Chapter Twenty-Seven
✭
Steve's heart stopped. "Mia, what —?"
Steve didn't have time to whip off his shield to block it. He did the only thing he could think of and dove for cover. He slammed over the front hood of the sedan before crashing to the other side.
The bullet meant for him disappeared somewhere into the engine block.
"Mia, stop!" Steve was breathless, in shock. He looked over the hood of the vehicle to implore her, only to duck when she fired at him again. "What are you doing?"
Wild dismay tinted his cry. But Amelia didn't respond. Her eyes had gone cold.
Steve tried to think of some logical explanation, but he could find none. Why had Amelia killed Sitwell? The one person they needed to break into the Triskelion, the key to their harebrained plan working. The analyst clearly knew something was up, but hadn't lived long enough to tell it. Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
And it was about to get worse.
As Steve scrambled for something to say, to snap Mia out of it, something hit the side of the vehicle beside his head. He flinched, finally pulling off his shield to take cover. Three more bullets hit him.
And now they were being fired upon from behind.
What the hell's going on here?
As Steve looked over his shoulder, trying to find the other gunman or men, Sam made the bold move. Perhaps understanding even less than Steve did, Sam nonetheless tackled Amelia without question. And just in time, as she turned her gun on Natasha (still on the ground).
The blow knocked off her arm, sending the bullet pinging harmlessly off pavement. The gun fell from her hand.
But Sam failed to throw her to the ground as he intended. Amelia steadied herself, widening her stance so her center of balance was low — then grabbed Sam by the shoulders and threw him.
Steve, his back still turned to look for the other shooter, didn't see it when Sam came flying over the hood as well. All the warning he got was Sam's terrified cry, before he was slammed into from behind.
His shield protected Steve from the worst of the fall, but the same could not be said for Sam, who rolled over on the concrete, groaning.
"Are you alright?" Steve demanded, scrambling to help his friend back up — making sure his shield was between them and the gunman.
"Yeah, I'm just peachy!" Sam yelled, and flinched when a bullet impacted the shield. "Who the hell is shooting at us?"
Another bullet struck the car door, leaving behind a black hole. Two more followed.
"Four gunmen on the bridge!" Natasha called back, already climbing back into the car. She pulled her weapon on Amelia, but the girl was faster — turned and took the bullets on her shield, crouching to protect her legs.
Natasha, without even questioning it, fired a full round and emptied her clip, unable to cause any harm but using it to buy time so she could get into the car. "It's an ambush! We gotta get out of here!"
Steve reeled at the sight of Natasha shooting at a kid, at Mia — his Mia — and wanted to chastise her. To shout at her. For the love of God, don't hurt her.
But Amelia was already picking up her weapon.
There was no time to snap at Nat. It was a tight spot. One on side they were receiving enemy fire from targets none of them could reach. On the other, a child super soldier, the one person Steve had been worried about this entire time, had betrayed them for reasons entirely unknown.
Sam got into the car at the same time as Natasha. Slid into the driver's seat from the passenger's side, risking direct line of fire from Mia. But he managed to start the car anyways.
The door remained open, allowing Steve an opportune escape.
It seemed insane to do so now. They'd come to rescue Amelia, only to run from her.
Fear, panic, creeped at the edges of his mind. Steve had no idea what was going on — just that Mia had just killed Sitwell, and was now firing the remaining rounds of her firearm into the sedan.
One of the bullets shattered the driver's window, sending glass everywhere. Sam flinched, started cursing up a storm.
Steve had barely managed to throw herself into the backseat before the car took off in a squeal of rubber. His feet hadn't even left the ground yet.
Only for it to screech to a halt a second later, something catching the back end.
"What the —" Looking around, Steve was shocked to see Amelia had grabbed the rear bumper and was hanging on. The car was still moving forward, pulling her along, but her strength was enough to slow the car considerably.
Sam pressed on the gas, and the front wheels squealed. Back wheels spun uselessly as Amelia lifted the rear up.
Something had to give. Natasha aimed her second pistol out the window and fired a warning shot. Amelia flinched, and something snapped - the sedan lurched forward, catching traction on the road before shooting forward like a slingshot.
