Summary: A year after the civil war, the Avengers are still divided with friendships broken and loyalties torn when they are sent to find a powerful young woman whose life has been destroyed by HYDRA. While Bucky seeks redemption, Martine seeks to get revenge on the people who murdered her grandmother. Co – Written with WalkingPotterGirl14. Bucky/OC, Wanda/OC, Clint/Natasha and Steve/Sharon. Rated M.

Divided We Fall

Chapter 3

It took them only a few minutes to get to the French Quarter thanks to the supplies, and they appeared in front of what looked like an old dive bar. Steve looks at Adrian, and then at Wanda and Bucky.

"Everyone else, stay here. Civilians are around, we don't want to attract attention if she's in there." He keeps his shield close, but puts on a jacket to look like a regular person. He nods at Bucky to do the same, and he places on a jacket.

At least this was one way of being sneaky.

The four of them head inside, the brightness low in the bar, while everyone else stayed behind. People were laughing, drinking. But that wasn't why they were here. It was a bit more important than that.

"Where would Beatrice be?" Adrian mumbles before his eyes light up. "There. At the bar."

He found the young dark auburn haired woman talking to a dark young man and a young dark haired young woman. He walked over to them and they froze.

"Adrian?" Beatrice asked shocked.

Adrian nodded. He looked at his three old friends and then saw his godmother coming over. She hugged him close.

"Thank God you're here. Your sister needs you," she told him relieved, when they suddenly heard screaming from outside the bar. They rushed out to see what was going on.

All saw a man hanging upside-down from a lamppost, with the words, 'Murderer,' carved into his chest. Under his body was a voodoo doll.

"Ok...this is disturbing," Tony said startled as he observed the dead body. That was when they saw someone running down from the street into the Lafayette Cemetery.

"That's her!" Adrian yells. Bucky looks at him and then all of them take off, speeding towards the woman running, only it felt like they weren't getting any closer.

In fact, she would wave her hands and some stupid cad would appear. Knock down trees to block them, trap them. Anything that would get her free. At one point she manages to push a whole entire car towards Steve.

"Bucky, get her!"

Bucky doesn't waste a millisecond. He jumps over the obstacles and chases her into an alley. She uses her magic to fling a garbage can his way but he dodges. As she jumps on the fence, he pulls her down, and the slams her into the wall, causing her to grunt.

The hood covering her face fell, and he saw the same woman he had seen in those pictures. Martine.

"Driving us crazy, you know?" he growls. She doesn't say anything, but then saw her eyes turn a light shade of purple, and she tilts her head.

They were so...weird. Like pools of the color surrounding her eyes. He felt his arms give out, and she steps forward, with a smirk on her face, before racing off. And that's when it hit him.

That bitch just mind-fucked him. She had controlled his movements.

"So you're a challenge?" he mutters to himself before taking off after her again. "I don't mind a challenge."

With that said, he chased after her, feeling a thrill rush through him as he ran through the graveyard.

Martine cursed herself. She should have known that the Avengers would have been looking for her, and now she was running from the Winter Soldier, who was chasing after her.

Great. Just great.

She conjured up a rose vine to block him and the others, but it didn't hold him for long. She kept on running from him frantically and began climbing over anther fence, when a metal hand grabbed her by the waist.

Martine tripped and fell.

She landed in a heap, but quickly got up, coming face-to-face with the Winter Soldier. His grey eyes met her defiant and fiery dark blues then.

"I'm not here to hurt you," Bucky said calmly as he looked at the young woman. Her hands were glowing dark purple, as she regarded him.

"Why are you here?" Martine asked wearily, still suspicious.

"Look, I can't get into details, but you need to come-" He grabs her arm, and realized quickly that it was a big mistake.

Her eyes turned a dark purple and she hurled him across the yard. Hard. He lands on his back, and it was instant seconds before she was towering over him, her hands at his throat.

"Don't you dare fuckin-"

"Martine!"

Her head snapped up as the others finally arrived, and her eyes attached to the man who had called out her name. Adrian. He was there.

