Tony's hand slipped very slowly back into his pocket, appearing as if he were just resting it there as he listened to this man who had so purposefully stopped him, but his fingers were dancing over the screen with adept muscle memory of where the letters would be on the pad so that he could text you.

"Yes," he coughed nervously, "we take a lot of pride in how the team has pulled together to help raise the triplets. They're the most loved kids in the world, and I know that any of us would do whatever it takes to protect them."

"I'm sure. But tell me, Mr. Stark, what would you do? How far would you go if meant that you could keep them from harm's way?"

"I don't think you want to find out."

"Oh, but I do," Schmidt pressed, taking a few calculated steps forward, making Tony recoil back. "I want to see for myself what your limits are. You see, even their own parents couldn't hold their end of the agreement when I told them specifically that all they had to do was to fall in line and do what they were told. If they could do that, then I would leave these little miracles of theirs alone. Instead, they ran and hoped for the best. I thought you would have raised your own daughter to be smarter than that, Tony."

"Don't even think about touching my grandchildren. You won't live long enough to regret it."

"I like this side of you, I must admit. This ease in finding your rage. You would rise to the top of our ranks quickly."

"I would rather die."

"Patience, Tony. All in good time."

~~~

"I understand why you feel scared, (Y/N). It's not that I don't, okay?" Steve asked, grabbing the two pints of rapidly melting ice cream from the table to follow you into the kitchen. "I guess I just thought that with things going so well again, it would be...nice...I suppose."

"It would be nice," you sighed, opening the freezer for him with a cold blast of air chilling you, "and I'm sure that we'd make it work, just like we always do."

"Of course we would," he continued more urgently, seeing his opportunity, "and you know that the team would be all over helping out again. Tony even said how much he would love to have more around."

You quickly held up a hand to stop him, your other one slamming the freezer door closed with a resounding bang through the room, "hold on just a damn minute there, Spangles. Did you talk to my dad before you talked to me about this?"

"It...might have come up..."

"Oh, my god! You two are the worst! What's next? If I say no, are you going to send him in with his big sad eyes and his 'but I always get what I want' voice? You both know that it doesn't work, right? If it did, he would have installed that stupid potato gun into his suit by now."

"No, he won't...wait...he what?"

"Listen-" you stopped, feeling the buzz of your phone in your pocket; you grabbed it just as Steve had at the same time, both of you seeing a text from Tony, but dismissing it until you could finish your conversation. "We're getting off track-"

Another alert came in, followed immediately by another, setting off alarms in your mind that something was wrong and to stop ignoring it. Before you could open the message to read what it said, the compound filled with blaring alarms and a flood of red lights.

"Steve-"

He held up his phone, having had opened the messages despite the frantic activity around him, "(Y/N), it's him." You squinted slightly and grabbed the device from his hand; it was the face of the man that Steve had taken you to that night four years ago. It was the man who promised that if you didn't follow his command, you wouldn't be the last member of your family that he came after. At the corner of the screen just past Schmidt's head, you could see the faint outline of a group of letters, quickly identifying them as the name of the kids' school.

"Put on the suit," you commanded, turning to run for your room with your phone in hand and sending frantic texts to your dad that you were on the way.

"Where are you going?" he called after you. "Our gear is in the hangar!"

"Not that suit, Steve."

His brow furrowed as his mind tried to find what you could mean, and when it came to him, he stopped in his tracks in a strong stance to deny you. "No, (Y/N), we'll fight. We aren't giving in this time."

"Move, Steve," you evaded and continued on, "tell Bucky to meet us at the jet."

~~~

"We're gonna be okay, Brookie, just calm down," Anthony urged, resting a hand on her arm, "Grandpa will call everyone and they'll help. I just need you to be quiet, okay?" He tried to peek through the tiny opening at the hinges of the closet door to see if anyone was getting close to finding them yet, but he couldn't see well enough.

"I can't take it off," she whined, scratching and pulling at a bracelet put on her by the teacher when they entered their first class. They told the kids the lie of it being for identification, but as soon as it was touching the girl's skin, she felt different and warned her brothers not to take theirs. "Ant, I really feel funny."

"What is it?" Grant pushed forward, trying to help her. "Are they tracking her? Are they gonna find us in here?"

"I can't do it," she answered, "I can't make it move."

"Oh, crap, they've blocked her powers! They were going to do that to all of us!"

"Hey, language!" Anthony hissed under his breath. "What would Dad say if he heard that?"

"He'd say a lot worse!" Grant slipped the strap of his backpack down and set it on the floor, digging through his belongings in the hope that somehow no one had caught on that he had snuck his phone out when they left the compound. "This is bad, you guys. We need to get that thing off of her so we can fight our way out of here. We need your powers too if we're gonna win, Brookie."

"I don't know if I can," she groaned, still trying frantically to force her hand through the device. "My hand's too big."

"Got it!" Grant exclaimed in an exited whisper, holding his phone up for them to see. "I'll get Grandpa!" His fingers hurried over the glass, but Anthony held up a warning hand to stop him from lighting up the screen.

"Wait," he warned, "I hear someone coming."

"Ant, I think I got it," Brooklyn whispered in a pained moan, "I think I got it..." She yelped at the pain in her tiny hand as the bracelet finally slipped over it, crying out at the crack of a bone that gave way under her force.

Grant dropped his phone back into his bag and reached out for her, in shock and concern that she had gone to that extreme to free herself when he was just about to call for help. "You didn't have to do that." He took her hand gently into his and held it steady, watching with just enough light coming from under the door to see the swelling start and the bruising rapidly growing in her skin. "Oh, sis..."