Leaving Amelia behind, the torn away bumper in her hands.
"What the hell is going on?" Sam demanded as they peeled off into oncoming traffic. He had just barely managed to avoid slamming into a semi head-on and lost his side mirror in the effort. "Why is she shooting at us?!"
"I don't know!" Steve shouted back, and there was no hiding the sheer distress in his voice. As the car burned a red light, he threw a look over the seat, out the back window.
At Amelia, her figure steadily growing smaller. Her pistol rising again.
A bullet dinged off the trunk.
"Who're the other guys? SHIELD?" Sam yelled as a spray of bullets scattered against the hood. He weaved across the road to throw off their aim — driving underneath the bridge was dangerous, but it was the fastest way out of here without going back in Mia's direction. Once they had passed underneath, they would be safe from fire.
"It's HYDRA!" Natasha called, which came out more like a snarl as she struggled to reload her pistols. The second one had already been spent, used to send cover fire back at Amelia — once again blocked by that black shield.
Natasha rocked back and forth in the backseat from the violent motion, nearly smacking her face against the back of Steve's chair. "Just drive!"
They'd just passed under the bridge when something crashed down onto their roof. Something heavy.
No one had time to react before a metal arm smashed through the windshield and ripped the fucking wheel out of the car.
Sam just stared at the empty steering column, mouth opening in a loud cry of "SHIT."
Then bullets started firing in from above.
Natasha was already diving for the front seat, landing directly into Steve's lap. At the same time, Sam did the only thing he could — slammed on the breaks.
The car screeched to a stop on the other side of the bridge tunnel. The motion threw their new passenger off the roof, sending him tumbling into the road ahead of them.
A man dressed in black, hitting the ground in a roll. He had so much speed that he kept going, even as he planted his hand — shiny, silver metal — against the ground to slow himself.
The metal fingers left grooves in the cement. The man stood up.
Masked face. Stringy dark hair. Black tactical gear. Red star on a metal arm.
Steve's blood went cold. The man from the rooftop.
The Winter Soldier.
Bucky.
But he couldn't tell for sure. Not with the goggles and mask hiding most of his face. Nevertheless, the three of them stared at him in dawning horror.
A trap.
Sam reacted as anyone would. Seeing a bad guy standing directly in his path, he hit the gas. Without a wheel, they gunned straight for the Winter Soldier. Natasha raised her gun.
Only too late did they realize they had entered an intersection. Steve turned his head just in time to see the tow truck.
The large vehicle, going at full speed, t-boned the small sedan, sending it careening. Everyone in the cabin cried out as the sedan flipped, once, twice. Steve, who had the good fortune to bear wherewithal in that moment, grabbed both Sam and Natasha, slammed his shield into his door. It gave away, and they fell out as the car flipped over them.
The shield took most of the impact, but Steve lost his grip on Sam — the other man fell away as Steve and Natasha skidded across the road. An incoming SUV swerved wildly to avoid them, crashing into a taxi in the next lane.
It seemed to take ages to recover. By the time Steve and Natasha got back to their feet, the gunmen from the bridge had rappelled to the road below, directly behind the Winter Soldier. One handed him a grenade launcher.
Steve shoved Nat away from him just in time. The airborne grenade hit his shield with the power of a small rocket. The blast sent Steve off his feet, careening backwards into an oncoming bus.
The bus driver must've anticipated the danger ahead, and had already slammed the breaks, trying to turn the vehicle. But it was already going too fast, and the yank of the wheel sent the long vehicle into a tilt it couldn't recover from.
Steve, smashing into the side, was enough to send the bus crashing onto its side.
The air began filling with screams.
With Steve momentarily incapacitated inside the bus, it left both Sam and Nat without a helpful super soldier to take the brunt of the fire. The Winter Soldier had spent his second and last RPG on Natasha, who dove behind the tow truck for cover. And just in time. The tow truck was nearly launched into the air from the impact alone, causing a large enough explosion for Nat to lose herself in.
