Tony and Steve were both holding their own easily against a groupof Hydra agents that was surrounding them, but Nat and Wanda weren’t havingnearly as much luck, struggling to keep their pace up against the seemingly endlessstream of agents coming for them.

As you let your gaze travel over each of your teammates, Thor,Loki, Vision, Carol, and everyone else that had come along on the mission, youcouldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt.

They were here because of you.

They were fighting Hydrabecause of you.

You had been an unexpected rescue during one of their raids of aHydra hideout hidden in the mountains of Europe, and once you’d had the time toheal and come to terms with everything that had happened to you while they’dbeen testing on you, you’d really stepped into your own as one of the Avengers,and you’d taken the time to hone the powers that Hydra had bestowed on you withsome of their many inhumaneexperiments.

Loki had been the one to help you the most, taking you under theirwing and helping you get into the swing of living at the compound. With Lokihaving just recently been brought to the team by Thor, and you fresh out ofimprisonment and intent to use your newfound powers for good, you made theperfect pair when it came to not only training, but friendship. The two of youhad shared a bond that you just couldn’t find with anyone else on the team, andyou were grateful to have someone that believed in you so whole-heartedly, andhelped you be the best you could be.

But you’d never considered that Hydra would want to get you back that badly.

For more than a year now, the team had been going up against Hydraagents sent to bring you back to their hideout, and while Steve and Tony andthe others had assured you that it wasn’t your fault, you’d always felt like itwas. How could you not, since you werethe only reason that they were fighting Hydra currently?

You’d spent many late nights crying to yourself, and to Loki,about how guilty you felt, and how worried you were that someone was going tolose their life because of you.

“Well… I suppose that’s just the business that we’re in,” Loki hadalways said.

But you’d never liked that answer then, and you certainly didn’tlike it now, as you watched your friends fighting for you.

A loud thud against the wall you were hidden behind brought youback to the present, and you ducked back out of view, back pressed against thewall as your mind raced.

You had a trick up your sleeve, a deus ex machina of sorts that couldturn the battle around in your favor, but it could cost you almost everything,if you weren’t careful.

One of your powers that you’d used less, simply because it took toomuch energy out of you, was your ability to astral project yourself,effectively making a carbon copy of yourself that was indistinguishable fromthe real you. It could take damage, it could walk and talk and behave like you, and leave the real yourelatively unscathed, aside from severely drained of energy.

If you could get Hydra to pay attention to that, you could get the others out of danger’s way.

You just had to focus.

Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes, and channeled all ofyour energy, as much as you could muster.

“Please, please work…”you muttered under your breath, letting your powers take over.

A few minutes later you, or rather, the clone of you, stepped out from your hiding place, making a beelineto the pair you knew were the head of the Hydra team.

“Leave. them. alone.” You spoke in the coldest, most demandingvoice you could manage, desperate to get all attention on you, and it worked.The sound of battle around you hesitated as everyone watched you step in thecenter of the battlefield.

“Y/N, what are you doing?” you heard Loki call, their voicealready on edge, but you only steeled yourself, and looked the head Hydra agentin the eye.

“I’m the one you want. Not any of them. Right? So just take meback, and we can be done with all this.”

“Y/N, no!”

Loki wasn’t the only one that spoke that time, but from where youstood, you could see Thor and Tony both holding them back from running at you,though they were all clearly confused as to what you were playing at.

There was a tense silence as everyone stared each other down,waiting to see what happened next.

Finally, one of the leaders spoke, voice harsh. “Unfortunately foryou, we weren’t sent to bring you back.”

You had to admit, you’d been expecting an answer like that. IfHydra couldn’t have you, then they didn’t want anyone to have you. They’d always been possessive of theirprisoners. Why should you be any different?

The next few seconds passed in a blur. You saw one of the agentsaim their gun at you, and then the next all you could feel was searing pain asyou fell to the ground, vision fading already.

“Y/N!”

As your clone closed their eyes, you opened your own where youlaid slumped against the ground, hardly having the energy to prop yourself upand watch as Loki struggled to break free from their brother, screaming andkicking and crying as they begged youto wake up, to get back up, to do something.You’d never seen Loki look so distressed in your life.

It hurt much more than you imagined it would.

As you swam in and out of consciousness, you just managed to makeout the Hydra team fleeing the scene, and it wasn’t until then that you noticedthat everyone else was just standing, looking at where your clone had fallen tothe ground, like they were too afraid to move, or weren’t quite sure what theyhad just witnessed.

Finally, Loki broke free from Thor’s grasp and sprinted to whereyour motionless form laid on the ground, and you watched as they cradled youand shook you, trying desperately to wake you up.

“Y/N, please… please… not like this… not like this…” Loki sobbed, and it tore at your heartstrings.

If you could just manage enough strength to get someone’sattention to let them know you were okay…

But you were very weak, and you were losing consciousness fast,and you knew there was no way you’d get enough strength back in time to get to therest of the team before they left, leaving you with no other option but to laylow where you were until you could get some energy back, or to hope that one ofthem would stumble upon your hiding place as they went back to the Quinjet.

“…hang in there, Loki…” you murmured, voice hardly able to reachabove a whisper. “…hang in there…”