Chapter 25
It was ten AM, when Rhodey entered the room where everyone were gathering.
“Hey guys.” he greeted them with a tired smile. “Sorry it took me too long to see you, guys. I just managed to get out of the base two hours ago.” He dropped on the couch next to Thor. “Anything?”
“Not yet.” Steve sighed sadly. “We just found out that Sydney had a partner. So, Charlie is looking into finding them, while Natasha is searching for anything mentioning Tony and Dean in the old newspapers from WWII. Dr. Foster is studying the time maps hoping to understand the writing on them with Sam’s help. Clint went with Fury to help him search for the second time traveler.”
“What a mess.” Rhodey exhaled anxiously. “I still can’t believe what happened. How are you holding up?”
“Barely.” Steve answered bitterly. “His absence is taking its toll on me.”
“I know how you feel.” Rhodey looked at him with sad eyes. “At least he is not alone in this. How is Cas doing?”
Steve gestured towards the large window, where Castiel was standing, staring at it completely frozen like a statue.
“Is he alright?” Rhodey asked as he looked at him in concern.
“Poor Castiel was burdened by knowledge.” Thor replied gazing at Castiel sadly. “He said history is changing. He is the only one here who can feel the change profoundly and it is taking its toll on him.”
“History is changing? That can’t be good, what changed?”
“He said that the Germans were supposed to never know that the French resistance were hiding in the subway’s tunnels.” Steve answered his lips twisting sadly. He was wondering what happened to his friends from the resistance then, but for some reason his memory was hazy on that particular part. “And as you can tell, that’s not what happened.”
“You mean only before yesterday what you just said was what the history always said but that changed yesterday and only Castiel felt it?!”
“Apparently, yes.”
“God, my head hurts.” Rhodey groaned loudly. “This time traveling thing always gave me headaches when I think about it.”
Before Steve could answer him, Clint entered the room with a frown on his face.
“What happened?” Steve asked in concern.
“Nothing.” Clint dropped on the couch next to him heavily. "And I mean literally nothing! We looked through the files of all the possible suspects that the descriptions you guys gave applied to them, but they all proved to be innocent and we never found the time traveler.”
“What? That’s impossible!” Charlie exclaimed looking up from her computer. “I rechecked my calculations five times. There is no way I was wrong.”
“Maybe if we take another look-“ Natasha started but Clint just shook his head.
“No, Nat. I am pretty sure that Charlie’s findings and Cas’ suggestions are perfect. I have a proof of that.”
“A proof? What proof?” Steve wondered in surprise.
“SHIELD’s system was hacked yesterday.”
“What? That’s impossible.” Natasha exclaimed. “The only ones who managed to do that were me and Tony. They have very strong defenses, there is no way anyone could get pass it.”
“They got past all of them all too easily. And stopped the defense systems, that no one noticed them as they dived into the main system until seven whole minutes. The moment they were caught, they retreated immediately.”
“What did they hack into?” Steve asked carefully.
“All the classified information about Sydney.”
“Damn, they’re good.” Rhodey muttered grimly.
“That proves that there is another time traveler.” Natasha muttered. “A really smart one too. Probably as smart as Sydney.”
“You could obviously tell that Fury is panicking.” Clint bit his lower lip in worry. “He believes this could be the start of a war. A war to control time.”
***
“He left the hospital.”
Bernard announced as he rushed inside the room.
“Are you sure?” Tony asked anxiously.
“I saw him with my own eyes! He left the hospital with Von Darke, chief of Military police, each one rode in their cars and left.”
“Good. Everything is going according to plan.”
“We will start moving now.” Sydney announced while looking at her watch. “Set your watches. We will start our plan at 7:30, when Holdstein reached his office. Charles will take the device now to place it on the building opposite the hospital. While Alain will go now to Holdstein’s office. Tony and I will move out at 7:12, and will drive around the area, then we will stop in front of the hospital at 7:30. At the same time, Charles will turn on the device and Alain will ask to meet Holdstein.” Everyone nodded in understanding. “Timing, people. Timing is the most important part here.”
“Don’t worry.” Alain said sternly then left immediately to reach Holdstein’s office on time, followed by Charles.
Sydney adjusted her clothes and took a deep breath. “I hope we will play our roles perfectly too.”
“You will succeed.” Brigitte smiled softly at her. “I know you will.”
She turned to look at her blue eyes, heart racing and-
“I think we better leave now.”
Tony pulled her back to the present sternly, she straightened up in determination. “Let’s go.”
She looked away from Brigitte, trying to control her feelings while she walked away next to Tony.
“Sydney.” she froze and turned a little to look back at Brigitte, who was still smiling at her. “I’ll wait for you.”
She felt her heart beat rapidly and couldn’t say anything so she just waved at her with a small smile and left with Tony through the tunnels.
They didn’t speak for a while as they walked, then Tony spoke.
“You like her, don’t you?” he asked bluntly. “A little too much. A little too fast.” Sydney didn’t answer so he continued. “I hate to rain on your parade, Syd, but I am afraid this will bring the both of you a whole lot of trouble. We are not in a homosexuality friendly era. You could get her killed. Not to mention that you are almost a hundred years apart or more. Also, Alain is hopelessly in love with h-“
“It wasn’t my choice.” Sydney interrupted sadly.
“I know.” Tony murmured softly.
“You know? This is the first time this ever happened to me.” Sydney sighed. “I am the leader of the Avengers. I only focused on my team and their safety. Their parents and their grandparents trusted me with them. I couldn’t let myself get distracted by anything. My life only involved my team and my family.”
“God, you are really Steve’s grandkid.” Tony shook his head with a chuckle. “But even Steve let himself have a life. Let himself to love. I am sorry to tell you this but you chose the wrong time to fall for someone.”
