"Dead men are heavier than broken hearts."
- Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Burn.
At one point, she wanted the world to burn – and every time she thought this, her heart would palpitate and she would step back and reassess: relive, return, run. It was an interminable cycle that kept her feet firm in Paris, and her eyes set on the Eastern horizon. Diana is many things, but forgetful is not one of them, and she has chased so many directions other than the one that constantly calls her attention, that it became aggravatingly clear that east was the way she should go. But she hasn't pursued it. Not until now. And she hadn't imagined that going east would mean sitting next to a historical hero in the back of a raging taxi driver's cab; their chauffeur is flippantly ignoring New York City's legal speed limit, but she doubts that she should be so concerned with that fact.
Rather, she figures she should be more perturbed by the blood on her companion's hands, oxidizing to a familiar iron red. She figures this, but she doesn't do more than glance out the , she wonders if she should have let the world burn. Then perhaps grievances like this could have been avoided.
"Pepper said the police have been monitoring Sterns's apartment since the call. His tenant said that he left early morning and hasn't yet returned," Steve's voice is quiet against the muddled cursing of their driver. Diana continues to peruse the ever-changing scenery. She recalls the books, the American Dream with the white picket fence and briefly wonders if Steve had ever yearned for that. She had, at some point in her life.
"Do you think he did it?" She recalls the frozen memories, the smile on his daughter's face; her graduation cap hanging precariously off a hook, and the cold cup of noodles sitting on the marbled countertop. Dr. Javier Rourke had been an imposing figure, calloused to propriety, and insensitive to his assistant. However, his home spoke of another man, another life, another white picket fence that had burnt to ash.
Diana figures that Steve probably never imagined that life for him. She thinks he probably dreamt of Sunday mornings, four white walls, stray sunlight, organized drawers, and brewing coffee; not fences, borders, and finish lines. That man lived in the present, never looked ahead – never saw the future. Never will see the future. She wonders when the ghost of him will stop lingering in the abscesses of her thoughts.
"- too early to say," Diana catches Steve replying. She watches as he leans toward the driver to tell him to stop. "We can walk the rest of the way, thank you." Manners. Steve Rogers is all decorum and politeness; cool edges and unending patience.
Diana does not wait for Steve to finish paying for the ride and pushes open the car door. She steps out, catches a whiff of New York street nuts, and begins sauntering towards the assistant's apartment building. Her strides her long, but Steve Rogers makes easy work catching up to her.
"You coul – down!" She hears the warning first, before she feels the stroke of heat and the smell of smoke. She hears screaming next through the ringing in her ears and finds a familiar leather jacket covering her sight. It is pulled away just as bodies begin rushing past her and the sound of sirens penetrate the air.
"Wha – what?" She looks ahead and finds Steve's broad back being swallowed by a gray fog. She catches his eyes as he looks back, and does not have to puzzle through his muffled shout. He wants her to stay back. She does not.
Diana steps to side just before she collides with a woman and begins a steady trek towards the site of smoke and screams. Her ears are beginning to recover, but her eyes are only starting to see what they can't hear. There is blood and tears on unfamiliar faces, downturned bodies, slabs of cement, and broken glass. There are police clustering at the end of the tunnel of chaos and through them, she too pushes past until she sees an open glass door and Steve's frame.
"I told you to stay back!" Steve shouts at her as he easily moves a fallen beam off of a wooden door. There are blue uniforms rushing past them: ashen faces with purposed strides. Diana watches Steve call at the pounding fists of the blocked door to step away before he kicks it open. Sooty faces pour out as Steve ushers them to quickly evacuate the room. Their panic is temporarily assuaged by Steve's demeanor and it is during this momentary calm that the logical part of their minds begin to tinker, work, follow.
Diana lets Steve be with the victims, knowing that her role was not needed with them, and tries to find the closest stairway in the lobby. She finds one coughing more fire and smoke into the room. Having that route blocked off, she looks to the side and finds the elevator, its doors open, and moves toward it; it's a foolish errand, but she feels compelled. (Inspired? In the moment, there is no difference). Yet before she can step closer, an arm falls and bars her from any further progress.
"I told you to stay back, Diana," Steve's eyes are a brilliant blue against the gray smoke. His trademark brown jacket is nowhere to be seen, and there are crinkles by the corners of his eyes. Unfortunately for him, Diana is not a follower and pushes his arm down, steeling him in place with her own hard eyes.
"I did stay back," she acquiesces. "But you were too slow and there are more people that need help," she makes a point to move past him. "You need my help."
