Chapter 51

It all happened so quickly.

Figures from either side, superhuman and non-superhuman, team blue to team red, colliding like a slow-motion accident. 

For a moment, I don't hear a thing. 

Not the sounds of battle, not the sounds of repulsors or weapons, just the beating of my heart.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump. 

Ba...thump...

Then the world starts up again, the shouts coming to life making me realize this isn't a nightmare. It's reality, and I'm smack dab in the middle of it. 

"You asked for it,"

My hands go up, the blueish black swirls darting like live wires. I manage to halt Rhodey and Natasha, Sam, and the man with a metal mask.

"Oh hell no!"

"Riles!"

"Lorelie, I swear to god--"

"Can someone tell me what these things are?"

Sounds of protest echo among the four, sounding awfully like petulant children.

"Just so you know--" I don't let go, even as the others advance on each other, fists meeting fists, powers meeting powers. "I didn't want to do this!" 

The lights lash out, slingshotting them as far away from the fight and as safely as I could. Anything to buy time. Which, unfortunately, I had none of. 

There was a thunderous boom.

I turn my head, watching Steve hold out his shield, coming to meet Tony's metal fist. 

"Too slow, old man."

"I'm just getting started." 

Those pricks.

That wasn't an attack to subdue that was an attack to kill.

"Hey!" I dodge a flying beam, my senses telling me it must have come from Vision. "If you two, don't let up a bit, you'll fucking wish you did when I get my hands on you!"

The warning is angry. A promise to fuck them up when all this is over. 

I feel rather than see how they hesitate for only a millisecond before they continued to attack.  

Literal children. 

Wanda is fighting Vision. I spot Barton preoccupied with Natasha.

I don't see--goddamnit. A curse slips out of my lips, as I spot my Protector, fighting for his life against T'Challa.

Oh hell.

I move, knowing the others are distracted. This was my shot at getting him out.

"Hey!"

My left foot is suddenly webbed to the ground, followed by my left hand. 

Spiderman lands before me, one palm on the ground. "You're the Dark Witch!" He stands to his full height, those eyes on his mask dilating to his expression. 

I raise an eyebrow. "Kid--"

"Look, I just wanna say you're really cool and I'm really such--such a big fan you have no idea."

A swirl of my powers ignited across my arms, running down my leg and melting the web into flakes.

"Oh..." He stops for a moment and registers what I did with a gasp. "O-Okay, I'm sorry. But Mr Stark ask me to get you out of here so you wouldn't get hurt."

"Cute," I hummed, snapping my fingers and trapping him in vines of blue and black. He yelps, arms tied back. "--but this is between my brother and me."

I made sure they weren't tight so they weren't hurting him.

"What are these anyway?" He asks, his curiosity evident even as he struggled to get out.

"Neuro-electrical energy," I smile. "Sorry kid." 

"Wait!" 

Swinging him toward T'Challa, I stop the Black Panther from clawing Bucky's throat out, hearing the aggravation in the way the soon-to-be-king curses something out loud in Wakandan. 

Whoops. 

I run to my Protector, noticing how terribly he is coughing as he stands.

"Soldat," Those eyes of his went wide at my call. "I'm here."

"No,"

Seriously?

"You shouldn't be here," He's obviously winded, but he swallow it down, voice lowering to a hiss. "It's not safe,"

"So people keep telling me," I sigh in response.

He's happy to see me, this is know, but the guilt of nearly killing me beforehand still runs deep. That, and the furious need to protect when I so clearly reject it.

"No time to explain, we gotta go, I'm taking you away from here."

Bucky opens his mouth to respond but he doesn't get a chance.

"I don't think so," Rhodey. He's hovering meters above ground, one repulsor out. "Come on Lorelie, you know I have to stop you."

With one hand I reach out, shielding Bucky behind me, ignoring how he glares at me from the corner of my eye, infuriated I would even dare to shield him.

