Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters or settings. Spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Hello Angel
A swift hand reached out and took the targeting blade from Steve, locking it into place.
"Charlie locked," Cassandra's smooth voice came over the comm.
Maria sighed in relief, "Okay, guys get out of there." She set the computer to redirect the targets, the three monstrous helicarriers. The turrets all moved and pointed at each other in a self-destructing triangle.
Steve looked to Cass, silently asking permission. He didn't want to ask this of her but what if Hydra had a contingency plan and overrides the blades? He could not risk it. He could not let Hydra win.
She nodded. She'd been surrounded by people who would die for their cause all her life. Surrounded by people who called themselves honorable and just. Those people were the opposite of what they claimed to be. After she left that part of her life behind she wondered how people blindly followed their faith with such conviction. She was ashamed to have been one of them.
Now it was all so clear.
Steve would die for his cause. Steve was honorable. Steve was just. He was everything a true leader was supposed to be, in the most profound sense. And Cassandra would follow him, she had faith.
"Fire now," Steve's voice shook.
Maria hesitated, "But Steve-"
"Do it! Do it now!" He ordered. Cass helped him up and tried to stop the bleeding.
The helicarrier shook with force as it was hit from all sides. At the rate it was taking damage, they'd hit the river in minutes.
The carrier began to collapse and pieces of it were falling from the sky. A portion of the carrier they were in was blown away. The supporting beams began to fall.
As Cass and Steve looked at the destruction surrounding them they heard Bucky scream, he was pinned beneath a beam on the lowest level. It would soon give way.
Below them the first carrier hit the Potomac and began to sink.
Steve jumped down and winced as his injuries began to weigh him down. Cass soon followed and they both grabbed the beam and began to grunt with effort as they attempted to lift it. The Winter Solider also labored to slip away from beneath the beam.
The second carrier hit the side of the Triskelion and began to tear through the building.
Mostly due to Steve's enhanced strength, even in his weakened state, the beam was lifted long enough for the Soldier to slide from under it.
As soon as he was up another tremor ran through the carrier and a lurch caused Cassandra to go flying right out of hole ripped through the carrier.
"Cass!" Steve screamed as he saw her plummet. A wave of relief washed over him as soon as he saw a parachute. She was going to be alright.
Another ground shaking movement drove his attention back to the Winter Solider.
"You know me," Steve left no room for argument.
Bucky screamed, "No I don't!" He hit Steve with a brutal swing by his metal arm that sent Steve flying.
They were both breathing heavily as Steve got up and continued, "Bucky... You've known me your whole life."
A harsh back-handed hit got Steve across the face with enough force to knock him back down.
"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes," Steve was unrelenting.
The Soldiers face contorted in confusion, "SHUT UP!" Another hit that sent Steve to the floor.
He got up and looked at Bucky straight in the eyes. Embers began to fall around them like rain.
"I'm not gonna fight you..." Steve stated as he dropped his shield. It fell through the broken carrier and into the Potomac. "You're my friend."
The Winter Solider yelled and tackled Steve and pinned him down. "You're my mission," he spat at him. He began to brutally beat him to a pulp. Screaming in between punches, "YOU'RE. MY. MISSION."
"Then finish it," Steve struggled to speak, "Cause I'm with you to the end of the line."
Bucky stopped. His head was being torn apart as he struggled to find pieces of himself. Things that were long since lost. Staring down at the man who had such resolve in his eyes, he thought he might be able to find them again. Was there a road to redemption? Or was there only the road that was chosen for him?
He didn't have time to find the answers he was trying so hard to find.
The center pillar came crashing down and it caused Steve to fall out of the carrier and down below. Bucky was barely hanging on, dangling from the carrier.
Bucky looked down and knew that this was it. He had to make a choice. To be a man or to be a machine.
Steve plunged into the water. All of the gear and armor that was supposed to help him protect himself was causing him to sink lower and lower. The murky water was going to be his grave. His world had gone dark.
A hand reached through the water and lifted him from the darkness.
Bucky dragged him out of the water and dropped him on the edge of the river. Looking down at the man who had called him brother he felt something new, or rather something he had forgotten, repentant.
Flashes of another memory came to him. A similar situation. He was dragging someone else out of murkier waters. They were in a cavern. The woman. He was dragging the woman. He had walked away from her then. Just as he was walking away from Steve now.
Cass ran towards the end of the river bank. She pushed her self to go faster.
She saw the figure drag Steve and go. Reaching him she saw that his face looked like pulverized meat. A gash running along side his lip, his eye was swollen shut, the blood on his stomach, and countless other wounds marred his body. Prioritizing the wounds, Cass got to work on the worst ones.
