the rest of your life. I would know."
She looked at him at last, disbelief and indecision replacing the anger and fear that had been clear on her face before. Erik dragged their hands down, pulling her close against
his chest with his free hand, and rested his chin atop her head. He had forgotten how it felt to hold her, how she fit perfectly against him. But that wasn't what was important
anymore. He had his life, she had hers, and he would respect her decision this time around.
"You were always too kind for the world," he whispered. "For this one and ours. Don't let them take that from you. Don't let the world make you into something you're not."
The HYDRA agent, gasping and wheezing as if he would never get enough oxygen, fell to the floor in a crumpled heap with a heavy thud. He didn't move from where he landed,
perhaps too afraid of finding himself as the subject of Nikki's ire once more. But Erik didn't care. He was more focused on Nikki as she pulled away at last.
Wiping a tear from her cheek, he gave her a reassuring nod, "Alright?"
She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, before saying, "Yeah."
"Right. Now," Erik announced, lifting the HYDRA agent to his feet by the straps in his uniform and bringing him forward until their faces were only inches apart. "Where are the
kids?"
When all he could seem to do was stammer and shake his head, blue eyes blown wide with fear, Nikki pressed two fingers to his throat. The man screamed as angry red boils
bloomed across his skin like morbid flowers, expanding outward from where Nikki's skin was in contact with his.
"He asked you a question," she snapped. "And you don't want me to have to repeat it."
"We-we-we had to move them apart," he managed. "They were c-c-communicating somehow, but they stopped when - well, Whitehall figured it out. Subject-Oh-Three isn't a mutant at all, ac-actually an Asgardian. Agent 27 stole some of the...stuff that Thor left after the Battle of New York. We p-p-p-put them on Oh-Three, communications
stopped."
Erik frowned at the agent's words, trying to make sense out of what was being said.
"Who's Whitehall?" he demanded, his words almost lost as Nikki said, "You found a way to stop Bali's magic?"
The agent nodded fervently, "Whitehall did. Big deal kinda guy, been in the organization for decades - since the start. Head scientist from like the science division, I don't
know. I'm just a janitor."
Erik turned to Nikki, "Why this one?"
She shrugged, "The others kept going on about cutting off heads. He's the only one that begged for help, said he wanted out."
"Then why didn't you just leave?" Erik snapped at the man.
He recoiled visibly, almost shouting, "It's HYDRA! They would've killed me!"
"I'm still debating whether or not to do that myself," Erik snarled.
"Av-v-vengers don't kill people..."
"We're not Avengers," he said, letting the man drop back on his feet. "Now, you're going to lead us to where you're keeping every mutant or we're going to find out just how much iron you have in your blood."
The agent blanched at his words, catching on to the implications of what Erik was saying, but only nodded in understanding. He wasted no time in turning around and hurrying
towards one of the doors. As he rested his hand on the doorknob, he turned around and looked at them.
"You know there are more of them the deeper you go?" he asked. "They really take the whole 'cut off one head, two more take its place' schtick seriously."
"Then I guess I'll burn the whole beast," Nikki said, flames sparking into existence at her fingertips as if in emphasis.
The man sighed as he turned the doorknob and, as he was walking through, Erik could've sworn he heard the agent mutter, "Knew I should've stayed at A.I.M. At least they
had dental..."
Steve yanked his shield out of the wall with a grimace, quickly taking inventory of the rest of the room. HYDRA agents littered the floor in crumpled heaps, most of them
unconscious, a good many of them dead. He couldn't say he was exactly mourning the loss. They were, after all, neo-nazis. Who would have thought he'd still be fighting the
same group of people seventy years in the future?
Everyone else seemed to be relatively fine. A bit bruised, but in good condition given that the plan had gone out the window from the start. Of course, he had no way of
knowing what condition Nikki and Erik were in, a thought which occurred to him as he glanced at the gaping doorway and fractured wood in the hallway beyond it.
"Damned bullets put dents in my suit," Tony snapped. "Dents!"
Clint's voice was the first Steve heard responding, "Who cares? You build a new one every week and a half anyway."
Steve ignored the argument that ensued, pressing against the comm in his ear and saying, "Nikki, Lehnsherr, what's your status."
Suddenly all chatter in the room went quiet as all of the other Avengers listened for the two mutants. They were answered with an equal silence on the other end.
"Nikki, Lehnsherr," he repeated. "Status report."
Still silence.
"Jarvis," Tony piped up, first as always to break the silence. "Did they even bother to put in their comms?"
"No, sir."
Jarvis's response echoed through all of the comms, making Steve feel as though a sudden weight had fallen over him as the implications sunk in. Nikki and Erik had never picked
up their comms. Steve and the other Avengers had no way to contact them, no way to get in touch if something went south, no way to tell if one of the two got hurt.
When Tony spoke again, he barely heard the words, "And you didn't think it was important to tell me that before?"
"Mr. Lehnsherr assured me they would use the comms after you had infiltrated the base."
