A/N: Thanks for the crazy amount of follows, favs and for those nice reviews! As always they're more than welcome. And now let's get back to the story. Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. All rights to Marvel Cinematic Universe, etc.
Chapter 3
BULLET TO THE HEART
"When anger rises, think of the consequences." – Confucius
1
Omo River Hydroelectric Power Plant, Ethiopia
A month has passed since Steve's successful mission and Nick Fury has called the Avengers once more. This time they were assigned to Ethiopia where they were tasked to reclaim the dam, built over the Omo River, along with the adjacent power plant facility. It has been overrun by a squad of remaining HYDRA agents, whose purpose was still a mystery to S.H.I.E.L.D. but Fury suspected they formed cargo point of some sort.
The Avengers attacked the enemy garrison, taking most of its crew by surprise. Natasha, Steve and Clint climbed the concrete wall of the dam with the use of grappling hooks (or arrows in case of Barton), while Thor and Iron Man who could fly, struck from above, accompanied by Hulk, who jumped over the defences easily and started to wreak havoc with a big grin plastered to his green face.
The area near main entrance of the control room was destroyed in matter of minutes, because HYDRA took the fight very seriously, using grenades, heavy machine guns and laser-powered weapons. The air was literally filled with bullets, projectiles of blue energy and arrows of all sorts. But the Avengers were more than glad to return the favour.
Cap ran towards one of the firing posts, throwing his shield at the man operating large turret. The vibranium disk smashed him in the face and bounced back, just as Steve threw two grenades simultaneously over the stockpiled sandbags, which protected the HYDRA crew from bullets. He leapt back, followed by a deafening blast.
Steve stood up, adjusting his shield and saw Clint taking down three soldiers at the same time, using his fragmentation arrow, while Natasha had his back, making good use of dual glocks. At the same time Thor, Hulk and Tony literally cut through the ranks of enemies like butter, accompanied by furious roars, rumbling of the thunders and characteristic sounds of repulsors charging up.
Avengers seemed to be pushing forward successfully when Steve witnessed a few things happening in rapid succession. First of all a powerful explosion knocked them onto the ground, covering them in rain of metal and concrete shards. Tony cursed foully under his breath, but Cap didn't made his classic 'language' comment, as their situation grew very uncertain.
"This whole field is mined, Cap! Get back!" Stark shouted. Then 'uncertain' changed into 'awful' when JARVIS alerted Tony of countless heat signatures – sudden reinforcements arrived, tipping the balance in favour of HYDRA. Whole operation went south in a blink of an eye, forcing the Avengers to adopt a defensive strategy.
Well almost all of them as Steve Rogers made a run for the impending enemy ranks, against better judgement.
Two strongest Avengers were eliminated from battle terrifyingly quickly. Bruce Banner, still in his alter ego form, was forced unconscious onto the ground by sedating grenades, one of two means of defeating him, apart from Hulkbuster. Thor has been knocked out cold shortly thereafter, due to poisoned darts, which apparently were designed specifically to tackle extra-terrestrial beings like himself. The deadly toxin would have killed any human, but fortunately the Asgardian has been rendered completely unresponsive instead.
Steve reflected one of the shells with his shield, but the power of explosion sent him flying in the air, almost killing him on the spot. He heavily stood from the ground, fighting vertigo away.
"Cap! You okay?!" Barton yelled putting an arrow in head of the enemy gunner, who fired at Steve.
"Yeah, keep fighting!"
So they did. Clint and Natasha were covering each other's backs but couldn't leave their temporary cover, behind a crushed concrete pylon. The sheer number of the enemy troops and the barrage proved sufficient enough to keep both of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with noses to their ground. The only two who were still fighting openly were Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, one of them on the ground, while the other high in the air.
"Hulk and Thor are down!" Tony shouted as he fired a number of heat-seeking missiles which immediately scattered around, searching for its targets. One of the rockets hit HYDRA helicopter, engulfing it in flames. There were so many enemies that he had to let JARVIS operate part of the defensive systems of his suit, just to keep up. "How are you doing, Cap?!"