"But I can help now," she argued, pulling her hand away, "it can heal later."

"Did Auntie Nat teach you that?"

"Uncle Scott."

"Really?" the two boys replied in surprise. "Uncle Scott?"

"Yes, now would one of you maybe call for help, please?" she commanded, doing her best to stay composed and brave, trying to dig deep within herself for the strength you had given her. "We aren't going out there until we know that someone is here to get us, okay?"

"On the contrary, my dear," came a cold voice from the other side of the door, "you'll come out here now." The door cracked and snapped from the frame when it was forced open, leaving shards of splintered wood all over the floor in front of them and a harsh beam of light in their eyes to immobilize them. Anthony was able to just see a hand reach past him and towards Brooklyn, but he quickly grabbed it and forced the man to sleep before he could get to her.

"Don't let that one touch you!"

"Then don't you dare try to touch my sister again," Anthony retorted angrily, stepping in front of her, "or you'll regret it."

"Or what, little man?" one of the agents snarled back. "What are you gonna do?"

"This," Grant snapped, pushing in front of his siblings with his hands firmly extended in warning.

"No, Grant, don't!" Anthony warned, but his words didn't get their sound fast enough to stop the violent burst of flames that pushed the men back and away. They scurried and fled, one of them dropping to the ground to roll out the flames that had caught on his clothes before getting up to follow his peers away in sheer terror. The sprinklers quickly erupted from the ceiling, dousing the trio while piercing alarms sounded overhead. Anthony rushed out of the tiny closet and looked down each direction of the hall, closing his eyes in frustration at the sound of doors slamming all around him. "Great, Grant," Anthony groaned, "that's just great. Now we're on lockdown. I need to find the electrical room to try to disable the protocols and unlock the doors so we can get out."

"You guys ever wonder what it's like to be a normal five-year-old?" Brooklyn chuckled darkly, joining her brother in the hallway, with Grant only a few steps behind.

"Not really, it sounds kinda boring...oh, man!"

"What?"

"It's nap time in like fifteen minutes! I was really looking forward to that!"

~~~

When you arrived at the front of the school, Tony's car was there but he was nowhere to be found. The fire department was outside trying to get into the building, but the doors refused to open for them. More and more cars were arriving quickly, filled with frantic parents of children who were still inside with no way to see if they were okay, but once they had a view of the quinjet in the school parking lot, a strange sense of calm came over them as if you could actually fix everything. Little did they know, that this was happening because of you.

"Do you see Tony anywhere?" Steve asked cautiously, turning to look in every direction. "How about Schmidt?"

"No," you replied weakly, full of worry. "I hope he didn't do anything stupid."

"I think you've cornered the marked on that one today, (Y/N)," Bucky scoffed, pointing at his Winter Soldier uniform. "Dressing like the enemy isn't exactly a proven tactical choice."

"I'm improvising here, Buck, cut me some slack."

"Oh, sweet lord, what the hell are you doing?" Tony called out to you from above, lowering himself down to land the suit in front of you. "You guys look like shit in those costumes. Halloween is over, in case you missed it."

"What? You don't like the Hydra red?" you snickered. "Steve got these for us a few years ago."

Bucky snorted with a choked laugh and turned away, covering his mouth and trying to pull himself together, though under Steve's angry glare it was hard to do. "Savage, (Y/N), damn."

"I assume we're looking at Grant's work here?" Steve turned back towards the building to focus on what was happening, evading the topic all together. "Have you seen or heard from the kids?"

"No, nothing yet," Tony sighed, "but I had a text from Grant that said they were hiding. I don't think that's the case anymore."

"See, I told you that we should let them have their phones," you pointed at Steve before turning back to Tony. "Did you text him back?"

"Yeah, but no answer. He probably dropped it somewhere if they're on the run."

"Okay, let's get in there," Steve nodded, but stopped in front of you before reaching the building's steps. There was one more question that he needed answered before he took even one more step forward. "(Y/N), why did we wear these anyway?"

"Steve, don't be an idiot," Bucky interrupted, "there's three of them...and three of us. It's the last resort plan."

"No, there's no way in hell that I'll let you trade yourself to them," Tony argued, pushing in between you and Steve, "we'll get this done and never have to consider it, trust me. You tried this once and it didn't work."

"Because I ran, and didn't follow my orders, and look at where we are now. It's not your call, Dad. I'm sorry, but if it means that they can be free to live their lives without all of this, then not even you can stop me."

"Me either," Steve added readily now.

"Or me," Bucky joined in.

"We've all been there, Dad. We know what we're doing. If the three of us don't come out, then you take the kids and go. Promise me that you'll leave the team and take them away. Promise me that you'll keep them safe once and for all, especially from us."

Tony looked to each of you with a fear in his eyes that shook you to your core and burned a hole through your heart that you were causing him this much pain. When he looked to Steve and Bucky, he was begging them to help him stop you, but neither man flinched. As he locked eyes with you, he wanted to say a million things, but he knew that none of them would mean a thing to you once your mind had been made up. You were so much like him, that it killed him more than anything that was about to happen.

"I'm not going to let it get that far," he answered quietly.

"Promise me."

"Sweetheart..." he whined softly, taking a deep breath to try to calm himself. "Son of a bitch," he muttered, biting his lip anxiously and looking away so that he could avoid giving his answer just a little longer. If he held on a little more, maybe he would never have to answer it; not until you reached up and turned his face to make him look at you, finally getting the response you needed so you could save your children without fear.

"I promise."