Chapter 13
Silence filled the normally loud and chaotic communal living room in the tower.
They all just sat there, most of them with tears falling silently from their eyes while the rest just sat in shock, still trying to take what happened in.
And the fact that the room was unbearably silent without Tony and Dean’s loud bickering and obnoxious jokes, wasn’t exactly helping.
They left a huge hole in the room that was consuming everyone slowly but surely.
Sam was on one of the couches, eyes wide as he tried to take in the fact that his brother didn’t and couldn’t come home, Natasha was next to him with her head on his shoulder, she had long lost the fight at keeping in her tears and were slowly falling on her cheeks. Thor, Clint and Bruce also weren’t holding back their tears as they sat on the other couch. Castiel was sitting next to Sam, looking lost, defeated and just staring at the floor. He looked like a huge part of him was forcibly ripped out of him and what was left wasn’t enough to even let him held his head up. Meanwhile, Steve was sitting on the armchair, staring blankly straight ahead, obviously trying to look strong in front of them but Sam could clearly see that he will fall apart any second.
Even though it was only mere hours had passed, but he already misses his brother’s loud, obnoxious voice and Tony’s manic ramblings. He misses Castiel’s and Steve’s fond, happy smiles. He missed the laughter in the room.
He wants all of this back.
“No. no, guys we can’t just sit like this.” he shook his head firmly, trying to wipe away the grief that was threatening to take him over. “We can’t lose hope. We have to try and do something.”
“What can we do, Sam?” Natasha whispered brokenly next to him. “You know that Sydney even with all her advanced technology, failed to find a way back to her home.”
“Maybe we will find that way.” Sam insisted sternly.
“How, Sam? How?” Bruce asked in defeat.
“I don’t know how. I am not a scientist like you. But we are a group of very smart, resourceful and stubborn people. And if there is one thing I learned from everything that happened in my life, is that to never lose hope, no matter what.” Then he looked at Bruce intently. “According to what you said, Tony had transferred all the ship’s archives and files to JARVIS. Which means you can have a look at them with the help of any scientist or even NASA if it came to it, to see the progress the ship did along the years and we might actually find a way to bring Tony and Dean back. And Sydney.”
Bruce froze and looked at him contemplatively, his tears stopped, then he looked at Natasha, who also stopped crying and listened to Sam with renewed hope, and seemed like they were already thinking of something.
“Nice optimism, Sam.” Clint muttered bitterly. “But what if they were dead by now?”
His words made Steve and Cas jerk violently, like they were slapped, and Sam glared at Clint.
“They are not dead!” Sam yelled in anger. Then his gaze got a little dazed. “They are there somewhere. Across time.”
All tears stopped, and their eyes met.
And they started to hope again.
***
Colonel Eberhard furrowed his eyebrows in the Paris air force base, as he listened to one of his pilots.
“Have you gone mad?” he demanded angrily. “What crazy story are you telling me? The whole world knows that the German aircraft is the strongest of all. And we have information about what the allies’ last development, and they certainly didn’t make an aircraft with amazing speed like the one you described.”
“But I did face that aircraft, sir.” The pilot insisted.
“And I am telling you it is impossible!”
“It didn’t have any flags or a sign that said where is it from, but I saw it as clear as day. I almost collided with it! That can’t be a hallucination.”
“Fine. I will go along with your story. Let’s say that the allies made such an amazing aircraft.” Then he leaned towards the pilot continuing angrily. “Why didn’t they try to attack us with a fleet of those aircrafts? Even though that will guarantee their victory with no doubt?”
“Maybe they are still flight testing it before the actual attack.”
The answer made sense in a scary way that it made the colonel step back with wide eyes.
“And what can we do in such situation?” he muttered with huge eyes.
“What our orders said, sir.” It was the pilot’s turn to lean towards the colonel. “To gather all the information we could find, and comb out the area, searching for the spies that that aircraft had certainly dropped. Then…”
He stopped and leaned back, still staring at the colonel.
“Then what?” the colonel asked anxiously.
“We report to the Gestapo, sir.”
