Sam was flying through the air as fast as he could. He noticed Julia's body had stopped shaking and her arms around his neck were loosening up. He could look at her and saw her eyes were closed. Sam held her more firmly, afraid he would drop her again.

"Hey. You stay awake, do you hear me? Don't you dare to close your eyes!" he warned her with a stern voice.

She didn't open her eyes and her breathing slowed down.

"Stay awake, Julia! Please!" he begged and gave her a pinch near her knee. "Wake up! Come on!"

After his pinch, Julia slightly opened her eyes and tried to take a deep breath. Her inhalation was hoarse and rough, like she was having an asthma attack. Sam was glad she could open her eyes but was concerned about her breathing. In the distance he could see the QuinJet and saw a safe spot for landing near the aircraft.

Suddenly Iron Man landed close by, seconds after Sam landed. He walked closer to Sam and Julia as his mask lifted up. He stood still in front of them, blocking their way to the entrance of the jet and gazed at the hurt teenager.

"She's not getting in while Pepper is there," Tony warned.

"Just let me through, Tony. We don't have to fight each other," Sam demanded. "She needs help."

Tony still didn't let them pass and just kept gazing at Sam.

"If Julia didn't find Pepper, what would have happened?" Sam tried to convince Tony. "Pepper could have died if Julia didn't risk her own life to save your loved one. Think about that!"

Julia managed to open her eyes and glanced wearily at Tony. She mouthed a sorry to him. Seconds later, she almost lost consciousness. In the background, Sam could see Jemma standing in the tailgate of the aircraft. She watched anxiously at the scene.

"If she doesn't receive the help she needs and as soon as possible, she'll die!" Sam almost yelled frustrated at Tony.

Spiderman stopped in the middle of the fight when he heard Sam. With 'she' he knew Sam was talking about Julia. He got extremely worried about his former classmate.

"Mr. Stark, please let them through!" he begged Tony.

Before Tony could say anything back, his suit started to blaze red. Sam looked around his shoulder and saw Wanda using her powers. She took control of Tony and lifted him upward towards the sky.

"Hey!" Tony called out surprised as he went up in the air.

"Go!" Wanda yelled at Sam.

Sam didn't doubt for a second and ran into the aircraft. Jemma already saw Julia was unconscious.

"Lay her down on this stretcher," Jemma gestured as they were inside.

Jemma noticed the collar around Julia's neck.

"Is this a collar that stops her powers?"

"Yes it is," Sam answered while he laid her down on the stretcher.

He got scared as he saw Julia's pale face and lips, after he laid her down. She was barely breathing. Jemma immediately placed an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose and clipped an oxygen meter to her index finger. After that, she placed some stickers on Julia's chest to monitor her heartbeat. All doing with rubber medical gloves around her hands for their protection.

Sam knelt next to the stretcher and started holding Julia's hand, as a comfort.

"Please, be alright," he whispered to her.

"I'll give her more oxygen and a warm blanket. She feels very cold."

She twisted at the tap of the oxygen tank and fully opened it. Julia took a deep, hoarse breath when the oxygen reached her trachea. Jemma glanced at the heart monitor.

"Heartbeat and oxygen in her blood are low but at least she's alive."

"Will she be okay?" Sam asked worried as he started stroking her forehead.

Jemma looked at him while he was gazing at Julia. She could see he was already mourning. She placed a hand on his shoulder and Sam looked at SHIELD's doctor.

"I'll do my best," she tried to reassure him. "She needs a lot of oxygen before brain damage will appear."

Jemma glanced at the collar and saw it was tightened around Julia's neck.

"We need to get this off her. It's too tight around her neck," Jemma said and took the thing in her hands.

"No! Don't pull it!" Sam warned. "It will electrocute her and yourself!"

Jemma immediately released it and held her hands in the air beside her head.

"Okay. Touching it is not an option. Does it have a power switch?" she wondered as she investigated it from a distance.

Julia started to moan softly, which took the attention of Sam and Jemma.

"Sam?" she called him in a mere whisper, after she was waking up slowly.

"Hey, I'm here," he calmed her. "You're in the QuinJet with Jemma. You're safe now."

She opened her eyes. In a blur she saw a dark person next to her.

"Hey," Sam greeted again with a smile.

Julia could hear the fighting in the background.

"Go," Julia said in a mere whisper. "Go and fight."

Sam shook his head, scared for leaving her and losing her again. He took her hand firmly into his gloved hands.

"No, I'm not leaving you. Not this time," he told her.

"Please. Help the others," she insisted.

Sam got pissed off but also sad about the fact how determined Julia could be to be left alone. He bowed his head and mumbled a curse. Julia could remove her hand from Sam's and laid it on top of his. Sam glanced back in her fatigue eyes and noticed a little bit of color came back in her skin.

"I'll be okay."