"Rhodey, I know you're pissed about the whole-throwing-you-that-way earlier, but can't we just let bygones be bygones?"

"You're not taking him anywhere," He's warning me. "Don't make this any worse than it already is." 

"To be fair," Behind my back, I ignite a swirl of blue, shaping it into a ball. "It can only get worse, so why not make the best of it."

I threw it at him, letting the ball expand and explode outwards, slamming Rhodey back against a flying Sam mid-flight. 

The shockwave rebounded across the tarmac. My body trembles, feeling the strain echo in the beat of my pulse and the way the veins scream. I hold my right hand, directly above my wrist, teeth gritted in mind-numbing pain. 

"What is it?" Bucky is watching my hand, at the one I'm covering. "What's wrong?"

"No," Shaking my head, I push the unbearable pain down, down, down, because now is not the time. "We don't have a lot of time, so I need you to listen to me." 

The others will come gunning back the moment they realize what's happening. "There's a gap in between those carriers and a hole in the fence you can cut through."

"I got a vehicle ready just beyond the trees, you get in and you drive as far away as possible. You don't wait, you don't stall, you get out. Do you understand?"

He's silent, his figure a shadow in my peripheral vision, as still as it could possibly be. 

"I'll distract the others while you get away," The lump in the back of my throat grows. "It won't be long, but it'll be enough. Tell me you understand--"

"Temnaya Ved'ma."

Dark Witch.

The words stop me, stop the choke in my throat, at the crack in my already broken armor. 

I realize I'm not looking at him. I'm looking at my wrist. I'm looking at anywhere but him.

He steps forward but I stop him, my eyes flashing their glow. 

"Please," There's nothing more I can say. "Prosti begi."

Just run. 

He shakes his head, already knowing it even without hearing me say it. "You're going to stop them."

Tony and Steve.

This wasn't just about getting Bucky somewhere safe, this was also about making sure I still had a family left after this.

"Ved'ma," Bucky steps forward, and I know from the way he holds himself that he isn't planning on letting me go through with it. 

Because he knows it'll kill me.

"I have to--"

"You don't have to do anything," He snarls. 

We stare at each other, the Dark Witch and the Winter Soldier, saying nothing but everything and I get it, I understand, I know what he means, that I should just stop and run, run away with him, run as far away as possible where no one can find us, where no one can hunt us.

And we'll figure it out.

Like we always do.

But then I feel it. I feel the way Tony and Steve fight, I feel the way Natasha and Barton argue, I feel the way Wanda and Vision act, Rhodey and Sam, SpiderMan, and the other fellow.

Anger, rage, outrage-- betrayal. 

So much pain, so much dread, so much coldness.

And I know I can't let them go. 

Not when they still need me. 

Not when I'm the only one that can save them from themselves.

"They're all I have," I step forward but he stands in my way, dark eyes sharp. "Let me go, Soldat."

"No." It's vehement. It's harsh. It's a silent plea. 

Run away with me. 

It echoes. 

And I try my very damnest not to break, not to give in to the mindless tears or the sobs because Tony and Steve are right there, the two people I love to the death, the two people I can't bear to leave because I know they will kill each other. 

"Forgive me," I lunge forward before he can succeed in breaking me. My hand slams into his shoulder, jolting him back, and kicking his knee from under him. 

He grunts, metal hand grabbing onto my wrist, stopping me from flipping him over. 

I wrapped my legs around his torso and swung myself forward, smacking a blue shield toward his face, which throws him off.

He hesitates, dark eyes flashing with desperation as the barrier only pushes him further. 

I pin him with a final glare. "Run," 

A loud explosion detonated the ground between us. The yellow beam was like lightning. I'm thrown back, the force like a slap to the face. Smoke rose up in the air, blocking my view of whatever the hell was happening. 

From above, I can hear Falcon and War Machine fighting each other mid-air.

Natasha and Clint are still battling nearby though Wanda was assisting now. 