"Come and see for yourself." Steve replied harshly, taking a defensive stance. He already had been shot three times, bullets hitting his abdomen, right shoulder and left thigh. And now at least six armed agents were trying to corner him, taking advantage of his wounds.
Steve had to admit he made a simple but grievous mistake during that mission – he didn't order his team to retreat and regroup in wake of being so hopelessly outnumbered. Instead he chose to attack, to let his desire to revenge to get hold of him. In the future he would often ponder why he couldn't contain himself and the easiest explanation was to blame it on his battle-strained nerves. Never had he shown it in front of the fellow Avengers, but after so many fights it could happen, right?
At least not until this moment, when enemy unit's leader, a mercenary named Jared Hunt, pointed his gun at Steve's head. "Stand down, Rogers. You will not get away this time, I promise you that."
"Not an option." Steve darted towards him. The bullet missed him by mere millimetres, but Captain was already close enough to engage in full hand-to-hand combat. It took him approximately a minute and thirteen seconds to take down every agent besides Hunt, who stood there not believing how fast the tables were turned.
At least that was the impression Steve had.
"You lost, Hunt. Surrender now, so maybe not all of you will die today." Captain turned towards his disarmed enemy whose crimes were well-known in more than fifteen countries. Taking him into custody would be a world-wide success and would shed light on what kind of operation HYDRA undertook.
Jared Hunt sighed in defeat and knelt before Captain, sticking his hands out, so he could be cuffed. Captain lowered his shield and approached Hunt who had a smug smile on his face.
"So what was the purpose to lose your men, if you decided to give up so willingly in the end?" Steve asked observing HYDRA leader. "Why are you grinning?"
"Just to distract you." Mercenary responded and the next second Steve heard not-so-distant gunshot.
Cap felt a burning sensation in his chest, as if someone pressed a hot fire-poker against his body. His shield slid out of his hand, falling to the ground with a quiet clink. The setting sun, illuminated his pained face for a second, before it was cased in shadow. Jared Hunt stood over him, still grinning like a madman.
"I'd say 'until the next one' but I don't think we'll meet again."
And with that being said, he brutally kicked Captain in the face, breaking his nose. The final rays of the day reflected in the polished surface of Captain America's shield, as Steve rolled onto the ground and disappeared over the concrete edge of the dam.
2
Jared Hunt stormed into the control centre of the Hydroelectric Power Plant. It was a large room, filled with numerous panels to adjust the flow of the water through the dam as well as the amount of electricity being produced. It was taken over a month ago, and the technicians who worked here before, have been held hostage since then. The mercenary approached one of the former staff members.
"What's your name?"
"Kaleb."
"Open the dam, Kaleb."
"Why should I do it?" The man still had some courage left to resist.
"Because I can make a 9 millimetre hole in your fucking head." Hunt replied, switching off the safety of his Beretta 92. "That's why I'm asking nicely. Open. The. Dam."
"Why is it so important to you, Hunt? That isn't our objective." One of the HYDRA agents chimed in.
"Rogers just fell to the reservoir beneath the dam with my little help." Jared replied, pushing the technician towards the control panel. "I must make sure he dies."
"No-body could have survived impact from such height. Not even himself."
"You'd be surprised." Hunt smiled, pressing the barrel of the pistol against Kaleb's head. "Open it."
The technician closed his eyes, apologizing Hunt's victim silently in his head. Then he opened the gates.
3
"Steve's down!" Tony yelled into his comlink. "I DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE IT!"
"What?!" Natasha yelled in utter surprise and lost focus for a second, which was enough for a hostile agent to shoot her. She screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground, grabbing her shoulder.
Clint instantly sent an explosive arrow in thug's direction, tearing him into burning pieces along with few others. Then he fired a few arrows with special canisters attached, creating an impenetrable wall of smoke. This would at least cover them from the eyes of the enemy troops for a few minutes.
