Vengeance [Avengers Fanfiction]

[Chapter 45]

[A/N:

    Finally, after midterms at school and other issues that just added to my stress, it's winter break and this is the last chapter (not including a small epilogue that will be posted today or tomorrow!) This book as a whole is a first draft, a crappy one at that. As I work on the prequel and sequel, I will be editing Vengeance and will re-release it as another book. I'll keep this version up, though, just so you can see all of the work and changes that will go into trying to inch this fanfiction a little bit closer to where I want it to be. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll convert Vengeance into an original novel.

    Thank you to all for your patience and persistence of motivating me to update. None of this would mean anything if I didn't have your support. All of the sleepless nights of writing has meant something because of you. So, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Here's my gift to you: the longest and the final chapter! (But remember, there's still the epilogue!) Enjoy!]

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[Quinn]

    "Do you know where it is?" Steve panted as we bolted through the dank halls of the basement, pausing every minute or so to check a room, most of them used to store old court records in towering rows of file cabinets.

    "In the very center, maybe?" I suggested, spots dancing in my vision from my loss of blood that I ignored. There was no time to stop and take a breather.

    "Cap? You there?" Tony's crackling voice could be heard through Rogers' earpiece.

    "Stark?" he questioned as we ran. "Quinn's with me. We're trying to locate the Irritum Animam."

    "You better hurry." Iron Man grumbled. "We're being pushed out of the city hall. We can't hold for much longer."

    "Fall back." Steve ordered. "Work on containment instead of reducing the numbers. If I tell you to leave, do it and get as far away as you can. Things aren't looking too good."

    "We're going to die, aren't we?" questioned Stark. "Damn it. I knew it. Well, might as well take out my anger on these bastards. Tell Twinkletoes that I said thanks a lot."

    "You're welcome, Stark." I replied bitterly.

    The Captain's jaw clenched and his eyes flitted to me. He removed the communicator from his ear and crushed it under his boot without  a word.

    After what felt like hours of running aimlessly through a maze consisting of only dead ends, I came to an abrupt halt.

    "We're not going to find it in time like this." I explained, wincing slightly as the pain in my core intensified. "Running around isn't going to help us."

    "What do you suggest we do, then?" he inquired, sweat rolling down his forehead, a frown weighing his lips. "Quinn?"

    I had closed my eyes, focusing on evening out my breathing and slowing my heart.

    "I'll try to sense where Vermont is." I murmured. "My soul is connected to his and my instincts are pretty amazing considering I'm part bird, so maybe I can tell what direction to go in."

    "Um, alright?"

    Exhaling slowly, I blocked my thoughts, then my surroundings. It was like turning off one switch at a time as I centered myself, numbing the pain coursing through my veins by pushing it into the back of my mind, into obscurity for the time being.

    Southeast.

    "Quinn?" Steve's voice cut into my mind, snapping me out of my reverie. "What did you say?"