Tony and Steve's are somewhere further, their blows like brutal booms, almost deadly.

"Lorelie," Vision.

He'd been the one to separate Bucky and me.

"Oddball," The expression he gives me, a mixture of sadness and pain as he hovers a meter off ground is telling. "Don't you know it's rude to interrupt a conversation?" 

"I apologize, I simply want to do what's right."

"And what does your definition of right consist of?" I stand, my hands flaring out with the blue and black lights. They fizzle like fire, searing the very depths of my bones. 

He doesn't answer me.

He's too busy looking at the veins on my neck. "You're not doing this for you," 

Whether it was because of his connection to the mind stone, or just some plain old observing, Oddball knows what's happening inside me.

The man-machine was right. 

For all my life, I've never done anything for myself.

"I'm out of time, Vision," I tell him honestly, my tone cracking as his gaze widens at my use of his real name. "I need to stop them before this gets worse."

Before I die.

The lights flare, cracking at the ground and lifting a cement block. He dodges and incinerates it with his yellow stone as I throw it at him. 

We don't throw punches but we do fight with our powers, hitting and blocking each megaton wave after the other.

"You are not going to win this," He tells me as I panted out of breath.

He doesn't mean the fight. He means the war inside me.

The thing that was killing me.

"No," I agree, smiling weakly. "I'm not." I've accepted the fact that I won't survive and the very idea of it throws Vision off, as his powers stutter. 

"Remember this Oddball, not everything is about logic or statistic." He tilts his head at me. "Sometimes you gotta do what your heart wants."

A flurry of red slams onto him, encasing the man in a shield of red as he is pulled out of the way.

Wanda's presence appears behind me, her red eyes glowing brightly as she approached with gathering concern. 

"Lorelie," She runs a hand across my shoulders, breath trembling. "I felt your pain--I felt you--"

"Hey it's alright, it's okay," I pull her in, drawing her into a hug, knowing that she was referring to the metal clasp Tony built. Her emotions are all over the place, it's distressing. "I know you felt it, I'm sorry."

I should've checked up on her. It must have scared her shitless.

"Never again," She accepts the hug, arms wrapping around me, head on my chest, soft sniffles echoing the air between us. "Not like that, do you understand, Lorelie?" Her accent is obvious in the way she pleads. 

I shake my head, smiling softly. "I can't always be here for you, you know that right?"

"Answer me, Lorelie." Her eyes flash red.

Her love, her affection, her utter trust. I felt it all. 

I cared for her like she was my own and it isn't fair that I was leaving her behind as her brother did.

So with bated breaths, I simply nod. "I promise." A lie. 

She shakes her head and I felt her fear and anxiety disperse. I won't stop her from her decision in siding with Steve. I don't tell her she's wrong in choosing a side. 

Because at the end of the day, why did it matter?

This wasn't about her, or me.

This was about all of us and where we stand as one.

"I'm sorry for what's coming next."

It was all I can say. By this time tomorrow, or maybe a few hours from now.

I'll be gone and she would feel it.

She opens her mouth to reply but Vision is back, the yellow beam striking out, making Wanda react, her red lights glittering in the air, taking the fight in with elegant grace.

I left Wanda's side forcing myself not to look back and knowing I would only cause more pain if I did. The distraction was no longer on me, I had to see if my Protector had done as I asked and if both Steve and Tony were up to negotiate. 

Negotiate meaning; beat them both up. 

Turning around the corner, I skid to a stop, gaze wide. "What the--"

Spiderman is holding up a metal container, the weight groaning above him as he groans. 

Steve stands before him, triumphant.

Oh hell no.

"Really, Ice Pick?" The look I give Steve is haughty and filled with ice. Tension is in the air, frigid and unfamiliar. "We've resorted to bullying the younger ones now?" 

He flinched at the mention of his name and turns to look at me from over his shoulder. "Lorelie..." 