"A...Adrian?"

He comes forward with a smile, but she backs away, her hands still armed.

"Who are these people, Adrian?" she growls. "What do they want?"

"You know who they are. And they just want to help us. That's all, sister. You don't need to kill James," he says calmly. Her eyes narrow.

"Who the hell is James?"

"Me," Bucky groans before looking up at her. "Most call me Bucky." She looks down at him and then at the others, before taking a few steps back.

"I'm not some experiment," she quips harshly. "You can't use me, Stark."

"For crying out loud! I didn't know that Thaddeus Ross was performing sick experiments on people like your brother! If I'd known I would have stopped him!" Tony said angrily, finally confessing to something that he'd been hiding.

Everyone stared then in shock at Tony's surprising confession. Steve looked at him quietly.

"Tony, no one's blaming you," he said calmly. Tony snorted bitterly at him.

"I regret it, siding against you and making Natasha fight against Clint. Christ, I didn't know what to do. I don't blame Bucky for killing my parents. He was under mind-fucking-control," Tony said quietly and sighed. "So yeah, I regret what I've done."

Adrian grunted.

"I don't hate you, Stark. At first I did, but now I realize you're only human and made mistakes...although big ones that nearly costed Steve his life at the hands of Crossbones and Red Skull," Adrian said dryly.

"Don't remind me."

"What the fuck?!" Martine snaps at her brother. "You've been gone for years because of this bastard that nearly got you killed and now you're ready to forgive him just like that?!"

She was angry, and Adrian could tell. Her hands were glowing.

"I am sorry for not coming back," he says to her, surprised at his own calmness. "But I needed to stay away. For your safety."

"Look where it got us now!"

"I know!" he growls. "But this is for you. You need to be protected, and these people can help you, sis. They can."

She glares at them all before lowering her defense. For now. "Protect me from what, exactly?"

"HYDRA. They're the people who murdered grandmama and have been watching us for a while. Think they might have been the ones who killed dad," Adrian explained quietly.

Martine swallowed thickly, calming down a bit.

"Do we have to leave?" Martine asked quietly.

New Orleans was her home, and she couldn't bear the thought of leaving her friends, here, and Salem.

"What about the house? I can't sell the house, Adrian! I promised grandmama that we wouldn't sell it!" Martine said anxiously. They had been walking back without even realizing it, and reached the house. She found Jeannette there with Beatrice and Jax, all of them entering. People moved fast.

Salem meowed softly and ate his food, his black tail swishing as Martine stroked him tenderly.

Bucky then got a good look at Martine's outfit. She was wearing a dark purple leather coat like Wanda's, with a purple corset, black, leather leggings and low-heeled black leather boots. Not to mention black, leather fingerless gloves, and a necklace around her neck.

Try as he might, Bucky had to admit that Martine looked sexy in her costume. She regarded them all suspiciously.

"I'm not selling the house. I won't dishonour our family by selling it to that Wolfgang Company," Martine growled angrily, and the windows started rattling.

She calmed down again, needing to keep her anger in check. If she kept acting out she was bound to cause some damn place to explode. She looks at her brother, who seemed to also be thinking about the home.

Jeanette comes forward. "Sweetie...we know about all of these powers and these people, but if this group is really as bad as they say it is-"

"They're bad," Bucky intrudes, leaning against the wall. "Very bad."

"You should go," Beatrice states. "With them."

"What about-"

"We'll stay here," Jax states, wrapping an arm around Beatrice. "Us and Jeanette. We'll make sure this house stands and stays here. But Jeanette is right. You need to stay protected by these people. If your powers fall into the wrong hands, then I can't even imagine the bad possibilities that will happen."

Martine looks at all of them, before looking down at her hands. Maybe they were right...but she hated the idea of leaving her whole life behind. She looks at them and then looks at Salem.

"Can...Can I at least take my kitty?"

Steve snorts at her statement before nodding. "You can bring your cat. We're heading to an area near the Avengers and SHIELD base, somewhere safe for you and your brother, near D.C."