"Now I'm doing a pinkie-promise with you," Sam said as he held out his pinkie. "You'll get better and don't die. Promised?"

With the little bit of strength in her, she could just wrap her pinkie around his. Sam could feel how weakly she wrapped her finger, compared with just an hour before. He sighed when he laid her hand back along her body. He stood up and reluctantly left the QuinJet to join the fight.

Pepper stood up from her seat after she witnessed everything and slowly went to the other ladies. When she looked at Julia she was amazed to see the minor wounds on her face were gone, just like the wound caused by Clint's arrow. Only her left arm looks slightly burned but not as bad as in the first place.

"Julia, listen to me."

Slowly Julia moved her head to look at Jemma. Her view was still blurry.

"I'm going to let you sit up, so you can breathe better. Okay?"

Julia could nod. Jemma grabbed the head of the stretcher and pulled it up so Julia could sit up. Then Jemma left, opened a drawer from the wall of the aircraft and pulled out a pillow and a blanket. She placed the pillow behind Julia's head and the blanket over her body to warm her up.

"There. This will be more comfortable for you and you'll warm up some," Jemma said with a smile as she tucked her in. "Better?"

Julia smiled weakly back at her.

"You're so nice," the teenager whispered.

"I know," Jemma smirked with a wink. "Get your rest. When the fighting is over, we will get you to the Avengers' facility for better treatment. I'll stay by your side until you're better."

Julia still weakly smiled at Jemma and could feel the collar loosened a bit around her neck. Thanks to that she could take deeper breaths.

Steve and Bucky got closer to the QuinJet and saw the fight. They decided to split up. Steve went to the battlefield, while Bucky hides in the bushes, being a sniper like he was during the second world war. He placed his machine gun on a rock and could shoot at the soldiers, one by one. It went slower then he's used to, all because of one arm. But then he saw a green haired woman sneaking into the jet. Bucky had the feeling she was a danger.

Inside the QuinJet, Pepper was holding Julia's hand, with medical gloves received from Jemma. With her thumb she stroked the top of Julia's hand. Julia's breathing is now calm, steady but still hoarse. Her body was still trembling a bit because of feeling cold. She was staring at Pepper, as if in a trance.

"You're such a sweet and strong girl," Pepper complimented the teen. "I really don't understand why they have misled you so much and why people hate you."

Jemma had cleaned Julia's face and placed an IV with blood and fluids in her hand. She checked Julia's vitals again and saw they had improved a tiny bit. She sighed relieved as she saw the small progress. She even noticed that the collar had loosened around Julia's neck and researched it again.

"I really need Fitz help to get this thing off," she said. "He's the best technician that I know, so hopefully he'll know how to remove it without getting hurt."

Suddenly, Julia sat up quickly, grabbed Pepper by the waist and pulled her over the stretcher. On the other side, she pulled Jemma down. A rain of bullets followed and was hitting the medical devices. Sparkles and tiny explosions happened, while Jemma and Pepper were curled up like a ball as Julia protected them by covering them with her whole body and her blanket. Julia glanced over her shoulder when the shooting was over. She removed the oxygen mask from her face, the IV out of her hand and ripped off the stickers of the heart monitor from her chest.

"Stay here. Don't move," Julia could say with a bit more volume in her voice.

Nearly stable Julia got back up on her numb feet. She narrowed her eyes at a green haired lady, who had a smoking machine gun in her hands. Julia clenched her fists, trying to steady herself in the ground like a tree. Adrenaline rushed through her veins. Her chances to protect Jemma and Pepper were slim, but she couldn't let that stop her. It was their death or her death.

Madame HYDRA started laughing amused.

"Look at you, sacrificing for others. When did you get a heart?"

Julia kept silenced and narrowed her eyes at the villain.

"Move, girl," Madame HYDRA demanded.

Julia shook her head. The Madame came closer. Julia didn't move an inch.

"I said move, so I can play with them," the villain snarled with a smile.

"No," Julia said sternly. "Don't mess with my friends."

The Madame stopped and inclined her head slightly with an amused smile.

"I already had the thought you lost your moral code for HYDRA."

From the pockets of her pants, the Madame took out a one button remote control. Julia internally panicked as she recognized the device, but tried to hide these feelings from her former handler. The Madame pushed the button. Nothing happened. She pushed it again. Julia was relieved when nothing happened and knew for sure Wanda had been able to remove it successfully. The Madame looked with frowning brows at the small device and wondered why it wasn't working.

Suddenly a pillow got smashed in her face. After the smack, The Madame's machine gun got kicked out of her hands by Julia. When it dropped, she kicked it underneath the stretcher. Julia made another attempt at kicking Madame but the villain could grab her ankle and threw her aside. Julia dropped to the floor, then got up as quickly as possible while hiding her pain by clenching her jaw.

