Last chapter for a bit. This fic is way more emotional than my other one, so it's a lot harder for me to write, because generally speaking I'm not a very empathetic person, let alone emotional. I mean, I didn't even cry in Infinity War (I'm a monster, I know...)

Enjoy

xo


Chapter 28

Vielka and Okoye walked up to their waiting jet in silence, the Australian lost in her own thoughts. They stood at the base of the jet, waiting for the ramp to lower and allow them access inside.

"Vielka?" The Australian glanced sideways at the Dora General who stood beside her, finding her looking back at her with a look of concern. "Are you alright?"

"Mm? Yes, I'm fine. What is it?"

"The bay doors are open…"

"Huh?" Vielka looked up at the jet to see that the ramp was indeed lowered and the doors wide open. "Oh."

"Is there something you have on your mind?" Okoye asked, as they both began walking up the ramp into the jet.

"It's nothing," she replied in an offhand manner, not meeting the General's eyes.

"Nothing on the mind can get you and your soldier's killed."

Vielka furrowed her brow and looked at Okoye in disdain, before moving to remove her weapons. "Really, Okoye, you can be really morbid when you want to be."

"Perhaps, but it is the truth, bearing your burdens and thinking of 'nothing' can be troublesome," Okoye replied knowingly.

"Speaking from experience?" Vielka challenged the General.

"Maybe not literally."

Vielka sighed, glancing back out the doors of the jet. "Yeah, well, I've done alright up to this point."

Okoye narrowed her eyes at the Australian as Vielka moved to the co-pilot's seat. Okoye hated letting Vielka fly, she considered her a brash and spontaneous pilot, so Vielka had become used to being in the passenger seat when Okoye was around. "You know, it does seem that the Sergeant is himself again."

Vielka tensed in her seat at the mention of the Super Soldier they were waiting on. She glanced at the Wakandan General as the comms alert sounded. Vielka diverted her attention and annoyance from the Dora and pressed the button, a holoscreen featuring T'Challa's face appearing. "What?" Vielka barked.

T'Challa raised an eyebrow in response to Vielka's snappy greeting. Okoye saluted the King, while Vielka just looked up at him, neglecting to hide her annoyance. T'Challa returned Okoye's salute, before speaking. "Did you find him?"

"You could have told me," Vielka replied, knowing there was no need to answer the question.

"Would you have done so without argument?"

Vielka chewed the inside of her cheek, doing her best to ebb the urge to sling an insult at the Wakandan King. "He's with Shuri while she fits his new arm."

T'Challa looked to Okoye, before continuing. "We have guests arriving soon, I need you to hurry and return here as soon as possible. Okoye, I need you to prepare all our available forces and wait for me on the landing pad. Vielka, you are to take Bucky to the armoury to be fitted for battle."

Vielka hissed in response to her orders. "I'm sure you can spare a guard for-" Vielka began to argue.

"This is not up for discussion, Banzai," T'Challa replied with a tone of finality. As if using her former call sign wasn't enough to put her in her place. Vielka bit her bottom lip again, saying nothing in response. "Our guests arrive in one hour."

Vielka took a deep breath as Okoye closed off the comms screen and began preparing the jet for flight. She had barely begun when they heard footsteps climbing the ramp behind them. Both turned to look to see Bucky topping the ramp, still dressed in his Wakandan robes. He looked around the jet quickly, before spotting them both looking at him. The Australian sneered slightly, before turning back to face the front screen. "Excuse me, Wakandan Jesus, we've got shit to do. Buckle in," she said as she pressed a button on the console in front of her, causing the ramp to begin to rise and the loading bay doors to close.

She heard Bucky move towards the load bay seats that lined the fuselage of the jet, taking note of one of the safety belt lights activating on the console in front of her to say that they were engaged. She nodded to Okoye, giving her the go ahead to launch the jet.

"You don't need to be so harsh, Vielka."

"Just fly the god damned jet, General."

oOOo

When they finally made it back to the Golden City, Vielka took Bucky to the armoury, where several of the Wakandan Design Group's techs were waiting expectantly for them. Vielka waited off to one side for them to finish suiting Bucky up for battle, skimming through news articles on her Kimoyo beads. There had been more alien sighting videos from New York appear online, and Vielka was surprised to see the boy known as Spiderman had gotten involved. She remembered that Tony Stark had been somewhat protective of the boy, and was surprised to see him involved in the fight.

As she watched the videos, she caught a glimpse of Bucky changing into an armoured jacket in the corner of her eye. She noted, as he was shirtless, that he seemed to have slimmed down recently, although still very fit, he just wasn't carrying as much bulk as he used to.

