Chapter 40
Fury’s eye widened in surprise as he stared at Cas, Sam and Natasha in his office.
After they finished what they came to say, he stood up and paced the room for a while before turning back to them.
“So you don’t trust Dr. Queen, and you want to prevent him from coming back to the tower?” Fury asked for clarification.
“Exactly.” Castiel answered shortly.
Fury shook his head in confusion. “But Dr. Queen is the only one expert in what we need. He is trusted by everyone and all his reports are perfect.”
“We also going to need his file to study.” Natasha added firmly.
Fury stared at them in confusion again before sighing and sat back down behind his desk. “What if his presence was needed for the test?”
“I asked Charlie and Bruce about that.” Sam answered immediately. “They confirmed that his presence is not necessary. We could just send him the results.”
“Fine. Even though I object with that and with my complete trust in Dr. Queen but I will give you what you want.”
“Great.” Castiel nodded in thanks.
“Is that all or is there something else you need?”
Castiel shared a glance with Sam before looking back at Fury. “I want to take a look at everything related to Sydney.”
“Everything?” Fury repeated in surprise.
“Yes, everything. Her files. Her reports since she worked for the secret service then in SHIELD. Her medical, psychological and athletic reports. And we will check her house again.”
“But we checked all that twice before, Castiel.”
“True. But there is something I suspect and I need to confirm it. This might help in finding her partner as well.”
“Fine.” Fury sighed tiredly. “You will have what you want.”
***
The situation was pretty critical inside that small dungeon under the Gestapo’s headquarters.
Dean was the only one freed, unarmed since he couldn’t use the gauntlet in case it made a loud noise, facing two armed soldiers that wanted him dead.
But Dean faced situations way worse than this. This was hardly one of his most dangerous situations. He was a hunter after all, he was used to critical situations by now.
He used the repulsor to remove the first soldier’s gun while kicking the second one in nose before he fired the trigger.
The kick was hard enough to throw the soldier to hit the dungeon’s door painfully, and when he tried to charge at Dean again he punched him two times fast and sent him unconscious on the ground.
The other soldier shouted in anger before jumping at Dean and wrapped his arm around his neck from behind, but Dean leaned forward sharply and threw the soldier to fly towards the wall and hit it hard.
“Damn, Dean!” Tony exclaimed with a grin as he watched Dean fight.
But the soldier got back to his feet and raised his spare gun towards Dean’s face shouting: “You are not getting out of here alive!”
Tony grabbed his chains tightly so he could raise his feet and kick the soldier hard in the back. “Do you want to bet on that?”
The kick threw the soldier towards Dean, who greeted him with a punch to send the soldier unconscious on the ground. “You lose, buddy.”
“Come on, Dean! Hurry up, before this commission bring more soldiers here. Use the laser.” Sydney urged him on impatiently.
But Dean pressed a button to make the gauntlet back into a watch. “This will take a long time.” Then he shrugged out of his jacket and balled it up while taking one of the soldiers’ machine guns. “I have a faster way.”
“You are going to use the gun?” Tony asked with wide eyes. “That will wake everyone in France up.”
“Relax.” Dean reassured firmly. Then, he pressed his balled up jacket to Tony’s left chains and pressed the gun against it then fired.
Tony flinched at the lowered sound that came out of the gun when the bullet pierced his chains and broke it.
“I admit that was pretty cool.” Tony murmured while rubbing his wrest and watched Dean free Sydney.
“I just saw it in a movie before.” Dean grinned over at him. “Who said you can’t learn anything from movies.”
Sydney grinned back at him when she was freed. “Well, it is a good thing to know you didn’t really change in the future.”
Then she moved to take the other machine gun.
“Well, we’re outnumbered and direct attack will destroy us. So, any ideas?” Dean asked while trialing his eyes between the both of them.
Tony gave him a small smirk. “I might have a plan.”
***
Carl knocked on Holdstein’s door and waited for a second.
“Enter.” The General’s firm voice called from inside.
Carl opened the door and shouted the greeting firmly before announcing: “I brought the Captain like you ordered, sir.”
“Bring him.”
“Yes, sir.” He got out for a second before returning while pushing a weak looking Steve with strong chains around his wrests. He was pale, weak and could barely stand upright, like his body was too heavy for him to carry, however, he raised his chin defiantly towards Holdstein who just stared at him with a smug smile.
“Release him and leave us alone.” He ordered without looking at Carl.
“Sir! He is Captain Amer-“
“He can’t hurt a fly in this state so obey your orders, Carl!”
Carl’s face flushed in anger before he choked out: “As you wish, sir.”
He released Steve, then left the room.
Holdstein got up from behind his desk, his eyes trailing over Steve’s body.
“You are a handsome man, Captain. Almost perfect from inside and out. No wonder he fell for you that hard.”
Steve just stared him down coldly, trying to hide how weak and helpless he feels.
“Who do you mean?” he asked coldly.
“You know who I mean, handsome.” Holdstein leered at him while trailing his eyes over him again.