Then a sound of a gunshot filled the aircraft. Pepper and Jemma shrieked at the sound. Julia winced and gritted her teeth to remain screaming. She laid a hand on her stomach and felt a warm moisture. Gasping for air, Julia dropped on her knees and looked at her hand as it was covered in blood. While taking quick breaths she gazed up and saw Madame HYDRA with another smoking gun. She could see the villain had an amused smile on her lips. Then Julia fell forward with a silent grunt before passing out. Jemma and Pepper burst out into tears while screaming in panic. The Madame went to the frightened ladies.

"You're a monster!" Pepper yelled at the green haired woman.

Madame HYDRA started laughing at Pepper's comment.

"Well, sometimes the world doesn't need another hero," the villain chuckled. "Sometimes what it needs is a monster."

The women looked terrified when The Madame aimed her gun at them.

"You know, she is designed and trained as a weapon by me and yet I am the one who killed her."

The Madame took a deep breath before she continued.

"She was Whitehall's precious little girl. Before she came into his view, I was the love of his life! She took him away from me. If it was up to me I'd have killed her right away in her sleep. But Whitehall wanted me to train her, so I did to win his love back to me."

A devilish smile on the Madame's lips. Jemma and Pepper kept looking at her with wide frightened eyes when the villain kept on talking.

"She was worthless from day one. Normally you'll get killed after one chance but he gave her thousands of opportunities. It's so unfair!" Madame shared her upset. "And now, she's finally dead. Only the weak will die."

Then a cling-sound near the Madame's feet took her attention. She looked down and saw a bloody bullet. The Madame wondered where it came from until an arm clasped around her neck and a bloody bare hand around her mouth. She got pulled away quickly from the two scared ladies. Julia felt the energy bubble inside of her starting to emerge when collar started beeping rapidly.

"You think I'm weak? Watch me!" the teenager warned before her powers blasted out of her, faster than before. "The only reason why I'm still alive is I'm not one of you!"

Jemma and Pepper gazed at them with wide eyes, as they kept holding each other. They saw Julia and the Madame being covered in a light-blue glow.

Julia felt the collar shrinking around her neck.

"You have no power over me!" Julia growled with gritted teeth.

Without notice, Madame HYDRA took a gun from her holster, aimed it and pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed the teen's thigh. Julia screamed out her pain and release the villain. In one motion, the Madame kicked the teen away. With a painful grunt, Julia landed on the floor of the aircraft.

"Are you sure about that?" Madame HYDRA sneered as she walked up to Julia with her gun aimed. "Don't you know who I am?"

Wobbly, Julia got on her feet and gazed at the villain in anger with squinted eyes. She's eagerly wanted to protect Jemma and Pepper.

"Yup. I just don't care anymore," the teen snarled back in a growl.

When the Madame was close enough, Julia managed to kick the gun out of her hand but lost her balance and fell again. The villain laughed at her after she wiped off the blood from her own mouth.

"Do you think you are alive because you can fight, girl?" she snarled after she grabbed Julia by the jaw with a gloved hand.

She could lift her up and push her against a wall. Julia could grab Madame HYDRA's bare neck. After a few seconds she felt her powers tingling in her fingers and hand while the collar started beeping again.

"You will not survive a fight with me," Madame HYDRA growled in her face.

Julia's powers busted out of her again, as she clenched her jaw in burning pain. The collar closed more around her neck and her nose started to bleed from both nostrils. But the Madame didn't even cringe and Julia noticed. She found it odd that her former handler wasn't suffering.

"Whitehall is dead," Julia could manage saying, while the collar closed more around her neck.

Madame HYDRA looked at her with wide eyes and didn't believe what she heard.

"What did you just say?"

"Whitehall killed himself," Julia hoarsely admitted. "With my powers."

"You little…Be prepared for your death!" the villain yelled and tightened her grip around Julia's jaw. "Zhelaniye!"

At the same time, sounds of gunshots filled the aircraft and the collar closed around Julia's neck with a snap. She could feel the bones in her neck cracking. Blood splattered on her face, caused by the gunshot wound of the Madame in the head. They both collapsed on the floor.

"Oh my goodness!" Julia could hear Jemma panicking in the background. "I just killed somebody!"

Before blood streamed into Julia's eye, she could see blood dripping from holes in the Madame's forehead and neck. The red liquid formed a puddle underneath the villain's head.

"Julia!" she heard a familiar male voice calling out.

In a red blur, Julia saw Bucky come up running. She was gasping for air as tears welled up in her eyes and blood started drooling from her mouth.

"Say something," Bucky begged as he dropped on his knees next to her and wiped off some blood from her face.

Julia could move her mouth but could not speak as she was out of breath. She wanted to lift up her hand to touch his face but her whole body was numb and motionless.

