Chapter 28
“They arrested them.”
Bernard announced anxiously as he entered the Resistance’s second hideout. His sentence made the whole room to fall silent.
“It is a trick!” one of the men said sharply. “To make us think that they don’t work with the Germans.”
“They’re not!” Brigitte growled at him.
“Then how did the Germans found us?”
“They didn’t need such a complicated plan to send the Germans to us.” Alain shook his head firmly. “Besides, Tony already knew where are we hiding, he didn’t need to come to us, he could have just went directly to the Germans.”
They all looked confused and exchanged nervous looks.
“Did they take them alive?” Brigitte asked anxiously.
“Yes, but they were visibly injured and unconscious. Monsieur Dean with his old injuries, Monsieur Tony with a wound in his forehead while Mademoiselle Sydney was shot in the back and-“
“In her back?!” Brigitte exclaimed in panic.
Alain furrowed his brows in annoyance. “Did they take them to another hospital?” he asked.
“No, they took them to the Gestapo’s headquarters.”
“Oh God! The headquarters!” Brigitte’s eyes widened in panic. “We never heard of a prisoner taken to that damned place and came out alive!”
Alain shook his head sadly while Bernard nodded in frustration.
“You are unfortunately right, Brigitte.”
“What do you mean?” her face paled as she looked at him.
“Holdstein ordered their execution. At dawn.”
Her eyes widened as her face got paler and paler, then turned sharply towards Alain.
“We have to call him.” Brigitte announced firmly. “He will be able to save them.”
“He has enough to deal with, Brigitte. He doesn’t need-“
“Call him.” she ordered in determination. “Or I will do it myself.”
***
Tony’s body jerked awake violently when freezing water was splashed on his face and he gasped as he opened his eyes.
When he did, he found himself staring at Holdstein’s smug face.
“You are Holdstein, I presume.” He glared at the General. “It is terrible to meet you.”
“Well, Tony Stark, I have to say it is lovely to meet you.” Holdstein’s smirk got wider. “You are as charming as I read about you.”
Tony was chained to the wall of a small dungeon, beside him from both sides, Sydney and Dean were chained the same way even with their injuries while Holdstein was sitting on a comfortable chair in front of him, behind him stood two soldiers who were pointing their guns at them.
“You shouldn’t believe everything you read.” Tony stated coldly.
“I don’t. But since you are here I can see for myself if it was true.” He leaned towards Tony with a glint in his eyes. “And of course, you are here somehow.”
Tony understood what Holdstein wanted, so he looked away and found himself looking at Dean.
“Dean!” he exclaimed in an overwhelming relief. “Are you alright?”
“Believe it or not, I actually am.” Dean smiled a little while wiggling his fingers, which had brand new fingernails.
Tony turned to look at Sydney and saw that she was also perfectly fine.
“Your blood has a protective serum that strengthen the immune system a hundred times at least.” Holdstein reported, staring at them intently. “Your wounds healed fast like you have spent days not just a few hours. And I am guessing the both of you replicated it from your descendant here.” Tony froze while Dean looked at them in confusion. Sydney just stared back coldly. “Yes, I know who you are. The infamous Sydney Stark-Rogers. The first spawn of the union between the Stark-Rogers and the Winchester family.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Hold up.” Dean interjected while shaking his head violently. “What the actual fuck did you just say? What union? What spawn? What the fuck?”
“Oh, yeah. Dean, I forgot to introduce you.” Tony gave him a nervous smile. “Sydney is actually our granddaughter. Apparently we are going to have kids who will fall in love, get married and have Sydney! Congratulations! We are going to be in-laws!”
Dean blinked at him then looked over at Sydney who gave him an awkward smile and waved with her chained hand a little.
“That- that actually explains a lot.” Dean blinked even more. “Well, okay, then.”
“That’s it? You are not going to panic or deny it or anything? Just like that?” Tony stared at him incredulously.
“Dude, I met my long dead mother two times before she even gave birth to me. Do you actually think these things affect me anymore?” Dean scoffed with a shake of his head. “What really shocked me in this whole thing is the fact that I got stuck with you for the rest of my life and didn’t actually murder you at some point.” Dean just shrugged while Tony let a protesting sound. “But honestly? If you believed it, then it’s true, since you are as cynical and distrustful as me. So, yeah apparently we will have a pain in the ass grandkid somehow, someday.”