"NAT!" Barton was desperately trying to stop the bleeding. "Stark get here ASAP, I need you here!"
"I'm on it."
Iron Man emerged from behind a concrete pylon shooting every enemy in his sight. He landed with heavy metallic thud by Clint's side, his armour covered in soot, countless scratches and traces of bullets. His helmet retracted, showing that Tony head left brow ridge broken and a nasty bruise on his cheek. He pointed his gauntlet at the spy.
"JARVIS analysis." Tony commanded and the AI ran a scan of Natasha's injury.
"Damaged sternum, broken clavicle. Subclavian artery perforated."
"Shit…" Clint mumbled under his nose. "Tell me you've got something in your suit to stop the bleeding."
Tony quickly ran through possibilities of his MARK 43.
"I can freeze the wound, but it's not meant for such things!"
"No matter." Clint readied another set of arrow. "Do what you can, I'll cover you."
Tony turned to Natasha who already started to lose consciousness due to blood loss.
"Hey, hey, hey, stay with me Little Red." Stark muttered under his nose as he applied thick, bluish substance onto the pierced blood vessel. In truth it wasn't ice, just a highly-resistant bio-polymer, which he used to isolate the suit from extreme temperatures. "You have to stay with me, you hear that? You've handled worse, you'll be alright."
Natasha was too weak to respond and only gave a slight nod, but thankfully didn't seem to realize how much pain was in Tony's eyes.
"Clint you've got any bandages?!"
"If I had those I would use them myself!" Barton snapped back, firing arrows so quickly that his movements blurred.
"Shit, you're right." Tony decided to take off the shoulder part of his suit and put it on Natasha. The armour clasped around her injured body part, preventing the wound from infection and further blood loss, but the spy has already fainted. Clint crouched behind the cover and turned towards Tony.
"Tony, you must find Cap. Maybe he's still…"
A deafening, roaring rumble of the water, being released from dam's concrete boundaries interrupted their rushed conversation.
"THEY OPENED THE FUCKING DAM!" Clint yelled, terrified. This mission was a complete disaster, two team members unable to fight, one severely injured, one probably killed. The sole idea of such failure chilled both of the remaining agents to the bone.
"Tony, you got to find him!"
Iron Man nodded and his visor went down.
"Leave some of those mofos for me, will you?"
And with that he flew away, which wasn't easy considering the state of his suit.
Meanwhile Steve was slowly sinking beneath the surface of the water, covered by a million of air bubbles, effect of the powerful impact he fell with. The amount of pain he felt wasn't even possible to imagine; the bullet he received from the sniper pierced his cardiac muscle. If it wasn't for the super-soldier serum, he would have died right away, but thanks to it, he was sentenced to slow, excruciating pain.
He was involuntarily falling to the bottom, surrounded by a cloud of his own blood – seeping both from the heart wound and his broken nose. Steve slowly closed his eyes, as the underwater current suddenly intensified and took him.
"Peggy I'll be with you anytime soon." This thought surged through his mind before his consciousness switched off.
4
"Ahhh…" Natasha groaned with pain and opened her sore eyes. She was staring at a white ceiling for a moment, but then her vision was blocked by someone's unshaven face.
"Clint." A quick thought rushed through her mind.
"I thought you would never wake up!" Barton whispered, hugging her gently. "I thought I might have lost you… Don't you ever do that to me again, understood?!"
Natasha was too weak to pat him on his back, so instead she just gave him a faint kiss on the cheek. She would never admit it out loud but she thanked God – even though she definitely didn't consider herself a religious person – that Clint was her friend. No, he was more than that, the best friend she could possibly imagine. And this simple gesture and heartfelt words made her warm inside and eased some of the pain.
"I'm okay, Clint." Was all she managed to let out to reassure him. "Glad you made it too."
"Ha! The bastard who shot you, I blasted him to shreds." Barton's voice was still worried. "And Tony took care of your wound, back there on the battlefield."
Natasha nodded in gratitude. "Got to say thanks to Tin Man. I feel better now. Really."
