Rewritten 2018

Make You Feel My Love ~Book II~

Disclaimer: I do not own The Winter Soldier movie! All rights go to Marvel. All I own is my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 21~
Bucky?

"I don't like this," complained Sitwell.

Maria looked over at him, seeing the panicked expression on his face. Once he had been on their side, back when the Avengers first got together when the threat of Loki had been present. She knew that, back then, she would have felt some sort of sympathy for him when placed in such an uncomfortable position, but she didn't feel anything for him now.

"That makes two of us," commented Maria.

She was positioned in-between Sitwell and Natasha in the back of Sam's car, staring out straight in front of her. She didn't mind human contact, but since she was sat in-between the two people she currently felt the most uncomfortable with, she didn't like it. Since Maria was starting to like Natasha more and more, feeling more comfortable around her the more Natasha opened up about herself, she decided to lean a bit more towards her instead of Sitwell, not bothering to look at him as he stared at her.

"Look, Hydra doesn't like leaks," said Sitwell, explaining what he had meant.

"Well, then why don't you try sticking a cork into it?" said Sam, more as a statement than a question.

Maria smirked, leaning forwards and whispering; "thanks" to Sam before leaning back again with a sigh.

"Insight's launching in 16 hours," reminded Natasha. "We're cutting it a little bit close here."

In response, Sam sped up the car a bit.

"We'll use him to bypass the DNA-scans and access the helicarriers directly," said Steve, having already come up with a plan, which everyone tried to memorize as best as they could.

"What?" exclaimed Sitwell. "Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea!"

"I like it," smirked Maria, once again earning a look from Sitwell. "What do we do once onboard?"

Steve was about to explain the rest of his plan, when a thump was heard from the roof of the car. Everyone glanced upwards, confused looks on their faces as to what that could have been.

"A bird?" asked Sam hesitantly.

Only seconds later, the window next to Sitwell was broken and a hand grabbed Sitwell by the neck, flinging him out of the car like a ragdoll that weighed nothing. He was thrown to the other side of the highway where the cars were driving in the opposite direction at high speeds. Maria never saw what happened to him as she looked away before she could, instead only hearing the sickening sound of his body cracking before multiple cars came to a screeching halt.

"Quickly!" exclaimed Natasha, crawling over Maria towards the front of the car and placing herself there with Steve.

Maria looked at her with confused eyes before she saw what Natasha had seen in the now broken window. A boot. Someone was on the car. Someone who evidently wanted to kill whomever was in the car.

Before she knew it, multiple bullets were fired next to her where Natasha once had been seated. She jumped away from them, sitting on the broken glass where Sitwell had once been, pressing herself against the door.

Steve looked back once, glancing at her to see if she was okay before pulling the parking brake. The car came to an almost immediate stop and through the front window, the four heroes saw a man flying off of the top of their car. He landed ahead of them, barely bothered by the fact he had just fallen of a car and landed on asphalt in a high velocity. Clearly, he was enhanced somehow.

He stood up, looking straight at them, a gun still in his hands.

The metal arm. The red star…

"Winter Soldier…" deduced Maria with wide eyes.

The hand that wasn't holding the gun was made out of metal. In fact, the entire arm was made out of metal and in the short period of time that Maria managed to actually get a good look on him, she only ever managed to deduce that he looked creepy and dangerous.

While the other cars all drove past them as they stood still on the highway, one big, black jeep drove into the back of the car, causing Maria to be flung against the back of Sam's seat. Even though her left ear was ringing as she had hit that part of her face, she noticed how the jeep continued to drive, causing their car to move as well. Clearly this was not just an unlucky civilian that had not noticed they were standing still.

Right before their car hit the Winter Soldier, he jumped up and once again landed on the top of the car, the thump causing Maria to tense up and move to the middle again.

Without it making a difference, Sam pushed his foot down on the brake or gas pedal, trying his best to get away from there. However, nothing worked. The only thing that Sam did was create an eerie, squealing sound as the tires of the car were dragged over the road in high speed. The jeep was speeding up, causing their car to speed up as well. They were powerless.

