╭ ⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸ ╮

𝑷 𝑶 𝑽
❝ 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚏𝚞𝚗 ❞

╰ ⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸⊸ ╯

TW: torture, death; read at your own risk ━━

ㅤ𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐔 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐃 at the sight of the Avengers Compound as Viktor flew over it. The Bulgarian was talking to the man at the control tower as he looked for a place to land.

JJ glanced at Henry and Jack, smiling a little as they excitedly talked about meeting the Avengers. Her smile faded, however, when she reminded herself of the reason why they were here in the first place. They weren't here for fun, they weren't here for a fieldtrip tour, they were here to find Gwen. She felt determination course through her as the quinjet descended down to the grass.

Viktor quickly unstrapped himself and opened up the latch, standing up to walk past everyone and greet Steve Rogers who was stood right outside.

They all watched as the two overly muscular men conversed as they unstrapped themselves and began to grab all their stuff. JJ had to hold back Henry from running straight towards Captain America, and Hotch had to do the same with Jack.

Being the communications liaison, JJ went out first, carrying Henry in her arms as Will followed her, carrying their duffels. She reached a hand out to Steve. "I'm Jennifer Jareau, I'm the communications liaison and--"

Steve cut her off, shaking her hand briefly. "I understand your need for formality but you all," he gestured towards the rest of the team, "don't need to act formal. Gwen's told us all you. Really, it's like we all know you personally," he smiled politely before sighing. "And we can't waste anymore time, we need to find Gwen. Come on."

The team went ahead and followed behind Captain America. Jack and Henry were quick to escape their parents' grasp and before anyone could even react, they were already running towards Steve. Luckily, Steve knew just who the little boys were.

He stopped for a moment and kneeled down. The team all watched this silently.

"Which one of you is Jack Hotchner?" He asked, and smiled when the older of the two shyly raised his hand. "You know, Gwen talked about you a lot. Said you wanted to meet me?" Jack could only nod; he was speechless. Steve chuckled, "It's very nice to meet you, Jack." He then looked at little Henry. "You must be Henry LaMontagne," when Henry nodded, he continued, "I've got a surprise for you then. Both of you, actually. That is, if you both promise to stick with your parents first." The two boys nodded excitedly before running back to their parents. He smiled at the two before standing up once again.

The team all followed silently after the captain again while trying to absorb everything they can see. Compared to their offices, this compound was just...out of this world. Everything was high-tech, as even trainees were all being introduced to holograms, and even weapons that can most definitely fight aliens.

Despite the situation, Penelope was elated at all the new tech that she might get introduced to.

Eventually, they found themselves in a rather cozy looking conference room, a contrast to all the concrete that encompassed the entire place. Of course, still modern with all the light fixtures and the glass screens that were hanging from the ceiling, but the wooden furniture, comfortable looking chairs and couches, plus the giant glass windows that overlooked a lush courtyard made it feel homey.

The rest of the Avengers—Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, and Vision—were all standing around the table as they waited for the BAU team to notice them. When they did, they all just stopped in their tracks as they unconsciously began to profile the superheroes.

Alina, who was also present, cleared her throat before greeting the BAU team with a wave, turning their attention towards her instead. She waved. "Hey."

Viktor was quick to walk over to her, hugging her gently. "I'm sorry. I couldn't protect her."

"It's not your fault, Vik," Alina hugged him back. It was comical to watch the two hug it out, as Viktor was literally two feet taller than Alina; so he had to lean down, while she had to stand on the tips of her feet. "It's okay," she pulled away, "we're going to find her."

Steve nodded to his team and gestured to the BAU. "We've got work to do." He then looked up and waved Peter down from the ceiling. Spider-man jumped down right in front of Henry and Jack.

Peter grinned from behind his mask as he enthusiastically introduced himself. "Hey guys, I'm Spider-man! I heard you wanted to meet me!" Henry giggled and clapped his hands, arms extended outwards to Peter who picked him up without question. "You must be Henry!" Then he looked down at Jack. "And you must be Jack! Do you guys wanna hangout with me while your parents are working?"

"Yes!" The two boys cheered, looking up at their parents pleadingly.

JJ looked towards Steve. "Is it safe for them to...?"

