Chapter 20
Back at the Tower, when the power went out, it also did in the dungeons for only a split moment that took for it to snap into the emergency power source.
At that same moment, Erik managed to snap open the collar around his neck.
***
AU Steve threw his shield, managing to hit the closest group of soldiers, bringing him down.
Dark Bobby turned to him with wide shocked eyes, obviously, not expecting that.
Dean, taking advantage of his surprise, punched him hard in the face, sending him tumbling towards the floor, then jumped to grab the closest soldier, catching him off guard by grabbing his gun and used him as a human shield while he shot at the other soldiers.
For the next few minutes, it included AU Steve moving around in an inhuman speed, bringing down soldiers, while Dean shot at them mercilessly, still using the soldier hostage to keep the bullets raining on him from reaching him.
They both were really thankful there wasn’t many soldiers in the control room at the moment.
After Dean shot down the last soldier, the room went quiet. Only then did he notice that Dark Bobby was missing.
“Well, that went to hell very fast.” Dean commented, while panting from the effort.
“You really are nothing like the king.” AU Steve smiled at him a little. “If the roles were reversed, he would have shot the woman without blinking an eye to prove a point.”
“Oh, God, Charlie!” Dean remembered as he rushed to the red head, who cowered behind a device, trying to make herself into a tight ball while sobbing in panic. He crouched beside her. “Hey, hey! You are okay! You are okay!”
She flinched away and stared at him with big, wide panicked eyes.
He handed her the shotgun and looked intently into her eyes.
“Just take this and go.” He told her gently, watching her breaths evening out a little as she stared at him. “Go out. You will find a blue woman. Tell her to help you. She will take care of you.”
“Why are you doing this?” AU Charlie asked with a frown as she accepted the shotgun.
“I have my reasons, now go. Go!” he gave a gentle, but urging push and she scrambled to her feet and rushed out of the room without looking back.
When he stood up again, only to see AU Steve pressing a button in the dampener device and gave him a nod.
“Clear!” Dean said into the comms, to the rest of the team.
Almost immediately, Tony and Charles rushed into the room, since they both were hiding in the car Dean and AU Steve got in.
“How did it g-oh!” Tony stopped, as he looked at the fallen bodies around the room. “You two have been busy.”
“Guys, we have a problem.” AU Steve said grimly.
“What now?” he sighed as he walked over to him.
“The gateway controllers have been damaged in the fight.” He reported grimly.
“We can’t turn it on?” Tony asked in concern.
“We can’t turn it on from here, but there should be a manual override at the platform.”
“Alright.” Dean sighed tiredly at that. Nothing is ever easy. “We are gonna have to fight our way through.”
The entire time, Charles was silent, eyes trained on a specific thing on the other side of the room.
“Charles? Are you okay?” Tony asked in concern, noticing the telepath’s state.
Charles didn’t answer at first. He just took a step towards what he was staring at.
“Charles?” Dean tried this time, getting nervous.
The telepath turned to them with eyes that doesn’t really see them.
“There.” He murmured pointing at a large, horizontal, cylinder shaped device, with hundreds and hundreds of thick wires coming from it, on the other side of the room. “There. I couldn’t tell at first because of the dampener, but now I can hear it clearly.”
“What is it?” AU Steve asked in confusion, not understanding what’s happening.
“There is someone alive inside that thing.” Charles announced with a shaking voice, eyes slowly widening. “And I think I know who it is.”
***
“Charlie Bradbury.” Dark Dean growled dangerously, “Turn the power back on.”
“He said-“ Tony started as he stepped into his suit, then moved fast to grab Charlie by the throat, slamming her against the wall. “-Turn the power back on.”
“Charlie!” Raven screamed in panic, as she struggled against the soldier keeping her in place, the collar around her neck making her movements sluggish and uncoordinated.
“Sorry, Evil Tony, can I call you Evil Tony?” Charlie choked out nervously, struggling to take a breath in.
