《CHAPTER FORTY-TWO》
IT WAS FOUR DAYS before anything interesting happened.
Four days full of being in her old room that gave her nightmares, four days of eating the horrible sloppy food, four days of sitting for hours underneath that beeping machine, four days of injections and four days of listening to Dr. Smith drone on and on about his evil plans.
And Carter was sick of it. She didn't know how she had managed to last six years here, dealing with whatever they threw at her and not even trying to escape.
The happiness that she had felt at not being able to escape was soon replaced by hopelessness and irritation. She found herself growing restless and impatient, desperately looking around when being brought through the hallways, trying to find an escape route. She would spend the hours inside the machine trying to think of some escape plan. And she would listen at doors when left on her own, desperate to hear some whispering voices that would give her some useful information to work with.
It had mostly been the thought of what Tony would say if he knew she was just letting them do whatever they wanted to her that made her want to escape.
And then, after four days of the same routine over and over again, something happened.
She was being brought through one of the many corridors by Dr. Smith when she heard the sound of something heavy falling against the window on the roof. Her head quickly shot up, just like Dr. Smith's, but all she could see was the bright blue patch of sky outside.
Dr. Smith stood still for a second, a hand on Carter's shoulder, before giving a little shake of his head as if telling himself that he imagined the noise, and proceeding to steer Carter down the hall.
She followed him without saying anything, but whenever they passed by a window, she would try to discreetly glance upwards, but she saw nothing and no more odd sounds came from the roof.
When she was pushed into the room with the brain scanning machine, Dr. Smith told her to stay there, not to touch anything and left for a few moments. Carter listened at the keyhole, but all she could hear were quiet murmurs, nothing that she could make out.
So she sat on the wooden chair, her head inside the machine for hours, only the thoughts of making an escape plan keeping her from going crazy.
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"No, Carter, you will not be going back to your room today."
Carter looked up, confused, at Dr. Smith as he steered her away from the corridor that led to her room.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Well," he smiled, "I have my reasons and I hope you will forgive me if I don't tell you them."
She didn't say another word as he led her to the opposite side of the lab, staring down at her moving feet as she did so.
He put her into a room with nothing other than a mattress lying in the far corner. A window was in the centre of the roof, letting in some of the golden light from the setting sun outside, illuminating the middle of the room, but leaving the corner with the mattress in darkness.
"Well, here you are, Carter. You know the drill, dinner will be brought to you in—"
"Why did you change everyone's names?" Carter blurted before she could stop herself.
Dr. Smith looked taken aback and Carter could clearly see the flicker of anger that passed in his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" he said after a moment's silence.
Carter couldn't help but think about how, if she had asked questions like that when she was last here, she wouldn't have gotten any sort of answer, but a telling-off or maybe even a punch.
"I know that you—you changed the names of everyone you brought here. And I guess I get that it's so we could be kept secret or whatever, but... why the names ending in er?"
Dr. Smith looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "No particular reason. The first names I changed ended with those letters, so I wanted to make it a tradition. Did you manage to find your own name?"
Carter shook her head. "I didn't look."
Dr. Smith hummed. "I would have expected you to check immediately. I must admit, you are full of surprises, Carter."
She said nothing, but averted her eyes away from his own gaze. She didn't look back at him when he said, "Well, that's enough for one day. A guard will be to bring you dinner and then your lights will be turned out at the normal time. Goodnight." And he turned and exited the room, but not before casting a quick, almost nervous look at the window in the centre of the roof.
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Carter didn't look up from the mattress when the guard came to bring her her dinner. She only took two bites, before pushing it away. Like usual, the guard came back to take the bowl and soon after that, the lights were turned off. Now the only light in the room was the dim glow of the moon coming through the window above.
It cast a silver glow around the room and Carter lay on her back on the mattress, gazing up at the moon through the window on the roof.
The stars were barely visible, but she was able to spot a few of them as small pinpricks in the distance. The sky was inky black and she wondered what time it was. There was no clock in her room and all she ever got of indication for the time was her meals and when she would be woken up by the guards banging on the door.