A slew of expletives escaped him, drawing the attention of the other Avengers, and he slung the shield up his arm. He barely heard Tony's berating, a joke that quickly ended
when he saw Steve was running through the busted doors and after the two. His eyes scanned the rows of doors, looking for some sign that Nikki and Erik had been through
them. It was only when he looked forward that he saw the gaping hole where an elevator was supposed to be.
There were pools of cooling metal at the edge of the gaping hole and Steve stepped carefully around them so that he could glance over the edge. It was maybe another fifty
feet down. He glanced up towards the ceiling, wondering just how deep this base went.
"Steve, can you hear me?"
He sighed at the sound of Tony's voice in his ear, "Yeah, I can hear you."
Turning around to face the hall, he saw the other Avengers filing in, checking the doors on either side of them. Tony, however, didn't bother with the doors as he approached
the captain. His faceplate drew back as he stopped, raising an eyebrow at Steve in a silent comment towards his behavior.
Instead of saying anything, Tony leaned over the edge and whistled, "That's going to be a bitch to get down. Well, at least for everyone else. Thor and I will have to carry
someone down, unless Clint has one of those trick arrows he keeps going on - HEY!"
Steve hadn't waited to here the end of Tony's musings. As important as that problem was, he was more worried that Nikki and Erik would get into trouble on their own and do
something rash. He didn't have the time to appreciate how ironic his line of thinking was given what he was doing. Tony's final word echoed through the elevator shaft as
Steve pitched himself into the darkness. As he fell, he turned his shield to the side, curling up as much as he could in order to have the shield take the brunt of the landing.
It didn't hurt any less when it crashed through the top of the elevator and finally hit the bottom. He was just rolling onto his back when he saw Natasha land lightly on what
was left o
f the elevator's roof. She hopped easily through the hole, offering him a hand to help him up as Clint landed where she had.
"We might want to move," Clint announced, eyes glancing warily upward. "Thor's coming down next. And I'd rather not become a Clint-cake."
Natasha blinked at him as they walked out, "A 'Clint-cake'?"
Clint shrugged, the gesture just visible in Steve's peripheral vision. The crash of Thor's landing garnered about the same amount of his focus. He was too busy staring at Nikki
and Erik, both standing still as statues as they looked upward at a wall of monitors, and felt himself go cold at the sight of what exactly HYDRA was recording.
"Thanks for waiting, guys," Clint said, the joking tone in his voice vanishing as he came to a halt behind Steve. "Fuck…"
Steve looked from the images and videos of HYDRA agents pushing the kids' mutations to their limits, forcing his eyes away from the sight, to look at Nikki. He could feel the
fear in her veins, the rage that made her hands shake as she stood before the wall. When she finally moved, Erik slid out of her way without hesitation, and they all watched
as the door before her crumpled into oblivion just before she walked through.
"Check the other doors," Erik snapped just before following her. "We're not leaving until we've found them all."
Before Steve, or anyone else, could answer, he's gone. Tony cursed behind him, dragging Steve back into the present. He turned to the others with a sigh.
"Lehnsherr's right," he admitted. "Barton, Romanoff, you two take the south side. Stark, follow Eisenhardt and Lehnsherr, make sure they don't do anything reckless. Thor,
you're with me."
The others nodded before going off in their separate directions, leaving Thor to follow Steve without a word. Despite knowing exactly how well the Asgardian could hold his
own, something about the lack HYDRA agents in that section of the base unsettled him, making him feel as though they were walking into a trap that they had no hope of
avoiding.
That didn't make what they were doing any less worth it, he reminded himself. Bali, Hannah, Remy, and the kids were still in danger. They were just as much his family now as
the Avengers were. And he was never one to ignore his family when they needed his help.
His worries were pushed aside as a handful of agents emerged from more of the doors. Two scientists or doctors, judging by their clothing, and three security or combat
agents. Steve cursed how narrow the corridors had been constructed, though he could see the strategic benefits, as three of the agents pulled their guns from their sides. He
raised his shield up defensively as shots rang through the air.
"My brother is near," Thor shouted over the commotion. "Get down!"
Steve ducked without thinking, watching as Mjolnir flew over his head and crashed into the agents. He could hear the sharp crack of bones beneath the metal from across the
hall. Three of the agents collapsed, the other two ducking out of the way, and Steve tossed the shield a second later. The two agents weren't so lucky a second time.
"How can you tell?" he asked, stepping over the unconscious agents to retrieve his shield.
Thor held out his hand, his hammer pulling itself from the door at the end of the hall to return to him, "I can sense his presence, his aura. It is faint, but near."
"I thought you didn't know magic."
"Freyja taught me what she could without needing an Awakening," he explained. "It would seem that perceiving auras does not require a broad understanding of magic, simply
a deeper understanding of one's own mind and soul."
Steve frowned at that, wondering about the implications that provided, but decided that mulling over it would have to wait until everyone he cared about was safe. Raising his
shield once more, he pushed open the door the agents had come through with his foot. It slid open silently and he took care to make as little noise as possible as he stepped
into the room.
It was an operating room of sorts, similar to the room Nikki had been held in when S.H.I.E.L.D. first captured her. But the medical cot was angled so that anyone coming into
the observation room would be able to see the patient more clearly, and there were many more restraints. Strapped to the chair, his now shaggy brown hair covering his tilted
face like a curtain to hide behind, was Remy.
