The next morning, at Stark's Tower, Steve woke up first. He got dressed and went to the kitchen to see if anyone was already awake. He found Bruce at the counter making some coffee.
"Hey! How long have you been up?" Steve asked the scientist while searching for the milk in the fridge.
"A while... But I have to go back to the lab. I have some things to do."
"Back?"
But Bruce didn't answer, too busy thinking about his experiment. He grabbed his cup of coffee and headed back to the lab leaving Steve alone.
" 'Morning Bruce." Natasha smiled as she walked by him but no answers as he walked right passed her.
She looked at Steve with a confused look on her face.
"Don't look at me. I don't know what's going on." He replied, shrugging.
Natasha searched in the kitchen cupboard for the blueberry pop tarts box. She filled a glass of milk and started eating. Steve watched her as she hesitated before taking the first bit.
"What is it, Natasha?"
"I can't stop thinking about this whole thing. How could they disappear from the surface of the earth? Even Thor is not worried as I am. He thinks that as long Charlotte stays with Jane, they will be okay. But how come Charlotte hasn't given us a sign yet. I mean she has the most special powers no one can ever have and she can't even get herself out of trouble. How come we got no sign from her? And Clint...Pfft... He is so down on himself. I heard him cry last night for hours before he could finally fall asleep."
"I know, I heard him too. Maybe she can't use her powers for some reason. Or she's... "Steve started but couldn't finish his phrase, unable to think that she could be already dead.
Thor walked in the kitchen. Unbothered, he grabbed the pop tarts box in front of Natasha and started eating.
"Does anyone have news from Jane, yet? Or Charlotte?" He asked with a mouthful of blueberry stuff and dry paste.
Steve shook his head as Tony came to join them.
" 'Morning..." He scolded yawning.
" 'Morning." They replied.
"You seem tired Tony. What's going on?" Natasha said sarcastically.
"Not in the mood. I heard Clint cry for four hours last night. I'm so sorry for him. If Pepper would have disappeared too, I don't know what I would have done..."
"Come on, Brothers. Charlotte is with Jane and probably all the other women. I'm sure she is trying to find her way out." Thor said, trying to cheer them up a little, him as well.
But it wasn't that easy.
**At the same time**
Thor was wrong. Charlotte wasn't trying to find a way out. She was trying to stay calm, but she had a rough night of self torture. Seeing her life as a lie that she made was too painful. This meant nobody at Stark Tower, not one Avenger really liked her. Her marriage with Clint was a setup and the new life inside of her belly was made of lies and influences. How could she be so selfish? How could she have done such a thing just to have a normal life? Hating herself, getting crazier as the hours passed, she thought about how Clint's life would be if she was dead. It would forget about her and all those moments they spent together as it was all on her control. Suddenly, a crazy thought came up in her insane brain.
"This is not true. It's a dream, it's only a dream!" A crazy laugh rolled up her throat. "It has to be a dream."
The door opened slowly and Doctor Evil came in.
"So, have you thought about what I said?"
She laughed, sitting on the dirty floor, her head leaning on the wall.
"I'm dreaming, that's what's happening. So you shouldn't waste your time with me, Doctor Evil."
"But I want to... Because I am going to destroy all of your dreams, your family and your friends."
"You just have to kill me then."
"You want to die?" He asked, his head tilting in curiosity. "Why?"
"Because I'm going to wake up from this bad dream, Clint will be next to me and everything is going to be fine. Why haven't you killed me already if that was your plan to begin with?"
"I need your friends to feel the pain of losing their loved ones, just like we did. And by the way it's not just you and your friends, it's the entire Manhattan. But soon it will be the whole planet."
"Yep, that's what I said. Just a bad dream." She laughed in his face. "You think Shield is going to let you have every pregnant woman on this planet?"
"This is not a dream, Charlotte. Well... It's my dream to get every single pregnant woman to build my army. But for now this is reality."
She laughed at his dream. He sighed and took a few steps back.
"You want to die. Alright then. But I won't do it." He accepted her choice, going out of the room.
He ordered two Zultrans to get inside.
"Just leave her for dead in Stark's Tower so they can see her die as she wishes."
They began hitting her and she didn't defend herself until one kick in the lower abdomen brought her back to reality. The baby! The last thing she felt before passing out was the feeling of a warm liquid between her legs.
**Back to Stark Tower**
In the lab, Bruce had been working all night long, despite the fact he was the first to propose that everybody should go to sleep. He found in the ER's garbage, the day before, a little bottle. On it, it was written Winrho. But Bruce knew that usually the Winrho shot wasn't green in color. So he tested it during the night. Something told him Charlotte was the one who received the shot from Grabovsky. He finished drinking his third cup of coffee as the results came up on his computer screen.
"That's not possible!" He gasped. "J.A.R.V.I.S. Call everybody, tell them to come meet me here."
He turned to the printer and grabbed the result he just printed.