“Sheesh, stop. I am drowning in your overwhelming love.” Sydney rolled her eyes.
“Yup, those are definitely my genes.”
Holdstein was watching the whole exchange with deep interest.
“What a nice family reunion.” Holdstein smirked sarcastically at them. “The most annoying, pain in the ass family in all time.” They all glared at him angrily. “You have been a thorn in my side all my life. Your descendants are the reason I left my time in the first place!”
“Wait, what?” Sydney blinked at him in disbelieve.
“It all started with you!” he growled at her while moving until he was right in her face. “The first spawn of that fucking union.”
“Well, sense you are hiding here, it means our descendants are doing a fine job.” Dean stated firmly while glaring at him.
Holdstein walked towards him with a sharp glare.
“I read a lot about you, Dean Winchester.” Holdstein growled at him. “The man who got the angel Castiel to fall for him. I should thank you! You made him weak enough for me to rip his heart out easily enough.” Then he gripped Dean’s throat and got closer to his face. “I know for a fact that Castiel isn’t here too, which means he is still in your time, waiting for his human weakness to return to him. I promise you, when I take your time ship, I will pay him a visit. I will tell him that I murdered you with my own hands and when I see the defeated, broken look in his eyes, I will rip his heart out myself and see the light leave his eyes.”
A cold shiver ran through Dean’s body and his heart was beating too fast but he hide it all behind a snarl.
“You are a fucking bastard.” Dean spit on his face, which made Holdstein growl in anger and punch him hard in the stomach.
“It is easy to show how strong you are with someone who is tied up.” Tony spat at him angrily.
“You can keep your pity principles to yourself.” Holdstein returned to his seat calmly. “Now, from what I deducted, the time ship belongs to you, isn’t it?” he turned towards Sydney who didn’t answer. The General got up again and grabbed Sydney by her jacket. “Where is it?!”
“What are you talking about?” She asked coldly.
“The time ship! The ship that brought you here!”
“Oh! That? It crashed.”
“Crashed?!” Holdstein’s body jerked violently. They all stared at his face as it got redder and redder in anger in every passing second before screaming at Sydney’s face. “Liar!” then turned around sharply. “Soldiers!”
The two soldiers immediately raised their guns towards them fast.
They stared at the guns and felt like they were seeing their last moments.
But Holdstein gestured for the soldiers to stop and turned angrily towards them. “Listen to me carefully, with one wave of my hand, those soldiers will fill your bodies with bullets mercilessly. With a wave of my other hand, another team will come here, and torture everything out of you or you will get your end in the most vicious way possible! And you should know, I signed an order for your execution at dawn. I thought that I won’t have to do it, but you are giving me no other choice.” He turned towards the soldiers angrily. “Call for the interrogation team! Tell them I need at least one confession! Or the execution will happen. At dawn.”
With that, he left the dungeon, leaving the three of them behind. Waiting for their unknown fate.
***
“No. no, that couldn’t have been their fate.”
Charlie shook her head sharply, trying to fight her tears. “They couldn’t have died like that!”
“We can’t assume anything right now.” Sam said firmly.
“What are you saying, Sam? The sentence is right in front of you!” Clint exclaimed anxiously.
“It is just a sentence.” Castiel stated sternly.
“What do you mean?” Natasha asked hopefully.
“I mean what we just saw is only a sentence to execute them. Just a sentence. It didn’t say that it was done.”
“Exactly.” Sam nodded along.
“What we know here is that Holdstein had captured them and made that sentence, but we don’t know if actually managed to do it. We are talking about three stubborn as hell people who won’t just surrender to such fate. They will fight until their last drop of blood.”
“Maybe that what happened.” Bruce muttered grimly.
“Or what will happen. We don’t know yet.”
During the whole conversation, Steve just stood there, staring at the sentence and felt… strange. He wasn’t worried or panicked when he looked at it. He just felt… recognition. It was like he saw that sentence before. Which was impossible, but this was what he was feeling.
He knew about that sentence, and he had no idea how.
***
When Holdstein got out of the dungeon and the soldiers moved to guard the door from outside, Dean rounded on Tony.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” Dean demanded angrily.
“What?” Tony looked at him in confusion.
