Relentless chapter 37

I listened to Anthem Light's cover of Out of the Woods while writing this. Their version resonated with me. It's a song that fits so well with Janya. They're constantly trying to find a safe place for them to be together, but the world always throws more obstacles at them whenever they think they've found peace. This version of the song is like both of them begging and pleading to know if this will finally be the last of their struggles.

"They're going to be fine. Would you relax, your pacing is making me nervous," Shuri said, eyeing Anna out of the corner of her eyes from the pilot seat. If she hadn't already starting piloting the plane, Shuri would physically force Anna to remain still.

"If you knew their history of plans going horribly wrong, you'd understand my nervous energy," Anna threw back, dragging a chair beside of the holographic plane and sitting down.

"Would it make you stop tapping your foot if I reminded you we can communicate with them?" Shuri asked, sending another pointed sidelong gaze at Anna.

Debating on whether it would be better or worse to hear everything going down and not be able to help should things go wrong, Anna ended up using her Kimoyo bead. The unknown was always worse. At least that's what she thought.

"James?!" Anna cried out after he'd only answered her with a grunt last time. She didn't know what was going on, but she'd heard enough to be in a state of panic. A state that wasn't helped when the holographic message 'I love you' floated above her Kimoyo bead.

"Steve, Nat?" Anna switched tactics. If James had resorted to using the sign language feature rather than just speaking to her he was in bad shape. He needed help.

"Buck, what's going on?" Steve's voice was garbled with static. The fact that he wasn't with James had Anna's heart constricting and she rose from her seat to continue her pacing.

"James please," Anna's voice broke as the thought that this might be the last time she spoke to him flitted through her head. "I love you. I can't lose you."

…

Anna's quavering pleas had Natasha sprinting faster down the corridor. There was no way she was going to let Barnes die, she couldn't, especially not with Anna listening in. Rounding a corner, she was met with two guards. Without slowing down, she aimed both her guns and fired shots at each guard simultaneously without breaking stride.

Rounding another corner, Natasha saw Barnes motionless on the floor and a guard with a hefty weapon aimed at him. She didn't recognize the weapon, but from Barnes' severed left arm she could take a guess at what it did. Using the wall to kick off, Natasha had her legs around the guard's neck and a wire around his throat before he could fire his weapon. The guard raised his arms to try and regain his balance and get Natasha off him, causing the laser to cut through the metal above them instead of Barnes' chest. Natasha didn't release her hold on the guard until he lost consciousness.

Natasha approached Barnes, keeping her distance as she tried to gauge how to help him without hurting him or herself. But she wasn't a doctor, she didn't know what was wrong or how to fix it. All she knew was his metal arm had been reduced to a stub that occasionally sparked and he was obviously in pain.

"Anna, I think Barnes' arm is short circuiting. It got severed with a laser. What can I do? Should I do CPR?" Natasha asked, praying that Anna could hold it together and be able to help her. Doctors had to be able to keep their cool in emergencies. Then again, this wasn't just any patient, and Anna's hormones might have her a bit more emotional at the moment.

"Don't touch him." Anna's voice was soft but firm. "You could get shocked and that amount of electrical charge could probably kill you."

"If I don't do anything he's going to die. He's having a hard time breathing and he can't move."

"Cardiac arrest," Anna whispered hopelessly. James was going into cardiac arrest. Natasha was right, if they didn't do anything, he would die in minutes. But with the amount of electrical energy coming from his arm it was suicide to try CPR.

"Tell me what to do Anna," Natasha ordered. She needed Anna to give her something. Even if it was permission to watch Barnes' die.

"There's nothing you can do," Anna murmured, letting the truth of her words sink in, her right hand gripping her star necklace.

Natasha had never heard Anna sound so defeated.

Folding her hands into fists, Natasha willed more guards to come so she could have an outlet for her frustrations. When thundering footsteps echoed down the halls Natasha turned with raised hands, more than ready to unleash all her rage on someone. She'd already let her fist fly before realizing it wasn't guards. Her fist collided with Steve's jaw.

Steve didn't seem phased by it. Moving his left hand to grip his jaw, he pushed past Natasha to get to Bucky.

