Chapter 18
“Wait!”
Sydney shouted while turning around grapping Bernard’s gun and raising it up and away.
The bullets rang through the tunnels as they pierced through the ceiling.
Everyone jumped to their machine guns while Brigitte shouted: “Treason! Kill them now!”
“Seriously just stop and think for a second!” Tony also yelled while raising his hands in a calming gesture. “Why do you insist on killing us without listening to us first?! Where is your co-leader Alain? Maybe he will listen to us better.”
“Don’t listen to the spy! Shoot them!”
“Stop!”
Came the stern shout from somewhere, making everyone froze, while a dark haired man made his way towards them.
“What is going on here?” The man demanded firmly.
“God, please tell me you are Alain.” Tony exclaimed looking at him hopefully.
“Who are you?” Alain turned towards him sharply.
“See? Alain himself doesn’t know who the hell they are.” Brigitte yelled.
“Do you think you will defeat the Germans in that erratic, hostile way that refuses to stop and listen to reason for a second?” Sydney yelled in frustration. “What will you lose if you listened to us for one minute? We are between your hands and you can kill us whenever you want. So just listen to us and think about what we will say then kill us if you think we are lying or working for the Nazis.”
Everyone in the room went silent as they stared at them, Then Alain shrugged. “I am convinced.” When Brigitte was about to protest, he cut her off with a look then turned his eyes back to Tony. “Talk. How did you know about our hideout?”
“I know it because Captain America told me where you hide.” Tony answered tiredly, already exhausted from all the pressure and tension around him.
“Why would he do that?”
“Because we are… friends.”
“So you are telling me you are friends with Captain America? Even though he never mentioned you?”
“Well, I am not friends with the now Captain. I am friends with the future one.” He was too tired to care how crazy he sounds right now, he really was willing to let them just kill him.
Alain furrowed his brow in confused frustration while Brigitte glared at him. “What does that supposed to mean?”
“It means that we are not from now, okay? We are not from your fucking time!” Tony pretty much yelled, when he felt Sydney squeezing his arm in warning he turned to glare at her and removing his arm from her grip.
“What, you are saying you are from the future or something?”
“Yup. Pretty much.”
“God, you are terrible at keeping secrets.” Sydney muttered under her breath making Tony glare at her again.
When Brigitte made a move towards them, Alain stopped her and got closer to Tony when he noticed something around his neck when he turned.
Tony watched silently as Alain tugged at the dog tags around his neck and pulled them from under his shirt to inspect them carefully.
After a few tense seconds, Alain raised wide, confused eyes towards him.
“These are Captain America’s dog tags.” He announced while staring at Tony.
“He gave them to me.” Tony murmured while staring at the dog tags with aching heart. He never removed them from around his neck since Steve gave them to him. They make him feel comforted when Steve wasn’t around.
“That’s impossible, since the last time I saw him, he had them around his neck.”
“I told you. We are not from here. Future Cap gave them to me.”
Alain growled in frustration then turned towards Bernard sharply. “Search him!”
He let Bernard search him, too tired to even argue with him.
Bernard only found Tony’s wallet in his pocket and handed it to Alain.
Tony watched as Alain searched through the contents of his wallet until he found the two pictures he secretly had them inside.
A picture of a selfie he personally took of him, Steve, Dean and Castiel. They were on one of their weekly double dates, for some unknown reason, he pulled out his phone and took a selfie of them. Steve was grinning like the lovesick puppy he was at Tony, Castiel was smiling a confused smile at Dean who was laughing about something he couldn’t remember. Tony himself was grinning with real happiness, even if he was the only one looking at the camera then.
The second one was a picture of the whole team taken on Christmas day. Steve insisted they all wear ugly, Christmas sweaters for the hell of it, and the result was horrendous. They decided to take a family picture together in those horrible sweaters. They were all laughing and smiling happily, while Tony and Dean were smirking at each other while arguing which one of them was wearing the ugliest sweater.
He loved those two pictures so much that he printed them and kept them in his wallet to always remind himself that he finally has a family. A family that he loved and love him back.