"Don't worry," Steve reassured. "Spidey's gonna take them to the daycare we set up. It would be better if they're not here to witness...anything." He sighed a little. "No one can enter this place, it's heavily guarded."

"This place is more secure than Fort Knox, I can tell you that," Tony boasted, assessing the BAU team. He almost wanted FRIDAY to look through their personal files for him as feelings of overprotectiveness came upon him; he's always been very close with Gwen.

Hotch shared a look with JJ before nodding at Steve and Tony. "Alright."

"Wait, is it okay if I join them?" Will spoke up, glancing at JJ. "I'm not really a profiler so I don't think I can be of any use."

"If you want to, it's fine," Steve smiled, nodding at Peter who carefully took the boys out of the room, with Will following behind them after sharing a kiss with JJ. "You guys can place all your stuff here for now. We'll take you to your assigned rooms later but right now--"

"Are they here?" Mila asked, cutting Steve off as she walked into the room with Bucky trailing behind her. She quickly spotted the BAU team. "Good." She walked over to them and offered a hand. "My name is Mila Vitale, I'm Gwen's handler."

"You're the one she called mamma," Spencer realized, waving at her instead of shaking her hand like the others did. He shifted a little under her stare. "I-I'm uh--"

"I know who you are Dr Spencer Reid, Gwen talks about you a lot," Mila nodded at him, but her expression remained neutral. "You mean a great deal to her, you know. All of you, actually," she eyed the others, "enough to sacrifice herself."

Natasha cleared her throat to cut the conversation short, crossing her arms. "We can do the whole small-talk thing later. Right now, we've gotta find Gwen, and fast."

The team eventually dispersed and each found themselves a seat around the table. Mila, disposition still calm and collected, stood in front of everyone.

"After Viktor told us that Jody Hatchett might be in danger, I've assigned an agent to watch over her and her adoptive family," she announced. "We have one less thing to worry about."

"Not to be insensitive or anything but why does Gwen care about her so much? It's not like--" Rossi immediately closed his mouth when she cut him off.

"Gwen, she...she gets attached to kids very easily, I'm sure you're all aware of that by now," the team nodded. "She's quite obviously really good with them. Jody...Jody and Gwen actually kept in contact for the past couple of months. Secretly, of course. Through the necklace she gave the little girl."

"It's a communicator?" Penelope raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"And a tracker," Mila nodded at her. "A simple squeeze of that diamond and the two can talk to each other." She sighed. "Gwen wanted to foster her, you know. But she couldn't, not with her circumstances. That and she was on the job. She really wanted to though, simply because..." She pursed her lips.

Natasha sighed, all eyes turning to her. "Gwen really wants kids. But there's a very high possibility of her not..." She sighed again. "The experiments done to her...you can only imagine the toll it took on her body. She was lucky enough not to get sterilized, but the experiments were enough to damage her reproductive system. She lost hope."

"What...what do you mean by sterilized?" JJ asked, mouth gaping. Her shock and horror was clear on her blue eyes. "You mean like..."

The redhead nodded, ruefully looking at the blonde. "I guess Gwen never told you, huh?"

"The only thing she said was that there was an accident when she was a teenager," Hotch crossed his arms. He was also very clearly in shock as he tried to organize his thoughts; he was trying hard not to profile Gwen, especially with all the new information about their friend.

"The experiments," Natasha frowned, "were enough."

"Okay, let's not dig into her past, okay? We don't have the right to talk about this without her present," Tony interjected, glaring slightly at Natasha. "What we need to do is to try and find her before anything bad happens. We all know what Kuznetsov's capable of." He turned to look at Bucky. "Barnes, tell us what you know."

Bucky frowned, his jaw clenching tightly. Despite how his demeanor screamed danger, and many were intimidated by his presence—especially Spencer—his eyes were just...haunted. He took a deep breath before saying, "Well...he's uh...he's..." It was clear that his hesitation wasn't because he was struggling to find the words, it was because he wanted to sugarcoat. "Uh...Kuznetsov will want to show off his...his work."

Spencer sucked in a breath, sharing a look with Derek, who clasped his hands and placed it on the table. "So he'll most likely want to show us what he's doing to her," he stated.