Out of frustration, Maria grabbed her dagger and thrust it up through the ceiling, hoping to at least hurt the man on top enough to make him go away. It stuck there, though, which was not a very good thing as the Winter Soldier now knew where she was seated.

Once again, Maria had not thought her plan through. Barton would be disappointed. Fury would be disappointed.

The Winter Soldier responded by shooting multiple bullets through the roof, three of them hitting her upper leg. As she let out a cry of pain, she moved to a different seat before pressing her hands against the wound to stop the bleeding. She knew she'd be fine eventually, but the blood and pain was still tremendously scary.

"Maria!" exclaimed Steve at the same time as the Winter Soldier's metal arm ripped through the front window, grabbing the steering wheel from Sam's hands and ripping it out of its place, making the car un-drivable.

"Shit!" exclaimed Sam, hands still in the positions they had been if the wheel was there.

From in the front, Natasha had managed to get a hold of her gun again, which she had dropped to the floor at some point, and as she shot multiple shots through the ceiling, all four of them heard the Winter Soldier jump off of their car and towards the jeep behind them.

With a sigh of relief, Maria leaned her head back, trying her best to ignore the gross feeling of her own blood seeping through her fingers as they pressed against her wound, trying to stop most of the bleeding. However, as the jeep slowed down, letting go of their car, Maria realized that they had no way of steering it. Because of the high velocity, it was going to lose control. They were going to crash even if they used the breaks.

"Steve!" exclaimed Maria, crawling into the front and grabbing a hold of Sam. "The door!"

Steve seemed to have had the same idea as her as he already had his shield ready, having put it against the car door, his fingers wrapped tightly around the leather strap on the back of it.

"Hold on!" exclaimed Steve as the car started to swirl around.

While Steve grabbed a hold of Natasha, Maria held her arm around his waist - ignoring the fact that everybody was going to land on her arm and probably crush it as she knew she'd heal - while her other arm was wrapped around Sam's waist. He, on the other hand, held onto Steve's jacket at the same time as he held onto Maria's jumper, his face looking both confused and panicked ("Ya'll better know what you're doing!").

As the car hit the side of the rode, causing it to twirl up into the air, Steve used his strength to get the door of its hinges right as the door was facing the ground. They landed at the same time as their former car landed on its side a few meters ahead of them.

For a couple of seconds the four of them slid on the car door before they came to a stop, Sam and Maria having let go of Steve by now, rolling to a stop a few meters behind him and Nat.

Maria groaned, her right arm throbbing with pain just like her leg. The only positive thing was that her hearing had returned in her left ear. Because of that, she heard as the jeep came to a stop a few meters away from her and Sam. The Winter Soldier stepped out of it, a soldier working for him handing him a different gun than the one he had been using before. Maria grabbed a hold of Sam as he helped her to the side of the road.

"Jeez, Maria," said Sam, looking at her upper leg with wide eyes.

"I'll be fine," she said, waving it off before she looked over at the Winter Soldier again.

As he aimed at Steve and Natasha, Maria widened her eyes, screaming out a "no" which caused Steve to notice the Winter Soldier. Pushing Natasha out of the way, Steve held up his shield as the Winter Soldier shot a large rocket their way, sending him flying over the edge of the bridge, landing underneath of it where there were roads leading into town.

Where exactly he landed or if he was alright, Maria couldn't tell. Instead, she stood up, shrugging off Sam's hands that tried to stop her, before she limped her way over to the metal armed man, furious of the fact that he could have potentially killed the man she loved. For just this once, she was okay with killing another person again.

One of the soldiers that worked for him tapped his shoulder, causing the Winter Soldier to look over at Maria right as she punched him in the face. He barely even reacted, instead, he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. His metal fingers felt cool against her skin however, he didn't choke her. In fact it seemed as though he made sure to not choke her.