"Steve," I spat bitterly. 

Waving a hand, I latch onto the container, the lights wrapping around it like clamps. Spiderman blinks in response his arms shifting to better grab hold of the unbearably heavy weight. 

"Uh... I got this Ms Stark, just let me--uuh--" 

He doesn't finish his sentence.

I've lifted the container high and above his head now, leaving his arms free. All the while my eyes are on Steve, at the blue orbs I use to admire, now grown to distrust. 

"Looks like you didn't listen to me." The words are to my lover, even as he shifts his stance, shield at the ready, gaze eyeing the levitating container.

It's heavy, the weight pressing on my already aching limbs, but I don't let go, because I need him to know that we don't hurt kids. 

Even if it is meant to subdue. 

"Get out of here kid," This time, I do look at Spiderman, my command not one to ignore. 

He flinches, heads down. "T-Thanks Ms Stark, I owe you one." He webs away, choosing to pick his fights rather than go head-on.

Now alone, I stare at Steve as we stare at each other from across the field. 

He speaks first. "Are you going to stop me?" Sadness envelops his emotions.

"I can try," I tell him honestly. "And after that, I'll stop Tony too."

"You heard what Bucky said," He hisses, his frustration evident. "That Doctor is going to wake up all those Winter Soldiers!" 

"Stop, lying!" 

Slowly, I crunch the container, my hand squeezing into a fist, tighter and tighter, until the metal is groaning, squeaking, tweaking into nothing but a ball of my rage and my fury and my pain.

"This isn't bigger than any of us, it's just bigger for you. You want to have a reason to keep fighting, you want to have a reason behind all this chaos because it's already happened, it's already exploded in our faces!" 

The ball is thrown at him, aiming to miss even as Steve rolls out of the way, shield out, leg kicking, hand punching. 

I meet his fist, dodging slightly and knocking my elbow onto his cheek, quickly backpedaling him with a kick. 

"You can't stop this anymore than you say you can, do you really think stopping the doctor is going to achieve the results you want? You and Tony have already broken the Avengers, do you really think it'll go back to how it used to be?" 

He grabs his shield and slams into me with it, making me gasp at the pain of his attack.

"You not choosing a side is just going to hurt you more," He tells me as the two of us locked close together.

"It's better than fighting against either of you."

Kicking his shin, I supercharged my fist and slam onto his chest, making him fly backward and onto another container, creating a dent.

"Stop fighting Ice Pick!" I stand over him, hands held out, lights flaring to life. "If you stop, the others will stop, we can fix this, we can save everyone!"

"Tony will get us all locked up by the end of the day!" He snarls, re-standing to his feet, the shield laying uselessly on the ground beside him. 

"You--"

There was a loud whirr.

War Machine shoots a beam in my direction, and the attack flies across the air, soaring, hitting me squarely on my side, and making me flip, falling head first across the tarmac.

"Fuck!" I shout out loud, holding onto my brunt side as pain erupted like fire on my skin. "Why is it always there?!" 

Rhodey darts away, simply wanting to incapacitate me so I wouldn't continue. The wound isn't terrible, but it burns and numbs. 

When I finally regained my bearings, I looked in Steve's direction only to realize he'd gone.

Shit, where the hell did he go? 

"Rhodey did you just hit my sister?" Tony demanded somewhere above me as they fly together.

"It was a little hit!" Rhodey defended.

Tony whips out a small rocket and burrows it onto Rhodey's metal face. It explodes causing a tiny smokescreen and Rhodey hisses.

"Okay, I deserved that."

Seething, I throw out my echolocation, scanning for the others and most importantly, Steve. The battlefield is in shambles, everyone is everywhere at once. I rested my figure on the back of an airplane wheel, hoping to gather a bit of my breath before anything else.

I lean forward, one hand on my knee, the other widening the collar of my torn suit as though it would get more oxygen into my body. 