Her eyes shifted back to the moon and just as she was about to roll around onto her side and attempt to sleep, the moon was blocked by a figure. She immediately jumped to her feet and stared up, eyes wide open.
She couldn't see who stood there since the moon was behind them, making them only appear as a silhouette. She was slowly backing away into a corner when she heard a whispering, but urgent voice, say, "In here!"
She recognised that voice and despite everything, she couldn't stop the grin that made its way on to her face.
"You can't just break the glass, dumbass."
"Well, what do you suggest then?"
Carter never thought that she would feel glad to hear Bucky and Sam arguing, but as she stood there, her head tilted upwards to look at the window, her heart beating a million times a minute, their bickering sounded almost like music to her ears.
"I don't know, but I feel like smashing the glass might just alert someone."
"You—"
"Guys!" Carter whisper-shouted. "Stop arguing and just try and open the window."
"What does it look like we're trying to do?"
They argued for another few minutes, but they finally managed to open the window by using Bucky's metal arm and Sam's wing. Carter had no idea how they did it, but how they did it wasn't important.
"Surprise," said Bucky in an unimpressed voice as both he and Sam jumped quietly through the window.
Carter flinched slightly at his harsh tone. "Long time, no see, huh?"
"Alright, alright, we don't have time for this," said Sam. Carter was about to retort that he and Bucky had seemed to have enough time to argue only moments ago, but she kept her mouth shut given the current circumstances. "Okay, we have Wanda and Clint searching through the other end of the facility and Bruce is outside, waiting for the signal."
Carter realised she must have looked confused when Bucky explained, "We're busting you out of here and we're taking the assholes in here down with the place. And this time, you're getting help whether you want it or not."
Carter couldn't find any part of her that wanted to object. Sacrificing herself for everyone had gotten boring after a while and she was ready for a fight again. But there were still some problems...
"But my powers," she said. "Dr. Smith made a serum that takes them away. He injects it in me at regular intervals and he did just before dinner, so I've got nothing. And Dr. Smith, he's seemingly invincible. He can't be killed. At least not by bullets." Her tone was desperate, and she was hoping against hope that one of them would have a solution.
They shared a look for a moment before Bucky said, "Alright. If he has some power counter-serum, he probably has one that gives you back your powers, too. I'll take Carter and try to find something like that. Sam, you find the others, let them know we've got Carter, and begin taking down the guards."
"But what about Dr. Smith?" said Carter. "He has a bunch of guards and no weapons will affect him."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Bucky. "For now, let's just deal with the stuff we can deal with."
A few moments later, when they were out of the window on top of the roof, they wished each other good luck and headed off in their separate directions.
"How did you know I was in that room?" Carter asked Bucky. "It was pitch black."
"You know, for super-secret evil scientists, they're not so discreet. That was the biggest window with the most secure-looking handle."
They continued on in silence, peering through every second window that they passed, keeping an eye out for anything interesting. However, the most interesting thing they saw was one guard nodding his head along to a song that he seemed to be humming.
It was quite chilly outside and Carter, who was only wearing the thin grey clothes, was beginning to shiver. There was a crisp breeze blowing that seemed to chill her down to her bones, but she supposed that it could have just been the nerves.
The sky was still pitch black and the only sound was their footsteps on the roof and the rustling of the leaves from the trees in the forest that surrounded the lab. Every now and then there was a hoot from an owl.
"What about the other kid that's still here?" Bucky asked, breaking their silence. "Have you seen him? Do you know where we can find him?"
Carter felt her mouth go dry. "He- he isn't—" She took a deep breath "—He didn't make it."
Their silence returned once again, but this time it seemed to be a thicker silence than before.
The next time Bucky spoke, it was to tell her to stop by a window. He had noticed some needles lying on a counter and asked Carter if he thought that it seemed likely there could be something in there.
He opened the window with a lot less difficulty than opening the window to Carter's room and they both climbed through. They were in Room 12, the room with the needles.