He straightened up. "I hope so, Princess."
"How did you call me?" Natasha tried to use her dangerous voice, but Clint smirked in response. He knew he could get away with those nicknames cause he was like a brother to her. She squeezed his hand. "I owe you one, Hawkeye."
Barton just shook his head. "It's nothing, don't mention it. I was just terrified when I heard that the bullet was designed to fall apart into shards after it penetrates your body."
"And here I am, still getting on your nerves." Natasha attempted to smile, but her face turned serious again, when she saw how tired her friend looked. Clint had massive dark rings under his eyes and definitely didn't shave in a week or so. And then she spotted a really nasty burn on archer's neck as well as fresh bandages on his left arm. How come she didn't see it earlier?
"It's not a big deal. You're the one that matters, Princess." Barton muttered, when he saw her reaction to his injuries. "Doctor Mitchell took care of us. He says you'll be just fine."
Her brows furrowed. "Why not Bruce? He usually patches us up after all the missions."
"Yeah, I know, but Bruce is with Thor right now. Heimdall took them both to Asgard, otherwise I don't know how we would bring them back."
Natasha nodded. "What of the others?"
"Tony has a broken arm and a concussion, but he'll pull through." Clint rubbed his neck, trying his best not to show how much it costed him to say what he was going to say. "Steve…"
Hawkeye realized how intently Natasha was now listening to him. Apparently the shock caused her to forget what happened, back there on the battlefield. Or maybe she was expecting to hear the super-soldier was just fine, as he always managed to come victorious. Well apparently this was not the case.
"Steve, what?"
Clint sighed heavily. "He was shot by a sniper and fell to the reservoir at the base of the dam."
Natasha was speechless, barely holding tears back. Her eyes posed a silent question.
"We don't know. Tony got the shield but didn't find Steve's body, nor did S.H.I.E.L.D." Barton responded. "So far, nothing."
Natasha fixed her sight on the ceiling, feeling a lump in her throat. "We fucked this one up, huh?"
"There is one more thing, Nat." Clint said quietly. "Jared Hunt, the mercenary who led the HYDRA team back at the dam… he opened it."
Her eyes widened with disbelief.
"Does that mean…?"
"At least a dozen Ethiopian villages destroyed and one city badly damaged."
"Fuck. The hostages?"
"We don't know. This mission turned out to be a real mess. Fury will be here soon. He claims that the United Nations will gather a meeting in a few weeks to discuss the matter."
"We are so screwed right now, aren't we?"
5
Meanwhile, at the Wakandan border, one of the Jabari Tribe warriors suddenly spotted something unusual, so he made his way towards the river bank, which determined the north-eastern border of the Kingdom. Having fought his way through thick bushes, he crouched beside a lifeless body of an unknown victim, laying on a small sandbar.
"Chief! You must see this!"
"What is it, Gendu?"
"I think I found an outsider!"
"What did you say? This cannot be."
M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe, joined his fellow warrior and saw for himself that it was indeed someone definitely not from here. The stranger was tall and well-built, indicating he was a strong man. His dirty hair was covered in mud, sand and curdled blood and his body was extremely cold, despite the African heat.
"He must have been a resilient and cunning warrior, considering he succeeded in breaching the cloaking field." M'Baku said with respect, examining the wound right in the centre of the stranger's chest. "He will have a proper burial."
"But chief, he's alive!" Gendu couldn't believe what he was seeing, but the scanner in his hand, did manage to read a very faint pulse. "What should we do?"
M'Baku was silent for a moment, then he decided it wasn't honourable to leave the stranger to his death, even if he was not from Wakanda. What's more he didn't look like a spy or saboteur.
"We will save him. You two! Help Gendu to carry him!" M'Baku ordered and then took a communicating device out of his warrior's belt. "General Okoye, this is M'Baku speaking."
"Chief M'Baku. What seems to be the problem?"
