Music is "Fallen Hero" by Marcus Warner. (A/N: Play this starting when the Avengers meet with Tony and Glory. It will make you cry.)

Picture is Bucky and Steve from Captain America: Civil War.

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"I know you're afraid, but being afraid is alright. Because didn't anybody ever tell you? Fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster, and cleverer, and stronger.

And one day you're going to come back to this barn, and on that day you're going to be very afraid indeed, but that's okay. Because if you are very wise and very strong, fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly. Fear can make you kind. It doesn't matter if there's nothing under the bed, or in the dark, so long as you know it's okay to be afraid of it.

You're always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like... a companion, a constant companion, always there. But that's okay because fear can bring us together. Fear can bring you home... Fear makes companions of us all."

- Clara Oswald, Doctor Who

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It was merely an hour after Tony left the room before I started to feel like I wanted to die. I could now fully feel the energy fields surrounding the cell, draining me of my powers. The percentage on the monitor outside the cell says 37%. Percentage left or percentage taken, I don't know, but I have a feeling it's the former.

My thoughts have wandered to Pietro, my team, my children. Will I ever see them again? What has become of them? Did Wanda and Logan get back to them? Are they going to do something stupid to attempt to get me back?

Who am I kidding. Our leader is Steven freaking Rogers. Of course they will. Captain Jump-Without-Looking.

Soon I wasn't able to stand, or even sit. I had to lie down, preserving my strength for a possible escape opportunity. My bones felt empty, and my muscles felt like they had left. My powers felt like they were being sucked away into the unknown. I always feel like I have a bubble of powerful energy around me, but now it feels like it's been popped.

"You can take this," I mumble to myself, dozing in and out of consciousness. "You're bigger than this body. You're bigger than these powers."

It was merely a day before Tony came back for me, guards hustling along side him. They enter the room, guns instantly aimed towards a reclining me. I slowly turn my head towards Tony, and he grimaces. I must look like a nightmare. "Are the guns really necessary?" he asks his leading man.

"We've underestimated her before, Sir," the brute replies. "Better safe than sorry."

"Jesus, Bellick. You can see her ribs. Chill out."

I chuckle once and cringe, my entire body aching. "Do I look like a threat to you, Officer Bellick?"

"It's Agent now." The man nods, loading his gun with a strange looking ammunition. "And yes. You do."

I roll my eyes and look to Tony. "Did someone post my bail?"

He nods. "We're letting you go."

My eyebrows pull together confused. "Why? It couldn't be that easy."

"We made a deal," Tony says, looking slightly downwards. "It's nothing you should worry about. Part of it is your release." He turns to a man entering behind him.

Of course, it had to be Vlad.

My slightly relieved demeanor fades in an instant, and I turn my head away. "Not with him."

"You don't really have a say in the matter," Bellick says with a sharp tone. "Get in there and get her out, Spencer. We're going for a ride."

Vlad nods and lowers the energy fields, opens the glass, cuts off the electric circuit, and opens the iron door. He offers a hand in my direction. "Can you walk?"

I give him a look out of the corner of my eye. "Not with you, traitor."

He groans. "It's either this, or you can be sent to the Negative Zone, where you'll be locked up in a cage like this for the rest of your life, never seeing your husband or children again." He pauses. "Or is it fiancé? Haven't had a chance to get hutched yet, have you?"

I growl deep in my throat. "I hate you, you bastard. Just wait until I'm back to 100%."

"You'll be far away from me when that happens."

"Come on, Spencer," Bellick shouts. "Move it! We have a deadline to meet."

Vlad doesn't wait for me to reach for his hand. He grabs my arm and pulls me up, making every bone in my body scream out. I grab his shoulder for support, hating the closeness to the traitor that was my best friend.

He helps me from the cell, and we walk between a group of around a dozen guards down the hallway and up the several cases of stairs.

"Where are we going?" I ask along the way, turning to Tony beside us, but on the other side of the guards.

"You'll see," he answers, vaguely.

"Don't talk to her, Sir," Bellick says, turning to glare at me. "She could use her mind powers."

I chuckle. "It's clear that you're the brawn and not the brains in the operation. I don't have mind powers. That's my sister-in-law's specialty."

Bellick pauses, frowns, and turns his face back towards the tops of the stair cases. We're about halfway there when he tells me a story. "Before I worked for Mr. Stark, I was a prison guard outside of Chicago. I worked nights, and saw some pretty horrible people. I saw a lot of people die. I did that for almost twenty-five years. For fourteen dollars an hour, I had to put up with a lot of shit.

"About eleven years ago, I had a prisoner in for robbing a bank with a deadly weapon. He didn't fit the profile of criminal. He was a wealthy architectural engineer who had over half million in his bank. He had these tattoos, fresh ones. Within a couple months he had gotten a full torso and both sleeves done. He was sharp, though. We all asked ourselves why he did it."