The Winter Soldier began approaching the downed bus; casting aside his spent grenade launcher, one of his comrades handed him an assault rifle. The assassin seemed intent on finishing off Steve, still trapped inside the bus.
He only got halfway there before a bullet struck him.
It glanced off his goggles, sending the Winter Soldier reeling back, diving behind the cement road divider. The bulletproof goggles had protected his eyes and saved his life.
Ripping them off, the Winter Soldier took a deep breath.
Too close.
Then he launched upwards and fired his assault rifle in Nat's direction.
Nat ducked, before bolting across the street, trying to gain as much distance as she could from the opponents. She had no idea where Sam went. All she knew was that when she looked over her shoulder, the Winter Soldier was coming after her.
Not at a run, no. But at a measured pace. As if he were out for a stroll.
Traffic had built up. People were running, screaming, standing still and watching in abject horror. Natasha tried to yell at them, tell them to get away, run while they could. A few listened. Most didn't until they saw the Winter Soldier coming.
With no other recourse, she dove behind the wall of traffic, breaking line of sight. And waited.
Sam, meanwhile, was having one heck of a time.
He'd recovered from his fall (now with a serious case of road rash) managed to avoid attention by staying low and crouching behind the crashed vehicles now blocking all traffic in the intersection by the causeway. There were civilians here. So many civilians — trying not to give away his position, Sam gestured and hissed at a couple frozen outside their stopped vehicle to get the hell out of here.
Terrified looks and an exchanged glance, and they started to run.
If only Sam had been so wise.
A fifth man was rappelling down the bridge, a bit late considering the rest were already starting to fire into the underside of the overturned bus. Steve was inside somewhere. Sam, creeping around the crashed vehicles, managed to get behind the armed team; the Winter Soldier, preoccupied with Nat, didn't see him.
Knife in hand, Sam ambushed the fifth gunman from behind. With a kick to the knee and a slash of his weapon, the former wingman knocked down the aggressor, disarmed him, and took him out with a swing of a rifle butt.
Now Sam was armed.
One of the HYDRA combatants had a minigun, and was firing it directly into the bus - then onto Steve, who'd just rolled out. He grabbed his shield just in time to take the fire. Even with a gun that powerful, it still couldn't beat vibranium.
Realizing this, Steve got an idea, and charged.
Right into the minigun, and knocked the man down flat. Right into the middle of the HYDRA squad.
He raised his shield up to defend against the first assault rifle, but he didn't see the second one behind him until he turned around - and watched as the second man was thrown back, hit by a bullet Steve didn't see.
Steve whirled around, startled to find Sam just a short distance away, firing at the rest of the unsuspecting squad, picking them off. He called to Steve, "I got this, go!"
Only a quick nod of thanks. Then Steve was tearing after Natasha. And the Winter Soldier.
Sam would regret leaving himself alone with the squad. Oh, they were easy to pick off once they were busy with Steve. Under a minute and they were all eliminated - Sam was just about to call it a job well done and join the battle down the street, when he looked around and saw a shield - coming straight for his head.
It hit him square in the chest, sending Sam backwards over the median he'd been using for cover. He hit the ground wheezing - it felt like he'd just been hit by a truck. Pretty sure that cracked a few ribs.
Coughing, he climbed back up, and came face-to-face with Amelia.
"Aw, shit," Sam muttered, swallowing. In the time it took to drive away, crash, and deal with the HYDRA ambush, he'd completely forgotten about the other threat they were trying to escape from.
It seemed she finally caught up.
Sam was already dreading this. Not even two minutes had passed since Steve had yanked them out of the flipping car and Sam was already feeling the weight of exhaustion in his bones. He didn't like to think himself out of shape, but… well, Amelia could beat Steve in a race. Sam wasn't sure he could compete.
She watched Sam with dead, unblinking eyes. The girl who'd once laughed at his jokes and ate a whole pizza and a half — completely gone. It was the same face, but Sam was struck with the bizarre sensation that he was looking at a total stranger.
The coat she'd been wearing previously had been cast aside, revealing tactical gear similar to the Winter Soldier's. Had she been wearing that this whole time? How had Sam not noticed? Dumbass!
