Shadows of the Past

Part 52

Warnings ::  General fighting - stabbing, guns, fire, explosions, death

(LOKI POV)
The elevator doors open just as the three of you get close. Four soldiers step out, firing at you but you wave your hand and deflect the bullets back at the shooters. They collapse where they were standing, just outside the elevator. You walk in first, quickly followed by Nat and Bucky. They take the brief moment of peace to reload and check their weapons while you summon your daggers as you prepare for the doors to open on the lower level.

"The two of you go left and I'll go right. Make sure you check each room and radio as soon as you find her... or anyone else," you instruct them and they agree as the elevator shakes to a stop.

The doors open and you are met with more soldiers and guards. You hold out your hands, a dagger in each one and flip them once before throwing them into the first two soldiers. You summon more daggers and cut through the next few guards. Bucky grabs the gun from one guard with his metal arm and hits him across the face with it before shooting him in the chest. Nat jumps onto the back of one guard, wrapping her legs around his neck and bringing him to the ground. Two more guards come from the left hallway and you create a duplicate to deal with them. The copy grabs one by the throat and stabs the other while you fling two more guards into the elevator doors, denting them. You hear a final gunshot as Nat takes out the last guard in sight. 

The three of you nod at each other and you wave away your duplicate before you split up down your assigned hallways. You reach the first of the tall, solid metal doors and you grab the handle. You can feel your hand shaking as you try to prepare yourself for what you might find in each room. Standing outside the first door and remember when you were last here. Although it was tragic to hear the screaming from the trapped test subjects, hearing nothing somehow seems worse. The silence radiates through you, amplifying your fears that you are too late. 

You grip the handle hard, forcing the door open and see a small concrete room with no windows. There is a hospital bed in the middle of the room with medical equipment to one side. The room has a faint smell of fresh blood and you see a body under the white, blood stained sheet. There are restraints hanging loosely from the bed, obviously no longer needed. You walk into the room and hesitate for a moment before pulling the sheet back. The wave of relief that washes over you is short lived, quickly replaced by guilt and that lingering fear. You throw the sheet back over the dead man’s face and leave the room as quickly as you can, moving to the next one.

The bed in the second room was empty and as you near the third room you hear gun fire from the hall Nat & Bucky are searching. It only lasts a few moments and Nat quickly radios that its been taken care of. You continue down the hallway to the third door, then the fourth and the fifth. Each room is either empty or occupied by a recently dead test subject. You leave the sixth room, nearing the end of your search, and hear Steve on the coms.

"How’s it going down there? Have you found anyone?” he asks. You can hear fighting when his end of the radio is open.

“We haven’t found her yet... or anyone,” Bucky answers, his voice much less hopeful than it had been on the jet.

“Loki?” Steve asks. 

You don’t respond, instead you open the next door and go inside. There is another bed with a blood stained sheet. You walk into the room and see an arm dangling from under the sheet. Reaching out slowly, you touch the woman’s cold hand and put it back under the sheet. 

“Nothing,” you say simply as you turn to leave the room. 

You look down the hall at the three remaining doors and try to stay hopeful but it is harder to open each door. As you leave the second to last room you hear Bucky in your earpiece.