Time skip : 2 weeks
Y/n's POV
I can't take it anymore, I feel like I'm losing myself. Every day it's the same thing, in the morning, a 4-hour session with Zemo. It's only pain but luckily or unluckily I feel it less and less. The first days were horrible, I had no voice anymore because of my screaming and I was beaten when I woke up because I couldn't even hold it for 30 minutes. Now it's a different story, I can hold on for 2h30 before passing out, but I don't stay in the faint for long so we quickly get back to work.
After that, the meal arrives, I have 30 minutes to eat something suspicious. I doubt they'll pass the health inspection in the kitchen, but I have no choice but to eat or I'll get beaten again. Yes, I tried to refuse to participate in their activities but I soon realized it was useless. They quickly resorted to using their fists, feet, my collar or even buckets of water to drown me. So I ended up obeying and doing what they asked me.
The afternoon is pretty okay actually. I'm training with Bucky and it's seriously fun. It reminds me of when I used to train with Steve at the compound. He's kind of shy and reserved but I guess that's because of all the stuff he went through in Hydra. I like training with him and I feel like I'm getting better. The first few days were hard because of my injuries so he was nice to me but now I'm better. By some miracle I didn't lose the sight in my right eye. But now I have a big scar that starts from my jaw and goes up in a line to the top of my forehead in the middle. He really didn't miss me. Then I also have the big scar on my right arm, which starts in the middle of my forearm and ends at the beginning of my hand. I took a lot of damage in the first fight but that's because I was afraid of him. I must admit that now that we are "friends" I am not afraid of him anymore. Maybe it's because he doesn't seem to be under their control anymore. I think I'm the only one who knows this, otherwise they would have done something by now.
I am currently heading to my cell after fighting with Bucky. I am exhausted, both mentally and physically. But I also have a bad feeling, there is something wrong with me from the beginning. It's probably fatigue, exhaustion. When I arrive in front of my cell, I go to enter when I am stopped.
"Not so fast Y/n, come with me. Zemo is waiting for you in room 313," Rumlow tells me.
"What do you mean? It's evening, I don't see him until tomorrow morning normally." then I reply, following him despite myself.
"Don't worry, your morning sessions don't change. From now on, you will follow the Gamma program after each training session with the winter soldier." Rumlow informed me.
"What does this program consist of?" I then asked after a few minutes.
"It's confidential," he replied.
" Confidential? Seriously? How can it be confidential when I'm the main person involved?"
"I don't have any answers for you."
He opened a door and looked at me.
"Come in and you'll see."
I then entered the room and saw Zemo talking with Ivan. Bucky is there too. Rumlow announced our arrival and everyone turned to me. Ivan had a big smile on his face that sent shivers down my spine. Zemo looked at me with pity and guilt in his eyes and then lowered his gaze while Bucky did not look at me at all.
"Perfect, I'm glad to see you looking good Death Giver. Everything is going according to plan despite a few disturbances here and there, so we decided to speed things up so we don't waste any time." explained Ivan to me. Why would we want to speed things up if everything is going well? There's something he doesn't say. What disturbances is he talking about?
"To not waste time? What does that mean? What's going on?" I asked.
"Oh you don't have to worry about that my child. It's not your problem, not yet." replied Ivan before waving to Zemo who set up his equipment.
"We'll be able to start," he announced. Two men grabbed me by the arms, I was struggling, not wanting to have to undergo whatever treatment. Ivan hissed at Bucky who came towards me and gave me a violent blow to the skull. I lost my balance but was caught and put on a chair. The pain was so bad in my head that I had no idea what was going on, whether people were talking or not. Then after a few minutes, everything went black.
Time skip : 2 weeks
Avengers' POV
The Avengers are exhausted, they can't take it anymore. They have been attacking base after base for a month, hoping to find Y/n or a clue to her location. They have been following the list of bases that Y/n had made and they have also created their own list with the information found at each location. Everyone is at a loss. No one speaks on the jet on the way back. Everyone understands the situation. Unfortunately, that was the last base on the list. They have no more leads. Everyone has reached the end of the line. They have no more leads to exploit. Their last hope is the hard drive they managed to steal from the last base. But they don't believe in it too much, each time the information was futile or was already known by them.
Clint flew the jet in silence. Once he landed, Tony stormed off and took refuge in his lab with the hard drive. He was going to get something out of it, he had to, it was their last hope. Nat went to her room. Steve went to the gym to hit the punching bags. Bruce went back to his lab. Thor went back to Asgard and Clint also went to his room.
On the way out of the jet, they all passed by Fury and Agent Hill. But none of them gave them a single glance or a word. The director understood the situation and did not look for more information. He returned to his office and Agent Hill returned to hers. And so each Avenger... each of Y/n's friends spent the rest of their evening and the next day alone.
The director gave them all that time off before calling them into a meeting on the third day. They may have hit a wall over Y/n's situation, but that doesn't mean they don't have other obligations. After Fury's call, everyone gathered in the meeting room.
"Hello everyone, I understand the situation, we have come up empty once again at the base in Mexico, I imagine you have taken a hard drive and are trying to decrypt it and get access to the information on it. The situation is critical I grant you but we can't wait for things to happen. It's not only Agent Ivanov we have to deal with. Thanks to her reports and your trips to Hydra's secret bases, we have the names of all the infiltrators within the Shield. We need to get busy. Ivan Tserkov must already know that we have destroyed all his bases, he must surely be preparing something to counterattack and we don't know from which side it will come. It may come from outside or inside our organization. So I'm going to assign you a new mission." explained Director Fury.
"Agent Barton, make a list of all of our agents who are part of Hydra and bug them all."
"Yes sir." replied Clint.