"Don't," Natasha warned when Steve took a step closer. "Anna said we shouldn't touch him."

"I can't watch him die," Steve ground out. It was like being back on the train all over again, unable to reach for Bucky in time. Now he was right in front of him, within reach, and still Steve couldn't save him.

"That's not going to happen," Wanda said, moving past Steve. Raising her hands, Wanda let her power encase Bucky in its red light. Focusing on the electrical pulses coursing through his body, she used them like a defibrillator to restart his heart before forcing it to stay at the broken stub of his arm.

"Guys, I think it's time we get going with the escape plan," Sam murmured, his eyes glancing up at the crack the laser had put in the ceiling. Water was starting to drip from it, becoming more insistent by the second.

"I've got Barnes," Wanda murmured, using all of her concentration on her force field to keep the electricity stable and raise his body off the ground. She hoped their means of escape wasn't far off. Keeping Barnes stable was using a lot of her energy.

…

"I find tinkering with things helps me whenever I am anxious," Shuri commented from the cockpit of the holographic plane. Anna had been unnaturally quiet ever since the Avengers made their escape from the raft. Her hands were shaking as she twisted the ring on her left hand around her finger.

"I'll just end up breaking something important," Anna murmured without looking up from her hands.

She kept repeating a mantra in her head: he was alive when they left the raft. The coms had been disconnected once they made it back to the plane, and it took everything in Anna not to imagine the worst. James was strong. He had made it through years of being frozen and thawed. Years of missions where he'd been shot and injured. He'd been shot at multiple times in New York and had almost bled out in Romania. And he'd survived all of that. He could survive this. He had to.

"They're 20 minutes out. We'll need a medical team down here. Could you go get Akita?" Shuri asked, wanting to give Anna something to do. She hoped Anna wouldn't take offense by her suggesting another doctor. With Anna's pregnancy and the state of her nerves, it might be best to have a neutral party working on James until the found out if they could stabilize him.

"Of course," Anna said, rising from her seat. Shuri waited until she was up the stairs to contact Steve and Natasha. She figured Natasha had turned off the coms for a reason, so she hadn't enlightened Anna they could turn them back on themselves. She was afraid Anna might lose it if they found out Barnes had died in transit and she couldn't help Anna cope with that kind of pain while piloting the plane carrying the rest of her friends.

"How's he doing?"

"Not so great," Natasha responded. "Are you all prepped for him?"

"I sent Anna for Akita. As soon as Akita and her team are down here, we'll be ready."

…

Anna waited just outside the landing pad as the plane landed. One of the nurses led Wanda towards the lab, James floating ahead of her surrounded by her red light and looking closer to death than Anna had ever seen him. It had her heart stopping, her breaths becoming heavy. As much as she wanted to follow and help, she knew she'd only be in the way. She wasn't thinking clearly enough to be of much help to James. Besides, if Wanda's powers slipped and she got hit with any amount of the electricity coursing through him it could hurt the baby, or kill them both.

As the others filed out, Steve immediately went to Anna, engulfing her in a hug.

"I'm so sorry I left him alone," Steve murmured into Anna's hair.

"He told you to. It wasn't your fault Steve," Anna reassured him, squeezing him a little tighter. When she felt Steve tense, she pulled back. He didn't hide his wince soon enough.

"All of you to the infirmary," Anna ordered, leading the way. If she couldn't help James, she'd help her friends.

"Are you sure you want to work right now?" Natasha asked, catching up to Anna as they entered the infirmary.

"I have to. If I don't focus on something else I'll go crazy with worry," Anna murmured, motioning for Natasha to take a seat on one of the many exam tables. Without another word Natasha took a seat. If Anna needed this, she'd comply.

Anna took her time examining each Avenger. Palpitating softly to check for any internal injuries, patching up their cuts, and tending to every tiny twinge or sprain. Natasha only had a few minor bruises, but Steve had a bruised rib. Even though he'd heal without it, Anna took the time to wrap his torso to bide herself time. It would help him heal with less pain.

