Note: hey hey hey your girl is turning 18 in 18 days on the 18th of July 2018; make sure you put it in your calendars 🙃

OOF! I forgot to mention that this is the penultimate chapter of this book, meaning that the next chapter will be the finale!

Are you ready?

I don't think you are.

✧ ✧ ✧

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ғᴏᴜʀ: ʙᴀɴɢ

❝ ɪ'ᴍ ᴀ ɢᴏᴅᴅᴇss, ᴅɪᴄᴋʜᴇᴀᴅ. ❞

✧ ✧ ✧

"NAT, ARE YOU IN?"

Grunting, Natasha delivered a punch to the face of the sole remaining guard in sight before brushing her hair out of her face and taking off down the corridor with you, Maria and Aaron beside her.

"Yeah, we're in," she answered, gently pressing one finger to the comm in her ear, "On our way to retrieve the cube now. Are you good out there?"

"We've got it," Brendon responded, pulling the trigger of his gun repeatedly to take down the new hoard of Hydra agents approaching, "Just hurry."

The sound ringing in the air was a mixture of the hasty footsteps of your team echoing through the deserted halls and the faint cries from the battle occurring on the outside grounds of the Hydra base.

The four of you came to a fork in the path, with the corridor breaking into two opposing channels. Natasha turned to address the rest of you.

"Alright, Hill and Ross, the tech room should be the second door down that hall," she cocked her head in the direction of the pathway she was referring to, "Make sure that we're invisible."

"Already halfway done," Maria gave a two-fingered salute before gesturing to Aaron to follow her, the two of them sprinting away.

The redhead directed her attention to you, cocked her brow and gave a small shrug. "It's you and me, snowflake."

"Ugh," you groaned, shutting your eyes and turning your head to the side to indicate your disgust before beginning to run the track to your destination, "Please don't. If I never get called that again, it'll be too soon."

Your accomplice shot you a smirk before picking up her pace, prompting you to do the same. Not long after, the lab facility came into view. There were Hydra agents standing guard outside the entrance, and you could make out the appearance of Doctor Jacob Ross standing inside with a grey-haired man you didn't recognise next to him.

Shoving Natasha sideways, the two of you hid in one of the side strips, completely shielded from the view of anyone on the floor and – thanks to Hill and Corvey – all security cameras.

"If we go in there now, we're as good as dead," you whispered, sticking your head around the wall momentarily to peer into the lab; you could clearly see the Tesseract, secure in a glass case in the middle of the room, "We'll have to wait it out."

"We don't have time to wait it out. On my cue," Natasha murmured before swiftly rounding the corner and striding towards the Hydra gathering.

You let out a short, quiet yelp and tried to reach out to grab her, but she moved too fast. "Damn it," you gritted your teeth and carefully swung your head around the corner, your eyes being met with the sight of Natasha taking out two Hydra agents as Doctor Ross and the other guy rushed out.

You mumbled a few curse words under your breath, immediately catching the attention of your bodyguard. His voice sounded in your comm almost instantly.

"(Y/N), what's wrong? Are you hurt? Did Ross leave you? Fuck, I'll-"

"I'm okay, Bren," you whispered, unable to stop the smile forming on your lips from his concern. Just then, you saw Natasha shoot a nippy glance in your direction, and you straightened up. "And I have to go. Nat just gave me the signal."

"Signal for what? Please tell me you guys aren't doing something stupid."

"Define 'stupid'," you answered, your feet carrying you towards your teammate in a hasty manner.

"I knew I shouldn't have left you alone," he sighed, and you could practically hear him shaking his head at you.

"I'll be fine. Have a little faith in me," you retorted, slowing down once you reached the lab and entering the facility after Agent Hill hacked into the system and opened it up for you and Natasha.

Brendon sighed. "Fine. Just don't..."

"Die," you finished with a smirk, "Back at ya."

Brendon went back to kicking Hydra ass and you took slow, cautious steps toward the illuminated blue cube, narrowing your eyebrows as your curiosity grew.

"Woah," you said in awe, moving even closer, "It's kinda... beautiful, isn't it?"

Natasha scoffed as she walked over to join you, turning her nose up once she got close enough to inspect the cube in detail. "Yeah, in a totally creepy, impending doom kind of way," she mused as she turned to face you. "We better hurry up. Those dickheads won't stay down for long."

"Dickheads?" a menacing voice sounded throughout the room and both of you drew your weapons and whipped around to aim it at the source; Doctor Ross stood just in front of the doorway, Hydra agents flanking him on every side. "We much rather prefer the term 'revolutionists'."

"Nope," you spoke, tilting your head and squinting as you pretended to ponder over the concept, "'Dickheads' is definitely the right term."

"Stand down," Nat ordered, assuming the spy disposition that came so naturally to her.

Ross looked amused as he gestured to the hoard of agents surrounding him and – as he pointed out – the outside of the lab. "Take a look around, Agent Romanoff. You're hopelessly outnumbered."

