Hey all! Dramatic chapter is Dramatic! Chase scene of drama is filled with drama! Also I tried to use Romanian through Google Translate so blame that instead of me please. Enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Five~ Bucharest, Romania
For someone on a mission with a fire literally chasing after them, being able to slip past security details, police and border guards might be hard. That's not the case for Pale Shadow or me as I reach Bucharest just before sunrise. Weaving between the streets and mingling with the people, I play tourist as I take pictures of the sights. What I'm looking for through the lenses of the camera however isn't the buildings or the people or nature. I'm looking for one tiny sign that Bucky would leave to let me know where he is. It was usually a small red sticky note in a window somewhere but I couldn't find one anywhere. I meander down side alleyways and back streets, behind buildings playing lost tourist when caught. With my backpack and dirty two day old clothes I fit the part, especially since I dyed my hair a dark near black color. I hated to do it—but knew it had to be done if I was to find Bucky in time. By midday I'm starting to worry that he isn't even in the city let alone the country. I grab something to eat in a café while reading the latest newspaper. The picture of 'Bucky' is right there on the front page so that when done with the article I throw out the paper. I'm about to leave the café when a small boy comes over holding a piece of paper.
"Este pentru dumneavoastră." (This is for you) he says holding the paper as I ask calmly,
"Unde este mama ta?" (Where is your mother?) shaking his head the boy smiles at me saying,
"Ea mănâncă afară," (She's eating outside) so that turning to see where he's looking find a woman totally clueless to the fact her son is missing. Taking the paper from the boy's hand he tells me,
"Nu-i spune mamei." (Don't tell my mother) before he races back outside to where his mother sits probably making up a lie as to why he was inside the café. Carefully unfolding the paper I see an address in shaky hand writing and the words 'Missed You' at the bottom. Smiling brightly, I stand paying for the food and tucking the paper into my pocket. As I past the young boy and his mother I offer him a sweet which his mother, though hesitant, allows him to finally have. Winking at the kid as he waves goodbye, I follow the address and stop in front of a shabby apartment building. Climbing to one of the top floors I stop outside an apartment door hesitant to knock. Using the knock that we'd use during missions, I wait a moment before Bucky opens the door. The moment he does he grabs me and hauls me into the place before he's kissing me. Every unsaid word, everything we never got to say, all the emotions pent up and aching we pour into the kiss. When we have to breathe Bucky pulls back though his metal arm is around my waist. Leaning my forehead on his as we catch our breath Bucky says,
"I knew you'd end up coming." giggling despite the situation I shake my head saying,
"One tip was all I needed." sighing into my hand on his cheek, Bucky places a kiss on my palm before asking,
"What about him?" just knowing he means Steve and the fact he still can't say his name has my heart twist as I reply,
"He's worried sick."
"Punk." is all he says shaking his head as he places a lingering kiss on my lips before saying to me,
"Come on." and so frowning, I follow him out of the room which ends up being a tiny one room apartment. Giving me an all-knowing smirk as he leaves the tiny apartment room, I follow him without a second thought to his actually apartment. We're about to enter when Bucky halts staring with a dangerous glint at the door which is open just a hair. Instantly both of us turn stealth as we enter the apartment to find Steve in his uniform standing by a kitchen area. When Steve finally turns around he glances over at me just behind Bucky's metal shoulder before asking him,
"Do you know me?"
"You're Steve, I read about you in the museum." his voice is filled with more emotion than I expected it to be as Steve slowly starts moving towards us saying,
"I know you're nervous and you have every reason to be, but you're lying."
"I wasn't in Vienna I don't do that anymore." Bucky says this time I can hear the emotion leaving his voice and see the muscles under his clothes tense. He knows as well as I do that if any person saw Steve in his uniform they'd alert the authorities who'd follow him without question.
"Well the people who think you did are coming here right now and they're not planning on taking you alive." Steve says a bit closer to the both of us as Bucky shifts his weight to press me further backwards. The movement is subtle for anyone not looking for it—but Steve notices.