"You might have a small fissure fracture, but I can't be sure without proper imaging," Anna said, holding Clint's left hand delicately. Anna wasn't sure where the x-ray equipment was and even if she did it was best the baby wasn't near any radiation.

"That's thanks to your brother. He paid a little visit. I ended up hitting the glass between us," Clint admitted with a small frown.

"I apologize on his behalf. Tony's a work in progress," Anna smiled cheekily, causing Clint to smile back.

"I hear congratulations are in order," he said, glancing towards Anna's stomach. "The trip to the airport makes a lot more sense now."

"Thanks," Anna smiled, her left hand automatically moving to her stomach even though she wasn't really showing yet. "Now try to keep your hand still while I wrap it until we can get someone to x-ray it and cast it."

She got to Scott last. He was quiet for most of his exam. He didn't speak until she was wrapping his sprained wrist. It probably didn't need to be wrapped, but she needed to focus on her work, and it was quickly running out.

"They say you helped orchestrate breaking us out," Scott said.

"I did," Anna murmured keeping her eyes on the bandage she was wrapping around his forearm.

"I guess you can trust a Stark," he relented, causing Anna's eyes to flash up to his. She knew it was the closest to a thank you she'd get from him.

With nothing left to do to steal her attention away from James, anxiety rose within Anna, clawing at her heart and lungs. All she could think of was how pale he'd been as Wanda took him to the lab. Sparks had danced along the open wires of his severed left arm. The only thing keeping him alive was Wanda's power. But even that couldn't last forever. Could Shuri and Akita stabilize him before she was too drained to use her power? Before Anna knew it she was close to hyperventilating. Arms circled around her, pulling her close and calming her breath a little. Her heart was still drumming, pulsing in her ears and distorting her hearing.

"She doesn't need a sedative." Natasha's voice was distorted, but Anna saw her coming to stand by her right, blocking her from the nurse who had approached with a syringe.

"He's in good hands Anna. We have to trust they're doing everything possible to save him," Steve murmured in her left ear. He must be the one with the therapeutically tight grip around her. "Match your breathing with mine."

Anna hadn't realized how close she was to an asthma attack. Focusing on the rise and fall of Steve's chest against her forehead, Anna tried to match his breathing. It was hard at first, her breaths coming faster than his, but eventually she managed to even out her own breaths.

…

As soon as they got Bucky to the lab they were at a loss of what to do. Wanda's powers were keeping the electrical charge in his arm but they couldn't work on him with her power surrounding him. And without her power stabilizing him, they'd lose him in minutes, maybe seconds.

"We need to control the electrical charge of his arm without Wanda before we can do anything else," Akita stated, glancing up at Shuri for any ideas on how they could do that. She was the technological genius, she was their best bet at finding a solution to his arm.

"I might I have something," Shuri muttered.

Racing around her lab, she opened drawers only to slam them shut or leave them half open when it wasn't there. She'd made a prototype material as an option for T'Challa's newest suits that might help, if she could only remember where she put it.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can hold this," Wanda called out, sweat dripping down her brow as she used everything in her to keep her hold on the electricity coursing through Barnes. She'd never used her power this consistently for this long.

"Got it!" Shuri shouted, pulling the strip of black material from a drawer. Running to the next table over, she grabbed a metal ring from it.

"I just need you to wrap the material over the severed part of his arm, and slip the ring over it. The ring will magnetize to the metal beneath it to keep it in place. The cloth will absorb the electrical power from his arm and keep it stable," Shuri instructed Wanda.

Wanda had no idea how she was going to manage that without releasing her grip on her power, but somehow she did. Grasping the cloth in one hand, she used the other to focus all her power on Barnes' severed arm, retracting it from the rest of his body. It was extremely awkward to finagle the material around his arm with one hand but she did it. Using her power to keep it in place while she grabbed the metal ring from Shuri, Wanda slipped it over the material, feeling it lock in place against Barnes' metal arm. As soon as it was on she retracted her power, collapsing against the wall.

Akita immediately ordered a nurse to start chest compressions while she hooked Barnes up to a 12 lead ECG. As soon as he was all hooked up the machine started beeping rapidly showing his heart was in Ventricular Tachycardia. Akita moved for the AED while Shuri immediately checked the material around his arm, but it was secure.