"One of my companions has found an unconscious warrior from outside the Kingdom. This man somehow managed to break through the field and is barely alive. I decided I shall not let him die in the wild." Jabari Tribe leader reported. "I ask for permission to bring him to the Capital."
"Permission granted. I am dispatching one of the Sentries to aid you. Medics will be awaiting your arrival."
The Sentries were semi-automatic flying units capable of providing quick transportation for Wakandan troops and were designed by King T'Challa's sister herself, Shuri. Their vibranium-powered engines made them reliable and incredibly fast.
"Thank you, general Okoye."
"Chief, have you ever seen such symbol?" Gendu asked pointing at the five-point white star on stranger's chest, now covered in blood and barely recognizable, due to a large hole in its centre.
"I have not, but our king once told me of a brave man, who wore such emblem. He was the only known non-Wakandan who used vibranium in battle." M'Baku stroke his beard. Could this be? He had to ask the king himself.
"This is, however, unimportant now, warrior. The Sentry has arrived."
When they reached the Capital, a team of surgeons were already waiting to provide treatment to the unusual survivor, who was transported to one of the countless operating rooms in the vast medical facility, where he would undergo a reconstruction of his broken bones and damaged heart.
Two weeks later M'Baku sought his king out in order to question him about the outsider.
"Hail, King T'Challa." M'Baku folded his arms across the chest and slightly bowed, a traditional way of greeting in Wakanda. "Once you told me of an extraordinary warrior from faraway land, so I must ask now. Do you know this man, my King?"
Having returned the salutation, T'Challa turned towards the glass window, which separated the hospital hallway from the operating theatre. Yes, he had met the man with blonde hair and blue eyes before, a warrior unlike any other, and the only non-Wakandan who used their sacred metal during battle.
"Yes, M'Baku, I do." T'Challa came back from being deep in thought. "His name is Steven Grant Rogers and if he was found almost dead in the river, as you claim, than he must have fought a formidable enemy."
"Should I strengthen the number of patrolling units? I shall not let such threat endanger our Kingdom."
"There is no need to rush, before we assess the situation. First, I would like to speak with him."
Their discussion was interrupted as the leading surgeon came out of the room.
"My King, the survivor has started to awaken. Would you like to see him now?"
"I do, dr. Ayla." T'Challa responded and entered the operating room. Steve was still barely conscious but he began to move and was mumbling something to himself.
"How is his state?"
"Stable. The bones already began to set by the time M'Baku recovered him, though their position was incorrect. We had to break them once more in order to reconstruct heart's pierced right ventricle." Doctor Ayla recounted. "He is healing surprisingly quick."
"Then you have noticed he is not an ordinary man."
"I did, my King. I would be honoured to study the mysterious serum in his blood, but I believe he would not agree."
"You are right, Ayla. Captain Rogers is the first and last of his kind – this is a gift and a curse at the same time." T'Challa stroke his beard. "Leave us now, please. I must speak with him in private."
When everybody walked out of the room, he patiently waited for Captain to wake up. After ten or so long minutes the super-soldier abruptly sat up on his bed, all confused and tensed.
"Where… where am I? King T'Challa?"
T'Challa kept Steve from standing up. "Captain, you must rest now. Do not worry, you are in Wakanda now, under the protection of my people."
Steve sighed and fell onto the pillow.
"You were found half-dead in a river, close to the Ethiopian border. Doctor Ayla barely managed to save you and, considering who you are, I assume that the fight was not an easy one."
Steve sighed and shook his head.
"And you don't need to call me a king, Steven. Personally I consider it tiring at times." Wakandan king smiled. "Tell me, is there anything I can help you with? It's not a shame for a hero to ask for help."
"I'm no hero, T'Challa, at least not anymore." Steve stared blankly in space. "Never have I thought I would give in to such low instincts … I failed my friends and I failed my team. I don't even know if they are alive."
Wakandan grabbed a chair and pulled it closer. He took off his official, embroidered coat and sat in front of Steve.
"I'm listening."
A/N: How will Steve cope with the failure? Stay around and you'll find out. Peace! / WS