"Well that's smart, good strategy." Bucky says never taking his eyes off Steve waiting to see what he would do.
"This doesn't have to end in a fight Buck." Steve says looking over at me though I say nothing as Bucky moves to walk making sure to keep me behind him.
"It always ends in a fight." is his simple reply as Steve shouts at him,
"You pulled me from the river—why?" I watch as Bucky removes the glove on his metal hand and sigh deeply telling his best friend and brother,
"I don't know." there's no emotion now in his voice as he stares at Steve who glancing at me again twists to block something that is thrown through the window. The small device, a bomb, lands on the floor which I kick over at Steve who covers it with his shield. As it blasts under the shield a large gunshot hits the window causing Bucky to block it with the mattress of the bed. Pushing it aside and into a corner, he turns when we hear hard banging on the door. The second Bucky tosses the table at the door men start crashing through the windows on repel lines and in tactical gear with guns ready to fire. The fight that Bucky and I knew would happen starts as the three of us take turns either blocking, punching, kicking or hitting the men. Gunshots go off from one man so that they hit the ceiling having been thrown as Bucky literally pulls one man still on his line all the way to the other wall. The balcony door opens only I grab the man's gun and with a kitchen knife cut his rope as I pull him inside. With my foot I knock him unconscious as Steve grabs at Bucky to try and stop him.
"Bucky stop! You're going to kill someone!" Steve shouts only Bucky flips him over and slams him on the ground saying in his face,
"I'm not going to kill anyone." I watch as he throws something literally across to the other building before more men start to swarm the apartment. Steve uses his shield to block the gunfire as Bucky ducks and weaves having never forgotten any bit of his training. The moment I see Steve being thrown outside I turn to see Bucky punching a man before throwing him into the wall. Spying a man turning to fire I throw one of the several kitchen knives into his right shoulder before Bucky throws a cinder block at the man sending him into a door.
"Leave." Bucky says only I stare at him and say,
"Promise." before showing him the bracelet that I never take off. Even though it's the clone of it, I've never removed it if only to sleep. Now as Bucky stares at it he knows I'm not about to leave his side again. Three loud gunshots aim to break down the door hinges so that the second the door is loose I kick it as hard as I can into the men on the other side. As those behind the door crumple on the ground Bucky and I begin our back to back fighting. Sadly it feels as if nothing has changed—that he's still Winter Soldier and I'm still Pale Shadow. Even though I hate leaving Steve behind he'll understand—eventually. From overhead a man repels through the glass firing at me though Bucky uses his metal arm to shield myself from getting hit. Grabbing the battering ram they were trying to use, I smack several men climbing up the stairs towards us before I watch Bucky use the now unconscious man swinging to leap over to another side of the staircase. Instead of following his lead I just jump over the railing landing a few steps in front of him and using every bit of my training to fight a path for us. From overhead I spy Steve who with one jump lands in front of the two of us just as Bucky throws a man to land to his death. Even though he catches the soldier Steve tries to say something but Bucky just slams his metal elbow into someone's face. Taking my shoulder, I don't bother to hesitate as I wrap my arms around his neck. With one hand holding me the other hand Bucky uses to break and swing on the staircase railing down managing to smash a soldier into a door. As he throws punches I throw knives into arms, shoulders, legs—anywhere that isn't life threatening but still very painful. Turning suddenly to see a soldier aiming for me a familiar shield pushes the man into a wall allowing time for Bucky to just leap all the way down the center of the staircases. I'm about to follow only Steve shouts at me,
"Hannah!" so that looking up at him, I give him an apologetic smile before saying,
"Bye Punk." and with a breath jump over the same railing to be grabbed seemingly moments later by a metal arm. Bucky pulls me up over the side of the railing and onto the ground where he just nods at me before taking my waist in his flesh arm. Again I wrap my arms around his neck willingly trusting him with my life as I've done millions of times before. Squeezing tightly to his body, I watch as he runs towards the side of the building and leaps. With my eyes tight shut I feel the wind break around us before using his metal arm Bucky rolls a few times. The second I get the chance I'm upright finding that Bucky and I have literally flown over to the roof of another building. Bucky grabs his backpack as we start running again only he's hit from behind by a flying figure. When he stands up again the two of us face a figure clad in a black with silver suit, cat features on the mask and even claws. One would think fighting a person in a cat suit would be easy, but whoever this is blocks blow for blow from both of us. As I start growing annoyed with the guy I slowly start Pale Shadow to bleed through into my mind. This allows me to punch faster, kick harder and block easier to which the cat figure seems to glare at me. He turns and gets a few good hits on Bucky before trying to literally slice him apart. A roundhouse kick to the side of the head and using all that force, I throw the guy into part of the rooftop. As the guy slowly stands a male accented voice says,
"You aren't apart of this."