The needles, as per usual, were lined up on trays on the countertop. It was only then that Carter expressed the worry that had been in her mind since Bucky had suggested coming here. "How are we supposed to know what's what?"
"Uh, I was hoping you'd know."
"I know they used to give me that one—" She pointed at the one with sea green contents "—when they were trying to give me powers. But I don't know if it's safe."
"Well, there's no point in—" Bucky began, but his mouth snapped closed when a loud bang sounded.
They both froze, tense, as they strained their ears to listen. Then, they heard shouting.
"Take that, you ugly green monster!"
Both Carter and Bucky ran to the door. Bucky broke off the lock and pushed the door open, and they both flung themselves out into the corridor. They ran through it, bursting through the door at the end to see Bruce, in his half-hulk, half-human form, pushing himself up from the floor, a scowl etched upon his face.
Four guards stood across from him, a little bit down the corridor, their weapons raised. Carter realised that they looked like guns, but as they shot one of them at Bucky, she noticed that they shot, not quite bullets, but balls of electricity. Bucky easily dodged it and Bruce flung himself at the guards.
He caught two of them and tackled them to the ground, while one of the others ran towards Carter and Bucky, the other running away back through the door behind him.
Bucky wasted no time in running at the oncoming guard, knocking him to the ground in just one punch with his metal arm. "Bruce, you gonna be okay?" he called.
"I'll be fine!" shouted Bruce from the ground, as he pummeled the two guards. "You two go! And, Carter, it's good to see you!"
Despite all that was happening around her, Carter laughed. "You too, Bruce!"
Then, her and Bucky were running through more corridors, taking out more guards as they came at them. Of course, Bucky took care of most of them, but Carter still helped, kicking and punching a few, remembering some tips from her lessons with Nat.
Once, just as she was about to aim a kick at an approaching guard, he suddenly went rigid, letting out a little gasp before collapsing to the floor. Once he went down, Carter looked up in shock to see Clint standing there, his bow already fitted with another arrow, poised to shoot.
His face softened at the sight of her and he quickly sent an arrow flying at a guard that she hadn't even realised was sneaking up behind her. He then ran towards her and sighed. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," she breathed, "I'm fine. Thanks for coming."
"Hey," he said, before turning to aim another arrow at a guard who had turned the corner of the far end of the corridor. He had barely one foot around the corner before the arrow hit him and he collapsed to the ground. "I wasn't gonna just let you stay trapped here. Anyway—" He looked up to see Bucky finish his fight with the guards "—I gotta go, but be careful, alright?"
Carter and Bucky continued like that, for how long, Carter had no idea: just running through corridors, attacking guards and trying not to get too hurt in the process. She knew she had a few bruises and scrapes on her and she was beginning to sweat profusely, but she kept going, kicking and punching the guards to the best of her ability.
They still hadn't run into Wanda yet, nor had they seen Sam again, but they did come across Bruce once more.
When Carter stumbled by a room with an open door and peered inside, she saw her suit resting in there and despite not having her powers handy anymore, she quickly shouted to Bucky what she was going to do and raced inside to change.
Even though she didn't have her powers, she still felt a sense of power with the suit on and it gave her a little boost as she continued fighting the guards.
Just as she realised that the sky outside was now a dark blue and no longer an inky black, she wondered where Dr. Smith was. They must have been fighting for hours and she had not even caught a glimpse of him. Were one of the others fighting him?
When the last guard fell to the ground, both Bucky and Carter paused for a moment, panting hard. "Dr. Smith," she said heavily. "We need to find him. This place isn't gonna go down until he does."
"Okay," Bucky swallowed. "Okay, we'll try and find him. Any idea where he might be?"
"No idea," she said. "Maybe an office or something? Maybe he's fighting one of the others. He could be anywhere."
Bucky didn't reply and she knew he was weighing their options. Carter pointed down the corridor to the right. "I've never been down there before. Maybe we could have a look down there?"