Bucky got mortified when her face went pale, her lips blue and her breaths were short. Julia looked just like in the nightmare Bucky ever had about her, a few months ago. There was blood on her suit at the area of her stomach and leg. In distress Bucky ripped her suit at the blooded spot and searched for a bullet hole. After searching he didn't find a wound. Bucky could hear Julia was barely breathing and saw the collar was too tight around her neck.

"Help! I need help!" Bucky screamed as he looked around in distress. He placed his attention back to Julia. "Please stay," he begged in whispers, as he caressed her forehead and face. "Please hold on, little sister. Stay here, okay. Just fight."

Quickly Jemma joined them, after she recovered from her shock and reminded herself to act like a doctor.

"Give me space so I can give the medical attention she needs," Jemma advised Bucky.

Before Bucky gave Jemma the space she needed, he kissed Julia's side of her head and whispered to her to hold on. Quickly Jemma placed the oxygen mask back over Julia's mouth and nose. A few Avengers rushed into the QuinJet after they heard Bucky yelling for help. Sam went next to Jemma.

"I can help you," he offered. "Bruce is still in Hulk mode."

"That would be nice," Jemma accepted.

Steve in his turn went to Bucky and gently led him aside.

"Come, Buck. Let's give them space and do their job."

Bucky kept his eyes on Julia as he didn't want to lose her out of sight.

In the background, Tony rushed to Pepper.

"I heard gunshots and screaming!" he said worried.

"Yes! We were the ones who screamed!" Pepper snapped at him.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked, after they stared at each other for a moment.

Then Pepper dropped herself into his arms. Tony held her in an embrace while she burst into tears.

Slowly Julia stopped breathing. Her eyes went empty and lifeless as she stared at the ceiling. It caused silence in the aircraft as she slowly let out her last, slight hoarse breath. Sam took her wrist to check her pulse.

"We're losing her!" he warned after a moment and started massaging her heart.

Jemma quickly stood up and jogged to the medical corner. She was searching for an automated external defibrillator. When she found it, she saw it was completely damaged and out of order. Quickly she looked at the other devices that could be useful but it was out of luck.

"Oh no! She damaged every medical device that we needed! The only thing is working is the oxygen," Jemma panicked.

Everybody in the aircraft was in shock, not knowing what to do to help and could only gaze how stressful Sam was massaging Julia's heart. Even Wanda didn't know what to do when she felt Julia's presence fading away slowly. Pepper looked desperately at Tony with teary and begging eyes.

"You can help them by checking her vitals."

"Sorry sweetheart. It's against my principles helping people of HYDRA," Tony admitted.

"Excuse me?" Pepper called out, amazed. "Tony, how could you!"

Tony's heart dropped into his stomach when Pepper got mad at him. He really hated it when it happened and most of the time he regretted saying whatever made her angry. All he wanted to do is to protect his loved one.

"You know what? I'll do it," Pepper said. "FRIDAY, read her vitals."

"Order denied," FRIDAY remarked.

Pepper blinked her eyes as she couldn't believe what she heard.

"FRIDAY, why denied?" Pepper wondered.

"I took everybody's voice out of the voice recognition. Just for protection," Tony admitted. "FRIDAY pursuits on my voice only."

Pepper couldn't believe what she heard. In distress she gazed at Sam and Jemma, who were still fighting for Julia's life.

"If you love me, then let FRIDAY check her vitals," Pepper tried to manipulate Tony.

Tony's eyes widened in disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something but became blank.

"Okay, fine," he sighed. He walked closer to Julia's body. "FRIDAY, read her vitals."

"No heartbeat detected," FRIDAY announced in the comms.

It made Bucky and Sam angry. Bucky struggled to get himself out of Steve's grip to show Tony a lesson. Steve could restrain Bucky from attacking.

"Calm down, Buck," Steve demanded with clenched teeth as he could feel how strong he was.

But Bucky didn't listen and kept on struggling out of his grip.

"Don't play mind games with us, Stark! Give us the proper information," Sam reacted angry as he kept on massaging Julia's heart.

"Listen to me, Big Bird! There is no heartbeat! She's dead!" Tony snapped.

Wanda came closer to feel Julia's presence by hovering her hand over the teen's forehead. She became sad when she couldn't feel her presence anymore. Sam got tired of the massaging and his left wrist started hurting badly, while tears welled up in his eyes. Wanda laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Sam, stop," she said with a sad, gentle voice.

"Why should I?" Sam wondered as he was still trying to save Julia's life.

"I can feel she's gone. There is nothing you can do now."

Slowly Sam stopped and looked at Julia. Her face was relaxed and her eyes were empty but calm. He laid his hand over her eyes and closed them.

"You promised to stay here," he whispered as tears went down his cheeks. He laid his head on her chest. "You promised."

Then Bucky screamed out his mental agony and dropped on his knees.