"Dalton," he said, his voice deep as he spoke. She couldn't see his eyes, them being shielded by shaded goggles, though she imagined they were filled with hate as he spoke. "You were once on my list. But not anymore." He turned his face to his fellow companions, "She's not ours. Don't kill her."

Maria kicked out to which he didn't react. Instead, as the rest of the soldiers started to shoot at Sam and Natasha, he threw her against the jeep, causing the air to leave her lungs before she slid down to the ground, coughing loudly.

The Winter Soldier, not bothered by the fight behind him between his companions, Natasha and Sam, crouched down in front of her and cocked his head to the side when she looked up at him.

"Is it true what they say?" he asked, making Maria glare at him. "Can you really not get hurt?"

Suddenly, as quick as a snake attacking its prey, he had grabbed her upper leg, squeezing the spot where he had shot her. She cried out in pain.

"Apparently not," he simply said before letting go of her, standing up and walking away.

Two soldiers walked over to her, pointing their guns at her as if they were guarding her, making sure that she wouldn't go anywhere. She felt confused as the Winter Soldier had seemed more than delighted to try and kill the others off. Yet, she was apparently not on his list. That, or Hydra wanted something else with her. She was also confused by the fact that these soldiers thought some bullets would scare her into not attacking them… Was she missing something?

She stayed on the ground though, watching as the Winter Soldier went after Natasha, leaving Sam be. Even though he had murdered a lot of people, it was clear that those who weren't on his list were kept alive. This she was relieved by. She would hate herself if Sam was killed off in the first two hours of being on their team.

Nat could handle herself, she was sure of it… right?

As the Winter Soldier and a couple of his soldiers made their way down to where both Natasha and Steve were now, Sam took advantage of the fact that nobody noticed him and took out the soldier that made its way down lastly. He grabbed his gun, checking it out before turning it at the soldiers guarding Maria. They had their backs turned towards Sam and hadn't noticed, much to Maria's relief, what Sam was up to. And as he pointed the gun at the soldiers, Maria quickly placed her hands over her head, shielding herself from the bullets as they came flying, taking out the two soldiers.

Quickly, as it went quiet again, Maria stood up. She grabbed one of the men's guns before limping over towards Sam who caught her around the waist with one arm once she was close enough, supporting some of her weight for her.

"Where are the others?" asked Maria, glancing over the edge down at the road below.

It was pure chaos down there. Civilians were running away from the scene, a bus had been turned over and shot at multiple times, causing it to catch fire, while cars had been abandoned in the middle of the street. Soldiers were firing at Steve who was shielding himself behind his shield while the Winter Soldier went after Natasha who Maria saw running away along with the civilians, further down the road.

The highway she and Sam were standing on was abandoned by now, two blockades visible further down the roads on both sides where civilians had stopped to watch from a safe distance.

Both Sam and Maria pointed their guns at the soldiers shooting at Steve, starting to take them out one by one. Although Maria hadn't used a gun before, she found it rather easy. Though she was in no way good at it. Sam only needed one bullet per person while Maria wasted five as she missed a few times before actually hitting her target. Not only that but she had to make sure she didn't kill them off… They were just pawns in this game. They weren't the Winter Soldier.

With the help of his shield, and because there only was one guy left by now, Steve managed to get in close enough to take the last soldier out, hitting him in the face once with his shield before knocking him unconscious. When a bullet suddenly came flying past Maria's head, both Sam and Maria noticed that there still were two soldiers left further up the road they were on. Steve looked up at them, noticing the two soldiers as well.

"Go! We've got this!" exclaimed Sam, earning a nod from Steve.

Steve's eyes lingered on Maria for a while before he left. Both locked eyes and both nodded their heads at each other. It wasn't a goodbye, just a quick check that both were okay with potentially splitting up if things turned too ugly for either of them. If one was caught, they had ensure that the others could still get away, after all. Insight was their priority.