My breathing was already as unsteady as it is, it didn't help that my head was pounding like a drum from the loss of energy.

I felt the familiar burning in my veins slowly rising and cursed out loud.

Not now.

A familiar energy wave approaches me from the right, I stiffen upon seeing Natasha.

She'd appear like a ghost.

"Nat..." 

"You don't look good." Her gaze goes up, then down. 

"I've seen better days," I tell her honestly, panting hard. 

She walks forward and I brace for her attack, but it doesn't come. In one swift move, she's reached between us, fingers digging into the crook of my suit collar and pulling it down,  revealing my shoulder and neck.

Silence ensued.

I squeezed my eyes shut, sighing. 

Her alarm is real, her concern? Now that's choking. 

Natasha lets go of my collar, fingers trembling, tracing at the dark veins, at the pale skin, at the way I flinch when she presses too tightly and I groan. 

"What... is this Riles?" She demands quietly, her voice a quiet hush.

The truth. The reality. The fact. 

"This is the least of your worries," I turn her away, slapping her fingers so she can keep them to herself. "Those two are gonna kill each other if I don't do anything, don't try to stop me." 

"What are you hiding from me?" 

Her tone echoes, even as I leave, turning my back on her, to keep walking because there are other things I need to do, they are other people I need to save--

"What is this Riley!?" 

It's her shout that stops me, high-pitched and filled with fear. 

"A side effect," The answer is out of my words in a hiss. 

Natasha was no idiot. Her brain was working overtime, clicking pieces together, forming its own reasonable conclusion. 

"Of what?"

I turn then, eyeing her with grim resignation. "The black."

She opens her mouth to respond but I shake my head, stopping her from going any further.

"It doesn't matter Nat. I'm okay. I need to stop Steve and Tony."

She scoffs, in utter disbelief. "Stop them while you're like this? God Riles, how long have you been hiding this?"

I wasn't sure.

"Do you--"

Something loud startles the two of us and the man on Steve's team, I think it was Ant-Man cause I overheard Sam yelling at him, is now currently, a giant human and he was holding onto War Machine's leg like a kid with a toy. 

"Okay, tiny dude is big now. He's big now!" Rhodey comments, panicked.

"Oh god."

Natasha is the first to run, already knowing it was a distraction so Tony's team could be stalled. 

I followed after her and skidded to a stop when Tony appears in the air before us, iron gauntlets out.

"Give me back my Rhodey,"

Sam barrels onto Tony, feet first, causing my brother to lose control and fly farther away.

Ant-Man throws Rhodey aside and War Machine doesn't seem to be able to control himself.

"I got him!" Spiderman webs onto War Machine and stops him before he got too far, swinging him back.

I watch as Ant-Man kicks a bus at T'Challa but Vision steps in, blocking the brunt of the hit.

The soon-to-be King is locked onto the two darting figures.

Steve.

Bucky.

No.

What was he doing here? Didn't he run?

T'Challa's eyes are trained on my Protector and I reacted.

"Shit,"

Running after him, I jump up on my pillared beams and moved ahead, finding a foothold against the Airport's vehicle forklift. 

"I'm sorry is this kid's fight we're all having, going to be over soon?" I demanded, shouting loud and clear to everybody.

There are resounding; "No's." And I sigh.

Goddammit.

Just in time.

Jumping down, I landed in front of T'Challa, halting his majesty from going any further. He skids, stance on the rigid as I created an energy blade. 

It glowed blue before morphing into steady black, a mixture of those two.

"He didn't kill your father, T'Challa," I speak, pushing the blade toward him so he is wary.

"You'd say anything now to stop me," He swipes his claws and I duck, jarring my blade so it hits his side.

The Vibranium suit he wore gets scratched slightly with the brunt of my powers. He looks down at it in surprise.

"I was with him in Romania, he didn't go anywhere!" I shout, trying to get the Soon-To-Be-King to stop. "You know I'm right, you know, T'Challa." 