I listen to the story, curious to find out where it leads.

Bellick chuckles to himself. "We found out later that he had done it on purpose to be closer to his brother, who was sentenced to die via electric chair a month later. He claimed he was innocent."

"What happened?" I ask, softly.

Bellick turns to me. "He recruited his cellmate, his girlfriend - the prison doctor, and a few others. During their down time, he and the others would work by themselves in Prison Industries, the prison's work force. They'd do things like paint walls, clean toilets, but their job then was rebuilding the guards break room after it had caught fire."

"What happened?" I ask once again.

Bellick's face turns darker. "He and his scum friends dug a hole through the floor to the sewer pipes below. They then got from there to the doctor's office, who had left the door unlocked for her convict boyfriend, where they knocked out the barred window, and climbed over the wall."

He pauses, getting to the top of the stairs. "They escaped?" I ask, surprised.

He nods. "Eight of them made it over the wall. One fell off the wall back into the prison, and one died in the doctor's office. A year later, three were dead. A mob boss, a kid doing five years for grand larsony, and a crazy man.

"The other five were never heard from again, neither was the doctor. Some say they escaped to Mexico, some say Panama, some say they live right under our noses. They took their families with them, girlfriends, wives, children. I still remember their names. Every single one. They cost me my job. The warden's, too."

"Why are you telling me this, Bellick?" I ask, perplexed. "What does a story of your biggest failure have to do with anything?"

He has his hand on the door to the roof level, probably where Tony has a Quinjet waiting, and gets closer to my face. His eyes are menacingly dark. "Because a year and a half after they escaped, the architectural engineer, the one who designed that whole plan, was dead. He died of a brain tumor. After all that, after setting his brother free from prison, getting away, and having a baby with his doctor wife, he went out, not with a bang, but with a whisper. It turns out his genius, the very reason they all got out, was down to cancer."

He pulls back. "I'm telling you this because you think you're invincible. You think you can't be touched, but after today, you will be weaker than ever before. You will not go out with a bang, Ms. Northern, but with a whisper."

I glare back into his eyes, and would have been enraged if I had the energy. "We'll see about that."

Sure enough, as soon as we got outside, the window was whipping around us, nearly knocking me over. It would have, if weren't for Vlad's steady arm around my shoulders. Despite his traitorous acts, he still is protecting me. I wonder why.

The helicopter waits for us on the roof, not a Quinjet, to my surprise. "Going back down the high-tech chain, Tony?" I ask.

He motions for two of the guards and Bellick to load onto the helicopter. "We're going off the Stark grid. No suits, no Quinjets. Just an old-fashioned helicopter."

"No Rhodey? You never go anywhere without him."

He shakes his head. "Not now."

Vlad and I hop aboard, followed by Tony, and we begin to ascend and fly towards an empty airfield right outside New York City.

"Why an open airfield?" I ask.

Tony buckles in, answering, "We're meeting your team there. They picked the location, not me."

I nod, wondering what they have planned. Maybe an attack, maybe an ambush, maybe a trap. It has to be something. They couldn't just expect Tony to hand me over without wanting something in return.

We edge closer to the cleared area, and I see my team, the New Avengers. I see several Next Gen. Mutants and X-Men with them as well. I can't help but smile. They all came out of safety to find me.

We land, and Tony and Vlad get off first, then me, then Bellick and the two guards. My eyes first go to Steve at the front of the group ahead of us. I smile sadly at him and our eyes meet. He does the same.

"Damn, am I glad to see you," he says, as we near. I would run to them, but Vlad has a tighter grip on my arm than I'd like.

I smirk. "Language, Rogers." Behind Steve, I see Wanda, Pietro, Natasha, Clint, Scott, Wade, Sam, Vision, Kamala, Jessica, Bucky, along with Logan and Rogue. Morgana, Cole, Katie, and Roran are also with them. "You guys shouldn't have all come."

"We could not just stay home," Pietro says, looking as if he wants to run over and snatch me away. I nod head head, tears coming to my eyes. For once in my life, I'm actually very, very afraid. "It will be over soon, возлюбленная. I promise."

He turns his eyes from me to Tony, where Steve and the rest are already glaring. "What did you do to her."

"She's fine," he answers. "She was never in any mortal danger."

"Look!" Pietro shouts. "You can see her bones cutting through her skin. What the hell did you do?!" Steve places a hand in front of Pietro as he takes a running stance.

"Whatever you have done to her, I will do ten times worse to you, Bub," Logan says, claws coming out.

"We came here to exchange, not fight," Bellick says, his weapons aimed at my friends. "Do as you promised and the girl goes free."

I turn to Tony. "What exchange?"

"Steve," Tony says, not answering me. "Do what you promised and Glory can go home."

Steve nods, and Bucky grabs his arm from behind. "I love her, too, but you can't do this, Steve. We'll find another way."

"Do you trust me, Buck?" Steve asks, looking back at Bucky.

