Losing game (Captain America x Reader)

9. - Steve's POV

Thor went to talk to Loki. Steve didn't trust himself enough to walk in with him. He was scared that he would explode on Loki and wreck their chances finding out how to save [y/n]. Natasha didn't leave his side. They were sitting in the kitchen, which was far enough away so they couldn't hear the screams. He didn't say anything. He just looked down at his hands, wishing he hadn't left her alone. Wishing he were there to save her.

"It isn't your fault," Nat said as if she could read his mind. He looked up at her. She looked worried.

"If I didn't leave the base, she would still be here," he whispered, still blaming himself. Nat took his hand.

"If you think like that you can blame everyone of us. We shouldn't have left her alone." Nat was partly right. They shouldn't have left her alone, but he felt like he had some kind of responsibility of her. "I know you like her, a lot, but right now we have to figure out how to get her back." Steve looked into her eyes. He had been confessing his feelings about [y/n] to Nat. She was one of his closest friends on the team.

"What do we do?" His voice sounded devastated. For once, he didn't know what to do. Normally he would have an answer in some way, but not this time. He felt hopeless.

"We have to get Loki to help us. He is probably the only one who can." She said, knowing it would be a hard job to get his help. His loyalty shifted all the time. One minute he could be on their team until he found another one who could help him, and he would betray them.

"Let's go see if Thor have had any luck by now." Steve knew it wouldn't be the case, but he couldn't sit here and just wait. He had to be doing something. Nat nodded and followed him towards the cells. As soon as they reached the hallway, they started hearing the screams. [Y/n] sounded like she was in a lot of pain, but there was absolutely nothing they could do. Tony had been trying to talk to Astra, but he didn't have any luck with keeping her from hurting [y/n].

They reached the cells and Steve looked through the window, seeing [y/n] with tears in her eyes. She looked at Steve with fear painted in her face. He knew it was [y/n] right now so he hurried inside.

"[Y/n]?" He asked and put his hand on her thigh. She looked at him with tears streaming down her face. He could see that she was in pain, and it hurt him too that there was nothing he could do about it.

"Make it stop," she begged with a dry voice. "Please make it stop. No matter what." She looked into his eyes and he understood immediately. If they couldn't save her, she wanted him to end her pain.

"We will get you back," he promised her.

"But if you can't." She started but he interrupted her.

"We will." He said, knowing he would never be able to do what she wanted her to do.

"I want to talk to Natasha." She demanded before she started to scream in pain. "Quickly." He nodded and left the room in a hurry. He had to get Nat in there before Astra comes back.

"Nat!" He said when walking out the door. "Get in there, before she is gone." Nat looked confused but nodded and walked in to the cell. He couldn't hear what they talked about from out here, but the conversation was quick before [y/n] started to smile. Steve knew immediately. She was gone. Astra was back to taunt them. Nat came out and looked at Steve with pain writing all over her face. He started to realize what she wanted to talk to her about.

"What did you say?" He asked Nat, knowing the answer deep down already.

"Steve, I am sorry, but if we can't save her soon..." she hesitated and didn't wanted to finish the sentence. Steve didn't say anything. He just nodded before focusing on Thor and Loki. Nobody said anything to him. They left him standing at the hall, looking at Loki, thinking of all the ways he could kill him. He had to calm down. He couldn't afford to get angrier at him. They had to save [y/n]. He couldn't bear losing her. She was the second girl he felt something for. He had already lost Peggy. He couldn't lose her too.

Thor pulled him out of his thoughts by putting his hand on his shoulder.

"I got something." He said and looked him into his eyes. Steve felt hope for the first time.

"What?" He was eager to work out a plan.

"We can get into her head. Into her thoughts. We must find her behind Astra's work. We need to get her subconscious to fight. But Cap." Thor hesitated. Didn't know how to continue. "She may not win. If she goes against Astra and lose, then she will never come back. Astra will be able to take over her body and [y/n]'s subconscious will be too far gone for us to get her back. But that won't stop Astra from hurting her. If this doesn't work out, we will have to kill her." Steve felt his heart sink to his stomach. The plan wasn't that he should save her. She should save herself.

"She has already asked Nat to take her down if we can't save her. If this is the only chance we have, we have to try." Steve knew there wasn't any time to figure out another plan. Loki wouldn't say any more at this time. They had to try.

"We can send two people inside her mind. Any more will be dangerous for her." Thor told. Steve knew right away he needed to be one of the persons.

"Let us brief the rest of the team." Steve walked towards the meeting room, where the rest of the team was. Thor followed him. They walked into the room and everyone looked up.

"Did you get anything from Loki?" Vision asked Thor and he nodded.

"Loki told me that we can go inside her mind, but we will need your help Vision." Thor said and Vision nodded.

"Of course. Just tell me what you want me to do." He said.

"We need two people to enter her mind and finding her subconscious. We need to convince her to fight Astra on her own. It is risky. If she loses, we will lose her forever." Thor looked at Nat and she knew right away what he was talking about. "We have to hurry. I know Astra said she would wait a week before killing [y/n], but if she finds out that we are onto something she might kill her sooner. We have to figure out who should enter her mind." Thor looked around. Before anyone could say anything, Steve took a step forward.

"I will go. She trusts me." Steve said and nobody disagreed.

"I will join you." Tony said and stood up. Steve nodded to him. "We will get her back."

"Vision, you have to get them in to her mind. Wanda you must keep Astra still. Natasha, you will be there if anything goes wrong. Sam and Rhodey will help her. Clint and I will try to get Loki to tell us more." Thor looked around the table to see if any of them had any objections, but no one said anything.

"Will it be dangerous for them to enter her mind?" Rhodey asked after a while.

"I won't lie to you. I don't know what you should expect, but I am sure Astra won't be too happy having you in her mind. I also have to say that I don't know what you will see once you are in there. But if Astra doesn't find you before you find [y/n], you should be fine." Thor looked at Steve once again.

"Okay then. Let's get to work." Tony said and looked directly at Steve. "Vision, get us in there." Vision nodded and they walked to the cell.

Astra was smiling when they walked in.

"Oh, the A team is here to see me." She said when she saw Steve and Tony. "And you brought friends. How nice." She looked at Wanda and Vision. Steve could see that she was curios to find out why they were here. And suddenly her smile started to disappear. "No." She said, but before she could do anything, Wanda made sure she couldn't move.

"Okay. Hurry, I don't know how long I can hold her. She is strong." Wanda said and concentrated on Astra.

"Okay, let's go." Tony said and looked at Vision. "Ready?" Vision nodded and placed his hands on both Tony's and Steve's shoulders.

"I will give you as much time as I can, but it won't be long, so hurry up." Vision said before everything disappeared and got replaced with a big, dark room.