Miranda landed on the pavement in front of him, crouched low, one hand down for balance.
"Sam." She commanded, standing slowly.
Bucky took one astonished step back. How was this possible? The drop from the rooftop was at least five stories, and she landed here without so much as a scratch.
"Go," She snarled.
And then he was moving, running for the building Sam stood atop. Something powerful settled in the air, an electricity that lifted the hairs on his arms and goosebumps on his skin. He crashed through the building's lobby doors in a shower of glass and metal. Skidding to a stop in front of the elevator, he pounded on the call button. It lit faintly and he could hear the whirr of mechanisms.
"Come on!" He shouted, his frustrations mounting as he pounded the flat of his hand against the doors. The indicator dinged, and the doors pulled back. The indentation of hand disappearing as the doors disappeared into their pockets.
The sun beat down hot when he stepped out onto the rooftop, a bead of sweat running down his back. He surged forward, running for the men teetering on the edge.
"You think I'm just going to let these people go?" He heard the woman, Olcora, say. "I finally, finally have something I can use against you."
"You think I care about these people?" Miranda snarled. "They mean nothing to me."
Bucky grasped Sam's arm and gathered a fistful of his jacket, poised to pull him back. He looked down at Miranda. She had prowled closer to Olcora.
"So you don't care if she lives or dies?" Olcora asked, nodding beyond Miranda.
Bucky looked to where Daisy stood. He let out a shaky breath. Her pistol was in her hand, muzzle pressed into her jaw. The expression on the agent's face never faltered. A dutiful servant to the hand that played her.
Olcora's smile was fiendish. "Think I won't pull the trigger?"
Miranda did not waver as the sound of the gunshot rang like a crack through Bucky's skull. He almost couldn't make himself look. But there was no blood. Daisy remained on her feet. Instead, it was as though the ignition of the gunpowder had imploded the gun. The weapon crumpled in on itself, falling from Daisy's hand.
Olcora strode forward. "I'm tired of your tricks. Of you always thinking you are better than me. But you are wrong."
"Come on," Bucky pulled Sam back. "Off the edge."
Sam struggled against him. "No. I have to be here. She told me to wait."
"Well you can wait back here," Bucky gritted his teeth, fighting to keep his grip as Sam began to flail.
Sam's elbow caught him in the jaw. A boot heel rammed down the inside of his ankle.
"Alright," Bucky hauled his friend back with far more strength and far less care than he had been previously. "Enough of this."
They hit the ground with a thud and then Sam was on him like a wild cat, desperate to get loose. But his desperation made him single minded and blinded to Bucky's evasion. Wrapping his metal arm around his throat, Bucky pulled tight, holding fast until his squirming quieted. Panting, Bucky gently laid Sam on the rooftop floor and moved towards the soldiers. He would not barter with them.
The discussion on the street below had dissolved into a fight, and it made him realize that Miranda had been the one holding back. Every day in training she had pushed him harder and harder. Move faster. Be stronger. But the brawl below was breathtaking. The kind of fight that can only occur between two creatures of identical making. Each opponent matched in uncanny speed and unrelenting power. Miranda drove every bit of strength into every swing of her hands. And for every strike she landed, Olcora met them.
Miranda raised her forearms up and together as Olcora beat hard against them. And he had known, knew in his soul, that if Miranda was truly human it would have shattered her bones. Olcora brought her leg up and struck hard against Miranda's arms, hard enough to send her tumbling back. But Miranda tucked in, rolling to her feet.
Seizing the moment of distraction, Olcora screamed. "Jump!"
Bucky grabbed for the soldier nearest him as they moved to leap from the ledge. The fabric of his uniform slipped through his fingers, and then they were falling. Someone was screaming. Was he screaming? And then he realized there were others. A woman leapt from the building across the street, her hands clasped in the hands of her children who dutifully followed her.
"That's enough!" Miranda's voice was everything. It consumed the air. Echoed his mind. Vibrated through his bones. Even the wind stilled at her command.
Bucky looked out at the street, his breathing ragged, heart pounding in his ears. It was like someone had paused a movie. Dozens of figures hovered in the air, frozen in their plummet to the ground.
"What the hell?"
Bucky looked back to see Sam, hand rubbing his throat, coming to stand beside him.
"No!" Olcora screamed.
Miranda's hands had flung outward and with them a great wave of power. Slowly now, she lowered them, and the dozens of bodies with them. Bucky couldn't breath. Who was she? What was she?
"Stop this, now." Miranda commanded as the mother and children settled on the sideway. The soldiers below him were still on the concrete, but seemingly unharmed. Bodies were scattered down the street. Had they all been lowered unscathed?
"I will not. Not until I have what I want." Olcora snarled.
Miranda reached her hand far up above her head, fingers outstretched towards the sky. Her eyes had gone a bottomless color of black. It felt as though the world had shifted on its axis, its grip on reality slipping. He could feel it in the tensing of his muscles, the prickle over his skin. Something dark and ugly had reared its head. It cracked across the air, an electric snap that he felt down to the core of his being.
