Chapter Twenty-Five: Another Failure

I don't know where everybody else ended up, but I landed in between Steve and Tony right next to the exit of the lab. My back was killing me, but I knew that if it was serious I would be in far worse pain than I was and forced myself to sit up. I turned to Tony, who looked completely shell-shocked. "Put on the suit."

"Yep."

The three of us stood and clamored out of the room, rushing for the source of the explosion. I honestly had no idea where we were going, but considering Tony was talking to seemingly nobody, I assumed he was using some sort of communication device to talk to somebody who knew what was happening and was not actually insane.

"Talk to us, Stark." Steve had the sense to actually ask what was happening instead of blindly following like I was. Weird. The situation was normally reversed.

"It was an outside explosion," Tony explained, turning to go down a hallway to his right but pointing us to his left. "That way- engine three. I'll meet you two there."

Steve and I went left, leaving Tony to presumably get his suit. Most of my anger from in the lab had inexplicably vanished, but I still had enough left to feel hopeful that I was going to have somebody's ass to kick, since I wasn't allowed to kick Tony's.

We made it all the way to engine three with no trouble, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. The enemies were somewhere on the ship, and if not here then they would be fighting the SHIELD agents. I could only hope that they were capable. Steve pushed the door open that led to the engine room, but we were instead greeted by a bright blue sky. "Stark!" Steve yelled. No fair, he has a communicator too? Where was I when these were handed out? "Stark, we're here!"

Tony flew in from the right side of the helicarrier, suspending himself in front of what was left of the engine. "Let's see what we got." He pushed various dislodged components around, before pointing at Steve. "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."

Steve looked down at me and I sighed at the obvious confusion on his face. "I'll explain it to you, kid. Let's just get up there." He nodded and clasped his hands together, which I stuck my foot in so he could launch me into the air. I grabbed a hanging ladder and pulled myself onto the landing to locate the control panel. "Right there," I pointed it out when Steve came up behind me.

He pulled the panel open and stared at all the different wires and switches. Tony must have asked him a question about the panel because he said, "It seems to run on some form of electricity."

I sighed and nudged Steve out of the way. "You're a genius, kid. But how about letting the amateur have a go, hmm?" I switched a few wires around, unplugging and plugging things back in, flipping switches and pushing buttons. It took all of thirty seconds to fix the machinery. "Done."

"The relays are intact," Steve told Tony. "What's our next move?" He listened for the answer- eyes widening when he heard it. "If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded… Speak English!"

"God dammit, give me that!" I held my hand out to Steve, and he rolled his eyes before pulling the comm out of his ear and handing it over to me. "What's next?"

"I need you to get to the stator control unit and reverse the polarity long enough for me to disengage the maglav."

"Gotcha." I took a few steps back for a running start before jumping from the platform I was on to the next one higher up. "Tell me when."

"Can do."

While I was waiting for the go ahead, two agents who were very clearly not on our side came running out with their guns pointed at Steve and I. One unpinned a grenade and tossed it at the engine, but Steve jumped out and smacked it out of the way, causing it to explode harmlessly in mid-air. He took them out easily while I focused on the third that came running out to join the fight.

The agent walked out firing his machine gun, and I grabbed a large piece of scrap metal from the ground and whirled it at him. He managed to duck out of the way before it hit him, but it was enough of a distraction for me to grab the discarded gun of a man who had fallen off the side of the gap and start firing back at him.

The helicarrier started to tilt dangerously to the side, and I grabbed the railing of the platform to avoid falling off. "Sir, we've lost all power in engine one," a voice said over the comm.

"It's Barton." Well, good to know Fury survived the attack in the lab. "He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?"

"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."

Once that matter was resolved, Fury moved straight on to the next one. "Stark, we're losing altitude."

"Yeah, I noticed."

I was still clinging to the metal bars to keep myself from tumbling over the edge, and luckily Steve stepped in to take out the third agent that was still firing at me. Way to kick a girl when she's down, asshole.

Said asshole continued to push Steve back until I saw him do the very thing I had been trying to avoid- he stepped over the edge. "Steve!" I screamed, leaning over to see if he was all right. I saw him hanging in the air, clutching onto a loose wire.

"Hold on, Buck. Come on, baby doll. Take my hand."

No. No, no, no. How is it possible that everything- everything - is happening all over again?

"Jo, hit the lever!"

"But Steve-"

"I'm okay!" Steve shouted. "I can get back up, focus on Stark!"

I watched Steve pull himself up the rope for another minute, trying to think of some way I could help him get back on solid ground.

"Lever! Now!"

More gunshots went off behind me, and I forced myself to look away from Steve so I could do what needed to be done. Don't die, don't die, don't fucking die. I snatched the machine gun from the ground and shot back at the last agent. When he fell, I dropped the fun and grabbed the red lever, pushng it down to let Tony out of the engine.

As soon as I saw Tony drop out of the engine, I hurried back over to see that Steve had climbed his way up to the edge of the platform. I latched onto his shoulders and pulled as hard as I could, lifting him over the side and back onto the structure. We both collapsed onto our backs, panting. "Don't you ever scare me like that again," I warned him. "Or I swear to God I will kill you myself, Rogers."

Steve chuckled under his breath, nodding. "Yes, ma'am."

"Agent Coulson is down." I sat up from my spot on the ground, pressing my hand against the comm. Did I just hear that correctly? "The med team is here. They called it."

Steve sat up next to me, watching me curiously. "What is it?"

I laced my fingers together and pressed them against my mouth, thinking. I hadn't known much about the man, other than the fact that he was adorably obsessed with the personas Steve and I had lived during WWII and a damn good agent. Nothing about him had seemed untrustworthy to me, despite the people he worked for. He certainly didn't deserve to die.

"Jo?"

I turned to face Steve, lowering my hands to my chin. "Coulson's dead." I watched as his shock slowly morphed into sadness before standing up and shaking my head with the all too familiar anger working its way back into my system. "He's dead, and we didn't save him. We couldn't save him," I scoffed, looking down at Steve. "We can't save anybody, can we?"

"That's not true." Steve stood and placed a hand on my shoulder, determination etched on his features. "We've saved a lot of people, Jo. I know that it's easier to see our failures, but the successes do exist."

"Yeah, well." I shrugged and his hand fell off my shoulder. "It'd sure be nice if I could see the world as bright and shiny as you do, kid."

I was not in the mood for a lecture, so I walked away from Steve before he could say anything back and back inside of the helicarrier, headed for the bridge.