"You are so damn wrong." I say in a snarl of my own as now the two of us go head to head. Grabbing my jacket sleeve and pulling me towards him, I raise both feet and collide with his chest. That allows me to pull my arm from the sleeves of the jacket and wrap it around his face. Even though clearly he can cut through the fabric I use the moment of blindness to knee him in the groin. Low blow but I don't really care at this point. I turn to leave only two hands grab my ankle and pull me flat onto the ground so that two clawed hands appear in my face. Using a metal beam to block the claws inching towards my face, a booted foot appears kicking him in the side of the head. From overhead gunfire rains down as I look to see a helicopter firing without care at the three of us. A minute later I spy Sam flying over to take out the helicopter as Bucky and I take the moment distraction to run. Both of us leap over the side of the much shorter building while I glance up to see our cat friend following.
"I hate cats." I groan as I follow Bucky from one ledge to another before we land on the ground running. We only have a two minute head start from the guy chasing us even though we both run at top speed. Gunfire continues to rain from overhead as I follow Bucky whose leaps over and into an underground highway tunnel. As cars honk and swerve to miss us Bucky and I weave through the traffic. As sirens arrive behind us I throw my last knife at the tire of a police car watching it smash into another car nearby. That causes a temporary block so that the cat man has to jump over the two cars. Bucky and I end up leaping over cars and jumping from one car top to another. Glancing behind me I see a car speeding behind with Steve in the driver's seat. Driving over the median when Bucky and I cross over, Steve's actions create yet another car roadblock. Up ahead I see Bucky literally jump onto a speeding motorbike and use the speed of my running to just barely grab onto the back. Using his metal arm to help me onto the bike, Bucky continues to speed off with me sitting behind him. In between cars, around columns and dashing alongside cars Bucky pushes the bike to its limits as I hang on tightly. Suddenly something grabs ahold of my shirt and without a chance to stop I end up falling off the bike. An annoyingly familiar figure hovers over me until the front bumper of a car smacks into him sending the cat man flying. I have just seconds to stand up and seeing the overhead of the tunnel starting to collapse jump through the last gap before it crumbles behind me. Behind me the cat man keeps a firm hold of my arm digging its claws literally into my skin. That is before I kick him twice in the face just as Steve appears running at the cat man. As Steve starts fighting him Bucky comes over to check if I'm ok, but the blood on my arm tells a different story. All around us sirens wail as the four of us stand glaring at one another, Bucky's metal arm protectively around my shoulders. As I cradle my bleeding arm I spit blood out of my mouth towards the cat man. I watch the figure start towards me only from overhead yet another familiar figure appears. War Machine aims his guns at the four of us just like every other man who's surrounded us.
"Stand down now." as men swarm in to take us into custody Rhodey in his suit tells Steve,
"Congratulations Cap, you're now a criminal." as I'm torn from Bucky's side I struggle to reach him only he shakes his head as we watch the mask of the cat man be taken off. And there just like that stands the King of Wakanda so that glare at him now on my knees I say to him in his native Xhosa,
"The lives of the innocent can't be honored with the blood of the innocent." he just glares at me as he says in return,
"It depends on if he's innocent." I spit more blood at his feet in defiance before the five of us, Sam in his Falcon gear alongside us, are taken into custody.