But all of that was gone. His family was seventy years away and he lost his best friend right in front of his eyes. The best friend that he couldn’t imagine a day without any more even if they’d spent most of their time bickering like preschoolers.
He watched miserably as Alain and Brigitte trailed their eyes on the two pictures carefully, eyes widening a little when they saw Steve in both of them, but then he was confused to see them froze as their eyes landed on someone else in the pictures.
They exchanged a wide eyed look before looking back at him. Alain turned the first picture towards him and Tony was surprised and confused to see him pointing at Castiel.
“Your life depends on the answer of the question I am about to ask you.” Alain started firmly but Tony could hear a tremor in his voice. “Tell me this man’s name.”
“What?” Tony asked in confusion and glanced at Sydney who looked equally perplexed, then back at Alain. “Why-“
“Just answer the question.” Brigitte growled harshly.
He trailed his eyes on their faces in confusion then sighed. “His name is Castiel, alright?”
“And what is he?” Alain prompted with wide, frantic eyes.
“What-“
“What is he?! Answer!”
Tony was getting nervous by their strange questions and didn’t know if he should answer or not, but he sensed they will probably kill him if he didn’t.
“Uhm. He is an…Angel.” He answered slowly waiting for them to shoot him.
But instead he saw everyone in the room froze and stare at him with wide eyes.
“He knows the angel Castiel!” Someone shouted excitedly then the room bursts with whispers and Tony heard Castiel’s name being repeated several times.
“How do you know Castiel?” Brigitte asked him with awe evident in her voice.
“Uhm. He is family.” He answered in bewilderment as he got more confused in every passing second.
“Oh my God, really?” Brigitte was grinning at him excitedly. “So, you are from the future! You are from Castiel’s time! Guys! He is from Castiel’s time!”
He heard the excited shouts from around the room and Tony shared a very bewildered look with Sydney.
“Wait, wait. Hold up!” Sydney exclaimed, making Alain and Brigitte turn towards her. “How do you know Castiel?”
“We met a month ago.” Brigitte answered excitedly. “We helped him and he helped us! He gave us hope again.”
“That’s impossible.” Tony shook his head firmly. “Cas can’t travel in time anymore, and since I live with him in the same place, I am pretty sure I’d have noticed if he decided to take a trip back to the forties a month ago.”
“That happened years ago, Tony.” Sydney explained, still looking bewildered though. “Dean said that Cas came here years ago on a mission. For them it must have been only a month ago but to us it was years ago.”
Tony seriously couldn’t believe what was happening. Castiel managed to save their lives even when he was seventy years away.
And Tony thanked him by letting his husband die by the Nazis.
He felt dread fills him again and his heart breaking all over again at the thought.
“What are you guys doing here?” Alain asked curiously, everyone in the room lowered their guns as they looked at them with awe. “Did Castiel sent you? Is he here?”
“No, Castiel isn’t here.” Sydney answered with a friendly smile. “We came here by accident. I am Sydney and this is Tony and… and our friend who-who died out there was Dean.” Sydney’s voice lowered miserably at the last sentence while Tony felt dizzy at the D-word.
“Did you just say Dean?” Brigitte asked with wide eyes. “Castiel told us a lot about him! He sounded like he really cares for him.”
“He isn’t dead.” Bernard interjected suddenly.
Tony and Sydney turned towards him with hopeful eyes. “Really?!”
“That’s right. He didn’t die.” Alain confirmed. “I don’t know why the German’s cared for his life, but they transferred him to a hospital and they are doing a surgery on him to remove the bullets from his body.” Then he stopped for a second before continuing: “And Castiel’s enemy came to see him.”
“Castiel’s enemy?” Tony asked carefully.
“Yes, the enemy Castiel came here for. General Friedrich Holdstein.”
Tony and Sydney exchanged a nervous look.
“Why would Castiel’s enemy go to see Dean?” Tony asked in concern. “He never saw him in his life before.”
“True, but he is too smart for his own good. Even with what Castiel did to him, he might figure out that your friend is related to Castiel somehow.” Alain took a deep breath before adding: “And if he did, then your lives will be a living hell here.”