They ventured down the corridor that Carter had never been allowed down before. For the most part, it resembled all of the other corridors, but it felt different down here. The air seemed colder and the silence that hung in the air seemed thicker.
They tried a few doors, finding nothing but large, white, square rooms that held nothing and didn't even have any windows.
Just as she was about to open another door, she heard a lot of footsteps coming from behind her and she prepared herself for more guards, but she felt her body relax when she saw that it was Sam, Bruce, Wanda and Clint running towards them, all looking tired, but not as if they were immensely hurt.
They were panting when they reached Bucky and Carter and once they stopped she said, "Not that I'm not glad to see you guys or anything, but why are you here?"
"The guards," said Wanda. "There's none left. It's like they all disappeared, but there has to be more than what we fought."
"Well, there's no point in just standing around," said Carter and she pushed open the door nearest to her.
She knew at once that it was a mistake. A loud beeping noise seemed to sound from the walls and all the doors in the corridor were opening and guards were rushing out, all carrying different kinds of weapons. There were hundreds of them, maybe even thousands.
It was utter chaos. Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Clint and Bruce all reacted as fast as they could and amidst all the chaos, Carter felt something sharp jab her back and push her forwards. She stumbled through the door that she had just opened, and just as she turned to go back and help the others, a sheet of glass quickly slid down from the top of the door frame, sealing her in.
She knew it wouldn't do anything, but she couldn't stop herself from banging on the glass. Just as she was about to try kicking it, she heard someone clear their throat from behind her. She whipped around and saw Dr. Smith, standing by a wall on the other side of the room, hands clasped neatly in front of him. He had a smile on his face and his overall demeanour, from how he stood to how still he was, made him look so calm that it was unnerving.
"You know, I thought we were getting along a lot better this time around. Evidently, I was wrong."
When Carter realised she was gaping at him, she quickly shut her mouth. "It might surprise you, but I don't like being tortured much."
"Tortured," he tested the word on his tongue as if it was a new word that he was learning. "I admit that I was sometimes a little harsh when you were here before, but this time I was a lot kinder, don't you think? Torture seems to be a rather exaggerated word."
"Let me out of this room," she said.
"No."
Worth a try, she thought. "Look, I just want you to leave me and my f—"
"Your what? Your friends? Your family, even? Please, I practically raised you, if anyone is your family, it's me."
"Families don't let one another suffer."
"Oh," he scoffed. "You've grown to care for them, I see. Carter, all may seem good now, but I promise you that you don't want to get involved with superheroes. They can die at any given moment, just look at that Tony Stark, whom you—"
Carter couldn't stop herself; before she could even register what she was doing, she had already reached Dr. Smith and was aiming to punch him, but he easily caught her fist and threw her to the floor with surprising ease. She got up again and he once again succeeded in making her fall to the ground, though this time he threw her with more force and she collided with one of the walls.
She was extremely glad that she had chosen to wear her suit; the impact would have been a lot more painful had she not been. That being said, the force of colliding with the wall still knocked the breath out of her and she hit her head pretty hard, causing her to let out an involuntary cry of pain.
"Don't try to fight me," he said calmly.
"Then why—why did you trap me in a room with you?"
"I simply want to talk to you."
"There's nothing you could say that I want to hear," she spat as she got to her feet once again, ignoring her throbbing headache.
"I beg to differ. Carter, please, I ask for only a few moments of your time."
"You've already taken enough of my time!" she bellowed as she charged him once again. She managed to send a small kick to his left knee this time, but he was still able to throw her across the room easily.
"Carter, listen to me—"
"No!" She charged once again. Carter was done with dealing with Dr. Smith. She wasn't going to listen anymore and she was going to fight him until she was no longer physically capable.
After two more attempted attacks, Dr. Smith sighed. "I see that I will not be able to make you see sense. So be it, then."
Then it was his turn to charge. Carter yelped and tried to elbow him in the ribs as he grabbed her from behind, but his hold was too strong. Just as he was about to say something, she stepped on his foot and he pushed her away out of reflex.