"Numbers don't mean shit when your agents are useless," she retorted.

"Useless, huh?" the doctor rolled his tongue along the inside of his cheek as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and strolled towards the two of you, "If we were so useless, how did we manage to capture your entire attack team?"

You could see Natasha's body stiffen in your peripheral vision and you felt your stomach drop.

A sick smile materialised on Ross's face. "Mm. That's what I thought. Now, ladies," he moved to lean against the nearby metal table, "let's keep this simple. Miss Romanoff, you're going to drop your weapon, and my guards here will escort you to the room where your teammates are currently being held. And (Y/N)," his smile grew as he looked to you, "you're going to hand yourself over to us. If you fail to cooperate, your colleagues will suffer the consequences. Oh, and don't worry, we'll make sure to pay careful attention to the very special Agent Brendon Urie."

"You're bluffing." Even as you spoke those words so confidently, you didn't believe them. And you were right not to, because almost right after, security camera footage of your teammates, all tied up in a holding room, was broadcasted on the screens in the lab. A gasp involuntarily moved past your lips.

"Don't make this harder than it has to be, snowflake. You know what to do."

"He's right, (Y/N)," Natasha dropped her weapon and turned to you; her words shocked almost everyone in the room, including you. Then, you locked eye contact with her, and you understood. "You know what to do."

And with that, she stepped down and handed herself over to the Hydra guards.

~

A heavy sigh of relief left the lips of your bodyguard as the distinctive sound of a cable tie snapping sounded throughout the holding room. Brendon flexed his fingers and massaged his sore wrists as he rose to his feet and started helping the other S.H.I.E.L.D agents out of their restraints.

There was a loud thud from the other side of the door, followed by a male groaning in pain. Seconds later, the door to the holding swung open and in strode Natasha; looking past her, Brendon spotted four Hydra agents laying unconscious on the ground and arched one brow.

"You'd think they would've learned from when (Y/N) kicked their assess but nooooo," Nat breathed, widening her eyes and holding up her hands before walking inside.

"How are we doing?" Brendon asked, scrunching up his face as he ripped off the cable tie on Maria's wrists with his hands. Aaron was right next to her, but Brendon deliberately skipped him and went to help Corvey instead; the doctor huffed impatiently.

"I reckon she'll be able to stall them for about five minutes before she has to do it," Natasha answered, rushing to assist in releasing her colleagues.

"That's not enough time to get everyone out," Brendon creased his forehead, halting his movements and running a hand through his hair before sprinting towards the exit to look for a weapon on one of the guards.

"What are you gonna do?" Natasha asked in concern, leaning back to look at Brendon, who had picked up two guns. He tossed one to her.

"We need more time. You four focus on getting everyone out of here," Brendon held out a hand at Natasha, Maria, Corvey and Aaron before pointing at Spencer, "Spence, I need you with me."

"I got you covered," Spencer answered, rushing over to join his friend.

"Alright, we'll get (Y/N) and the Tesseract and meet you on the jet."

After receiving a nod from the other four in confirmation of the plan, Brendon and Spencer took off down the hallway, rushing to get to you.

~

You counted four and a half minutes since Natasha had left the room, and during that time, you had struggled to stall the doctor. He was becoming increasingly aggravated by you, and you could tell it, too. The conversation that occurred between the two of you during those four minutes was essentially a repeat of the last conversation you'd had, wherein he tried to recruit you to the Hydra side, except that this time around, there was a lot more swearing on your part.

You thought that you'd put on a believing performance, even forcing a few tears, but you knew that if you didn't drop the theatrics and take action now, things would take a turn for the worst.

Hoping and praying that all of the people accompanying you on this mission were currently running towards the quinjets, you sucked in a sharp breath and glared hatefully at the doctor.

"You're not gonna win," you informed.

"As far as I'm concerned," he advanced on you and you took instinctive steps backward, "We already have."

"No, you haven't," you shook your head, tightening your grip on your gun, "And you wanna know why?"

"Enlighten me."

"Because you're outmatched."

After looking around at the Hydra agents still surrounding the area, the doctor smirked humorously and cocked his head lightly. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," you swallowed, shifting slightly backwards, "You're just a pathetic excuse for a power-hungry tyrant. And me?"

In a movement so swift it would've put lightning to shame, you swung your hand behind you, striking the glass surrounding the Tesseract with your gun and exposing the cube to your reach.

With a cocky smirk, you stretched out towards the glowing entity, fingers mere millimetres away from touching it.

"I'm a goddess, dickhead." 

The instant the tips of your fingers came into contact with the cube, a blinding light engulfed the lab, blinding everyone in its perimeter, except you.

You were plunged into darkness.

_______________________________

Thank you for reading x

Note: Don't forget to comment which chapters you want to see from Brendon's POV in the chapter titled
'A/N - Vote Here: Brendon's POV'