t w e n t y - t h r e e / come on, princess

"Nat, just waiting on your signal," Steve said softly into the earpiece, urgency teetering on the edge of his voice. 

There was no reply, just the quiet breath of his redheaded friend that reassured him that she was alive. But she didn't say anything.

"Status, Natasha," he tried again, hoping to get some kind of clue as to whether or not they were close to getting Cara and Wanda out. His limbs itched to be wringing each Skull agent's neck for taking his friend, his girlfriend, and his other half. Wanda, Cara, and Bucky. That's who they were there for. 

"Hold on," Nat whispered, "we're close."

"Then what's the hold up?" Sam intervened, and Steve would've shot his friend a warning glare, but he couldn't see him, so he just clenched his fist in frustration. Yes, Sam had served his time fighting a war, but he still didn't fully understand how to deal with this type of warning from Nat. If she said to hold on, she meant hold on, I'm about to kick some son of a bitch's ass. 

So he waited.

-

Nat was ready to kick some ass, Clint was itching to shoot something out of frustration, and Peter hadn't failed to be verbal about wanting to get out of there altogether.

"Do you honestly think that this is how we wanted to spend our weekend?" Clint had raised his eyebrows at the young boy, and shook his head. "This is how it goes. You're going to have to decide if that's what you want."

"It is," Peter insisted quietly into the silent air around them. Then, ducking his head, he added, "at least, I think it is."

Clint patted his back gently. "Don't stress it, Petey, you're only a teenager right now, you've got your whole life ahead of you. If you want to become a janitor instead of saving the world--"

"A janitor?" Peter lifted his head to look at him strangely.

He shrugged. "I'm just giving you examples. If you really wanted to, you could do anything you want. Don't limit yourself to saving the world just because it's what you've been forced into during your life."

"That's really inspiring, Barton, but we've got to get a move on," Nat hissed over her shoulder, and pointed to two guards blocking a large door. "My guess is they're behind that door."

"How do you know?" Peter asked, his words far quieter than a whisper, and he was surprised that Nat even heard him. 

She raised an eyebrow. "I've built my whole life around this type of thing, if I were you, I'd trust me."

The young teen put his hands out in mock surrender. "Alright-y then, I trust you."

-

Wanda, where are you? 

Steve didn't have the ability to reach into Wanda's mind, but in those quiet moments, he really wished he could. He hoped for the confirmation he wasn't getting, he wanted to see Cara's face, and he wanted to have Bucky leaning on his shoulder, needing his help one more time. 

He wanted his friends back. It was killing him, this quiet that left him feeling exposed and vulnerable to any attack that might come. 

But he couldn't do anything about it. He just had to wait. Like he'd been doing for what felt like forever. 

-

Peter let out an impressed breath. "Wow," he said with wide eyes, stepping over the unconscious guards and into the room they'd been blocking. "That was..."

"Yeah, yeah, the compliments can wait," Nat waved it away dismissively, though her cheeks were tinted pink with proud embarrassment. 

As they stepped through the door that had opened easily("Obviously amateurs in that department," Nat had smirked), they heard a thud coming from only around ten feet in front of them. And after each dull thump came their names.

Thump. "Peter!"

Thump. "Natasha! Clint!"

There, in front of them, were Wanda and Cara, their eyes wide with relief, banging on the glass wall of a circular cell. 

-

Cara could have broken down in tears right then and there, the relief of seeing her cousin almost too much. But she resisted, not allowing her emotions to get the best of her. She had to stay strong, there was still so much to be done. They had to get Bucky, and then they had to get off the island, which would most likely prove to be difficult, as she was sure most of Skull had been alerted that two of their prisoners were being rescued at the current moment. 

But she just wanted to let it out. 

"I'm gonna put a bullet through this glass, okay?" Nat said, "and then we've got to get the hell out of here."

Cara held up a hand, "But what about--"

"Not now, Cara, just stand back. This is going to hurt if you get in my line of fire."

The teen promptly stepped to the side, pushing Wanda out of the way as well. Nat raised her gun, and pulled the trigger without flinching. The resounding boom that shook the cell shattered the glass, and shocked Cara and Peter into silence. Neither one had been that close to being shot with a bullet. 

"Okay, come on, princess, we've got to get you back to your knight in shining armor before you cause any more collateral damage," Nat beckoned the two girls out of their cell. 