Bucky nods, slowly. "You know I do."

"Then trust me now. Do as you said." Bucky releases his arm, slowly standing back.

Steve turns to him and hands him his shield, looking at it with pain on his face. Or maybe it's regret. "Make me proud."

Bucky simply nods, placing the shield on his back.

Steve starts walking closer to me, walking right at me. I shake my head, wondering what the hell he's doing. "What are you doing? Steve, go back."

He shakes his head. "Trust me, Glory. Just trust me." When he gets close enough, his eyes shift from me to Vlad. He takes his arm off mine, releasing me. "She deserves better than you," Steve mutters so only Vlad and I can hear.

Vlad's eyes close and he steps back. A look of shame covers his face.

Steve takes both of my hands in his. Our eyes meet again. "Are you okay?"

I nod, hurriedly. "They sucked out a lot of my powers. I can't fly. I can't teleport. Whatever you're up to, I can't save you at the last minute like usual."

Steven smiles sadly, looking down at the ground. "This isn't a plot or a trap, Glory. This is an exchange. This is the plan. I go in, and you go home."

I shake my head fast, tears pouring as I realize what he's about to do. "Don't you dare, Spangles. Don't. You. Dare."

He laughs softly at the nickname, his hands shaking slightly. He's afraid. Captain America is afraid. "You know I have to."

"Don't make me see this again," I cry, sniffling. "Don't make me go through this again. Don't make me see you turn yourself in like the self-righteous bastard you are. I can't, Steve. I can't."

By the end of my broken sentence, Steve has me in his arms, bawling. He holds me and comforts me. It's probably the last time he'll do so. He lays his head above mine, cocooning me in his warmth. Steve is like the sun, bright and warm and loving.

"Hurry up, Rogers," Bellick snaps.

"Give them a moment," Tony says. "Wait in the helicopter."

"But, Sir-"

"Do as I say."

Bellick leaves, and I pull back from Steve, tears streaking my face. I wipe them away with the back of my hand. "We'll come for you."

"No," he says, shaking his head. "You're not to come for me. That's an order."

"I know that I screwed up trying to save someone, but it was the right thing. I am sorry-"

"-Glory," Steve interrupts. "I'm letting them take me in. I'm not going to fight it."

"Why?" I ask, squeezing his hand even tighter.

He sighs, closing his eyes. "A long time ago, I promised someone very special to me that I would do the right thing, no matter what that was. I promised I'd be, not a perfect soldier, but a good man. This is what a good man does."

"We can't do this without you, Steve. Good men fight the good fight. They lead other good men and women."

"We have a plan, don't worry. They're arresting Steve Rogers, not Captain America, and that's a very different thing." He tilts my chin up. "Promise you won't come for me."

I shake my head no. "I can't."

"Promise me, Glory. My final request is this: don't come for me."

More tears fall as I shake my head in agreement. "I promise. I promise."

There's a pause in the air when nothing is said. Steve rests his forehead against mine, and I have to deal with the fact that my big brother is going to turn himself in and either be sent to prison forever in some alternate world or be killed. Civil War is happening right before my eyes, and he wants it to happen. There's not a thing I wouldn't do for my family, yet he wants me to do nothing.

"Be a good girl," he whispers, placing a small kiss on my forehead. "Be a good girl and stay strong. I love you like a sister. I hope you know..."

"I do," I say, finishing his thought. "I love you, too, Steve."

He pulls back after one, last embrace and heads towards Tony, nodding to him. Tony nods back at him, leading him towards the helicopter.

As they load up, Pietro runs to my side and pulls me into his arms. "возлюбленная, my возлюбленная."

"Pietro," I whimper, burying my head into his neck. All I can do is cry, huddling in his arms.

I turn to look at Steve, worrying that this is the last I'll see of him. He sits on the edge of the seat, smiling at us all. "Make me proud," he shouts to us. "This isn't the end. I'll see you all again." We watch as the helicopter takes off, lifting into the sky. We watch for as long as we possibly can.

I wait to awaken from this horrible nightmare. I often wonder if all of this is just some crazy dream. I wonder if one day I will awaken to find myself 19 and in my old world, without my fiancé, children, and new family. What if all this is just some crazy hallucination of a fanatic fangirl who had too much of a crush on the white-haired Sokovian and too many real life problems to deal?

Until that day, I'll have to deal with monsters and mutants and villains and aliens and gods and heroes. Oh, the days of simple life in the old world.

"We should go," Bucky says, walking over to Pietro and I with the rest of the group. "There's no way Tony will just let us go. Someone will be here soon enough."

"Where are we going?" I ask.

Bucky lays a hand on my shoulder. "Once you recover, we're going to introduce you to some more recruits we found yesterday while you were gone."

"And then?"

Bucky smiles, but it's without emotion. "And then, we take the Negative Zone. We're going to take the whole damn prison, and get every single one of them out of there."

END CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.