“Why did you try to get me out? I told you to run. I have been trying to keep him away from you and Syd, and you just ran back to fall right into his hands! What were you thinking?!”
“I wasn’t just going to leave you behind!” Tony objected, looking at him like he was crazy.
“Yes, you should have! It was stupid to try to get me out! You should have stayed hidden until the ship was recharged and get the hell out of here!”
“I wouldn’t have done it and you know it!”
“Why is that?!”
“Because you are family, you stupid fucker!” Tony yelled in anger and frustration, making Dean stop and stare at him with wide eyes. “Even with all our stupid bickering and arguments, you are a brother to me! Do you think I will ever forgive myself if I just left you behind? How is that fair to me? How is that fair to Cas? What was I going to tell him if I ever managed to return to our time?! Did you care about what he will feel? Or are you just a selfish bastard who likes to sacrifice himself without thinking how was that going to affect the people around him?!” Dean froze and stared at him in awe as Tony yelled his frustrations at his face until the genius sagged and looked down tiredly. “You are family. You don’t leave family behind.” Tony muttered quietly without meeting Dean’s eyes.
They were silent for a few seconds, processing what was just had been said.
“You are my brother, too.” Dean muttered without looking at Tony. “If the situation was reversed, I’d have done the same.”
“I know.” Tony smiled a little.
“God, that was so heartwarming.” Sydney snorted from the other side of the dungeon. “Please don’t make me throw up. It will land on me in this position and that will be unpleasant.”
“Great, you are still here.” Dean sighed while rolling his eyes.
“I am not exactly happy about being here either!”
“Can you stop throwing my genes right at my face? It is freaking me out.”
“Oh, am I making you uncomfortable? Mission accomplished!”
“Can’t this all be a nightmare and I will wake up any second now with an acto-angel wrapped around me?” he groaned and slammed the back of his head at the wall behind him.
“Oh, please. We all know you are the cuddler in that marriage.” Tony rolled his eyes at him.
“I am not!”
“Need I tell you how many times I saw you guys sleeping on the couch? You are the cuddler, Ducky lips, you can’t deny it.”
“Need I tell you how many times I caught you climbing Steve like a tree in the kitchen?”
“That is only because you are a tall bastard and always place the coffee in the highest shelf! So, I have to pull Steve from whatever he was doing to get it for me and the fucker would hold it aloft above his head to make me climb him for it!”
“I am used to be surrounded by people who can reach the top shelf! It is not my fault I forgets that you can’t!”
“This is because you are a tall bastard!”
“This is the conversation you should be having right now?!” Sydney interjected in frustration. “How about we focus on how to get out of here first then finish that very entertaining conversation?”
Before they could answer, they heard loud shouts and shooting from outside the dungeon.
“What is happening?” Tony asked in confusion.
“Maybe rescue?” Dean suggested hesitantly.
“Who would be stupid enough to rescue us? We don’t exactly have friends around here.”
The shooting and the shouting was getting louder and closer. They all held their breath and expected the worse.
“Do you think they are the resistance?” Sydney asked hopefully.
“No, I don’t think so. They doesn’t care about us that much to storm into the Gestapo’s headquarters to save us.” Tony shook his head.
“Then what is going on?”
They then heard the two soldiers on the door shout and fire their guns, before they heard a slam and the shooting stopped.
They stared at the door, waiting. Then, the metal door shook violently, like someone was slamming into it from outside, trying to break through it.
“Who would be stupid enough to try to break through a metal door instead of searching for the keys?” Tony muttered nervously.
“We are about to find out.” Dean muttered back, staring at the shaking door.
Whoever was outside hit the door again and again. At the fourth hit, the door flew from the wall so hard, it hit the wall on the other side of the dungeon.
They closed their eyes to avoid the debris and dust to get into them then opened their eyes again to look at whoever was stupid enough to get here.
Their eyes widened and hearts accelerated so fast when they saw their savior’s face. The last person they expected to see.
“No.” Tony gasped sharply as he felt his heart almost burst from his chest while staring at the very familiar face.
This can’t be happening. He is probably dreaming.
Because standing at where the door used to be was none other than Captain America.
Captain America who absolutely wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Hey, fellas.” Captain America smiled friendly at them with a very nice and thick Brooklyn accent. “I heard you are havin’ quite the situation here. Do you need a hand?”