Steve took a small step back as he felt himself recoils from the general’s stare.
“Listen Holdstein, if you-“
“No, you listen, Captain.” He interrupted smugly. “Your future lovesick boyfriend will try to save you from my hands. He will do anything to free you.” Surprise was written on Steve’s face at his words but the general just continued. “You must be wondering, how did I know that, right?” Steve didn’t answer and tried to control his emotions even though his heart was bounding way too fast to be normal. “The only problem your future friends are facing in this era is me. I am the only one capable of facing them and destroy them any time I want. They don’t know that I, once again, let them escape, and I heard every word they said inside that dungeon.” He was now directly standing in front of Steve, who stood his ground and faced him head on. “Your little boy toy made quite the fun plan. They plan to cut off the electricity, then get out from the secret door. Two of them will wear the German’s uniforms they will steal from the two defeated soldiers in their cell, and will turn around the building and try to light a fire that will disorient the guards to give them the chance to free your resistance friends, and will give your little lovesick idiot the chance to appear in front of as a hero.”
Steve felt a shiver ran through his body but he tried to hide it. “What are you planning to do exactly?”
“I will let them release everyone.” He let out a loud laugh. “All except you, of course.”
“And why is that? What is so important about me?”
“You are my winning card, handsome. Your future friends are hiding a dangerous secret, which I want. There is only one way to get it. Is by forcing them to say it.” Then he smirked at him viciously. “It will be a painful shock to poor Tony when he finds out about your disappearance after he releases the others and realize you are still in my hands. His desperation will reach its limits when he fails to find us. Then, the three of them will have to use their future tech to find you, and will make them contact their ship.” Then he snapped his fingers in victory. “And when that contact happen, I will get what I want.”
Steve’s eyes widened in both panic and anger before shouting: “You son of a bitch!” and threw himself at Holdstein even with how weak and heavy he felt.
Holdstein just punched him hard with an unnatural strength and sent him to the ground, then kicked him several times in the stomach until Steve was heaving and spitting blood.
“Don’t try, Rogers. The drug I injected you with made you into a helpless little kitten. You can’t harm me. So just save yourself the trouble.” He leaned down and grabbed Steve’s hair harshly to make him look up at him. “I don’t think you want to make Poor Tony see you all bloody and banged up, do you?”
“Bastard.” Steve just spit at his face with a snarl, which earned him another kick in his middle. “I can do this all day.” Steve panted through bloodied teeth as he looked up defiantly at Holdstein.
“You little-“ he was cut off by an explosion then the lights went out, he grabbed Steve’s arm harshly. “They started their plan.” Then another explosion sounded. “Fucking hell, where did they get explosives?!”
Carl stormed into his office then. “Sir! The three spies managed to get free and they exploded the basement!”
“Where did they get the bombs?!”
“I don’t know! There is nothing in the basement except some old offices, gas cylinders, and-“
“Gas Cylinders? Dammit!” then he added firmly. “Send a team of men to the secret door then-“
“Why the secret door, sir? They’re here!”
“Here?!” Holdstein’s eyes widened.
Then, another explosion sounded that shook the whole building, followed by shooting.
“It is obvious, sir. The whole fight is inside the building.”
“What?” Holdstein growled in anger. “Those bastards!”
Steve let out a loud laugh as he smiled smugly up at him with bloodied lips.
“I knew he was smarter than you.” he laughed again smugly. “He knew you will be spying on them. So they tricked you like a naïve idiot, to try to stop an attack from the right while they kicked your ass from the left.”
“Shut up you freak!” Holdstein screamed while kicking him again. Then he turned back to Carl. “Order your men to not shoot back at them!”
Carl’s eyes widened. “What? But sir-“
“Obey your orders!”
“As you wish, sir.”
“Just admit you lost already.” Steve let out, trying to look stronger. Apparently, the drug stopped his healing factor too.
Holdstein’s brows furrowed angrily. “Carl. Kill all the hostages.”
“No!” Steve gasped in panic. “Don’t!”
Holdstein’s fingers tightened on Steve’s arm. “Now, Carl.”
“Right on, sir!” Carl grinned viciously as he ran out of the room.
“You lost, Holdstein! Even with everything you are doing you still lost!” Steve shouted in rage while Holdstein dragged him harshly towards his desk.
“Not yet.” he answered sternly.
Then Steve realized that Holdstein was walking confidently even in the dark.
“Oh, God. You can see in the dark?” Steve’s eyes widened in shock.
“This is not the only thing I can do. The lenses I wear can work for anything.” Then he grabbed something from inside his desk. “I also have some future toys.”
Steve felt something weird wrap around his waist.
“What is this? What are you doing?” Steve shouted, trying to hide his panic.
Suddenly, electrical shocks ran through his body and the whole room let up in a blue glow. He felt his whole being ripped apart piece by piece.
As he fought to hold in his pained scream, he couldn’t help but think about Tony and how that blue glow reminded him of the light shining from his chest.
Then he failed to hold in his scream anymore.