Steve looked down at the biometric scanner beside the door leading to the operating room, gritting his teeth in frustration. He raised his shield, preparing the smash the screen
with the edge, but was gently pushed aside by Thor. He immediately backed up a good four feet as he watched static begin to crackle ominously around Mjolnir. Thor leveled
his hammer at the scanner, releasing the pent up lightning into the delicate machinery. There was a loud pop of dying circuitry before Steve kicked in the door.
Remy barely moved at the sound, but his ragged breathing told Steve that he wasn't unconscious just yet. His flinch was barely noticeable, the faint shift in the angle of his
face caught only with Steve's enhanced vision, as Steve came to a stop before him. He put his hand gently on the man's shoulder.
"Remy," he said, voice kept soft for fear of startling the mutant. "Remy, it's me. It's Steve."
"Steve?" Remy said, looking up gingerly. "The hell are you wearing?"
His accent was stronger than Steve remembered, whether due to stress and exhaustion or just from him not hearing it for so long, he couldn't tell. But it brought a weary smile
to his face.
"Uniform," he answered with a shaky laugh, taking care to smash the restraints with just enough force to not hurt Remy.
"Sump'n tells me you got a lot to explain, kemosabe."
As he and Thor pulled Remy down, he nearly keeled forward onto his hands and knees, just barely caught by their quick reflexes. As he looked up at Thor, a funny look crossed
his face.
"Damn, you're a big boy," he muttered, squinting at Thor. "Ain't you Bali's brother?"
"Can you walk?" Steve asked, ignoring the bemused look on Thor's face.
Remy almost looked insulted, "Course I can walk. What do you take me for?"
The second Steve and Thor let go of him, Remy straightened up, wobbled on his feet, and pitched forward at the first step he tried to take. Thor wasted no time in scooping
the man up mid-fall and tossing him over his shoulder like a sack of flour. Remy protested quietly, but didn't move from where he was.
"Do you know where any of the others are?" Steve asked as they walked out the door.
Remy shook his head as much as he could manage, "Nah. Could've told you weeks back, when Bali was doing his screwy mind-meld shit, but then everything went quiet.
Haven't heard from anyone since."
Steve nodded, glancing out the doorway into the hall before walking out when he found the hall clear. The agents they had knocked out still lay sprawled out across the floor
behind them.
"Rogers," Natasha's voice echoed in his ear as though he was getting a bad connection. "We've found Wagner, Ichiki, Bowen, and Whitfield. They seem to be keeping them in
groups of two, each pair in adjacent rooms. Whitfield's not exactly responding, but she's walking."
"We've found LeBeau," he replied. "Thor says he can sense Balder."
"Sense?" Clint over the comms.
"We'll explain later," he said quickly. "Stark, status report."
"Eisenhardt and Lehnsherr are moving quickly, haven't caught up yet," Tony answered back, something in his tone making Steve feel anxious. "But this room…there's blood
everywhere, Cap, and…things I don't really want to know about. Jarvis says its basically an organ smoothie.
"Someone lost their temper, but this doesn't look like Lehnsherr. There would be more left. We better hurry."
Steve gave a sigh, hoping th
at Nikki and Erik were alright, "Just make sure you catch up to them."
A young girl's voice, which took a minute for Steve to recognize as Tandy's, spoke into the comms next, "Steve, how's Remy? Is he alright?"
Reaching up wearily, Remy plucked the earpiece out of Thor's ear, "I'm fine, sweetheart. Just tired."
"I'm coming over there," she said adamantly, the certainty in her voice reminding Steve of Nikki.
Without much warning, a flash of bluish-black smoke appeared before them, clearing to reveal Tandy and Kurt holding hands. Both looked tired, fear-worn, and in a desperate
need for some peace. But Tandy pushed past Steve to get to Remy and Thor. Something bright and stiletto-shaped formed in her hand, only about as long as her hand and
flickering, and she pressed it against his spine The light seemed to melt into his skin, making Remy look less exhausted, and the mutant pushed off of Thor a minute later.
"We need to find Ty," Tandy said suddenly, looking oddly grim. "We need to find him now."
Steve nodded in quiet understanding, knowing that her worry had something to do with Tyrone's hunger, as they had called it in the House.
"Finding my brother is the wisest course of action, Lady Bowen," Thor told her. "He can help us seek out the others quickly."
"We'd better hurry, then," she said. "My healing is only temporary on something this extensive."
Without another word, the five hurried forward, breaking down doors that wouldn't open in search of the other mutants and Bali. Most of the rooms were empty, filled only with
various medical devices and painful equipment. Some had lab equipment and computers for analyzing data within them. Even fewer were what looked to be makeshift bedrooms
for scientists to take a quick nap in or break rooms complete with microwaves and mini fridges.
It was oddly domestic and it made Steve feel sick. How could anyone find any peace, or eat and sleep without thought for that matter, when there were rooms right beside
them that were used to torture people?
"Fork in the path," Tony announced suddenly. "Pretty sure our gruesome twosome went left, but I'm heading right. Might find some of the others."
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