"H-hey, look," Sam had already been thrown by her, and was not looking forward for a repeat. Even worse, he couldn't get the fact that she was a kid out of his head. A very scary-looking kid, but still. He held up his hands slowly, gun aimed away from her. He eyed the shield in her hand. "I don't want to hurt you, Mia. I don't know what the hell's going on, but HYDRA's messing with your head, man. You don't want to do this —"
Amelia didn't wait for him to finish. She lunged at him. Sam saw the knife in her hand at the last second and ducked out of the way just in time.
He stumbled back, heart pounding. "Okay! I guess you do!"
The girl that was once Amelia attacked him with a relentless ferocity. Apparently, she had used up the rounds of her firearm and had resorted to close combat. Normally Sam would prefer this, since he didn't have a fancy bulletproof shield; but even with his superior firepower, he couldn't get the weapon leveled quickly enough before Amelia struck at him again.
Stab, slash, feint. Sam found himself constantly moving backwards, trying to stay out of her reach.
The assault rifle was taking most of the heat; Sam had already received a slash on his arm — all it would take was one lucky hit and he was finished.
He managed to parry an attack and smashed the rifle into her head. Sam regretted it immediately; not because it worked, but because Sam knew Steve would kill him if Amelia got hurt.
But Sam had the sinking feeling this wasn't Amelia anymore.
Maybe betrayal wasn't the right word for it anymore. But Sam was too busy just trying to stay alive than to figure out the logistics of whatever the hell was up with this assassin in front of him.
The strike, at least, appeared successful. Amelia stumbled back, momentarily dazed.
But only momentarily.
She recovered within a second, and slammed a kick into Sam's chest.
His back crashed into a car behind him. Sam grunted from impact. He cast a forlorn glance at their ruined sedan. If only he could get there, get his wingsuit…
Sam glanced back at Amelia, who was approaching him silently. He was struck with a sense of déjà vu - since the moment she killed Sitwell, she'd gone entirely silent. It struck him as similar to when she had appeared at random at the VA; mute due to some kind of stress stimulus.
He wondered if it was just a coincidence.
Right now, though, Sam had a bigger problem. Amelia looked like she was about to kill him.
Sirens rang out.
To the right, from the other side of the bridge, came a police car. Sam let out a slight huff of laughter, relief. Finally, back up! Maybe the tide was finally turning —
Nope. Amelia pulled something from her belt. A metal object, the size and shape of a golf ball. Threw it right at the oncoming vehicle.
It exploded on impact, send the flaming vehicle crashing into the underside of the bridge.
When Amelia looked around again, Sam was gone. Her eyes widened slightly, caught off guard for the first time. She quickly scanned the surrounding area. The man had disappeared.
So, she turned and headed towards the sound of fighting behind her, further down the boulevard. Where the Winter Soldier was.
Where Captain America was.
Stepping onto the main road, the two super soldiers were in a heated duel, trading blow for blow. The Winter Soldier, armed with a knife; Steve with his shield. He was constantly being pushed back, trying not to get hurt while at the same time keeping the Winter Soldier's focus on him. Natasha was around here somewhere — wounded, a gunshot through her shoulder. He didn't want the Winter Soldier to have another chance at her.
He almost didn't see Amelia until the last second.
She'd come up from behind. Steve hadn't seen her since they'd left her behind at the parking lot, and to see her now, with that cruel reflection of his own shield, nearly sent Steve's heart stopping.
The pattern emblazoned across her chest. A red skull.
He saw her knife at the last second.
Steve swung his shield. It connected with hers - vibranium rang out in dual gong. Amelia feinted to the right, and tried to slip her knife between his ribs.
Steve kicked her away. The impact of his shoe against her stomach made his own sick. He felt muscle and bone give way. The blow sent Amelia flying back. She was faster, but he was stronger.
She was already getting up, but Steve couldn't keep his attention on her forever. The Winter Soldier had just grabbed him from behind.
