Once Upon an Us

Penguins Suck

Tony fumed as Pengin cuffed his hands together then led him into the prison house.  They passed the guards Thea and Marie had killed and even came across some living ones.  No matter how badly Tony wanted to believe Pengin was just screwing with him and this was all part of his plan, he couldn’t deny the fact it looked bad.  Every living guard they passed just smirked and nodded at them as they passed as if they had known it was Pengin who’d been setting them up all along (and honestly, Tony wouldn’t be surprised if they did).

“I have to say, Rossi,”  Pengin said quietly, pushing him into an elevator.  “I’m a little surprised you didn’t realize it was me sooner.  I thought for sure you had me figured out when you refused to speak to me the night those agents broke into the bar.”

Against all odds, Tony didn’t have to fight himself to keep his mouth shut.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with Pengin at this point. The last thing he would do was entertain Pengin’s musings as he was led to his certain doom.  There was no way he was getting off easy for defecting all those years ago. If anything, he and Thea would be lucky to survive the night. For everyone’s sake, he hoped Hoffman killed him first.  While Thea could easily kill Hoffman without breaking a sweat, he’d like to see Hoffman try to fight him off if he was forced to watch his sister die.

“Oh, the silent treatment, eh?”  Pengin taunted. Tony continued to stare straight ahead as the elevator slowly descended.  “Baby sis isn’t even here and you can keep your mouth shut. Impressive.” Tony’s jaw twitched and Pengin chuckled at the minuscule reaction.  “Yeah, you keep quiet; see if that gets you very far with Hoffman.”

They stepped out of the elevator and Tony walked into a room of cells.  He could see Carol at the far end. Jude was across from her and Fritz was in the cell beside Jude.  Pengin just chuckled to himself as he opened a cell door and shoved Tony inside. He didn’t bother uncuffing Tony’s wrists as he left the cell, locking the door and leaving the hall without saying anything.

Tony counted to four in his head before Jude demanded answers.  It was probably a new record for him. He didn’t tend to hold back on questions very easily.

“What the hell is going on, Rossi?”  he demanded, leaning against the bars to his cell.  “How did you and Pengin get by without being detected?  Why did Hoffman take Thea and Marie?”

“Pengin’s the spy,”  Tony grumbled, sitting on the hard bench in the back of his cell.  Jude raised his eyebrows, looking a little irritated.

“This isn’t a joke, Tony,”  he said. Tony glared at him harsh enough Jude backed down.

“I know it’s not a goddamn joke, Jude,”  he snapped. He fiddled with the chain on his handcuffs and resisted the urge to try and snap it.  He knew from experience he’d just cut his wrists and the chain would stay intact. “Nick Pengin is the goddamn Nazi spy and I didn’t see it coming,”  he growled, glaring at the floor with enough venom to kill an elephant.

“Yeah?”  Fritz taunted, walking to the front of his cell.  Tony glanced up at him and rolled his eyes. “How do we know this isn’t a trick?  How do we know you’re not the real spy and are just playing the victim to get us to confess?”

“Confess what, Gelfand?”  Tony groaned in annoyance.  God, how could he have actually thought Fritz would make a decent teammate?  Pengin had really screwed them all over from the start.

“I don’t know,”  Fritz said, crossing his arms.  “Why don’t you tell us? What does Hoffman want you to trick us into saying?”

“Oh, shut up, Gelfand,”  Jude said. Fritz rolled his eyes and disappeared into the back of his cell.  Jude leaned against the cement wall, staring through the metal bars at Tony who was still seated on the bench in his cell.  “What’s really going on, Tony? Thea and Marie looked like absolute s**t and clearly, something’s wrong since you and Pengin were able to just waltz in here.”

Fritz mumbled something about how Tony was clearly the real spy and Pengin was his accomplice, but he was quickly shut up by Jude.  Tony still fought the urge to throw something at his infuriating blond head, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself and remember that this was probably exactly what Hoffman wanted: them to bite each other’s throats until they were willing to give up the others in exchange for some shitty deal he came up with.

Tony explained everything from finding out Carol had been captured until being escorted to his own cell.  He told them about their plan and how the comms had gone dead moments before everything went to hell. Thea and Marie had been ambushed; the guards had known exactly when and where they were going to be, giving them a false sense of security (which had actually backfired, something Tony was proud of.  Clearly Pengin didn’t know his agents as well as he thought he did if he thought a lack of guards would make them relax). He told them that Pengin had been the one to put a gun to his head and escort him through the fortress without question. He even had an ID card that got them into elevators.

“I guess I should have known too,”  Carol mumbled, head in her hands as she sat on the floor.  Jude raised an eyebrow in her direction and she sat upright.  “He showed up in the vault the night those six agents attacked.  The doors were wide open and he was just standing there. I never gave him any codes.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”  Jude asked, not unkindly.

“I must have been too caught up in what had happened,”  Carol shrugged. Tony didn’t say anything. He didn’t blame Carol; he should have realized that too.  Honestly, he was a little surprised no one had. It was one of the most obvious clues they could have found, yet they’d all overlooked it in the haste to figure out how and why six agents had shown up and got in.

