Betrayal

The journey into the city passed quickly enough and there was nothing to raise their fears other than the fact Ali and Loki had a very bad feeling.  Steve and Bucky sat on one side, together with Rumlow and one of his men.  Ali, Nat and Loki sat on the other, watching and trying not to jump to conclusions.

The truck drew to a halt and they jumped out into the darkness of an alleyway.  Instantly they were on high alert, it was like a kill-zone.  High walls and only one escape route - and that was blocked by the truck.  Rumlow directed them to a side door which apparently wasn't locked.  Alarm bells began to ring in their minds.  This was THE Hydra base, surely they would lock their doors?  Steve turned to Rumlow "What the hell?  It's open?"  the other man shrugged "We have help on the inside, it's fine.  I've got it under control, you don't need to worry." That didn't help.

"That's what makes me worried" was the reply.  "Buck, you go first, I'll follow" he turned to the rest "Protect Ali, this could get very nasty very quickly" they nodded and Loki tightened his grip on Ali's shoulder.

They crept into the corridor.  At the far end, 2 guards were patrolling.  Instantly they pressed themselves to the wall and tried to stay in the shadows.  The guards didn't stop and walked on into the next area.  They breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"That was lucky" Ali whispered to Nat, who turned and whispered back "Yeah, wasn't it."  she didn't sound like it was luck at all.  Slowly they made their way further and further into the building meeting no resistance whatsoever.  Now they were all on edge, this was too good to be true.  Rumlow fell back, letting them press on.  They encountered one lone guard, quickly despatched by Nat.  They came to what they'd been told was the main coms room. Looking inside, it was empty.  Leaving Rumlow and Bucky outside, the rest went in.

Quickly they began to rifle the drawers and the computers for all the information they could.  Hydra was as sloppy as it was powerful it seemed.  Files lay around in the open, photos and information on open laptops.  Quickly Ali got to work, scanning through them, discarding most but keeping some.  Nat quickly copied the paper files by scanning them onto her phone.  Old school was often the best.  Ali made her way through the hard drives, opening files, quickly translating and reading, saving those she thought might be useful onto a pen drive.  Just as she came to the last folder, having found only minor bits of information, she opened a file and that was it!  The list.  The whole reason for the journey.  She quickly copied it and stood up,

"Right, I have it.  Let's get out of here." she turned to Loki "This pen drive is the most valuable tool we have right now, it has to get home." he nodded and they made their way to the door.  Nat and Steve on their heels.  Opening the door slightly, Loki said

"We good Barnes?  All clear?" No answer.  "Barnes - are we good?" he was beginning to lose patience, time was of the essence.  Steve came up and pulled Loki aside motioning him to stand in front of Ali.

"Buck - Rumlow - we good?"  he opened the door and they both stood looking back at him.  Rumlow had a gun pointed at Bucky's temple.

"Well, I don't know about him, but I'm just peachy thanks Cap" he sneered.  Bucky stood, teeth gritted immobile.  Even he couldn't survive a bullet to the brain.  "Out here, all of you, now." 

For a moment, they paused, Steve looking Bucky right in the eyes.  There was a brief moment where they exchanged a glance that said fight and they did.  Steve barrelled into Rumlow and for the brief seconds it allowed, Bucky broke free turning and smashing him across the face with his metal arm.  Rumlow fell, groaning, the other guards began to pile in, opening fire.  Steve used his shield to deflect most of the bullets as they fled the room.  Fleeing into the corridor, Steve took the lead, clearing a path.  Bucky and Nat brought up the rear, fighting off the chasing troops.  Loki almost carried Ali through the melee, only dropping her to fight off a second wave that appeared from a subsidiary corridor.   They fought their way to the doorway back outside.  It was only then that they realised Bucky and Nat were no longer behind them.  Steve had gone ahead to call Clint in for extraction. They were on their own.

"GO ALI " he screamed at her, his hands round the throat of a Hydra goon choking the life from him.  Another attacked from the side and he smashed him against a wall with a wave of green energy.  She stood transfixed for a moment, the reality of it all coming crashing around her. She began to move, picking her way through the bodies that now began to pile up in the room.  She wouldn't leave him, she drew the daggers again, as he had shown her, and with a blood curdling scream launched herself at the nearest figure.  She stabbed him in the neck and he fell, clutching it, bleeding out in seconds.  A red mist descended on her and she fought with every bit of her courage in the madness.  Back to back with Loki they defended their position until there was a brief pause.  

