Ayo moved for Zemo, making the man stand in anticipation for his manhandling.

Bucky did the only thing he could. He stood between them. Meeting her in the middle of the room.

He could see the spark of betrayal in those veteran eyes, stinging Bucky to the core, a dagger in his heart.

Her spear didn't hesitate, striking at Bucky with a ferocity meant for Zemo. His Vibranium arm deflected the sharp tip with a clang, the other end however whirled round, hitting him in his wound.

Bucky dropped to his knees immediately, choking back a howl.

The spear blades came to rest on his neck, making Bucky raise his chin away from the sharp metal.

"Hey! That's a low blow." Sam called out from the side-lines.

"Stay down." Ayo hissed in English, just to be sure Bucky understood.

Bucky dodged backward, batting the spear away in the process, saving his neck from a nasty laceration.

Getting his breath back was an added battle he didn't need. A war on two fronts not bettering his odds. Ayo had targeted his wound; it wasn't an unlucky coincidence. Bucky knew this.

Back on his feet he kept a defensive stance, needing to protect his vulnerable side. Ayo surely going to use it against him.

A warrior's cry accompanied her savage strike, Bucky barely managing to manoeuvre out of the way. He countered back with his own punch. Ayo was tactical, using the moment to establish an instability in his stance.

Her leg swept under him. Bucky was back on the floor, face scrunched in pain.

"This won't end well for you." She told him in Wakandan. Spear pointed back in his face. The honesty of her words transferred through the entrancing language.

Bucky wrapped his legs around her ankle, using his own weight and strength to bring her down.

The spear clattered out of her hand, sliding away. Bucky scrambled to his feet in the chaos, coughing a few times, moving between her and the weapon.

She was on her feet with an elegance he still couldn't comprehend. Technique unlike any other fighter.

Within the commotion Zemo casually got up from the couch. Sam pushed him back down immediately.

"Not this time." Sam was quick to react.

There wasn't a moment for pause in the ongoing engagement, Bucky having to be swift in his tactical decision making. Ayo not giving him room for error.

He clocked her going for his mechanical arm, the exact move from their previous fight. With her trick revealed he diverted her hand away, but her other fist moved in, Bucky having to counter that attack too.

Ayo was fast, moving around him like a wasp. She kicked him in the back of the knee, taking the opportunity to roll for her spear.

Back in her well attuned grasp, she lunged. Bucky having to take hold of the spear's shaft.

His usual unmatched reflexes failed him, his other arm not going up quick enough to stop the kick to his wounded side.

Returning to the floor, which was now and old friend, Bucky coughed heavily. Wind knocked out of him.

He felt the blood on his lips. He still attempted to get up, even though his coughing persisted. Without breath in his body, his muscles had nothing to work off, strength left untapped behind a need for oxygen.

"Stop." Sam got between the two of them, putting his hand out in a gesture of surrender, even crouching slightly in a poor stance to show his intent.

Ayo cared little. The spear swung round taking his feet out from under him, Sam being introduced to the floor.

Not a spec of sweat was on her stunning ebony skin, no waver in her steady breath as she strode up to Zemo.

He hadn't manged to escape this time, another member of the Dora Milaje pushing him out from one of the back rooms behind the couch.

Blood trickled from Bucky's mouth, drops speckling on the ground.

"I think you… almost had her." Bucky managed to quip between coughs.

With a deep inset groan, chest thumping with pain Sam sat up.

Ayo's deceptively feminine hands latched around Zemo's throat, bringing his face closer to hers. Anger swirled in her deep brown eyes, face almost forming a snarling jaguar. Zemo nothing more than a helpless rat in her claws.

"I should kill you here." Ayo said with a venom, Zemo at her mercy, hold tightening.

"Whatever you do with him… It… It won't change anything." Bucky still sputtered his words, wheezing not going away, coughs just harsher. He was barely sitting up, blood still dripping from his mouth. "Righting your wrongs…" Bucky sucked back an awful sounding breath, in a desperate need to get his words out. "It doesn't make you feel better." He finally got out. "It changes nothing." He mumbled just loud enough for the others to hear.

There was no stopping Bucky getting up now, Sam's only choice to assist him, stop him falling flat on his face.

Ayo stared into Zemo's eyes, the man squirming under her grasp.

"Nothing changes what Zemo did." Sam attempted to reason, Bucky barely on his feet. "And he deserves to be locked up for it." Zemo's eyes looked over at Sam, brows frowning in disagreement. "But right now, we need him."

"You would stand side by side with a murder." Ayo shook the man in her clutches.

Sam felt Bucky flinch, the comment resonating with him.

"To save innocent people. Yes." Sam put as much strength into his words as he could. Bucky having to spit blood from his mouth.