“It’s what he wanted,”  Tony told her. Carol glanced at the wall that separated her from Tony.  He wanted them to push against each other, he explained, it was how he worked.  “You tear teams apart from the inside and you never have to worry about being caught in the middle if you play it right.”

Jude opened his mouth to say something but they were interrupted by the heavy door at the end of the hall opening.  Tony stood up and hurried to the front of his cell to see Thea and Marie walking in. Carol gasped as Thea limped past her, the cut on her forehead still oozing blood and a bruise blooming on her chin.  Marie followed behind her looking relatively unharmed and furious. As the guards walked her into the cell beside Fritz’s, she lashed out. They hadn’t removed her cuffs yet, so she used them to her advantage.  She twisted her hands around the first guard’s neck, tangling the chain around his neck and efficiently choking him.

His panicked gagging and shouts for help drew the attention of the other guards escorting Thea and the two lunged into Marie’s cell to help their fellow officer.  Now that there were only four guards around her, Thea grinned. She made eye contact with Tony before dropping to the ground and crying out in pain. Tony’s hands went around the cell bars in panic, watching as the guards crouched down beside her.  If Tony had blinked, he would have thought Thea had teleported by how fast she grabbed a guard’s gun and shot the four. They all crumpled to the ground and Thea shot at the two in Marie’s cell. They dropped to the ground and the only one that remained was being choked by Marie’s handcuffs.  Thea held the gun up to his head, staring at him blankly as she watched him struggle. For an SS officer, he wasn’t very skilled at evading frontal attacks. She watched the man for a few more seconds before removing the gun from his head and stuffing it in her waistband. Marie released him at the same time and he fell to the ground, panting and reaching up to make sure his neck was free of the chain.  Thea crouched down, getting into the man’s personal space and glaring at him. He scooted away from her only to hit Marie’s legs.

“Tell Hoffman I send my regards,”  she told the man quietly. He nodded and stood upright, stepping out of his way.  He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the cell. The hall was silent as they watched the man disappear.  When Tony turned back to look at Thea, she was locking Marie’s cell as the two shared a knowing look.

“Hey, how about instead of locking us in, you get us out?”  Jude suggested. Thea ignored him as she unlocked Tony’s cell and stepped inside, slamming the door shut and listening to it click.  “That was useless.”

“We wouldn’t be able to get out now if we tried,”  Thea told him, limping over to the bench in Tony’s cell and sitting down.  He followed her, watching as she pulled off her shoe and pulled up the leg of her cargo pants.  “Hoffman’s expecting it. Why else would he give us such few guards?”

“You practically challenged him to do better when you sent that last guy running for the hills,”  Fritz told her. Thea shrugged, lightly fingering her ankle. Tony could see from where he was standing something was wrong with it, but Thea wouldn’t say anything unless it was important to their escape.

“Let him get cocky,”  Thea said, glancing at Fritz and shutting him up with one look.  He narrowed his eyes at her and she raised an eyebrow at him. She didn’t look away from him as she addressed Tony in Italian,  “What’s he on about?”

“He thinks we’re the Nazi spies, not Pengin,”  Tony grumbled, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall adjacent the bench she was sitting on.  Thea’s head snapped up to look at him so fast he was a little concerned she’d give herself whiplash.

“What?”  she asked.  Tony nodded, feeling the anger he’d felt earlier creep back upon him.  “Why would you say Pengin’s the spy? He’s the one who wanted to stop this whole operation.”

“He’s also the one who escorted Prince Charming into his cell,”  Jude told her, motioning across the hall at Tony. Thea glanced at Jude then back at Tony.  “Yeah, we didn’t believe him either, but at this point, who else could it be?”

“Well, you all know my thoughts,”  Fritz announced, crossing his arms as he stared at Tony and Thea.  Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head, refusing to give in to Fritz’s taunts.  He was done trying to explain himself. If Jude had, that was already enough.

“Please enlighten me,”  Thea invited. Fritz did so gladly.

“You worked for the Reich,”  he accused. Thea had not been expecting that to be the first thing he said, but he either didn’t notice her surprise or didn’t care.  “Yeah, that’s not a secret anymore. Lucky for you, your friends seem to believe you two have changed since defecting. Makes it easy to fool us, huh?”

“Hoffman told him some s**t and he won’t take my word for anything,”  Tony grumbled beside her. Fritz didn’t seem to hear him, continuing on about what all Hoffman had told him.  Thea waited until he had finished before saying anything, knowing he probably just wanted to be angry at something and she and Tony were easy scapegoats. 

Once Thea was absolutely sure Fritz was done talking, she reached for Tony’s hand and pulled herself to her feet.  She grimaced as her ankle shifted uncomfortably but limped to the front of the cell so she could see Fritz, Jude, Marie, and even Carol a little better.  Tony stood beside her, staring down at her ankle that she kept off the floor as she leaned against the cell bars to tell Fritz everything Hoffman had failed to mention.