She landed on the floor and he started towards her once again, but she managed to roll away just in time and jump up. Dr. Smith, who had practically tried to throw himself at her, couldn't stop himself in time to not hit the wall. She ran forward, hitting into him and causing him to hit into the wall again, but harder this time.
But he whipped around and was able to knock her legs out from under her before she had a chance to react. She once again fell to the ground and this time Dr. Smith pinned her down so that she could barely move. He no longer looked calm, but as Carter looked up at him, she thought that he looked like the definition of a maniac.
His hair was a mess, his face was glistening from sweat and he had a mad glint in his eyes. His right hand was raised above his head.
"I'm going to have to knock you out, Carter," he breathed. "And I'm afraid I'm going to have to do it myself as I have no syringes handy. This will hurt, but don't worry, it won't kill you."
Carter reacted instinctively just as he brought his fist down towards her head. She was able to wriggle her left arm free and outstretch it a little bit so that it was facing Dr. Smith's arm. Her eyes were tightly squeezed shut, but from the cry of agony and the sickening thump that sounded somewhere near her head, she knew it had worked.
Her eyes flew open to see Dr. Smith cradling the stump that was now his arm. The rest of his arm lay next to Carter, but she couldn't look.
She took the opportunity of him being distracted to push him off her and get away from the blood that was beginning to drop onto her. Gagging, she got to her feet and tried to avoid looking at the severed arm on the ground and the bright red blood that splattered the floor. But no matter how much she didn't want to look, it seemed to demand her attention. She looked at it and nearly vomited. If it wasn't for the fact that Dr. Smith had wrapped his stump in his sleeve and jumped towards her once again, she was sure she would have. But her portals were there again and she was falling through one quicker than she could think about what was happening.
She landed on the other side of the room. She knew she could get out of the room now, but this was it, she realised. It was her chance to take Dr. Smith down for good and she was going to do it.
"Very good, Carter," he said through clenched teeth, clearly still in a lot of pain. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to realise you still had your portals."
Carter, who was about to send a blast at him, paused. "What?"
He grimaced. "I've told you before, I'm not entirely unfair. You have had your portals nearly all of the time you've been here."
Was he bluffing? Just talking because Carter now seemed to have the upper hand? These thoughts caused her already pounding headache to worsen. But he took advantage of her hesitation and continued. "You have a fatal flaw, Carter. That mind of yours. Extraordinary though it is, what is something brilliant without its mighty flaws? You see, that serum, the anti-portal one, it actually only lasts for one hour after it is injected.
"Oh, yes," he said, noticing her expression. "I knew you would try to use the portals after I gave you the serum, but that's something I have observed about you. Once you have tried something and it doesn't work, you abandon it completely, opting instead for a different plan. If you had tried your portals again after an hour, you would have easily been able to escape. But instead, you tried to find other ways of escaping. None of which, I am happy to hear, were successful."
"No!" she shouted. "At first I stayed to protect the others—"
"Yes, at first. As I have told you, I have practically raised you and whether you like it or not, I know you, Carter."
"But I—I tried to use a portal one night. And it didn't work. And it was a lot longer than one hour after getting the serum."
"Ah, yes. That's another flaw of yours. One that is the fault of mine, however. You see, with all the brain surgeries we performed on you, your brain plays a big part in creating your portals. If you are feeling overly dejected or stressed or anxious, the portals will not come so easily. Or it may cause them to, for lack of a better word, malfunction."
Carter faintly remembered sitting in the Avengers facility and accidentally destroying a water bottle with a portal that she was sure she hadn't summoned. And that had been not long after the dream in which Dr. Smith had visited her...
"Yes, you see the truth in it, don't you? Carter, if you join me, I can help you perfect your powers. And we can even give others the opportunity to obtain those powers. Don't you want to help others?"
"I- I do, but—" Carter faltered. Her eyes trailed around the room, not wanting to look at Dr. Smith or his severed arm or the blood on the ground. Then her gaze landed on the glass that separated the room from the corridor. She caught a glimpse of Sam's wing as he flew by and a glint of metal which was probably Bucky's arm. "But you don't help people, you destroy them."