He pauses, emotions rattled, conflicted, hesitant, but then he mysteriously raises himself, claws retracting. "Tell me, girl who fights for herself." 

"Your own brother and the man you love are against you, where do you stand?"

Clenching my fingers, I felt the black slither out of me and stared at my fingers in disgust.

"I stand by what's left of me." I bitterly spoke as I raise my eyes to meet his dark ones. "Your highness,"

He attacks first, giving me brutal kicks and punches all of which I expertly dodge, using my years of training.

"I'm not gonna let you kill him," I growled, as the two of us locked on, his claws caved down on my energy blade.

"You don't have the right to decide who dies." He breaks out of the hold and swipes both claws toward my face.

His left claw barely missed my neck but his right, clawed at my chest, raking blood as my suit tore against his claws.

I stumble back, grasping my bloody cuts and looking down at them.

Scoffing, I swipe the blood off my fingers and gave him a hard stare.

"Do you?"

Clint lands beside me having climbed down the second terminal section near the carts.

"Hey Lorelie," He greets me, shooting at T'Challa with rapid-fire arrows.

"Hey Clint," I replied, watching him do his thing.

"You on whose side, girl?" He huffs, as T'Challa continuously evades his arrows.

"No ones," I reply honestly.

He pauses for a moment before giving me a raised eyebrow.

"Why didn't I think of that when I retired?"

I grinned and set off into a light jog toward the still giant-sized Ant-Man, leaving Clint on his own.

That's my well-needed distraction.

"Okay, anybody on our side hiding any shocking and fantastic abilities they'd like to disclose, I'm open to suggestion," Tony tells as he expertly evades Ant-Man's attack on the airplane's wing.

I watch as Sam free falls to the ground and Redwing pops up from his jet pack, hitting Tony in the face.

Well, he asked.

Natasha was nowhere to be seen and Rhodey is too focused on trying to get Ant-Man down.

I need to get to my Protector.

Slipping in between the broken debris around us, I prepare to pillar myself up on the building to get a wide view angle but stop when a familiar voice calls out to me, halting me in my steps.

"Blues," 

Brother.

I turn, expecting him to be there and he is, hovering just above me, thrusters allowing him to fly. 

"Tony." I nod at him in reply,

His suit is banged up and considering the two of us, I was still slightly better although the burnt wound and scratches on my chest tell me otherwise.

"What's the plan here? You're gonna go super witchy and take us all down?"

"If I tell you to stop, right now, would you do it?" 

He pauses, caught off guard by my question. 

When he doesn't respond, I know what his answer is. 

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I shrugged, whipping out an energy blade as he grows alarmed by my cause.

"You know I can't!" He shouts, frustrated. "Blues, there's only one way we can all come home,"

"Home?" Laughing now, I can't help the smile that slips through my lips. "There won't be a home to go back to by the end of this,"

"Why are you doing this...?" He mournfully asks and his confusion is valid, his aggravation is understandable. "It doesn't have to be like this." 

"You're asking me that when you're the one that forced me." I jumped, choosing to attack first, quickly slicing my blade forward.

He evades, kicking me off as I try to latch onto his suit.

I land gracefully on a pillared beam and rolled several floors down before stopping and facing my brother again.

"I wanted the two of you to stop but you won't listen," I tell him. "This isn't the real fight Tony."

"Then where is it?" He growls, sounding desperate.

I look at him carefully and grimly smiled. "On its way."

"Tony!" Rhodey calls out for help as Spiderman and him try to take down Ant-Man.

Tony shoots me one last lingering look of protest, making it clear what he intends for me to do, which is stay right where I am, don't fight, don't make it worse, don't do anything.

He flies off, jetting it in record time. 

I took my chance and ran toward the two blurry figures in the distance.

Steve and Bucky.

Rapidly building pillars, I ran faster and quicker than I ever could and quickly jumped over, landing on the roof of the tower.