As Sam turned to shoot at the soldiers coming their way, both of them taking cover behind an abandoned car, Maria dropped the gun to the ground as a strange pain radiated from the wound on her leg. Sam gave her a glance, worry in his eyes, before he continued to take out the soldiers, managing alright on his own.

Hissing in pain, she let herself sit down on the ground. Her leg still hurt tremendously which was odd as her arm was alright by now. It should be the other way around as her arm got hurt after her leg… so why was her leg not healing?

Sam crouched down next to her, placing a hand on her arm as he looked down at her bleeding leg.

"You should stay here," offered Sam, earning a look from Maria.

"Well, where are you going?" she asked.

"To help Steve," said Sam, dropping his gun as well. "Soldiers are taken care of. You'll be fine here."

"You're not going on your own," said Maria, shaking her head before hissing again as she moved her leg.

"You're hurt, stay here," he said. However, as he went to stand up, Maria stopped him by grabbing his arm again.

"Not without me," she said through gritted teeth. "Help me to the car."

With a furrowed brow, Sam did as she said, the two of them moving over to the other side of the road where the car was lying, flipped over. She leaned against it, Sam moving to the back where he managed to pull out his wings from the broken trunk.

"Could you get my dagger?" asked Maria, a sweat breaking out on her forehead as the pain started to become more and more intense.

Sam looked at her with a worried look on his face before nodding and crouching down into the back of the car. Almost immediately he spotted it and he was back by Maria's side within seconds. Though as she grabbed it from him, she fell down to the ground as she suddenly felt faint.

"Maria!" exclaimed Sam. He helped her to sit back up, one hand checking her pulse and the other holding her upright against the side of the car.

"I need to remove the bullets… They're hindering me from healing," said Maria quietly, hoping that it truly was the only reason for her not healing.

Sam frowned as she held the knife above her wound with a shaky hand. Slowly he began to understand what she was about to do and he waited patiently for her to start. As Maria let the dagger hover over her leg without doing anything, Sam caught on to her hesitance for the pain that was to come and curled his fingers around the dagger instead. They exchanged a look and Sam nodded his head at her, "I've done this more times than you. Let me."

She looked away as he began to use the dagger to dig into the wound, her hands curling up as she bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from screaming out. She squirmed as little as she could to help Sam, but the pain was unbearable and she couldn't help her body reacting from time to time. Sam's hand on her knee helped keep her leg still though.

"We should've disinfected the dagger first," mumbled Sam before he suddenly relaxed, the dagger no longer cutting into her leg. She dared to look back at him and saw him hold up a couple of bullets in front of Maria.

Both stared at them in confusion.

They were purple, the three bullets resting in the palm of his hand.

"The hell are these?" asked Sam, earning a shrug from Maria.

"I've never seen any like them," said Maria, grabbing one of them and inspecting it more closely.

Apart from the color, they were just like any other bullet. Heavy, hard and made out of some sort of metal. Whatever they were, Hydra probably had a use for them… And she feared the use had something to do with why her body had not healed.

"Alright, you ready?" asked Maria, placing the bullet in her pocket, waiting to inspect it until later as she knew Steve needed her now.

"I've just pulled out three bullets from your leg… You're not going anywhere," he said, shaking his head as he dropped the remaining bullets on the ground, standing up. "I'll help him, don't worry."

With a roll of Maria's eyes, she stood up, stretching out her leg and sighing a relieved sigh as the pain already was gone. Sam watched her before his eyes flickered down to her leg, seeing the now dried up blood and the healed skin.

"Impossible…" he breathed.

"Nothing's impossible," said Maria with a smirk on her lips. "Now, come on."

It felt awful. Never had Maria ever thought that helping Steve could feel so awful. Her arms shook as she held onto Sam, her entire body actually shaking from the fear she was currently feeling. They weren't high up in the air, Sam probably sensing her fear and not wanting to push her, though it was still scary. Maria knew that if she let go, she'd fall a very long way down and it was not something she wanted to do as the pain would be unbelievable.