“I prefer Dark Stark. It has more rhythm in it don’t you think?” Dark Tony smirked at her, tightening his grip on her throat.
“Glad you didn’t lose your sense of humor when you went batshit crazy.” She let out a choked, nervous laugh, as she tried to find a way out of this.
“You are a funny one, aren’t you?” Dark Tony smirked as he brought his face closer to hers. “You think you are clever than you actually are. Yet, I never heard of you in our world. Then, I am sure no one will miss you here. I will just grill your blue girlfriend instead.”
With that, he let the repulsor in his suit glow slowly, ready to shoot her in the chest with all its power. Raven struggled harder, while Charlie’s eyes widened in panic.
“Goodbye, Miss Bradbury.” He gave her an obnoxious grin as the repulsor was about to go out at full power.
“Stop! Just stop!” Castiel’s voice rang into the room as he stumbled inside, making all eyes turn to him as he leaned heavily against the wall, panting after he broke free from the soldiers containing him. “You came here for me. So, just take me, please. Please, don’t hurt anyone else.”
Dark Tony didn’t lower his hand, it kept aiming at the ready at Charlie’s face, who closed her eyes and looked two seconds away from crying, while Raven struggled even more. Dark Dean just watched coldly.
“Give them the code.” Castiel urged Charlie gently, despite the situation.
“If I do, they will kill you.” Charlie murmured in a shaking voice; a tear managed to fall from her eye.
“It’s fine. Nobody is going to die because of me.” He panted tiredly, his grip slipping from the wall, but still remained standing. “Charlie, give them the code.”
Charlie let out a frustrated sob, before lowering her head in defeat.
“Latte, Ada, Jonas, 1-1-9-0-0.” She whispered in defeat, not raising her eyes from the floor.
“Latte? That’s cute.” Dark Tony snorted, before lowering his hand and shoving Charlie to the floor harshly, then walked away to grab the tablet.
The moment she hit the floor; she broke down in sobs. The soldier grabbing Raven, moved with her to grip Charlie’s arm and forced her to her feet. Raven took her hand gently, both staring at the floor, unable to look Castiel in the eye.
Dark Tony punched in the code on the tablet and the power immediately returned to the Tower.
The genius smirked triumphantly, Dark Dean just gave the soldier a nod and started to drag the two women away.
Before they were forced out of the room, their eyes met Castiel’s, who gave them a gentle smile, despite the obvious fear in his eyes.
***
“What the hell do you think is happening out there?”
Sam asked in frustration as the power came back. He figured since the power is back, the girls probably failed in saving Castiel.
That made the blood run cold in his veins.
“I don’t know. I hate that we don’t know what the hell is happening in our home anymore.” Steve punched the glass in frustration, ignoring the pain that shot through his arm at the hard hit.
“Don’t worry. We are about to find out.” Erik said with an overly confident smile on his face.
“How are you planning to do that from here, Daddy Shark? Are you going to fly out of your little glass cube?” Logan mocked with a roll of his eyes.
Erik turned to him, his smirk widened as his cell started to vibrate violently around him.
“Erik?” Steve called out carefully, as they all watched with wide eyes, as every metallic piece of the small cell, started to vibrate and fall to the floor.
Until the glass panels were the only thing remained standing for a short time, before crashing to the floor with no longer anything supporting it.
Erik stood there, free, with a shark like smile on his face.
“How?” Hank breathed with wide eyes, unable to believe what just happened. “The collars-“
“Oh this? I broke it.” He gripped the collar from around his neck and shattered it with his powers. “It took me a while, but I managed to detect a small flicker of metal in it. It was enough.”
“Can you get us out?” Steve asked urgently, looking hopefully at the metal binder.
“Stark is going to be so mad I destroyed his dungeon.” Erik grinned as all the cells started to vibrate violently around them. “It will be worth it.”
***
“What do you mean there is someone inside that thing?”
Dean exclaimed in confusion, watching Charles walking towards the weird cylinder in determination.