And she zapped to right behind him, pushing him forwards. "Suit, portal bullets!" she tried, hoping it would still work without a mask.
No voice came, but she tried shooting one anyway at Dr. Smith, who was still stumbling forward from her push. A red, glowing portal bullet zoomed forwards and went right through Dr. Smith's chest. She shot four more and even though it didn't kill him, his face definitely looked paler, his breathing sounding a lot heavier.
"Ropes," she said to her suit as a sudden idea hit her and she shot out her hands; a long strand of red portal was wrapping itself around Dr. Smith, binding him, and as Carter concentrated, it got tighter and tighter around him until he was sputtering for breath.
His face began to go purple and Carter knew then that her idea would work. Bullets didn't affect him any more, but he still needed air to live. But as the ropes tightened still, he was getting less and less air.
Carter didn't want to kill anyone, but it was the only way. Dr. Smith would only truly stop being evil when he was dead. And just like his arm that lay a few feet away, his dying body seemed to force her to look no matter how much she wanted to look away.
He was soon on the ground, still sputtering and gasping for air that wouldn't come. "Y- you ungrateful—"
But his sentence was never finished. He slumped back, whacking his head hard on the floor as his previously tense body slackened and the portal rope removed itself from his body. His open eyes were staring upwards, unseeing, and his mouth was slightly parted, not that it needed oxygen any longer. Not that he needed anything any more. He was dead.
Dr. Smith was dead.
Carter rushed to the corner of the room and got sick. The back of her throat burned and her eyes stung, her head was still pounding. Ignoring the awful taste in her mouth, she quickly ran to the glass, not looking back at the room, now filled with vomit, blood and death, and zapped to the other side where the others were finishing up with fighting the last of the guards.
Bodies were scattered everywhere and Carter nearly tripped over one as she landed. She nearly got sick again at the sight of all of the bodies lying there, but before anything could happen, someone's hand was on her elbow and she was being rushed through the corridors as someone shouted, "Come on! Come on, hurry!"
Carter didn't pay much attention to her surroundings as she was guided through the building, but instead focused on trying to keep down the rest of the contents of her stomach as they passed more and more bodies.
When they were finally outside and she was able to breathe in fresh air, she barely even noticed that it was now beginning to get bright outside. They continued running until they were out of the forest that surrounded the lab. She noticed then the many different vehicles, from cars to rather large ships, that were parked at the edge of the forest.
A man stood at the front of a large crowd of people, staring into the forest. Carter noticed he wore an eyepatch as they passed by him and she faintly recognised him.
"On three," he said into a walkie-talkie. One, two, three."
Carter covered her ears as a loud boom went off in the distance. A large cloud of smoke came up from somewhere in the middle of the forest and with a jolt Carter realised that they had blown the lab up.
And just like that, the lab was no more. The next few hours were a blur. She remembered getting ushered into a car and getting asked questions by a woman with black hair, but not what questions, nor what she answered, or even if she answered. She was then brought back to the Avengers facility where Wanda stayed with her for the night. She doesn't remember sleeping, but she doesn't remember staying awake either.
All she knew was that Dr. Smith was gone and so was his lab.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
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And just like that, we're about to move on to the last chapter! This is the 2nd last one, but I promise you guys that you're gonna wanna come back for the next one ;))
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I'm always apologising for not updating for ages, but I felt so bad for taking a really long break and I wrote this for you guys in one sitting lmao and it was HARD; motivation for writing this chapter was really lacking and I'm definitely glad it's finally written.
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I feel like this could have been a LOT better, but I hope you guys think it's an okay end-of-the-lab chapter??
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Also, I'm officially off for summer now! Not that it's that exciting, but at least I don't have to wake up early for online classes anymore.
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OH and last thing, I promise, thank you guys so much for over 160k reads!??! That's a ridiculous amount and I literally can't thank you enough <3