"Yeah, like that's soooo safe," she states, sarcasm dripping from her voice. Natasha places a hand on her shoulder.

"It is for people like you," she states calmly before speaking into the radio. "Sharon? Bring the quinjet around the home. You know where. We have passengers."

Hours later, her and her brother were on the quinjet flying to wherever this safe place was, and Martine was looking outside with Salem sleeping in her arms, the world passing her by below.

She loved the countryside, but had a feeling she would never see it again.

How ironic that she saw her brother again, but he was barely saying anything. It was like he was afraid of her, afraid of the anger she would throw at him for leaving her for such a long time. And you know what? He had a good right to be scared.

Because she would snap. Eventually.

"Bastard," she mumbles before looking back outside. After a moment, she looks around the quinjet, seeing everyone talking or doing what they do, so she decided to do her favorite pastime: people watch.

She could see Captain America, or Steve, talking to Sharon, and then Natasha and Clint exchanging quiet words. The war had probably torn them apart. Great. More drama to add to her life.

Tony was talking to the Black Panther dude, and Wanda was talking to Adrian. She had a feeling her and Wanda had a lot in common, but she wasn't about to start making friends yet. This was some weird shit that was going on. She needed to stay to herself.

Then her eyes travelled to the Winter Soldier. The assassin she had heard about from all over the web. Nothing was sacred anymore, a secret whatsoever, especially in this world of tech. She could find out everything about him with one click, but she wasn't that intrusive on people's lives.

He seemed to be zoning out at something, thinking hard. She didn't know who he had worked for as an assassin, but she could only guess it was these HYDRA people because he was here with them now. His hair was longer, a big shaggy, but he was actually surprisingly handsome.

Then again, what person involved with the Avengers wasn't good-looking? It was like they were made in a factory.

At that moment his head pops up, and his grey eyes connect with her blue orbs, just like back in the graveyard, and she felt her body still at his gaze. His eyes looked dead right into her soul, like it was trying to read her, to see what went on in his mind. Too bad for him that she was the mind reader, not him.

So she easily looked over at him, her eyes narrowing, and closed off her mind. She knew he didn't have any powers like hers. No one did. But she had a feeling that he was one of those guys who could tear you apart but by bit by just looking at facial expressions.

And it seemed like he knew, before he actually fucking smirked at her own smirk, and then turned away, the turned up lip almost instantly vanishing. He was a man with a mask. Literally.

"Coming near the field," Sharon states. "Adrian, Martine...nearly there."

"Kay." She stands and looks outside as the quinjet lowered into the ground, and once it was descended, she heads out, feeling the fresh air. She sniffs it, letting her mind clear. She was so focused on the feeling of being back outside that she didn't even feel Steve come up to her.

"Martine." She spins around, her brow furrowed. "You and your brother are going to be in two apartment complexes in Washington, about a couple miles from the Avengers run based. That's where you'll meet Fury."

"Fury?"

"He's the head. He'll get you trained."

"Wait, wait...trained to be what?" she asks. Steve looks at Natasha, who shakes her head.

"You'll learn more. Right now they're could be eyes and ears everywhere. Bucky will get you to the area. Wanda can take Adrian to where he has to go."

"Why can't we be in the same complex?" she asks, petting the purring Salem.

"Too obvious. HYDRA could track you down both easier if you're in the same place. This is better for you."

Martine sighs and then nods. "Fine...fine. Where's...what's his name? Bucky?"

"Here." He comes forward, that same stoic expression from before still there. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Language, Barnes," Steve quips.

"Shut it."

Martine looks down at her phone, looking at Adrian's number. She would call him eventually. Settle out their shit. For now she'd just...settle in.

Bucky easily drove the car, despite a few bumps, and that same stoic expression. He had changed to blend in more with the people around him, and could see his metal arm stick out from his jacket.

Salem curled in her lap as Martine looked at his arm. "Did it ever hurt?"

The sudden interruption of the silence seemed to surprise him, but if it really did he barely showed anything besides a blink. "Huh?"