"The left riverbank," She spoke to whoever was still on the comm line. "Need immediate medical attention." Steve was fading.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" Maria asked Cass for the hundredth time that day. They were walking through the streets of New York on their way to Stark tower.
She was going to the human resources department of Stark industries. Now that Shield was out of commission she needed a new job, as trivial as it seemed after the events that she had witnessed. Maria was sure she could get Tony to overlook Cass' lack of documentation. Hell, he'd probably forge documents for her.
"What would I do?" Cass asked skeptically. She wasn't made for working at such a place as that. Literally.
She was made to protect one man and to destroy anyone who stood in his way. She was made to take his place as the head of a ruthless organization, not unlike Hydra. That man was dead. That organization was nothing but myth now. She was an heir to a throne without a kingdom.
How could she just work at an office building where she could barely read the bathroom signs? It was impossible for her to lead a normal life.
Maria knew that Cass' strengths weren't of any use to Tony unless he needed an assassin or a weapons expert. She had to try though. Without a purpose Cass would surely stray back to her father, she'd go back to being a nameless killer while he profited from her guilt, he'd wring out the blood on her hands and turn it into money.
"You don't need to worry..." Cass read the unease in Maria's eyes. She couldn't go back. If she learned anything in the time that she's been with Nick it's that she isn't irredeemable. She could help instead of hurt people, Natasha did it, why couldn't she?
Speaking of Natasha, Cass was supposed to meet her at the cemetery after her hearing. Cass thought to show up but Natasha advised against it. Cass wasn't in any files that were released. She was a silent hero. After they heard the name 'Cain' they would have her head. They wouldn't care if she helped save them all.
They arrived at the entrance and Maria hugged Cass goodbye.
"I'll see you, right?" Maria kept an air of coolness around her but she knew that this could be the last time she'll see Cass, at least for a while.
Cass beamed, "Of course... You're my family."
Cass was the first to be at the cemetery. She looked down at the grave. She couldn't make out the words etched into the stone. There was a garland of flowers set on the ground. Her ears perked as someone was approaching behind her.
"It says 'The path of the righteous man... -Ezequiel 25:17'" Steve's voice rang.
It was fitting. Fury's final resting place suited him.
Steve came into her peripheral vision and then Sam. They stood next to her careful not to disturb any of the graves since not all of them were part of an elaborate ruse. Nick's footsteps could be heard as he made his way to them.
"So, you've experienced this sort of thing before?" He directed his question to Steve.
"You get used to it," Steve replied.
Nick didn't waste any time, "We've been data mining Hydras files, looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship," He glanced over at them and continued, "I'm headed to Europe tonight, wanted to ask if you'd come."
"There's something I gotta do first," Steve wanted to help but he couldn't go on knowing that his friend was out there the way that he was.
Nick understood and turned to Sam, "How about you Wilson? Could use a man with your abilities."
"I'm more of a solider than a spy," was Sam's answer.
Nick knew Cass' answer already but he wanted to hear it from her, "Cass?"
A broad smile illuminated her face as she said clearly, "No, Nick."
The tiny beginnings of a smile played at the edge of Fury's mouth. She was making her own choices now and it pleased him. They'd see each other again even if their choices distanced them from each other.
"Alright then." Nick shook hands with the three of them and said, "If anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me right here." He indicated his grave.
"You should be honored, that's about as close as he gets to saying thank you," Natasha joined them.
Steve walked up to her, "Not going with him?" He was a bit surprised that she wasn't.
She humorously replied, "No." Just as Cass did earlier.
"Not staying here?" Steve guessed. Sam and Cass hung back by a large tree and observed.
"I blew all my covers, I gotta go figure out a new one," She explained.
"That might take a while," he said.
She raised her eyebrows and clarified, "I'm counting on it," She handed him a file that she had held onto, "That thing you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev... Will you do me a favor? Call that nurse?" She asked him coyly.
Sam nudged Cass with his elbow and raised his eyebrows, smiling. Cass had to stop herself from snickering.
"She's not a nurse," Steve corrected.
"And you're not a Shield agent," Natasha shot back.
He gave in, "What was her name again?"
They all smiled. "Sharon. She's nice," Nat told him. She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek and began to leave. "Be careful Steve. You might not want to pull on that thread," she warned him.
Sam and Cass came to Steve and peered over his broad shoulders to look at the file he just opened. In it was a picture of the Winter Solider in cryofreeze and a smaller picture of Bucky before, when he was still himself. Cass couldn't read the complicated scribbles that littered the files papers.
"You're going after him?" Sam assumed.
"Neither of you have to come with me," Steve assured them.
Sam looked to Cass who glanced up from the photo of Bucky and gave him a trusting look, "We know," he said, "When do we start?"