Captain America: Civil War
Siberia
"Both of you, go!" Steve yelled. "He's not going to stop."
Bucky and Liv took off while Steve fought to keep the enraged Tony away from them. Another chase.
Tony fired blast after blast towards Bucky, doing the best he could with his damaged suit.
Bucky began climbing up the shaft, leading to an exit above, Liv in pursuit, though she was quickly falling behind. Bucky paused.
"Go!" she called. "I'll only slow you down." But he disobeyed, slowing down and even beginning to climb back down to help her up.
Below them - not far below - Tony was trying to climb as well, his suit's flight ability partially disabled. Through the damaged screen, his eyesight was fuzzy. He held up his arm, explosive ready. "I'm eyeballing it," he muttered, and fired.
It did not hit his intended target, however. Instead, it hit the grate Liv had been grabbing onto, breaking it and sending her plunging down the shaft.
"KAREN!" Bucky yelled. He threw out his arm, but just missed her hand as she fell. He watched helplessly as she crashed to the ledge below, hitting the rail before collapsing onto the ledge itself, motionless.
Bucky scrambled down to the lower ledge, falling to his knees at the un-moving woman's side. He pulled her to him, holding her in his arms. She was a little out of it, the blast having stunned her.
"Oh, how sweet." There stood Tony. "Playing the hero now are you?" He held up his hand, reading to fire another blast.
With a yell, Bucky lashed out at him, digging the metal fingers of his left hand into the iron armour, working to tear it apart.
"Do you even remember them?" hissed Tony, speaking of his parents.
"I remember all of them," Bucky choked. Tony knocked him back, firing a laser towards him. Bucky fell to the ground, suddenly feeling unbalanced - his metal arm had been severed off at about the shoulder by Tony's laser. Tony threw a punch at him, watching as he crumbled to the ground. He held up his hand, ready to fire another blast.
"Stand down." Turning, he saw Liv, shakily getting to her knees, still dazed from his blast, kneeling in a defensive stance, arms raised, her bracelets and gloves buzzing with blue electricity, ready to zap him.
"B-back off, Tony." Even her voice shook. It was firm, but shaky.
"Look at you, defending him," spat Tony. "Defending him, protecting him, a killer."
"He didn't know what he was doing, he wasn't in control-"
"I don't care! He still did it, he still killed them."
"H-Howard wouldn't have wanted you to do this-"
"You don't know shit about my father, Liv!"
"Actually, I do. I worked for him, for his company, during the war." Silence. "And my name's not Liv, there never was a Liv. My name's Karen Marie Granger, born 1922, Brooklyn, New York. Former Strategic Scientific Reserve agent, founder of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Tony just stared silently back. Tension hung heavy in the air.
Without a word, Tony raised his hand again, blast ready. The fierceness returned to her face and a scream erupted from her throat, a blast shooting from her bracelets towards him. He met it with the blast of his own which knocked her back, she landing near where Bucky lay.
Before Tony could do anything more Steve came up behind him and slammed him in the side with his shield, knocking him away from where the injured Karen and Bucky lay.
"He's safe now." Karen and Steve stood outside the lab in Wakanda, where Bucky was now in care.
"Yeah." She nodded, though still looked a little sad, understandably. "How long have you known, about me?"
"After D.C., I began to wonder, had some suspicions. I mean, even if you were your granddaughter, you were a spitting image of Karen Granger." Both chuckled. "It's good to have you back, Karen."
"Thanks, Steve. It's good to be able to, well, be me again." The friends hugged.
"But how'd it happen?" he asked. "How'd you make it this far along in time without ageing or anything?"
"I don't know," she replied honestly. "I don't know."
So in the last Cap chapter I said that Liv was Karen and Jack Thompson's granddaughter - that was my early version of the character. But then I thought, 'what if Karen is also in the modern world with Cap and Bucky?' so this is what happened! Karen poses as her own granddaughter to try to avoid suspicion of her non-ageing (which will be further explored in 'Into Infinity'!) There's reasons for all of it! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)