When Cara clambered out, she gave Peter a bone-crushing hug, but then rushed out, "We're not done, we need to get Bucky--"

"What?" Nat and Clint both almost shouted, disbelief showing clearly in their eyes. 

"Yeah, didn't Steve tell you?" Wanda stepped up, "we found Bucky here, too, and then that's when we got caught in this cell."

Nat sighed exasperatedly, raising a hand to squeeze the bridge of her nose wearily. "Well you could have told me that before I shot up that goddamn cell, alerting everyone in this place."

"We thought you knew!" Cara insisted, defending herself. "You have to understand, we thought that--"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Clint cut in, "there's gonna be Skull agents on our asses any second. We've got to get moving." He met Wanda's eyes. "Do you know where they kept him?"

"No, but it won't take me very long to find out," she said, and squeezed her eyes shut, on a mission to find the man with the metal arm.

-

"Steve."

"Natasha?" Steve's voice was overcome with relief at hearing his friend's voice over the earpiece, and almost sank to his knees right then and there. "Where the hell have you been?"

"We've got Cara and Wanda," she said, "and we're on our way to getting Bucky right now."

Steve let out a breath, and his voice shook as he asked, "are they okay?"

"Who, the girls? They're just dandy. Wanda's leading us to Bucky right now, we'll be out in a few minutes."

"Don't you need any help?"

"No, Skull's being unnaturally dormant," Nat dismissed her friend's offer of support. "But if they decide to come out of the closet, I've got a few moves that'll put them right back in it."

"Don't be reckless, Natasha," Steve warned her, "it doesn't do anyone any good."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, and then her end of the com fell silent, meaning that they must have been close to where they were headed. 

Steve hoped so, all he and the others had been doing were standing. And she was right, Skull hadn't even bothered to put out their weakest men against them to hold off an attack on their facility. It was like they didn't know they were even there. Or maybe they did, and they were just waiting for the perfect moment to strike. 

- 

"Get his arm up on your shoulder, Peter, like this," Clint urged the younger boy to copy him faster than he was. 

"Sorry," Peter grunted, "it's not every day you're holding up an almost dead man with a metal arm."

Cara sighed. She was dying to get out of there and see Steve, and have everything be okay again. She wanted things to go back to normal. 

But they had to get Bucky out into the helicarrier first. Which would prove to be difficult, considering he had been severely drugged when they'd found him, and was heavier than dead weight because of his metal prosthetic. 

They were about halfway to the exit when a Skull agent stepped out into their path.

"I can't let you take him," he snarled maliciously, readying himself for a fight. He was a stout, middle-aged man that didn't seem to have much experience in hand-to-hand combat. 

Still, Nat didn't shed any mercy on him as she charged at him, delivering a devastating blow to his gut and kicking up to swing her legs around his neck, bringing him down to the ground in a matter of seconds. The man couldn't even try to put up a fight. He willingly lay down, and practically welcomed the punch that knocked him unconscious. 

"Alright, come on," she summoned them forward, and Cara tip-toed past the agent. She shuddered lightly as she realized that while Skull was an amateur compared to the Avengers, they still held the good strategy of getting rid of their weakest men first. It sickened her.

When they reached the exit, they pushed their way outside, and Bucky moaned something inaudible, but they didn't pay much attention to it, as Steve was racing towards them, his face red with relief. His arms enveloped Cara into the tightest embrace he'd ever given, and it was only a second before he was pressing his lips to hers. 

"Oh my god, Cara," he breathed, "I thought--" he cut himself off as he watched Cara jerk her head behind her, motioning for him to look at Bucky.

Bucky. His best friend, the broken half of his soul. 

"What happened to him?" he demanded, taking him into his own hands. 

"He's practically--" Clint started, but before he could say dead, instead finished with, "he's drugged beyond belief."

"We need to get him back to the tower," Steve said in a finalist's tone, and no one fought against him. He'd just gotten his best friend and his girlfriend back, no one wanted to screw with his already unstable emotions. 

Holding tight onto both Cara and Bucky, Steve stumbled in the direction of the helicarrier. 

However, none of them cared to realize that they weren't the only ones heading off the island. All of them failed to notice that a smaller, cheap-looking helicopter had launched from the island, as well, and had begun to follow the exact same route as the Avengers were. They were being followed back to the tower. 

Well shite, they're not out of it yet...

Sorry if this sucks now because I'm so tired and I've literally written this whole day and only just now finished this chapter like omg 

I need to go to bed goodnight