Chapter 12
The clear water on the bowl was rapidly turning red with each new gauze deposited in it. Natasha let out a soft hiss, wincing slightly against her will.
"Sorry" said Sam with a worried expression, trying to clean the wound as carefully as he could.
"It's ok, I'm pretty sure that was the last one" she said with a hoarse voice.
Natasha had managed to escape Pepper's office with only some superficial gun wounds, and Sam was helping her bandage the ones she hadn't been able to reach herself, while Steve went out and tried to find a new hiding place. There was a real chance that Tony's goons could come chasing after them, and they couldn't take that risk.
"You're sure the portal guy was that doctor?" Sam asked again, he was still having trouble wrapping his head around the idea of Tony being back and looking for revenge apparently.
"Yes, I saw his face clearly"
"So, Pepper is obviously involved with him, but why would they run from Tony? You think Pepper is cheating on him or something?"
Natasha made a non-committal sound, she doubted Pepper and Strange were in a relationship, but that only complicated things, because otherwise why would they escape from Tony like that? She thought Tony's return would have put an end to all the mysteries surrounding him, but it only served to fuel them further.
One hour later they received Steve's call, he had secured a couple of motel rooms on the other side of town. Once relocated they had finally sat down to discuss the night's events.
"So, these are the facts we know so far" said Sam, recapitulating their current situation "Tony is back, he looks like hell and isn't exactly thrilled to see us, and will send armed gorillas after us if we so much as come near him. He's taking over SI, apparently overthrowing Pepper. And Pepper escaped through a portal with whom we now know is Stephen Strange. The same man that apparently rescued Tony from Siberia. The avenger's compound is empty, and FRIDAY hasn't been activated yet. Is that all?" he asked sarcastically, none of this mess made any sense.
With a heavy sigh, Steve let his head fall on his arms, a pained expression on his face "Yeah, pretty much" with each new answer they found, twenty new questions surfaced, it was like a never-ending game.
"What do you want to do?" Asked Natasha while tending to another scratch on her wrist.
"I... I don't know. There's something definitely wrong with Tony, we have to get to the bottom of all this" he took a deep breath, before continuing "We'll wait a couple of days to see how things pan out, then we'll contact Tony again"
Both Sam and Natasha shared a surprised glance. They had both thought Steve would stop at nothing to talk to Stark, but apparently, the man was finally regaining some sense, after all, laying low for a couple of days seemed their best option, and it would give them enough time before deciding on a new plan of action.
That same night, a muffled thumping sound woke Steve up, he quickly realized it was someone calling at his door. With a heavy sigh he got up, discovering Sam on the other side of his door, a shocked look on his face.
"What is it Sam, is everything ok?"
"Steve, we found something, come with me" With that cryptic reply, Steve followed the man down the hall and into the kitchen, where Natasha sat with an astonished face.
"Steve"
Steve had never heard so much emotion in Natasha’s voice. He instantly knew something was wrong
"What is it? what happened?!" Fear and anxiety quickly raising inside him.
Without saying another word, Natasha turned her laptop to him, showing him some videos from a security camera. It took him a moment to recognize what he was seeing. They were images of the compound, probably from the bugs him and Sam had put up earlier that day.
He saw Tony entering the building, accompanied by a groupof armed men and a fat bald guy closely following behind Tony.
They went directly into Tony's lab, where the bald guy promptly sat down on one of the consoles, apparently trying to make it work, only to have Tony come over and, with a movement of his hand, bring the entire lab back to life. The ceiling lights suddenly lighted up, as did the several computers that could be seen around them.
None of this made sense to Steve, what was Tony doing with those men? He noted that the bald man was obviously familiar with some of the equipment, a scientist of sorts apparently.
"What is that guy doing there? Who is he?" asked Steve.
"He's Dr. George Tarleton, he's the head scientist of SI's Innovative Research" Natasha answered him.
"What is Tony doing with him?"
But Natasha didn't bother to answer this time. Steve was about to ask again when something on the video caught his attention.
An orange light had flared inside the lab, a portal suddenly opened right in the middle of the room. A bright blue flash fired trough, hitting Tony square in the chest before the man could react. A black clad figure stepped out, followed closely by Stephen Strange.
Steve couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped his lips. He almost hadn't register when Tony fell to the ground, smoke coming out of his chest.
Everything happened very fast. The armed men took aim at the newcomers, opening fire at them, but the intruders where faster. Strange did some hand movements and seconds later, the men's guns had dissolved into a flurry of butterflies, the black figure had rapidly made its way to the collapsed Tony, dragging him through the portal, while Strange took care of the rest of the men.
The guards had been subdued, tied together with a bright orange rope. The bald man, the only one that hadn't taken part in the fight, seemed to come to his senses, making a run for it. In a second Strange opened a portal right in front of the fleeing man, the later couldn't stop his momentum, stumbling right into the bright light, disappearing the next instant along with the portal.
Opening another portal Strange vanished the remaining men, disappearing alongside them in a bright flash of light.
Steve felt like his entire world was crumbling down. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. He'd only just gotten Tony back! This wasn't fair! After all they'd been through, he hadn't been able to talk to Tony, he hadn't been there to save him.
Sam and Natasha had shown him the analysis they had made of the video. Showing him an enlarged picture with the exact moment Tony had been hit with the blast from the portal.
"By the reading of the energy fluctuation of the blast, we can deduce it came from a repulsor based weapon" Natasha told him.
"The blast went right through him. There's no doubt Steve, Tony is dead" Sam said with as much gentleness as he could muster.
"We were also able to isolate the black clad figure" Natasha said, as he showed Steve an image with several readings and stats on it of the unknown individual.
"We managed to calculate it's height and relative weight... there's an 80% chance the individual was a woman"
A long silence filled the room, Steve didn't dare say anything out loud, least he made it real by acknowledging it. In the end, he couldn't deny it any longer.
"Pepper" he sighted.
Sam and Natasha both nodded in unison.
Steve guessed it made sense in a horrible and twisted way. She had been last seen escaping with Strange, and according to Natasha's intel, Tony had at least planned to give Pepper her own armor at some point, if he hadn't already done so. If nothing else, she would have been the only one capable of accessing Tony's technology without problems or arising any suspicions. But the question remained, why? Why would Pepper do something so heinous? And if not Pepper, then who?
Steve's head was spinning, he needed to do something, least the rage and despair consumed him. With shaking legs, he stood up from the chair.
"I need some air" was all he managed to say before going out through the door.
Natasha stood from her chair and looked out their window, she could see the Captain had sat down back at the edge of the motel swimming pool, his hands covering his head.
With a sight she went back to her place next to Sam, looking at the frozen image of a collapsing Tony.
"Natasha, what the hell is all this? What's going on?!"
Natasha felt as lost as Sam looked. She had no idea what Tony had been involved in, everything about this was a complete mess.
"There's only one person who's been involved in this from the very beginning" she said finally.
Sam looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Stephen Strange? You think you can find him?"
With a firm nod she stood up. She was pretty sure she knew where she could start looking for the man.