Her eyes lingered on him for a moment as he adjusted the zipper and buttons on his jacket, until he looked up and his eyes met hers. She was quick to avert her eyes, and silently scolded herself for staring at him.

"Nomondli," one of the technicians called her by her official title in Xhosa, snapping her attention to him. "Princess Shuri requested we give these to you." She looked to what he was holding. He appeared to be holding a set of bracers, similar to what the warriors wore during ceremonies in Wakanda.

"What are they?" she asked curiously, standing up and analysing them without touching them.

He motioned for her to raise her arm, carefully placing one of the bracers around her forearm. "When activated by placing the bracers across each other, they activate a shield barrier that can last for about three minutes," he explained. The bracer was a lot lighter than it looked, hardly hindering her at all. "However, it will need to recharge for about ten minutes after every use."

"Let me guess, its only a prototype?" she quipped, looking at the technician expectantly. He grimaced slightly before nodding. "She always likes using me as a crash test dummy." She suddenly became very aware that someone was watching her, turning to see Bucky standing a short distance away, now fully clothed.

oOOo

He gave her a small smile, which she did not return. She nodded to the technician in thanks, before looking back to Bucky momentarily. "You need a weapon," she commented, before turning on her heel and walking away from him without waiting for a response. He was quick to follow her. She led him to another part of the armoury, approaching a room that had laser bars across the entrance. She lifted her arm, tapping on a bead on her bracelet, which caused the laser bars to disappear in time for her to reach the doorway.

Bucky hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he was supposed to follow her. She stopped just inside the door, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Well, you want to enter a fight with a weapon or not?"

He was quick to follow her then, hurrying through the doorway and looking around. The room was well lit, with racks and racks of a variety of weapons lining the walls. He looked in awe at all the weapons, the whole palace had him in awe, but the armoury was eye-opening. And he couldn't help but note how comfortable Vielka seemed around it all. He wondered what she had been doing while he had been gone. He eyed several different weapons as he slowly walked through the room. Even The Facility they used wasn't this well stocked before he had left.

Vielka didn't stop to look at any of the weapons on the wall, instead walking straight over to the furthest corner of the storeroom and pressing the bracelet on her wrist again. A panel opened in the corner and she pulled out another rack from within the wall. "I figure you would prefer to handle something you're familiar with." She stepped back to reveal a familiar weapon. It was a Natasha's sub machine gun that he had borrowed all the way back in Siberia. "It's been maintained and restocked. Whenever you're ready, I'll be waiting outside. Hurry up."

Before he could even thank her, or even consider thanking her, she moved to walk back past him, but he reached out to stop her with his right hand, as he had done back at the village he had called home. "Wait." She stopped but didn't look back at him, her arm tensing at his touch. He felt his heart ache at the reaction but ploughed on. "I'm sorry."

She turned her head slightly, her eyes barely moving enough to register him fully. "Let me go."

"I'm sorry, I can't. I have regretted what I did to you, every day, since it happened," he replied, pulling her arm slightly to try and force her to face him front on. She narrowed her eyes slightly, although allowed herself to look at him. "I need you to know that I never wanted to hurt you, or the General, or anyone."

She looked back at him with a deadpan expression, which left Bucky feeling extremely cold. "Then why didn't you tell me?"

"What?" He was taken aback, that was not what he was expecting to hear from her.

"Why…didn't you tell me?" she repeated herself. He stared at her for a moment, unable to respond. "You can hit me, knock me down, rip me apart, whatever, but what kills me, is that you never told me." She glared at him, before pulling her arm free from his grasp. "If you can't answer me that, then we are done talking, Sergeant Barnes."

She moved to walk away.

"I was scared." She stopped again, before whipping her head around to look at him again, her eyes narrowed. "I was scared that you would demand to be there, and that I could hurt you, or worse, if Shuri couldn't fix me."

She blinked a few times, before tilting her head to one side as she considered him. The look of anger in her eyes was replaced with confusion. "What?"

"You are the only person that understands what I've been through. Apart from Steve, you're the only person that I have ever gotten close to since I became...this. And I feel like I've gotten closer to you than I ever was to Steve. I wanted to fix myself before I ended up hurting you. But, in doing so, I guess I hurt you more than I ever could of under HYDRA's influence. I'm sorry."

Bucky watched as Vielka's jaw tensed and she stared at him in disbelief for a moment, and in the bright lights of the armoury, he could see her cheeks gaining a pink tinge to them. She looked away from him, glancing around the room as if she was avoiding looking at him. "Uh, we should really get going, grab your stuff and let's go." Vielka turned and hurried from the room, and although Bucky felt a pang of disappointment at her refusing to respond to him, he was happy that she hadn't completely turned on him. It was a step in the right direction, and he was certain that he could work with that now.