"Agent Romanoff and Captain America, I want you to take care of our highest ranks, the top brass in our organization who are part of Hydra."
"Yes sir." replied Nat as Steve just nodded.
"Mr. Banner, if you could, with Stark's help, filter our files and prevent access to our data by anyone on Agent Barton's list."
"I can do that." replied Banner.
"Does anyone have a way to contact Thor?" asked Fury.
"Yes, Tony gave him a gadget that would flash when we need him." replied Steve.
"All right, Stark, I'm going to need you to contact him and help Banner with the protection of our database," Fury said.
"No way." replied Tony.
"Tony..." said Steve calmly.
"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Stark?" asked Fury.
"The problem?" asked Tony, laughing sarcastically. "You - you're asking me what the PROBLEM is?" he snarled as he stood up.
"Tony please." said Steve softly.
"No shut up!" shouted Tony pointing at him. "Shut up, all of you! The problem here is you! All of you who don't care! Don't you have any heart?
"Tony-" began Steve
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!!!" shouted Tony in annoyance. "Y/n is out there somewhere probably being tortured and waiting for us to come rescue her. She's counting on us and you?! You?! what do YOU want to do? Move on?!" Tony then turned to Fury. "You know what? I don't give a shit about your f*cking organization. Nothing, nothing at all. I don't give a shit about your bullshit data and your undercover man problems. It's YOUR fault that Y/N is in this mess! What I want is to find Y/n and I'm not going to turn a blind eye until I have her back safe and sound. So you can all go on your bullshit mission, I'm going to take care of the hard drive we have and I'm going to get in there and find the information we want. If there's nothing of interest then no problem, I'll scan the whole planet if I have to ! But I'll find Y/n. There's no way I'm going to abandon her. I've already wasted enough time with this useless meeting," Tony finished before leaving the room and returning to his lab.
After Tony left, everyone was silent for several minutes.
"We are not abandoning Y/n, we will never abandon her. She will always be our priority." It was Steve who spoke first.
"I understand." replied Fury.
"However, we have no leads other than the one Tony is working on. Getting rid of Hydra within the Shield is still an important and essential thing to do. We all want Y/n back, but sitting on our hands is not going to make it happen any faster. We might as well get rid of the threat within our walls as quickly as possible while we wait for Tony to get access to the information we need. Let's keep fighting, let's not give up, Y/n is counting on us." explained Steve, boosting everyone's morale.
"Thank you Captain for that speech, let's all get to work." finished Fury, sending everyone to their posts.
Tony worked for three days without stopping on that drive. Everyone was worried about him and they all brought him food and water hoping he wouldn't starve himself. As Steve and Clint went to his lab with a sandwich for Tony. They saw him breaking everything, throwing things around, sweeping his desks clean, kicking furniture, all the while screaming. Clint and Steve slowly approached. Clint walked over to the computer and crouched down to access it. He looked at it for a few minutes and then sighed. He lowered his head, defeated. Then he looked at Steve who was looking at him worried and curious. Seeing his gaze, Steve became more worried. Then Clint shook his head from left to right before lowering his eyes again. Steve understood what was going on and he understood Tony's rage. They had placed so much hope in this file.
Clint stood up and they looked at Tony. The latter, exhausted, had stopped breaking everything and shouting. He glanced briefly at his companions and then left the room without saying a word.
"Let's go." said Clint before turning and leaving in his turn. Steve looked around the lab for a moment longer, remembering the times when he brought Tony and Y/n lunch when they were too busy to think about caring for their own bodies. He wanted to stay calm, but like Tony, he wanted to destroy everything. Finally, he left the room and caught up with Clint in the hallways. The two headed to the common room where Bruce and Natasha were. Seeing them return with the food and their discomfited faces, the two wondered what had happened.
"Weren't you supposed to give him the food?" asked Bruce.
"We were." Clint simply replied. At his best friend's short answer and his friend's silence, Natasha became concerned.
"What happened?" asked Nat.
"Tony managed to get into the hard drive," replied Steve.
"Oh great that, right?" asked Bruce. He got no answer.
"Steve? Clint?" asked Nat, looking for an answer. She already knew what they were going to say, but she wanted to hear it.
"He didn't find anything about her current location," Clint replied.
"He can move on and help me protect the Shield data now." exclaimed Bruce.
"You've got to be kidding me, Bruce." Steve snapped, approaching Bruce. The latter began to back away.
"What? He wanted to check the hard drive for a clue to the Y/n situation, he did what he wanted to do. Now he'll be able to do what we asked him to do." resumed Bruce.
"Do you realize what you are saying?! Don't you have any sense of morality? Y/n is missing! She was kidnapped by a terrorist organization and all you can think about is yourself and your own problems. We all know you don't like Y/n because you're jealous that Nat likes her and not you!" enraged Steve
"Steve!" called Nat, hoping to stop him.
"We care about Y/n, the least human thing is to show empathy and compassion to people who have no spirit left! Have you lost every ounce of humanity in you?!"
"STEVE STOP!" shouted Nat. Bringing Steve back to himself. He was holding Bruce by the collar and had him pinned against a wall. He let go of him with a jerk and stepped back.
"Sorry." he said.
Bruce was about to speak when a rainbow beam fell from the sky and planted itself in the garden floor. Everyone rushed to the window and they saw Thor running to the building. Everyone went downstairs, and they all found themselves outside, including Tony who had seen Thor. He was running towards them, no one had ever seen him as serious, hurried and out of breath as he was at that moment. Everyone was surprised to see him and thought that Tony had called him, but he shrugged his shoulders at the questioning looks of his colleagues. Then Thor arrived at their level and froze everyone by saying only one sentence..
"I know where Y/n is."