Right before Steve was thrown against a van, he saw Amelia lunge for him. Steve ducked a following punch from the Winter Soldier. Deflected his next strike. Looked back and saw Natasha leap out of nowhere, tackling Amelia with her legs around the girl's shoulders.
Both of them went down.
Steve took a punch to the face. Whirled back around on the Winter Soldier.
Natasha had the upper hand, if only through the element of surprise. Unlike Sam or Steve, she had little compunctions against attacking a teenager. She had killed plenty in her time in the Red Room. This was nothing.
…Except it wasn't nothing. Amelia wasn't a Widow. She was just a girl.
And a Super Soldier.
Working for HYDRA.
It made things… complicated. Natasha was an expert at complicated, but even this was new territory for her.
Still, she didn't let her inner doubts hold her back. Regrets were saved for Future Natasha.
The stranglehold only had a temporary effect before the girl solved the problem by dropping backwards, throwing both of them to the ground. Natasha gasped as the girl landed on top of her.
Shoulder screaming, Natasha smothered her cry of pain. She rolled away as soon as Amelia recovered. Dodged the swipe of her knife. Delivered a kick to the knee.
Not strong enough; Amelia barely seemed to react. Her response was merely to catch Nat's follow-up attack with her shield. Her knuckles cracked at the impact. Nat bit back another bout of pain. That would be the first and last time she ever punched a vibranium shield.
Amelia retaliated by slamming the shield into Natasha, sending her flying back against the front of a taxi. The windshield cracked under Natasha's weight. For a brief moment, she couldn't breathe. The pain in her shoulder was immense.
She watched, helpless, gasping for breath, as Amelia stalked towards her.
Some kind of ancient, latent fear resurfaced then. A kind of fear Natasha hadn't felt since the Winter Soldier had shot through her just to kill a target.
And now there were two of them.
Fantastic.
Finally, oxygen re-entered Natasha's lungs. She coughed. Then she wasn't so helpless anymore.
As she recovered, Natasha realized that being thrown onto the car had been a fortuitous turn on her part. Now she had the higher ground.
Amelia, apparently not seeing this, went right for her anyways.
Natasha leaped. This time, she was ready.
Amelia seemed to anticipate the legs, but didn't see the Widow's Bite coming. She gasped, her first sign of pain, as the electricity coursed through her.
The Widow's Bite, combined with Nat's weight on her shoulders, unbalanced Mia and sent her to the ground. The knife fell from her hands. Natasha snatched it immediately.
In a split second, Nat had Amelia pinned to the ground. Amelia was larger but she couldn't fight back, too busy writhing under prolonged exposure to the Widow's Bite. Natasha didn't let up. Not when she had the clear advantage.
That's when Steve happened to look over, hearing Amelia cry out. He saw Nat with her gauntlet digging into the girl's exposed neck. In Nat's other hand was a dagger, raised over her head, posed to strike.
Horror gripped Steve's chest, and he momentarily forget about the Winter Soldier. "Nat, don't!"
At the same time, the Winter Soldier looked over, distracted by the same sight as Steve. Only he had a far quicker, more efficient reaction.
The Winter Soldier pulled out a pistol. Shot the knife out of Nat's hand.
Natasha, surprised by Steve's voice, then the gunshot, recoiled. The bullet nearly took off her hand.
The Bite disconnected. Amelia kicked her off.
Steve didn't see the rest of it, as his gaze cutting back to the Winter Soldier, blinking in shock. Did that really just happen?
The man seemed briefly frozen, before seeming to remember himself, and turned the gun on Steve. But there was no hiding it. Something had changed.
But Steve was faster. He didn't know what he just witnessed, but he knew an opportune moment when he saw one. Reaching over his shield, he grabbed the wrist holding the weapon, twisting it aside. Slammed his shoulder into the Winter Soldier's chest. Swung his shield up and behind, driving the edge into the back of the Winter Soldier's arm - he felt the metal cave.
The assassin effectively locked in Steve's grip, Steve grabbed his throat and threw him over his shoulder.
The Winter Soldier hit the ground in a roll. The mask fell off.
Turned around.
Steve, about to charge after him, came to a complete stop. The entire world seemed to slow, as the face of his best friend spun towards him.