"Clear!" Akita shouted, after placing the AED pads, waiting for Shuri to step back until she shocked Barnes.

The nurse moved back in to restart chest compressions while the others focused on the monitor. When nothing changed Akita cleared again, sending another shock through Barnes' body. It took one more shock before Barnes' heart beat returned to a normal rhythm.

"He's stable," Shuri breathed out with a slow smile.

"For now," Akita relented.

A/N: This has been a long time coming. I had it all planned out, but it took forever for me to actually get it out of my head and into a word document. But it's finally here, and I hope it lives up to your expectations. It was very hard for me to write.

ABOUT INFINITY WAR: NO I HAVE NOT SEEN IT YET SO NO SPOILERS PLEASE! I get to see it this weekend when my husband has the weekend off. Having not seen it yet, I'm not sure if this story will continue onto Infinity War or not. Infinity War takes place 3 years after where we are at now so if it does it will either be a long time coming or there will eventually be a time jump. Or I might end it on my own terms and not continue it through Infinity War. I'm not sure. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?

PS I've started a Vampire Diaries Jeremy/OC fic for helping me work through writers block on this one (Sometimes taking a step back and working on something else helps me with writers block) so if you guys want to check that out it's titled Swan Princess :)

Onto Guest Review Responses:

Sapphist: You have your private messaging turned off so I'm responding to your review here. I'm impressed you read both stories in only 3 days. You must have read non-stop. You have no idea how happy I am and how big I smiled to read how much you love James and Anna. I'm sorry I made you wait so long for this chapter!

Pam: I'm SO ecstatic you loved how I'm incorporating the Black Panther's storyline in this story. I'm enjoying it immensely so far. I'm not sure how I'm going to have Anna and Bucky and the others worked into the actually movie plot of the Black Panther, but I'm thinking they'll be in the background. Like the behind the scenes parts that the black panther doesn't show since they will be in Wakanda but not a part of all the Tribal happenings. I absolutely adore Shuri and had to make her and Anna meet. I'm relieved you like how I incorporated James losing his left arm since I diverted the plot of Civil War so it didn't get severed by Tony. I was hoping it would all seem to fall together seamlessly. Thank you for continuing to review and love and read this story. It means everything to me! xoxo

Jo: Haha I'm so glad you love the idea of both Steve/Emily (STEMILY?) and Clint/OC stories. There would be a lot of snark and sarcasm with Clint/OC. Hope this update didn't leave you as anxious as the last one.

Anonymouscsifan: Glad you had the chance to get all caught up with the story! I'm always happy to hear someone liked my twist with the ending of Civil War. It's always nerve-wracking to stray from the original plot because some people may hate it. Tony making a mini Iron Man Suit would be epic and I want it to happen now. And I know it sounds horrible of me, but I'm glad you got teary eyed while reading some parts. I love giving my readers all the feels, good and bad. I hope I managed to make you feel during this one too!

Guest who was shook by the ending: I'm sorry for the ending of the last chapter. I love ending on cliff hangers every once in a while (I'm sure you've noticed) but I usually try to post the next chapter sooner so it's not as bad for the readers. I'm sorry you've had to wait so long, it was really hard making this chapter come out.

Guest who read both stories and doesn't like that this story isn't finished: I'm sorry I haven't finished it yet, but I'm working on it. I'm touched that it is one of your favorites and that you like the way it flows. That means so much as plot and making it flow is always something I'm working on improving in my writing. Thanks for reviewing!

Cheryl: I love hearing people reread the story. It really means so much to me to think people love the story and the character I've created that they want to read it all over again. Especially when they end up still in love with it after doing so. I haven't started the Steve/Emily story yet and now I'm contemplating how I'm going to plot theirs to coincide with this one. I'm stoked that you love the idea of their story. I'll try to figure things out for their story soon!

Hannah: I'm glad you're still enjoying the story! To know other people love James and Anna as much as I do just makes me smile so much.

Guest who wants more: Here it is, hope it was satisfying!

Rach

xoxo