"Fuck," Emily cursed, looking down at the table. She glanced at the still-caged snakes in the corner of the room. "This is..."

Tony looked up and spoke, "FRIDAY, are there any..." He trailed off. Luckily, the AI knew exactly what he was asking.

"I'll keep an eye out, boss."

The entire room was plunged into complete silence.

Spencer found himself walking through the compound with Bucky.

The super soldier had his hands tucked into his pockets as he struggled to formulate a proper sentence. He had asked Spencer to walk with him so they could talk, but now that they were here, he didn't know what to say.

"Can you...can you tell me about you and Gwen?" Spencer unexpectedly asked, eyes trained on the floor.

"Oh, uh," Bucky awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand before clearing his throat. "Well, Gwen and I...we met through Steve. When the Avengers nearly broke up because of me, Tony called Gwen over to take care of Spider-boy."

"Isn't it Spider-man?" Spencer frowned.

Bucky snorted. "Kid's a kid. And, well, we like making fun of him, so Spider-boy it is." He chuckled a little before continuing. The two were still slowly walking through the halls. "Anyway, uh, we met there, in Germany. When the Avengers resolved their problems, I was officially introduced to everyone. God...Gwen just...she took my breath away, y'know?"

"I know."

"And I just wanted to get to know her. She reminded me so much of the time I was still just Bucky Barnes. She made me feel normal." He smiled a little. "She didn't care about what my hands had done. I swear, I thought I dreamed her. She never asked, she never pushed...she was perfect. I guess I just let my insecurities get the best of me. She's...she's the one that got away."

"Do you regret it?"

"I do," Bucky answered honestly. "But at the same time, I don't. Because she wouldn't have allowed herself to feel again, if not for you. She's...she's happier, lighter. I don't know. But I'm glad that she has you now. Just don't...don't be like me."

Spencer stopped walking, looking at Bucky, directly into his eyes. "Okay."

Bucky nodded at him, taking his words into account, He was just about to start walking, maybe change the topic, when FRIDAY called them over. The two looked at each other, before immediately turning around and rushing back to the conference room, where everyone was just staring up at the screens in terror.

The genius looked up, his jaw dropping as he registered what he was watching.

"It's live," Penelope shakily told him. "I...we checked."

"Can't you track it?" Hotch asked urgently.

"I can't, I tried," she shook her head regretfully as tears filled her eyes. "Even Tony tried. We don't know where the stream's coming from--oh God." She began trembling as Ilya Kuznetsov walked in front of the camera and waved nonchalantly. He then moved to the side and gestured to Gwen who was strapped down to a metal chair, hands tied around the armrests with what seems to be metal wires. She looked sullen and pale, staring into nothingness as Severus rested around her neck. They all wondered why he wasn't attacking Ilya even though he could.

Ilya turned back to face the camera and grinned, his expression unnervingly gentle. "Welcome to the show, moi druz'ya." He walked backwards until he went out of frame, only to enter it again, but this time he was pushing a metal cart. They couldn't see what it was that was on the tray as the camera only faced forward, but they could see that it glinted, even under the single lightbulb that helped lit up the place.

Rossi tried to profile the room as much as he could. "It's...I can't profile anything. The walls are blank, so is the floor."

"It's a small room though, about eight feet, maybe more," Derek noted. "He most likely covered up the actual walls that can help identify the place."

"The room is very small, at least the side that we can see," Hotch stated. "He's trying to make her feel as helpless as possible; he's literally telling her that the walls are closing in, and that she's running out of time."

"He's very particular about time, isn't he?" JJ mused.

"Well, he's a hunter, everything's about perfect timing for him," Emily nodded at her.

"How is this gonna help us find her--oh shit," Sam cursed when Ilya picked up a box of 24 Gauge, 1-inch needles and held it up so that they can see. "What is he..." They all watched with bated breath as he pulled out a single needle, showed it to the camera again, before kneeling down next to Gwen's left hand. They could see Gwen's eyes flicker down to her hand for a second before turning back to face forward, eyes turning blank. Ilya lifted her pointer finger, turning to smile at the camera quickly, as he slowly inserted the needle straight into her nail bed.