He picked up his stuff, before hurrying after Vielka.

oOOo

Vielka led Bucky to the landing bay, his words resonating in her head, over and over again. Was it possible, was Gaia right? Was she being selfish when she got angry about what Bucky had done? She really didn't have time to be worrying about this right now. She had a job to do. She tried to concentrate on what they were about to do, but she had become very aware of Bucky walking closely behind her. She felt like she could hear every breath he was taking, every movement he made sounded extremely close to her and she couldn't shake the feeling of awareness at all.

When they eventually made it down to the landing pad, she was glad to have some distraction as she noticed there was already an aircraft waiting there. Vielka stopped behind the lines of gathered Dora Milaje, Kingsguard and Jabari tribesman, assessing the gathered people.

"Your highness," a familiar voice said from the other side of the gathered Dora. She smirked slightly, before turning back to look at Bucky, who was looking around the landing pad in awe. She forgot he had never actually been to the palace before, his main place of residence being The Facility before the incident. The thought caused her to grimace slightly, but she was quick to focus her thoughts elsewhere.

"Hey," she called to Bucky, gaining his attention. She motioned with her head towards the gathered Dora. "You're going to want to see this." He looked at her with a slightly confused look on his face but stepped forward.

Her voice had caught the attention of the Dora Milaje and Kingsguard ranks standing in front of her and they parted respectfully for the higher ranking officer, in their mind anyway. Vielka saw Steve Rogers standing before T'Challa as the ranks parted, and she stepped back to allow Bucky through. Steve spotted his old friend and smiled warmly, before moving to greet him. Vielka glanced at Bucky and was surprised to see a wide grin spread across his face as he stepped forward to greet Steve.

"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked, extending a hand to Bucky, which he took firmly before they both hugged.

"Not bad, for the end of the world," Bucky replied, a joking grin on his face. Vielka raised an eyebrow and gave a light scoff, drawing their attention to her.

"Paddy," Steve greeted with a pointed look. Vielka scowled in response to the nickname, before rolling her eyes.

"Captain."

She didn't miss the fall in Steve's posture at the mention of his former rank. Nor did she miss the falter in his smile, either. "Just Steve is fine," he replied sombrely, causing Vielka to raise both eyebrows in surprise. When she had last seen him, he had made no mention of discontentment about his alias. Now, however, it was evident in his uniform and his features that he no longer considered himself fighting for America. He had allowed his facial hair to grow out, his hair was longer, and the iconic 'star spangled' uniform was now blacked out. The 'Soldier' was gone, replaced with a man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

She sighed, before holding her hand out to him. "Steve, good to see you again." He gave a small smile and took her hand carefully, obviously forgetting about Vielka's own abilities, as she gripped his hand back firmly. "Shame it's not under better circumstances." He nodded in agreement.

Vielka looked past Steve to see the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff. She smiled and nodded to the smaller woman, it had been a few months since she had seen her since she and Steve had left the safety of Wakanda.

Behind her were several others she didn't recognise, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes. She acknowledged the Colonel before moving to stand behind T'Challa, sighing as he motioned for everyone to follow him.

He led the Avengers to Shuri's lab, Bruce Banner, T'Challa, Steve, Vision and Wanda all heading inside to meet with the teen genius, while Vielka and the others kept guard outside.

"Vielka," Sam greeted, moving stand beside her where she looked over the landing pads of the lab.

"Sam."

"Come on, you missed me a little, right?" Sam teased, sidling closer to her.

"Not even a little," she quipped in response, keeping an eye on the skies. Sam pouted slightly, causing her to look at him. "Really?"

"You know you missed me," he said with a wink, nudging her with his elbow. She rolled her eyes in response, but could't help the little bit of a smile that spread across her face. Sam's attitude was contagious. He could be serious and yet still make a situation bearable. "See, there it is."

She shook her head and began to walk away from him as he laughed and moved towards Colonel Rhodes. As she walked, she felt a presence behind her, turning to see Bucky walking a short ways behind her. "You do not have to follow me everywhere, you should have learnt enough skills in the 102nd to be able to patrol on your own."

"I dunno, we always patrolled in pairs," Bucky replied, looking at her pointedly as she narrowed her eyes at him. She huffed slightly, before beginning to walk again.

"Bucky Barnes..." she muttered under her breath. She turned to look at him again, caught by surprise when she saw him grinning at her. She felt her chest tighten at the sight and her cheeks heat. "What?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking how you haven't changed at all, still a sight for sore eyes."

She clenched her jaw, looking up at the sky to try and avoid looking at him. He was really something else.


xo

Krayzee