"If she calls a hammer," Sam rasped "I swear to god I'm done with all of this."
Then she savagely wrenched her hand back down. At first nothing happened. There was nothing but the sound of his own hammering heart and she was simply crouched in the street. And then there was a thud. Then another. And another. Small dark forms plummeted to the earth. Dozens. Hundreds.
"Birds." Bucky whispered, horrified.
They were splayed across the pavement, their bodies contorted. Some of their wings were twisted in unnatural directions. Olcora took one uncertain step back. Then two. Miranda slowly rose to her full height, and the small avian bodies rose with her. In one fluid, unearthly motion, every feathered head turned towards the woman.
"What-what am I seeing?" Sam asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Every beak fell open at once and screeched. A horrible sound that struck like a needle to their ear drums. Bucky and Sam staggered back, hands clamped hard over their ears. And then the birds were airborne, dark streaks of innumerable shapes and sizes flashing towards Olcora.
She screamed, flinging her hands up to shield her face. She still held the minds of the people on the street, and they ran for her, flinging themselves over her, protecting her from slashing beaks and talons. The birds moved as one, a great flapping, seething cloud as they rolled and rushed around Olcora.
Another gun shot rang out and Miranda's body jerked. She cried out, clapping a hand over her shoulder, blood welling between her fingers. A child had gotten to one of the soldiers on the ground and claimed their gun.
It was enough to pull Bucky from his shock. He rushed forward and propelled himself over the edge and off the rooftop. Landing lightly below, he pivoted, intent on disarming the brainwashed child.
The young boy hovered a few feet off the ground, limbs outstretched from his body. Tears streamed down his blank face. Beside him the gun folded in on itself, metal screeching as it curled deeper and deeper. Breathless, Bucky turned back. Miranda's gaze had shifted to them. Blood coated her outstretched fingers. And the blackness of those eyes...
This was not the girl he had awoken beside this morning. Not the girl who had given him a smile so small and tentative that it had nearly broken him. This was someone else. Someone dark and cruel.
The space behind Miranda shifted. Sliding sideways and folding over in a way that grated against his skin. As though the very fabric of the universe was being torn apart and his mind was trying desperately to make sense of it. And through that tear stepped a woman.
Her long blonde ponytail was loose, several strands of it torn out of its bindings and billowing around her face. A thin trickle of blood trailed from her lower lip and a bruise shadowed the skin around her right eye. A sword was clasped in her hand.
"Enough sister." The woman said quietly, reaching out to give the barest of touches to Miranda's back.
And then the world quieted again. The child behind him was lowered to the ground. The Writhing mass of birds pulled back and broadened their circle around Oclora then one by one fell to the ground.
"Give this up, Olcora," the blonde called out. "You would be a fool to think that you could take us both on alone."
"Dearest Aristelle." Olcora spat, pushing away the shield of bodies around her. They fell away easily, bloodied forms crumpling to the ground. "How high and mighty you must feel standing here before your servant and your prisoner. But if you haven't noticed, I am no longer in my prison."
Slowly, Bucky reached down, inch by inch, his fingers itching to make contact with the grip of his side arm. It was impossible to see any movement in those blackest of black eyes but he just knew Miranda watched him. He could feel the question in her gaze. When he pulled the trigger, would the gun be aimed at her?
"Our Watchmen made a mistake, and it cost us greatly. Don't expect us to do it again."
Miranda turned then, looking back at the blonde. Whatever she was talking about, Miranda didn't know about it.
"I enjoyed seeing our father's demon's tear them apart. Alas, I could not stay to see them each destroyed. I had greater things on my agenda." Olcora's tone was acid.
Bucky's hand closed around the grip of his gun and softly unsnaped the security strap. Shouts arose, and Bucky jerked, pulling the gun from its holster. Soldiers flooded the streets, guns raised, screaming at the trio of women. Bucky did not hesitate, he twisted towards the red head and fired. But a well of shadows gathered around her feet, laying claim to her body. Tendrils slipped over her skin until she dissolved into shadow. The bullet passed through her, parting the shape of her like smoke. And then there was nothing.
Those still claimed by her mind control collapsed, hitting the pavement hard.
When Bucky turned back, the soldiers were closing in. Miranda was slowly dropping to her knees, hands up in surrender. The blonde took one step towards Miranda, the air around them taking on the same, strange stretched appearance that it had when she had first materialized onto the scene.
"No." Miranda's voice was quiet, resigned. "Let them come."
A soldier screamed at her to get down. But before Miranda could move any further, the soldier surged forward and shoved her down with a boot to her shoulder. Her injured shoulder. Miranda bared her teeth against the pain, and Bucky realized her eyes were their familiar shade of silver again.
Sam touched down beside him. He was saying something, but Bucky could hear none of it. All he could see was Miranda on the ground, rifles aimed at her. All he could hear was the sound of those birds. Screeching an anthem that had carried only death in its call.
Finally, Miranda's true identity will be revealed. I hope you are all as excited for it as I am. :)