"Now, go, for Odin's sake woman, go!" he shouted at her gripping her shoulders, "you need to leave, if they capture you..." he looked down at her, and even in the middle of the horrors surrounding them he stopped.  She turned away and stabbed an incoming hostile, wiping her blade on her sleeve.  She knew what she needed to do.  She had no choice.

"Laufeyson, you needn't worry, I can take care of myself.  You made it quite clear.  I am a liability and I am of little consequence.  You on the other hand know far more than I and it would be far more serious should you be captured.  You need to be the one to take this" she handed him the pen drive. He took it and stowed it carefully, then turned to her "I cant leave you, we can get out together" he tried to drag her to the door.  She pulled away. "No.  Someone has to buy us more time and anyway, there is nothing that would induce me to get back on that damn ship with you.  I know you only needed me to identify the files, nothing more.  I would rather die here than be a burden on you.  If they try to get information from me, it will most likely be the information they gave us in the first place so nothing lost.  You don't care about me and I damn well don't care about you.  I still hate you Laufeyson, now GO!" she pushed him with all her strength through the doorway and pulled it shut behind him to give him as much time as she could.  Tears almost blinding her, she knelt, hands over her head as another wave of hostiles entered the room, this time led by a small man in a lab coat.

"Ahhh I see this one has more sense.  Take her and put her with the others" 

She felt a blow to the head, everything went black and there was silence.

She came to bound at the hands and ankles, sitting in a chair in the middle of a brightly lit room.  Despite her terror, she tried to remain calm.  Panic wouldn't help her.  She called out only to find she had tape over her mouth and couldn't make more than muffled moans.  She was alone, mentally and physically.  If only she hadn't been brave - or foolish , she wasn't sure which any more.  Where was Nat? Bucky? She closed her eyes, trying to focus on what she did know.  She was in the same building, of that she was sure.  The room seemed clinical, tiled and empty apart from her chair, a desk with another chair behind it, some metal trays of what looked like medical instruments on the desk and a bed with straps.  Why she took all this in, she couldn't fathom but it was something to take her mind off the abject terror coursing through her now.  If ever there was a time for Loki to read her mind this was it.  But he wasn't here and it wasn't going to happen.  Tears formed in her eyes and just as she was about to succumb to them, the door opened and The Man, as she now referred to him, came in flanked by guards.

"Ah Miss Martin, yes - we know who you are.  We know everything.  Glad to see you are back with us.  How convenient, just in time to help us with our little interview of your colleagues" he smiled but it was a sadistic, mirthless smile and she didn't feel like returning it. The guards lifted her from the chair and dragged her into the next room.  The sight that met her eyes made her want to be sick and scream all at once.  

Bucky and Nat were chained to the wall, hands above their heads.  Bucky would have made light work of the chains but for one thing.  He no longer had his prosthetic arm.  As she walked in, he was in the process of having it removed. Forcibly.  His screams would live in her head forever.

They didn't torture Nat, they knew she wouldn't tell them anything that way.  What they did do was tell her for every minute she was silent, they would spend a minute beating the life out of Ali.  Nat immediately screamed at them, 

"Leave her alone, she's not an agent, she's just a translator" she struggled against her chains until they stabbed her in the neck with a hypodermic. Suddenly she sagged, immobile. Ali knew she wasn't dead, she moaned quietly.  Bucky was next, injection administered, his last action was to look at Ali and smile weakly, offering her reassurance of something she only prayed would come.  And soon.

The Man walked over to her, leant down and sneered into her face.  "Now young lady, shall we see exactly what kind of translator you really are?" and with that, she felt the crack of something hard on the back of her head. Stars circled before her eyes and she felt sick.  Just as she recovered, her legs were smashed into by something large and wooden.  She was about to have the beating of her life but she wasn't about to give in.  She endured more than she ever thought possible. As she prayed for either an end to the beating or and end to her life, she felt them lift her and lay her on a bed. Strapping her down, The Man came and stood beside her, leaning over her face.

"You're strong, I give you that.  And for what I have planned?  You'll need to be." he signalled to someone she couldn't see.  She braced herself for a blow that never came.  What she heard though, made her wish that was all it had been.  Natasha screaming as they tortured her.  

"Stop, please stop" Ali croaked through her pain " Please, don't hurt her, I will tell you what I know"

"Oh my dear, I know you will.  I know you will" he smiled his evil little smile, as he jabbed something into her neck. Not a syringe, more blunt than that and the feeling of something clutching at her neck remained.  She had the strangest feeling he was in her brain but she was sure that was just whatever drug they had administered.  The Man placed a mask over her face and as she tried to remain calm, there was a strange smell with the  overwhelming urge to go to sleep overtook her.  Chloroform, she thought as she descended into darkness.