She was hanging down from Sam, holding onto the straps of his backpack. It had been Sam's idea as Maria had wanted to go by foot though Sam said it would take too long… Seeing as Maria didn't weigh much nor was she very tall, Sam had reckoned his backpack could hold her. He had been right, much to Maria's dismay.

As they came closer and closer to where Steve was currently fighting the Winter Soldier, Maria prepared to jump down and start to help. However, the plan changed as Steve managed to get in a good kick, sending the Winter Soldier flying and managing to kick his mask off, which would reveal his true identity.

The Winter Soldier landed gracefully once more, clearly not bothered still by Steve's strong kick. And as he turned around towards Steve, no one having noticed Sam and Maria yet apart from Natasha, a strange look appeared on Steve's face. He looked shocked and confused at the same time.

"Bucky?"

Maria furrowed her brow, preparing her legs for the kick she was about to give the Winter Soldier.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" he asked, lifting his hand in which a gun was now resting again.

However, before he even had the chance to point it at Steve, Sam and Maria got close enough to attack. Maria jumped down on him, securing her legs around his torso before using her own weight to fling him to the side. He landed on his side, not as gracefully as earlier, while Maria landed in a crouch.

The gun had fallen out of his hands during the attack and Maria grabbed it, pointing it at the Winter Soldier. Sam landed next to her, pointing his own guns at the Winter Soldier who looked up from where he lay a few meters away from them, his eyes glaring at them.

Indeed, now that she was staring at his uncovered face, she saw Bucky. Although she had only ever seen pictures of the man who had fought side by side with Steve, it was pretty clear this was him… He hadn't aged a day.

During the short period that Sam and Maria had the upper hand, Bucky's gaze flickered over to Steve's form and, to her surprise, his eyes softened slightly. Maria frowned because of this. Somehow, she got the vibe that he recognized Steve as something good… but, there was this strange look in his eyes that also told her he didn't recognize Steve at all. Why else would he attacked Steve and try to kill him?

Something was wrong with Bucky. Something was wrong with the Winter Soldier.

Gosh, what had Hydra done to him?

She didn't have much time to think about it though as suddenly, the Winter Soldier grabbed something from his belt, dropping it right in front of him. Maria was about to shoot, when she saw that it had been a smoke bomb, causing it impossible to see Bucky for a while. Once the smoke vanished, the Winter Soldier had vanished too. She lowered her gun with a sigh. Perhaps Bucky getting away was for the best?

The sound of sirens suddenly filled the air before multiple black cars appeared, surrounding the four of them. More soldiers exited the vehicles, pointing their guns at the four of them and forcing them to raise their hands. Maria dropped her gun, placing her hands behind her head as she saw that Steve rose his hands as well. They were too many to fight and either way, they would've been caught. It was just bad that they were caught 16 hours before Insight were to be launched… and nobody managed to get away to continue the fight.

Maria rolled her eyes as she saw Rumlow start to surround Steve with a bunch of soldiers, seemingly not taken any chances this time around. They forced him to drop his shield before they arrested him, handcuffing him with extra strong cuffs.

Multiple soldiers walked over to Natasha and Sam as well, doing the same to them before one lonely soldier walked over to Maria. He was wearing a helmet which shielded his identity and his gun was pointed at her. She did as Sam and Natasha had been forced to do and dropped to her knees, waiting for the soldier to handcuff her.

"Hello, Maria," said a familiar voice, causing Maria to look up at the soldier as he stopped in front of her. Slowly, he removed his helmet, revealing to Maria who he was to which she could only glare. "Missed me?"

"Artur."

She headbutted him and began to fight, though she had not thought that through – she really had to stop being so impulsive, had she not just a minute ago realized they were almost outmatched? – and as Artur staggered backwards, another soldier used a taser on her. Her body spasmed and she fell to her knees, holding her hands up as she came back to her senses.

"Alright, alright…" she said through gritted teeth, the electric currents finally stopping. "I surrender."