***
“Well, we certainly landed in the worst era ever.” Dean announced while pinching the bridge of his nose with a groan. “Just our luck. If Cas knew we came here he will laugh hysterically at the irony.”
“Why? Did Cas come here before?” Tony asked in surprise.
“Yeah. He told me heaven sent him back in time here for a mission after a few months of meeting him, but he didn’t really tell me much details. Just told me it was one of the most terrible eras ever and what he faced here was hell.”
“Wait, if Cas can go back in time, can he come for us?” Tony looked at him hopefully.
“He can’t do it anymore.” Dean shook his head sadly. “It needs too much grace and it might kill him before he even reach us.”
Dean fought the overwhelming wave of loss at the thought of his husband. His connection to Cas was ripped away violently from him the moment the time ship left earth, and all he could feel right now is emptiness that is threatening to drown him if he thought about it. It was the same feeling he got every time Castiel died, and Dean was barley holding himself together from breaking down, for Tony’s sake. He knew the genius was also suffering and on the verge of falling apart too. Dean was trying to keep the both of them on their feet to get out of this situation.
“Well, then our situation is not going to change anytime soon then.” Sydney sighed while pulling out a coin sized device from her pocket. “Now, which one of you can speak French and German fluently?”
Tony and Dean looked at each other then back at her. Dean shook his head with a shrug.
“I caught a few things from both languages from Steve but only inappropriate words if you get what I mean.” Tony smirked a little looking back at Dean.
“Really didn’t need to know that, dude.” Dean rolled his eyes with a groan.
“What? He is unbelievably hot when he talks dirty to me with either of those languages and while he-“
“Abort! Abort! Abort!” both Dean and Sydney exclaimed while covering their ears making Tony pout at them.
“You guys are no fun.”
“So, basically, neither of you can speak German or French.” Sydney sighed with a glare Tony’s way. “Okay, no problem.”
She walked towards Dean and turned him around sharply and placed the coin at the back of his head.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing? And what is that?” Dean exclaimed while trying to turn around again but Sydney held his head in place firmly.
“It is a language implanter device, courtesy of future Tony Stark.” She explained while pressing the coin firmly.
“What?” Tony exclaimed while Dean shouted while trying to turn again: “Listen, Syd. I-“
“Don’t move.” Sydney ordered while grapping his head again.
Then Dean felt a needle piercing the back of his neck.
“Fuck! That hurts!”
“Don’t move! The device is doing its job!”
Tony was watching the whole thing with deep interest while Dean squirmed agitatedly.
“I am warning you, Syd. If that-“
“Dean! Be patient!” she sighed, then leaned towards the device and whispered. “French and German. Mid twentieth century.”
Then Dean felt like an electric current came from the device then spread violently through his whole head and his body jerked violently.
“Fuck!” he shouted.
“Did it hurt?” Sydney asked with a smirk as she removed the device from his neck.
“Yeah! You little-“ then he cut himself off as he stared at her with wide eyes. “Hey, I understood what you just said even though it was in French!”
“Not only that.” She patted his shoulder with a fond smile. “You answered in French too.”
“Holy shit! Yeah, I did! This is awesome!”
“God, I am a genius in any time.” Tony murmured with a grin. “Come on, do me.”
While Sydney repeated the process with Tony who kept asking millions of questions about the device, Dean looked around curiously.
The moment Sydney was done with Tony, a German aircraft flew over them suddenly, very close to the ground that they ducked instinctively.
“Shit, they saw us!” Dean yelled.
“They are surrounding the place.” Sydney said with furrowed brows as she looked around them.
Tony and Dean saw the team of soldiers, Sydney was pointing at, which was getting closer to where they were rapidly.
“My suit would have been very helpful right now.” Tony muttered while biting his lower lip nervously.
“We will talk about this when we get out of this in one piece!” Dean yelled, while grabbing Tony’s arm and dragged him to run away, Sydney following their lead.
***
“There are two men and a woman in the area.” The pilot said through the radio. “They are running away towards northeast.”
“Don’t let them get out of the area until our men reach them.” The colonel’s voice came firmly.
“Do we shoot them, sir?”
It was silent for a few seconds before he got his answer.
“Their death is better than their escape.”
“Understood, sir.”