"The arm. Does it hurt?"

"No...Doesn't hurt me. Not anymore. I woke up after falling off a train and found myself in an operating room with this as my replacement," Bucky said quietly, but Martine could hear the bitterness in his voice as he looked at his metal hand.

"Sorry...my grandfather thought very highly of you and the Howling Commandos," Martine said quietly. She thought of her grandfather Quinn, who had been saved by them. They weren't all that bad.

Bucky nodded at her as they arrived at the base, and parked in the garage. She saw a man come over as she stepped out, Salem resting in the seat.

"Good work, Barnes," he said calmly and nodded. She shook his hand, and they then walked into a start of the art building. It looked like it had been rented out. Martine was impressed.

"Why am I here?" Martine asked quietly.

"To keep you and your brother safe. Also... you can be a member of the Avengers," Fury stated calmly.

"Wouldn't I have to do that Superhero Registration Act?" she asked bitterly, referring to the new law.

"That's water under a bridge that we will get to when we cross it," he states calmly. Martine's eyes narrowed, and she could feel her hands warming up, but the sudden sound of someone talking caught her off guard.

"I wouldn't do that." She looks up to see Bucky leaning against the car, hands in his pockets. "Go crazy. This place has guards all over. They'll have a gun at your head in seconds."

"Oh? And how would you know that without being a criminal?" she states angrily. Bucky doesn't show much of a reaction, just that same stoic expression. Weirdo. Fury comes towards her.

"Look, the act is something that we'll talk about later, but what you need is protection. Do you know how powerful your powers are, Martine?"

She looks at him quietly before crossing her arms across her chest. A suspicious look was in her eyes. "Why do you want me even if they are powerful? I'm a time bomb. I could kill someone if I got angry. You don't want a loose cannon like that. I mean, at least Wanda has mastered her powers. She's more useful than I am."

"Which is why we need to be the people to teach you."

"That's still not answering my question."

Fury sighs and then looks at Bucky. "Barns, I know Rogers told you to bring her to the apartment. Don't worry, I will. Just make sure to drop off her cat."

Bucky nods without a single word and then leaves. He was so silent and mysterious. It put Martine on edge.

Fury then turns to her. "Ms. Laveau...do you know what HYDRA did to James?"

She shrugs. "I barely know anything about HYDRA. I just know they're after me and they fucked with his mind." Fury holds out an arm for her to take.

"Follow me."

She glances at his arm, almost with an air of reluctance, before taking it. He leads her through the facilities, letting her into what looked like a totally private room.

"Files open to videos and photos. James Buchanan Barns," he states. A few moments the room lights up with videos and photos of Bucky, only this time he looked different. Fury comes over to Martine, seeing her look curiously against the pictures. "This was Bucky."

"He still looks the same."

"Mostly. But this wasn't even the stoic Bucky you see now." At least he saw it too. "This wasn't even a person. He's a machine, an assassin, someone who didn't care if you had kids, a family. He has killed kids, but he didn't care. He. Would. Kill. You."

Martine felt a shiver run up her spine. She knew the Winter Soldier had murdered plenty, but she never knew he killed kids too.

"Bucky wasn't like this. This wasn't who he was. This was a killing machine. And you wanna know exactly how he became this man?" After a moment, she nods. "He was found by HYDRA, and they brainwashed him into thinking he had no one. Nothing. And he was this killing machine. He wasn't Bucky. He was Winter Soldier. And that was that. He didn't have any control over his own mind."

Martine looks away as Fury turns to her.

"Now you...you could have the control of everyone's minds if you wanted to. You could easily kill with the amount of strength you possess. Imagine what HYDRA would do with you, if they somehow got their hands on you. They would do the same thing they did to Bucky, only worse. And you'd be an even bigger fugitive than he was."

Martine looks away before taking a deep breath. This was all coming at her so quickly. "This would really happen to me?"

"They've kept tabs on you for years, Martine. They've just been waiting to make their strike."

Apologies for the delay, been busy.