All the breath escaped him like he'd just been punched in the gut. "Bucky?"
So, it was true. Amelia had been right.
Steve had believed it. Or thought he did. He had already suspected the truth after the Bunker, but until now, he hadn't quite realized what that would mean. During this entire fight, he hadn't fully acknowledged that it was Bucky behind that mask, that it was Bucky trying to kill Natasha, trying to kill him.
That had killed Fury.
That had become the Fist of HYDRA.
And yet, here he stood. Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes, in the flesh. Treating Steve like he was a complete stranger.
The gray-eyed assassin stared at him. "Who the hell is Bucky?"
Then he pulled another pistol and aimed it at Steve.
He never got the chance to fire.
Out of nowhere, Sam swooped in like Steve's personal guardian angel. He kicked the Winter Soldier — Bucky — with enough force to send him flying forward, rolling across the road. He recovered again, swiftly, tried to take aim at Steve once more.
But yet again, the attack was diverted by an RPG that came flying in from behind Steve. It missed its target, hitting the parked car behind the Winter Soldier. Still, it was enough to throw off his guard.
Steve looked around in surprise. Natasha, crouched behind a van, had the Winter Soldier's discarded weapon on her shoulder.
Her face was pale, and she sagged against the vehicle. Her shirt was bleeding heavily.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a form slipping between cars. He recognized the blonde hair immediately. Despite everything that happened, Steve couldn't help but call out, "Amelia!"
The figure froze. A face switched towards him. Amelia, wide-eyed, lips pressed into a thin line. Hand at her neck, covering a bleeding wound. She was limping. Natasha had gotten in a few good hits in their duel.
Smoke filled the air. Blocked her from sight. When it cleared, Amelia was gone.
When Steve looked around again, the Winter Soldier, too, had disappeared.
For a brief moment, both victory and despair, Steve thought they'd won.
And then Rumlow's STRIKE team arrived.
~o~
"I'm sorry, Nat," Steve was the first to speak on that long ride. "For getting in your way."
His arms were trapped in some kind of super-soldier-handcuffs. They were thick, huge, covering both forearms and essentially locking them together like a straitjacket. The metal wouldn't yield to his strength. Trapped in this truck, being taken to some unknown location where they would no doubt be executed, Steve was not feeling very hopeful for their situation. Stopping Project Insight, rescuing Mia, could not have gone more wrong.
"You didn't get in my way," Nat replied, her eyes half-closed and her voice breathy and soft. She'd been getting more tired the longer the ride continued. Sam's call for medical aid had gone ignored by the two faceless guards in the armored vehicle with them. She just shrugged her uninjured shoulder. "He would've shot the knife, or he would've shot me. Nothin' you could do about it."
HYDRA had brainwashed Bucky. That had to be it. There was no way Steve could believe that Bucky Barnes would ever become turncoat to his own country. Not even out of some misguided sense of doing good. None of this was right. But maybe it also explained why Mia wasn't acting like Mia, either.
"I thought he was an assassin," Sam said, casting Steve a doubtful look. "Why would he stop to save Mia's life?"
Because that's what a father does, Steve wanted to say. Instead, he replied, "I don't know. Maybe he's… attached, somehow. Maybe Pierce needs her for something."
"If her life is valuable, he wouldn't have sent her on a mission to kill two soldiers and an assassin," Natasha pointed out.
Steve didn't want to admit she was probably right. He didn't want to think about what that meant. But something about that had left a tiny seed in his heart. A seed of hope. "If that's the case, then maybe… maybe there's still some humanity left in him."
"I don't know, man," Sam looked extremely doubtful, his brow furrowing. "Your best friend just tried to kill you. I'm not sure there's much of a person left in him."
Steve didn't know if there was any Bucky left in the man who'd once been his brother. But he refused to believe that HYDRA could so completely defeat a man Steve himself once saw as invincible. "If there's still something left of him, maybe there's still something left of her, too."
If there was still some echo of Bucky left after seventy years, then Steve had to believe the same of Mia.
He wasn't going to give up on them.
Not yet. Not ever.