“You mean the wrong era.” Sydney murmured bitterly. Tony nodded with a sigh without commenting. Sydney shook her head and looked up at him. “I will keep away these feelings. I promise.”
Tony looked at her sadly for a second. “I hope so.”
They reached the end of the tunnel then and Sydney straightened herself and took a pose to act like a Gestapo officer.
“Charming. But you do realize you still look like a woman even if you are wearing men clothing, right?” Tony looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
She smirked while pulling out a very small device from her pocket and placed it behind her ear then tapped it.
Tony watched as her appearance completely changed into a male form, no trace of her being a woman left.
“Let me guess, compliments of me?” Tony looked her up and down appreciatively.
“That’s actually a birthday present from you.” she grinned at him. “Dean helped you with it. My little brother and I needed to sneak out a lot from behind our parents, Steve and Castiel. So, you made those for us.”
“I knew it. I am still cool even in the future.” Tony let out a loud laugh as he walked towards the car with Sydney.
“You are taking this whole thing easier than I expected.” Sydney commented as she got in the backseat. “I was expecting you to deny it and shut me out.”
“Honestly? I am freaking out from this whole thing.” Tony said he got in the driver seat. “I know if I thought about it all I am going to panic, so I am just focusing to get Dean back so we could panic together on the whole grandparents thing.”
“Yeah, that is probably for the best.” She smiled then looked down at her watch. “7:16.”
“We will drive around then we will stop in front of the hospital at 7:30.” Tony said while starting up the car.
They didn’t speak for a whole minute before Sydney spoke again.
“What do you think they did to Dean?” she asked in a small voice.
“No doubt that the poor guy suffered a lot with that Butcher Carl.” Tony bit his lower lip bitterly.
“The important thing is for him to stay alive.”
“I think they will keep him alive, but his body was probably used as the devil’s playground.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“That’s the point of view of someone who never got tortured before!” Tony muttered sharply.
“Do you see this?” Sydney leaned forward to show him something in her palm.
“This is a bullet.”
“Not just any bullet. This is the bullet that pierced my thigh. My body ejected it thanks to the protective serum running through my blood, which made the wound heal rapidly. I know that Bruce injected you guys with a replica of that serum. Dean’s wounds and injuries will heal when we get him out of there to give him a chance to heal.”
“I hope Bruce’s replica is just as effective.” Tony sighed as he headed toward the hospital and stopped in front of it. “7:30.”
“Then we will begin.”
333
Meanwhile, Brigitte looked at her watch and murmured: “They will begin now.”
She was pacing around the room anxiously, her mind was thinking about one person.
Sydney.
She didn’t know how it happened, but she was falling hard for the mysterious, strong brunette.
She knew it was too soon and that her feelings are considered a crime then. But she didn’t know what came over her. She always knew that she wasn’t normal. She never got attracted to men and tried to hide it and bury it.
Then Sydney came along and everything she tried to bury came right up.
There was just something in the way Sydney carried herself, her confidence, her fearlessness, her courage. The way she speaks. Her nature. Her personality. That made her-
“Treason!”
The shout pierced her ears, violently pulling her out of her romantic thoughts and jerked violently then turned towards Bernard who was running into the room shouting: “The Germans are here!”
Everyone jumped up in panic while Brigitte exclaimed: “Here?! What do you mean they are here?!”
“They stormed into the subway’s tunnels from three different directions! They know we are here and they are surrounding us!”
“But this is impossible!” her eyes widened in terror.
“Not anymore! They are not searching, they are moving in a way that indicates they know where they are going exactly.”
“But how?! How did they know we are here?!”
“The strangers.” He bit his lower lip in anger. “They betrayed us!”
Her heart fell violently, the same moment they heard gun shots through the tunnels.
Which meant they had no way out.
And that history changed.
Violently.
***
Tony felt nervousness fill him as he sat inside the car, waiting for Sydney.
He knew that their mission was dangerous, and he hated the fact that he had to wait in the car, but he knew it will be dangerous if he was seen. That Holdstein might have told everyone each of the Avengers’ descriptions in case any of them were Dean’s companions.
So he just waited anxiously inside the car, looking around.
Everything seemed calm. Way too calm. But he noticed that the German’s soldiers were moving in a way that made him nervous. They were moving towards the corners, like they were taking positions to completely surround the hospital.
The way they moved was making him nervous in each passing second.
Something wasn’t right.
***
At the same time, one of the doctors in the hospital was leading Sydney towards Dean’s room, then knocked on it carefully.
“Herr Carl?” the doctor called out hesitantly. “There is one of your fellow off-“
Sydney pushed open the door before he got the chance to finish and entered the room to face Carl.
“Colonel Ralf Abler.” She said sternly.
“What can I do for you, Colonel?” Carl asked while looking strangely calm.
Sydney took a quick look around the room and felt rage rise inside her as her eyes landed on the unconscious Dean who looked absolutely terrible from what he suffered through. “I came to take the captive.”
“Take the captive? I am afraid to say that I will nee-“
Sydney pulled out the statement from her pocket while cutting him off firmly: “I have a statement from General Holdstein himself.”
Carl took the statement and read it carefully. “This is definitely the general’s handwriting and signature. But why would the general want to get the captive out so fast?”
“This is not your business.” Carl looked up sharply. “Or mine. This is the general’s orders. So obey it.”
“I don’t know-“
“The general’s orders are specific. It must be carried out as fast as possible.” then she leaned towards him adding sternly. “Why don’t you call him to be sure?”
“Call him?!” Carl let out a loud laugh. “Why would I do that?” then he pointed to a side door. “I can just ask him himself.”
When he finished his sentence, the door opened revealing the last person Sydney expected to see here.
General Holdstein himself.