Vision hovers nearby and he jets a laser that splits the tower in half.

I quickly ease myself downwards in front of the Quinjet as both Bucky and Steve stopped upon the crashing building.

Wanda whips out red curls of lights, bracketing the debris and blocking it off.

I watch her do it in shock, completely caught off guard.

This gave more time for Bucky and Steve to run in just before Rhodey showed up and sonic cannoned Wanda.

She cries out, her powers coming undone and I whip out my fingers, the black mist surrounding the leftover debris.

No way did I want another repeat of Lagos.

Bucky and Steve make it through, panting, but they come to a stop in front of the familiar Redhead that had arrived here quicker than any of us.

"You're not going to stop," She sighs, sounding quiet.

No, he wasn't.

"You know I can't." Steve nods in reply.

"What will that achieve, Steve?" I ask him as I came out from behind them, quietly weaving the lights away. 

Steve breaks eye contact at my gaze, unable to keep a straight face. My Protector is beside him, fidgety and uncomfortable. He's not supposed to be here.

My expression is livid, borderline frustrated. 

"Ya skazal tebe bezhat'."

I told you to run.

He flinches at my words, dark eyes flaring with regret. "I can't."

"Yes, you can," I step forward, ignoring Steve as he shifts, at Natasha as she watches with wary concern. I'm looking at my Protector, whose gaze speaks everything and anything all at once. "You don't have to do what they want, you don't have to stop the doctor, you don't have to do anything."

"Neither do you," Bucky grits his teeth at that, anger sharp and acidic as he glares up at me. "Do not lie, Ved'ma." 

Now it's my turn to flinch.

Because I'm aware of how hypocritical I was.

"Stopping the Doctor is the only thing that matters right now." Steve interrupts, blue eyes flashing between Bucky and myself as we remain stock-still, unwilling to cut eye contact. "The people that want to put us in jail, they'll see our reasons--"

"Haven't you been listening?" My disbelief curls in the air as Steve continues to talk as though he hadn't at all realized what this fight means. "The world has always wanted to put leashes on us. This is about what you and Tony have done, divided us when not even the Government has!"

"You can't go home,"

It's solemn, real, mournful.

I look at Steve, suddenly feeling awfully cold. "What...?"

He sighs. "If we stop the doctor, we can all go home."

And it clicks. Why Bucky stayed when he should've run, why Steve's been so adamant about getting the doctor.

Because deep down inside he knows this has blown out of proportion. The only way out is if we show the Government the true enemy. In his mind, he thinks this is the only way for us to come home and that everything will go back to how it used to be.

Nothing will go back to how it used to be. 

I turn to my Protector, desperate for his reasoning, for what on earth possessed him to do the opposite of what I ask of him. 

Bucky swallows hard, and when he lifts his gaze to meet mine, I know what's coming. "It's the only way."

The only way to save you.

Just like in DC when he shot me in the leg to make himself the figutive.

The only way to make sure this all comes to an end is if he ends it. Because that's who he is, my protector, the man that takes all my burdens and all my issues so he can solve them himself. 

"I don't need you to save me!" The roar is out the desperation, the agony. There's nothing to save. "For once in your life Soldat, be selfish, be cruel, just run, leave me behind, and get the hell out of here!" 

It must have been how I trembled, how I screamed, how I'm practically shaking because he's walking forward, consciously reaching for me, to comfort, to save, to protect, but Steve is there, stopping him with a shake of his head.

I eye him, and I'm on the brink.

I'm on the precipice. 

"We can still fix this Steve, just let him go." I gestured at my Protector, telling Steve that my option was still available.

Just let him go.

Please just let him go.

He only stayed because you convinced him. You told him it's the only way to save me. 

Steve shakes his head. "I can't let that happen Lorelie."

"Steve, I'll find whoever framed Bucky myself, this all blown out of proportion because none of you waited!"

I voiced out, unable to stop the accusation in my voice.

