The Ancient Sorceress ~Loki x Bucky AU~

Chapter 69

Cap had let the team know that he had the twins with him and the people were safe, even though Ultron had sabotaged a train and wasn't worried about casualties. Shadow and Clint had made it safely back to the tower, bringing the cradle into the lab so they could inspect it. Tony, Banner and Bucky met them in the lab, their long faces matching how worried the team was for Nat's safety.

"Anything on Nat?" Bruce asked Tony after he had been searching for her.

Tony shook his head, "I haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it."

Clint punched the top of the cradle in frustration. "This is sealed tight."

"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within." Bruce sighed.

Shadow and Bucky stood in the corner of the lab. Bucky could sense how off his mate had seemed. She wouldn't take her eyes off the Cradle.

Tony turned to Clint, "Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the Internet? You know, old school spy stuff?"

Clint took a moment to think. He nodded. "There are some nets I can cast." He began to walk quickly towards the stairs. "Yeah, alright...I'll find her."

Shadow wasn't worried about Natasha. She knew her friend was alright. She could feel it. On their flight home while she sat next to the Cradle, she had been searching for her. Shadow had felt a weird connection to the Earth, giving her the ability to feel vibrations and signatures of things no one else could...unless it was a machine of course. At some point on their trip, she had felt Natasha's soul. Her heart was beating slowly, almost like she was asleep, but she was alive.

Even though there was a lot at stake, she was more focused on what was inside the Cradle. She had examined it further while in the Quinjet. The gem was the source of the power she was feeling. As she watched it and felt its energy, flashes of a vision or a memory kept appearing before her eyes.

Multiple stones were circling each other in the galaxies above them. It was beautiful, but Shadow could tell that it meant something important. Her visions were connected to what Thor had seen. She figured that whatever Thor was searching for, had something to do with the stones.

"I can work on tissue degeneration if you could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted." Bruce mumbled, already pressing buttons on the device.

Tony scratched the back of his head, already knowing what he was about to do would be a controversy between the team. "Yeah, about that..."

Both Tony and Bruce had a staring match between each other. Shadow could see the wheels and thoughts turning between the two men, the situation clearly making Banner worry.

"No." Bruce said curtly, slowly walking away from Tony.

"You have to trust me." Tony said with a curt grin.

"Kind of don't."

"Our ally, the guy protecting the military's nuclear codes, I found him." Tony swiped his portable computer towards the empty space by the Cradle. There appeared a pixelated orange ball, one that looked all too familiar to the group. Shadow stood straighter as she was elated that JARVIS wasn't gone.

"Hello, Dr. Banner."

Bruce looked surprised, his glasses slipping to the tip of his nose.

"Ultron didn't go after Jarvis because he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So Jarvis went underground. Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols." Bruce continued to pace around the Cradle, listening to what Tony was revealing. "He didn't even know he was in there until I pieced him together."