"Diana –" Steve looks as if he has more to say, but he has already pushed and she has shoved back - so Steve has nothing else in his jargon and can only clench his jaw as he nods his head. In the elevator before them, sounds of frantic shouts resonate through the small doorway. "Just stay behind me," he gives in. "Please." He tears off a sleeve from his shirt and offers it to her. "To keep the smoke out."
Diana finds herself relieved that Steve doesn't push for a longer argument and takes the piece of fabric to tie around the lower half of her face; she should dampen it to provide more protection from the smoke, but does not see a water fountain in the vicinity. Her safety is the least of her worries though, and she shoulders through it. She lets Steve lead them into the elevator and watches as he jumps and pries open the latch on the top. He casts the metal to the side and easily pulls himself onto the top. Diana is about to mimic his actions until his hand reaches down. "Come on."
She takes it and lets Steve haul her on the top. Above them lies a huge column of black and cracks of light pilfering through silver, burnt doors. There is a railing on the side which Steve takes too. She follows him as he gets to the first set of doors and pries them open. His footing is sound and he looks down at her. "You take care of this level?" he appears to be asking, but she knows where his patience ends and frowns. Nevertheless, she swings herself onto the floor and begins calling out to the people trapped on it. She shouts for them to get down on the ground and begin crawling towards her. She feels the time, the heat from the levels overhead, and smiles at the tear-stained face that finds her first.
"Are you all by yourself?" she asks the little girl. She is young, around six or seven, and has nothing but fear and a cracked phone in her hand. "Do you know how many people live on this floor with you?" The complex didn't seem too big from the outside, but she knows better than to trust firsthand observations.
"Fo – four, but the ceiling it," the girl seems to choke on her words but after a few seconds swallows the terror away and continues, "f – fell." Her eyes dart back toward the direction she came from. "Dad was in his room when it happened. He was taking a – a – na – ap," she gulps. "I tried calling him, but –"
"It's okay, you're okay," Diana rubs the grime off her cheeks. "And the others?"
"Billy is –"
"Here!" Diana looks behind the girl and finds an older boy pulling something from the thickening smoke. The little girl gasps, but Diana is past the shock and quickly aids the boy haul over the injured woman toward the elevator doors.
"Billy?" she looks the boy over. He looks to be about sixteen or seventeen, and his eyes harden every time he looks down at the woman. "There's a ladder embedded into the wall, and you," she looks at the little girl. "You are going to climb down with me and then Billy, you're going to gently lower this woman so I can catch her, okay? Can you do that for me?" She is putting a lot of responsibility on the boy, but she can't see an easier way to do things.
Both of the children nod their heads and Diana lets out a sigh. "Okay –"
"Rose," the girl supplies.
Diana smiles at her. "Okay, Rose, I'm going to go down first and call for you to join me, okay?" she turns around to face the child and blindly lowers her legs to find purchase on the ladder. Once her feet have hit the protruding steel, she quickly slides her body down so that she is back in the chamber. There is no more screaming above them and Steve is nowhere in sight. "Okay, Rose! You can come down now."
The younger child is unhesitant and easily slides into the space between the ladder and Diana's body. Together, the two maneuver back onto the top of the elevator. It creaks at their added weight, but Diana smothers the sound from Rose's ears by covering them by pretending to smooth the girl's locks. "Okay, Billy -!"
"Diana!" She has a moment to reach, and she pushes her whole momentum in to it to grab Rose's body and cling onto the steel cable wire. Her palm is hardly large enough to encompass the wire, but fortunately, she manages to hold on. Above them rains debris and flickers of dying embers. She feels the sweat on her brow sliding more than she feels Rose's trembling. Focus, she needs to be focused.
"Diana!" Her name echoes both from above and below, and in the increasing hot fog, she can make out both Steve's and Billy's faces. She looks back down at her charge. Shaking, Rose's face is pressed into her side and Diana grits her teeth as her weight begins to pull her down.
"Listen, Rose, I'm going to swing us over to the wall and drop you into my friend's arms." Diana talks loud enough so that both males peering at her can hear her instructions. She doesn't have to look at their faces to know their reactions. The girl tightens her arms around Diana. "Listen," she tries again. "You know Captain America?" she barely receives an imperceptible nod. "Well my friend is Captain America, but don't tell anyone okay? He doesn't have his mask on. He will catch you, I promise." Her voice is softer now and manages to coax the green eyes to look up at her.
Once more, Rose nods and Diana makes do with her vow. Quickly, she begins accumulating momentum until her feet begin to brush against the opposite wall. With one powerful kick, they are sailing through the air and without a wasted breath, she deposits Rose into Steve's waiting arm just as the cable gives and her grip slackens against the wire. She expects pain and then a bitter chill, but she gets only the former.