This all could've gone differently if we simply didn't let our egos get the better of us.

Whoever this guy was, he could wait. If he wants to unleash whoever it is out there, we'll stop them together.

Wasn't staying as we are now, better than not staying at all?

Steve can't trust me and I don't know why.

"I meant what I said." I manage to ground out, standing still.

He raises those blue eyes, the ones I fell for, I trusted, to meet and I flinch at the coldness.

I gestured weakly. "When I told you I can't lose you."

Didn't he love me? Didn't some part of him, knows, he can trust me?

All those promises. All those moments we shared. The looks he gave me. The smiles I would kiss.

He doesn't even respond. He simply looks away. And that's when I realized.

That heartbreaking realization emboldens me.

That crushes me from the inside out.

He doesn't love me the way I love him.

At least not anymore.

Whatever it was I felt.

During the Battle of New York.

During DC.

During Sokovia.

During Lagos.

Something shattered. Something exploded. Something detonated in the center of my chest. I gasp, my hand flying to my heart.

Ba thump. Ba thump. Ba thump.

Someone is stabbing me with a knife. That must be it. How else can I explain the pain? The gut-wrenching agony as it slams into me, over and over again.

I curl in on myself, wheezing, feeling the lights as they flash and flare, whizzing in sparks that burned. 

The burning had returned, igniting unwavering coils of energy that enveloped me whole. It bursts like fire to gasoline.

I can't stop it. I can't control it. 

It's all they're fault. 

"W-What...?" I mumbled, looking at my hands and my body.

What was happening to me?

It was nothing I'd ever felt before, it was almost suffocating, it was almost painful, it was almost unbearable, and it was lighting my entire body on fire with each flickering second.

Make them pay. 

"Ved'ma?" Bucky approach me as I fell to my knees, the burning choking feeling squeezing me dry.

"Riles?" Natasha looks at me in worry but I can't see her face as the ground meets me.

"Don't!" My voice is not my own, my shout is echoed with fear. Don't come any closer. Don't try to help me. 

Looking up, I stare up at Steve finding him frowning, torn between his goal and the person he hurt. I rip off my sleeve and look at the veins.

The glow.

It wasn't even steadily growing now.

It was just back.

Full force.

I look at it in fear as everything starts to crawl around me.

No. No. Why were they back?

I just put the serum in me, it should've slowed them down, why were they back?!

I stared at all of them in fear and shock and suddenly losing control is very much real. I feel it in the way the back of my neck twitches, at the sweat that dribbles off my forehead, at the way I shake.

Hurt them. 

No.

I stagger to a stand and run in the opposite direction, taking off outside to get away from them as fast as possible.

I heard Bucky's calls of worry and Natasha's protest as I disappear away from the scene, needing to find shelter elsewhere.

The world is spinning, the voices are throbbing in my head, and my mouth is stuffed full of cotton.

I slam into a chain link fence, my fingers creasing at the wire, my teeth gritted like I'm about to break my own jaw. The energy that flares out of me is raw and unconstrained, powerful and failing all the same time. 

The sharp stabbing pain is what makes me choke, each inhale like the feeling of a rib cage breaking.

"Ah!" I drop to the ground and curled my hands on myself trying to resist the shaking.

Breath. Slowly. Breath. Slowly.

Flashes.

Blue.

Yellow.

Red.

Purple.

Green.

Orange.

The black hole I saw in the office reappears and I'm sucked in, my whole body pummeling into nothingness.

~~@ @ @~~

A/N

I'm a hundred percent sure, many of you want to kill Steve at this point. 

So... this book only has a few more chapters left...

And to be honest, I've kinda been slowing down the updates cause I didn't really want to write all this too quickly.

Its quite a lot to absorb and well, painful for me to write.

I've grown really close to my character and whatever she does, affects me, is that weird?

Anyway, all the plot holes and plot twists will be revealed soon.

(Idk if you'd like that)

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