The tension in the room came to crescendo, all eyes on Ayo and Zemo.

Zemo was shoved back, released his hands went up to his neck, throat sore as he took unrestricted breaths.

"I hope my trust is not misplaced in you. White Wolf." Ayo gestured to her companion, them moving for the exit.

Bucky's had his hand covering his wound, eyes locked with Ayo.

There nothing he could have said or done to show his gratitude.

The two women left with grace and composure of true warriors, the compassion of a loyal guards.

The room didn't know what to do with itself after their departure, standing there like the rest waiting for something else to happen.

"Did that just happen." Sam still had a steady hold on Bucky.

"Yeah… arh" Bucky's speech trailed off into a grunt, hand pulling away from his side to real fresh blood penetrating the bandages. He doubled over.

"Woah." Sam couldn't keep Bucky up. He dragged him to a support pillar, sitting him up. "You've torn some stitches."

That was the least of Bucky's worries. He stared off into the distance, already replying his encounter with Ayo in his head.

Sam wove the needle through Bucky's irritated skin, pulling the thread taught, bringing the parted flesh back together.

Bucky inhaled sharply, trying not to bite his lip.

He was standing by the kitchen side, holding up the corner of his top.

"This was a lot easier when you were out of it." Sam mentioned, having to bend awkwardly to finish up closing the reopened wound.

"Yeah well. Too bad." Bucky cleared his throat.

"Stitch yourself up next time then." Sam told him, his tone not making it clear weather he was joking or not.

Finishing up Sam applied a fresh dressing, allowing Bucky to drop his top back down. Pulling off another pair of gloves Sam dropped them on the kitchen counter amongst the old blood covered dressing.

"Thank you." Bucky swallowed back his hard exterior.

"No problem." Sam said with appreciation, having evidently not expected him to say anything.

Bucky took his phone from his pocket, Sam clearing the kitchen side of the medical supplies.

"Shiiit." Bucky hissed. A video was playing on the news, it was Walker.

"What is it?" Sam asked as Bucky slapped his phone down onto the counter. He didn't need to see that again.

"Walker made the news."

"As to be expected." Zemo told them. He was resting on the couch, eyes closed, having appeared to be asleep.

"We need to go after him." Bucky looked to Sam, waiting for orders. "We find him. We find Karli."

"I'll contact Sharon, see if she can give us a location." Sam tugged the black case towards him on the counter, sitting on the stool he pushed the lid up. The military level computer lit up, green text darting across the screen.

Bucky walked over to Zemo, testing his moveability range of his side.

"You have my gratitude, James." Zemo's eyes where still closed, Bucky ignored him taking a seat as far from him on the couch as possible. "Working together is the only way this mission will be accomplished."

"As soon as we're done, I'm handing your straight over to the Wakandans myself." Bucky informed him. Zemo probably having figured this fact for himself.

"Understandably." He responded. Zemo thread his fingers through each other, resting his hands together on his belly.

"That book of yours. Your list of wrongs." Zemo switch of subject grasped Bucky's full attention.

"If righting them has changed nothing. Why continue to be someone you're not?" Zemo had of course heard him before while speaking to Ayo. "Why not embrace your past?"

"I'm not that man anymore." Bucky brows had narrowed, eyes not leaving the man who wasn't even looking at him.

"As you've said before." Zemo opened his eyes, sitting up to meet Bucky's violent stare. "But James… our experiences shape us, mould us into who we are."

"Shut up." Bucky mumbled, eyes borrowing through Zemo.

"Whether your mind is free or not. You will always be the Winter Soldier."

Bucky went for the man he had just saved. Sam was between them holding him back, having anticipated the escalation.

"Leave it. He's getting in your head." Sam attempted to calm the soldier. "Take a minute." Sam suggested.

Bucky coughed lightly, the sudden movement agitating his still recovering lungs. He turned away, walking further into the house, away from Zemo and out of sight.

"Your out of line." Sam looked down at the man. Zemo was laying himself back down, putting his feet back up on the couch, getting comfy again. "He just saved your ass."

"James needs to come to terms with who he is."

"What are you, his shrink?"

"He is two men in one." Zemo kept back a yawn. "One man who stands with everything I have fought against. The other… well he doesn't even know himself."

"You wanna know who he is." Sam crossed his arms. "James Bucky Barnes. That's who he is." Zemo looked up at him with that trademark curious look. "And that's all you need to concern yourself with."

Authors Notes

Heya! loved writing this fight scene, so much fun. Looking at drawing this story to a close, final chapter will be out Thursday. Because of course the next episode of the Falcon and The Winter Soldier is coming out Friday :P