"They are coming, Doctor."
"J.A.R.V.I.S, do you believe those results?"
"According to all the tests you made on that liquid, Doctor, I'm pretty sure they are correct. There's only a 2% chance it is not."
"What's wrong, Green guy?" Tony asked, clapping his hands together.
Everybody got near Bruce waiting for an explanation.
"Where's Clint?" Bruce wondered.
"That poor guy is still sleeping."
"He needs to know too." Bruce said. "Can someone get him please?"
"No need. I'm here." Clint responded, walking in, rubbing his eyes. "I heard J.A.R.V.I.S say that you needed us."
"Yes. Yesterday at the hospital, I found a bottle in the garbage..."
"In the garbage? Really? You know that's a hospital right? It's not sanitary. At all..." Tony complained wrinkling his nose.
"Yes, I know... Like I said, I found a bottle in the garbage, it had Winrho written on it."
"What's Winrho?" Steve asked, always trying to get used to the twenty-first century.
"It's a vaccine for pregnant women to prevent them from rejecting the fetus. So, I looked at the stuff, but it wasn't clear as water, it was green."
"Just like you when you're angry!" Tony laughed, unconsciously trying to ease the tension.
"Will you let him finish?" Natasha yelled angrily, looking at the billionaire like she wanted to kill him.
"The stuff isn't Winrho. It's Fluor, cupric sulfate and iron chloride. All three mixed together is a bomb**. This will kill those women before we can do anything. And we have to consider that the doctor gave a shot to all of them... Somehow."
"Is there an antidote for this?" Thor asked the scientist, finally starting to worry a little about his wife's future.
"I can try something, but I'm not even sure if it will work."
"What are we waiting for? Let's start..." Tony replied out loud.
"Do you have everything you need?" Natasha asked Bruce, ready to help.
"No... I need pure powdered gold... I don't have it here..."
"Don't worry. I'm taking care of this. You're going to have it in an hour!" Tony promised before getting out of the lab.
Everybody got to work so Bruce could finish the antidote as fast as he could.
**Little time skip**
Bruce finally finished the antidote. Everybody was glad that Bruce found a solution but they are still worried. Yes they found the antidote, but they haven't found Charlotte or Jane yet. Bruce wasn't even sure if it was going to work. He didn't even have a guinea pig to test the stuff.
"At least, we can save them." Steve tried to cheer the team a little.
"I wish I could have tested it on something." Bruce replied, kind of sad.
"Hey, you did what you could... No one here had come with this idea. So you got us closer to a solution." Steve added.
Clint didn't say a word since they've started the antidote, but everyone could see the pain in his eyes. Even Thor had difficulties to talk, since he remembered his wife had that shot several months ago. Everything was silent when J.A.R.V.I.S exclaimed.
"Sir! Charlotte is here. She's in the north elevator. I'm taking her to your level."
They all looked at each other before running to the mentioned elevator.
"She's hurt, Sir... I can barely feel her heartbeat through the floor sensors."
The doors of the elevator opened in a bloody mess. Charlotte was laying on her belly. Her face was covered with cuts and bruises, blood leaking out of the wounds. Her pants had a blood trail starting from your inner thighs. Clint, shaking, missing a few heartbeats, took her bridal style, her head hanging back. Followed by the others, he brought her to the nursery, where Bruce could give her the antidote. But as soon as he gave her the antidote through the IV, her heart stopped.
"What's going on?" Clint asked as Bruce started CPR.
"Her heart stopped... Steve, take Clint and Thor outside. Tony, get me the defibrillator. Natasha, help me take her shirt off."
"No... No... Charlotte, you can't do this to me..."Clint cried, tears falling down his cheeks.
"Take him outside now!" Bruce exclaimed, still pumping her heart.
"No... Steve, let me go... Let me stay with her." He screamed as Steve and Thor took him outside.
"Tony, start the machine and set her on three hundred...Natasha, take my place."
Bruce grabbed a kit so he could intubate. He inserted the tube correctly in her throat and plugged a balloon.
"Here, Natasha. Press on the balloon every 5 to 10 seconds." He told her as he took back the CPR. "Tony? How's the machine?"
"250!"
"Get ready..."
"300!"
"Give me the metal plates... CLEAR!" He yelled before shocking his friend.
For ten minutes, Bruce did CPR, tried to revive Charlotte with the defibrillator but she never responded. Dishearten he stopped.
"Can you get Clint?" Bruce asked Natasha, holding his tears as she left.
He couldn't believe it. She died in his hands. How would her husband react?
"Charlotte!" Clint screamed, rushing in the room.
He sobbed, holding her limp body in his arms.
"Please... Please don't do this to me... Don't leave me..." He buried his head in her neck. "I love you, Charlotte... I love you so much..."
The team held back in the hallway, silent. Only the flat line sound on the monitor and Clint's sobs broke the intense silence.