Gwen grunted, shifting in her seat, before she fell silent again.

"Nine more," Ilya chuckled, winking at the camera, before grabbing more needles. "This is very fun."

Penelope was already turned away, face buried in Derek's chest as she tried to muffle her sobs. The dark-skinned man already had his arms wrapped around her while he himself tried not to let his tears fall.

JJ was silent, looking down at the floor as she freely let her tears fall, while she held Spencer's hand that was trembling in her grasp.

Rossi and Hotch tried to maintain a cold disposition, still pushing to try and profile where she was.

The Avengers stood to the side unmoving, stiff as statues as they assessed the situation. Natasha was quite obviously pissed, and Bucky's metal arm was making what seems to be grinding sounds as he tried to hold himself back from hitting something. Vision was holding a distressed Wanda in his arms, while sharing a look meaningful look with Tony, whose fists were clenched tight. Bruce had already turned away from the screens, while Alina walked out of the room. Steve and Sam stood with their arms crossed.

Viktor and Mila stood side by side, closest to the screen. Both deadly silent.

They all watched as Ilya painfully inserted the tenth needle, the last one, into Gwen's right pinky.

Ilya chuckled, stepping back to admire his...art. "Krasivaya," he said, rather breathlessly, as his eyes flicked from one finger to another. He faced the camera again. "Isn't she just beautiful?"

"Wait..." Spencer's eyes narrowed. "C-Can this be enhanced?"

"What for?" Penelope asked, her voice cracking.

"Look--Severus," he pointed out. "Snakes can't blink because they can't close their eyes. They don't have eyelids, instead, they have this thin membrane that covers their corneas--the point is," he cut himself off, surprising them a little, "they're still able to close their retinas when they sleep. And look at the way Severus is closing his."

Tony's eyes also narrowed. "FRIDAY, can you enhance the feed? Brighten it up a little and focus on Severus?"

"On it, sir." FRIDAY did what he asked and zoomed in.

Natasha let out a breath when she scanned the image. "It's not Severus, it's Gwen. She's reaching out."

"How?" Emily asked, confused as she faced the ex-KGB spy.

The redhead met her gaze. "There's a reason why Gwen's called Viper, the reason why some people call her the Queen of Serpents. Not many people know this, but she can transfer her consciousness into a snake; see through their eyes, feel what they feel."

"So while she's using Severus' body, she can't feel what's going on with hers?" Derek questioned.

"Exactly, she's using Severus for self-preservation. She's dissociating herself by shifting bodies."

"That's good," Rossi nodded. "Alright, so what's she trying to say?"

"It's just Morse code," Spencer told them. "M-E-D-U-S-A, Medusa." He looked at the black mamba still sitting in her cage. "What does that mean?"

"Let her out," Mila instructed. "Let her out."

Viktor did as she asked with no questions asked. "She's gonna transfer to Medusa, isn't she?"

"I hope."

As soon as the black mamba was let out, she slithered straight towards the middle of the room.

"It's gonna take a while before she can get to Medusa, depending on how far she is," Bucky informed them. "As long as--"

"This one looks interesting," Ilya cut him off as if on cue. They all turned their gazes back to the screen. He was holding up a cleaver. He scanned Gwen up and down again, but they couldn't tell what he was focusing on as the back of his head was the only thing they could see.

"What is he doing?" JJ breathlessly asked. She was clutching her necklace as if it was her life line.

They watched as his hand shot up, grabbed something, before turning to face the camera.

It was Severus.

"No," Spencer watched in horror as Ilya stroked the top of Severus' head, squeezing him a little, before forcefully dropping the snake on top of the tray. They all flinched as metallic objects clanged against each other. The Russian man had his back facing the camera again as he lifted up his cleaver, and cleanly brought it down.

All they could hear was Gwen screaming, before the feed turned black.

author's note: yall i feel like im getting carpal tunnel with all the writing ive been doing lmfao

anyway, i changed the rating of this book to 'mature' bc duh. also the conference room they're in is the same one from endgame when they were brainstorming for the time heist.

and yes, some of bucky's lines were based off work song by hozier.

lmk if there are any spelling/grammatical mistakes!!

anyway, are yall still breathing?