmindedly, making the others turn to her in surprise.
“Why are you assuming that something happened to this world’s Charles?” Bucky asked in confusion.
“If there is a Charles in their lives, they won’t be in this state.” Natasha raised an eyebrow at them, like what she was saying was the most obvious thing ever. Which kinda was. “Look at them, they are driven by anger and bitterness. There is only one thing that could render them to this state and you all know it.”
They exchanged glances, unable to deny that fact.
“Do you think bastard me did something to him too?” Tony wondered with a deep frown.
“Honestly, man, I will expect anything by now.” Dean shook his head with a sigh.
“I still don’t understand why they took our Steve. What could they possibly want fro-“
“Isn’t it obvious? Fucking Stark will make him another Sex Toy.” AU Raven interrupted Tony, turning to him with a raised eyebrow.
They turned wide eyes towards her, feeling their hearts drop to their feet like one.
“What? Why are you sure about that?” Tony exclaimed a little too loudly, his voice ringing through the tunnel’s walls.
“Keep your damn voice down.” AU Erik snapped at him harshly, turning a withering glare at him, that made Tony snap his mouth shut and the others took a careful step back.
“From what I gathered, our past is pretty much the same with slight, but major, changes, right?” AU Raven started carefully. After their nod, she continued. “Well, in this world, I was close to Stark like a sister for what feels like a lifetime ago. So, I know how he thinks. He definitely took your Captain America to turn him into another sex slave like he did with ours.”
“Oh, God.” Tony’s face paled, as he felt his chest tighten in panic and fear. “Oh, God, no. No.”
“Hey, hey, it is going to be alright.” Dean and Charles rushed in to calm him, before he went into a full-on panic attack. “We will get back in time to save both Cas and Steve. We just nee-“
“Stop talking.” AU Erik interrupted him suddenly, stopping in the middle of the tunnel and gripped his bow tightly.
“What is it?” Clint asked nervously, eyeing the bow in envy. Missing his own so bad at the moment.
“We are being followed.” AU Erik announced grimly, his posture tight and tense.
The moment he said that, a very familiar sound of a particular metal cutting through the air echoed in the tunnel.
Followed by a black circular shield that was two seconds away from hitting Tony straight in the head, if Dean and Bucky didn’t push him away in time.
They stared with wide eyes as the shield rebounded against the wall and back to its owner, who stood at the beginning of the tunnel behind them, dressed in black and a cold, dead look on his face as he caught the shield.
“Dammit, he followed us!” AU Erik growled as they all turned to face the mind-controlled soldier, who was currently charging towards them with all his might.
“I thought you knocked him out with the others!” Tony exclaimed, as he and Charles were being pushed behind by Dean and Natasha.
“You try to knock out Captain America long enough to escape!” AU Raven shouted at him defensively.
Dark Steve reached them then, Bucky and Dean immediately got in front of him, while Clint and Natasha attacked from behind.
It was weird for them, having to attack a version of Steve so viciously, but the dead, cold look on that face helped to ease the guilt.
However, he was way more vicious than their Steve. He attacked with all his might, knocking Clint and Natasha into each other, hit Bucky in the face with his shield, then threw it to knock over AU Raven, then gripped Dean’s throat in a tight grip.
“Fuck. Being strangled by Steve Rogers twice in less than three months is a lot.” Dean choked out painfully, trying to remove the hand from around his throat.
“Dean!” Tony exclaimed in panic and was about to rush in to help, but was pushed away harshly by AU Erik.
The metal binder aimed his bow at the soldier’s neck, ready to shoot.
“Release him.” He ordered in a hard voice, making Dark Steve look at him from the corner of his eyes. “Release him, or I will shoot you in the neck.”
Dark Steve didn’t seem to care about his threat and just proceeded to tighten his hold on Dean, whose face was startingly blue.
“He is going to kill him!” Natasha panicked as she tried to get to her feet fast.
“Release him!” Tony and Bucky shouted in panic.
Dark Steve suddenly froze, hand going slack around Dean’s throat, before collapsing to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
They blinked at his fallen body, then looked up to see Charles, who sneaked behind the soldier and pressed his fingers to his temples.
“What did you do?” Tony breathed out in awe as he leaned down with Clint to help Dean back to his feet.
“I unlocked his mind.” Charles announced with a sad twist to his lips, obviously hating to invade someone’s mind like that.
“What do you mean? You removed his mind control?” Bucky asked with wide eyes.
“I don’t know. I think so? We will only know when he wakes up.”
“He will not wake up.” AU Erik stated icily, as he pulled out a knife and charged towards the fallen body.
“Wait, no! Don’t!” they all shouted frantically, while Charles rushed to come between the mutant and the fallen soldier.
“Wait, please! He doesn’t deserve to die! His mind was controlled!” Charles tried to reason, willing his heart to stop beating so hard. He sure looked like his husband, but he had a cruel, cold look on his face that was no longer on his Erik’s face for almost a decade now. Seeing it again with more intensity was unsettling.
“I don’t care. He followed us. He knows where we are going and will report to fucking Stark. I can’t let that happen.” He shook his head firmly and moved to side step Charles, who got stubbornly in his way again.
“I did something to his mind. He might be back to normal now. He will be Captain America again! Don’t you think this will be a valuable asset to you? To your people?” The telepath talked in a soothing voice, that always managed to make his Erik relent, hoping that it will have the same effect with his doppelganger.
AU Erik had a pained look on his face, as his eyes met Charles’, but only for a second, then his face was back to his cold state so fast, that Charles thought he imagined it.
“And what if he woke up and he was still in his Sex slave state? He can kill us all, if he wanted to.” Erik demanded with a raised eyebrow.
“Tie him up and I will try again to release his mind. Just don’t kill him, please.” Charles was getting desperate; he was ready to beg if he had to. “He doesn’t deserve to die, while being like this. No one does.”
AU Erik just eyed Charles for a few tense seconds, before looking away.
“Carry him and let’s go.” He ordered, then turned swiftly and marched back through the tunnel, without giving them a second glance.
“Thank you.” Tony murmured to Charles with a grateful smile, as Clint and Bucky grabbed the fallen soldier and started to drag him with them.
“Are you getting a kick out of saving our asses?” Dean smiled over at him, as he clapped his shoulder heartly.
“It’s the least I could do. I don’t want to feel useless anymore.” Charles murmured, but his eyes remained on AU Erik’s back, noticing how AU Raven had managed to completely avoid his eyes so far as she followed behind the former. “Natasha, you were right.”
“Like usual, but you need to be specific.” She turned to him curiously along with the others.
“Something terrible happened to their Charles.” He announced with a frown, feeling his heart break for those two in front of them. “I don’t know what, but it broke those two in a terrible way.”