“I know what I am feeling, Dean. There is someone in there, alive and needs to be helped.” Charles insisted stubbornly, as he trailed his fingers carefully over the cylinder.
“We need to move. The rest of the team are fighting their way in. The army is gathering in the hangar to stop us. We don’t have much time.” AU Steve urged impatiently, looking around nervously. “Not to mention that what is going on here, might reach him in your world.”
“Wait, what?” Dean looked at him in panic. “He can know what is happening here?”
“He has his ways, so we really don’t have much time.” The soldier tried desperately to get Charles’ attention, but it seemed hopeless.
“We need to get whoever inside out.” Charles insisted stubbornly, looking over at the silent Tony, who looked to be in deep thought. “Tony? You with me?”
Tony frowned as everyone turned to look at him expectantly, apparently, they decided to leave this decision to him.
“We should get whoever inside out. This place will explode in less than an hour. It’s not fair to let an innocent die like that, if we could help them.” Tony decided as he looked at them with determination.
Charles gave him a grateful look, while Dean looked incredulous.
“What if there is another evil version of one of us in there, that we will set loose?” Dean argued indignantly, as he watched Tony and Charles fiddle with the large machine to figure out how to open it. “There is no guarantee that there is an innocent inside.”
“Then we will just tie them up in a corner and let them explode along with the facility.” The genius just shrugged like it was no big deal and completely normal for him to say something like that.
Dean gaped at him for a second, then turned to AU Steve for help, who just sighed and walked towards the two shorter men.
“It will take less time if we helped.” AU Steve told Dean from over his shoulder. As he pulled at the casing of the cylinder to pull it off.
Tony and Charles gave him a surprised, but grateful looks.
“Fucking hell, fine!” Dean sighed in defeat and stepped up to help as well. “Whoever is inside, better be worth it.”
After maneuvering around the large, suspicious looking machine, as fast as they could without wasting too much time, they finally managed to crack it open, when they pushed at what seemed to be the lid as hard as they could.
Steam fell out of the opened machine, so thick it blinded them for a moment.
The four of them stepped back, coughing, waiting for the steam to clear out to get their vision back.
Finally, when the steam vanished, it became clear to them what is inside.
The machine turned out to be some kind of cryogenic pod, with hundreds of thick wires connected to the body inside. Those wires in return, travel through the entire facility and beyond.
In the pod itself, there was a body that seemed to be in deep sleep. The body had a very familiar face.
Familiar, because it looked exactly like one of the four men staring down at it.
“Oh, God.” Charles whispered shakily. He had suspected it when he first felt the person’s presence, but seeing it with his own eyes was still horrifying.
“I-I-What?” Dean stammered as he stared, dumfounded and shocked. “He-he actually did this to his-fucking hell.”
“I will kill that fucking monster.” Tony growled in pure rage, feeling his heart contract in both pain and anger.
Understandable, since the body being used like a battery inside the pod, was none other than AU Charles himself.
Who was presumed dead to all his loved ones years ago.
***
Meanwhile, In the hangar, it was like a beehive.
Every armed soldier in the facility was inside, gathering around the gateway, like their lives depended on it.
“No one gets to the gateway!” Dark Bobby shouted firmly to the soldiers, as he walked determinedly between them. “You will die before any of those idiots reach it!”
In the far corner of the wide place, stood a column, which held the lever that will open the gate manually. Surrounded heavily by armed soldiers.
***
The moment the pod opened in the Dark World, Dark Tony’s hand, which held a scalpel, froze right over Castiel’s chest, who was watching him with barley hidden fear and despair.
“Now, what?” Dark Dean barked harshly, when he noticed the genius’ hesitation.
Charlie and Raven, who were forced to watched the surgery, looked nervous.
Dark Tony’s frown deepened, as he seemed to be distracted from everything happening around him, before letting out a harsh chuckle.
“Looks like someone back home is playing with my toys.” He snarled in a cold voice, face hardening as he looked up at the king. “No one takes my stuff.”
At that moment, an explosion happened that destroyed half the room.