A blast of shattering pain resonates throughout her whole body, stemming mostly at her head as her whole side and head slams against the wall, but despite that, her fingers instinctively curl around Steve's forearm as he pulls her up. Once she can grasp the edge of the floor with her other hand, Diana heaves her own body up and coughs. The room is still moving, her vision is a blur of worried eyes, gray smoke, and Billy's shouts.
" –outside, I'll get him –"
"Wait," Diana grasps Steve's arm again and meets his brilliant blue eyes once more. "He's not the only one up there. I'm coming –"
"Diana." Exhaustion lines Steve's words, but her world is refocusing again and she pushes herself back up to her full height.
"You can't do this alone," Diana stands her ground and looks at Rose. "The firefighters are right outside, Rose –" the tiny girl shakes her head.
"I'm not leaving without Billy," she repudiates. Beside her, Steve sighs as he rolls his shoulders back.
"Let's get this over with," he resigns, he knows better than anyone in the room that arguments were not worth wasted time. "On my lead –" he takes a running start before propelling his whole body across the gap. Diana doesn't have to hear his body slamming against the ladder before she too, takes the leap and mercifully has his hand preventing her from another collision. In between the fiery embers sparking above their heads, they exchange a heated glance before Steve begins climbing onto Billy's floor. Blood is pounding in her hears and she can't see no more than a few inches ahead, but she manages to keep up with the super soldier and joins him just as he is hoisting the fainted woman over his shoulder.
The two of them disappear back into the elevator shaft before she and Billy. "Are you ready?" Diana doesn't know why she asks, but appreciates his bravery as they too begin their descend.
There is no easy way to cross the gap without a place to buy momentum, but Diana knows luck does not serve anyone , especially for people in a burning building, and makes the decision before she can regret it. She reaches for something behind her and finds comfort in feeling the familiar woven fibers of her lasso. There is no way to dull its golden glow once it has been unwrapped, so she assesses Steve Rogers one more time before she instructs Billy to close his eyes.
There is disbelief, but the boy listens instantaneously and Diana quickly unfurls the rope bound against her back and throws it at Steve's wide eyes. Surprise colors him, but his senses have always been stronger and he catches the other end of the golden lasso just as the ladder begins getting too hot to hold onto and Diana swings over to him using it.
They collide into each other, a tangle of limbs and gold, but Diana is saved from most of the mess as she rolls off of Billy and Steve. She makes fast work of rewrapping the rope and stowing it away just as Billy and Steve come back to their senses. They groan as Diana musters up the child into her arms. The building lurches beneath her feet, and she does not have to credit anything but the fire for the cause.
"Quick!" she shouts over at the two males. She tucks Rose's bewildered head into her shoulder just as Steve pushes Billy toward her and sweeps up the fainted woman into her arms. They escape the building as it gives one final groan and the beams begin falling down.
Bursting through the entrance, Diana trips over her own feet but she manages to regain balance and rushes toward the nearest ambulance. The paramedics respond fast and most attend to the child first while one approaches Diana. However, she waves them away just as Steve joins her with Billy and the woman. More medics swarm around them and easily take their charges away.
"Diana," Steve starts as the crowd of officials leave them. He takes short gulps of air in, but otherwise, is unfazed by the recent rescue. "Do you know how dangerous that was?"
Her gaze is with the child, Rose, but she knows Steve's own eyes are searching her face, looking for a sign of consciousness, practicality. "You promised Pepper, you told her and you –"
She turns on him. "You listen to me Steve Tre – Rogers," she spits out. She can feel nothing but the heat of the burning building against her back and remember nothing but decades' worth of memories, and she begins to wish again that she had let it all burn. "You are no one to lecture me about my promises and of who I have sworn them to. I know what I have said and who I have told them to –"
"Diana –"
"You would let the world burn if it meant saving only a few?" She stares him down - a feat unimaginable with his height but she does it, and watches as his face falls and briefly she remembers that this man has missed decades of which she had all watched and felt.
"We –"
"Can't save everyone in this war."
She is looking at Steve, this renowned Captain America, but all she hears are his words, their fight, a different fire - a past life.
She turns again, and this time it is away from him. "Tell Pepper that I am sorry that I broke my promise to her." And in the midst of panic, soot, and broken glass, she finds the path leading back home and walks away.
East.
He hailed from the east, and so far that direction has brought her nothing but sweating nightmares and pompous American heroes.
A/N: Honestly, I don't know what happened to this chapter but Diana's voice took over and well - there ya have it.
