Author´s notes: Hi, so sorry to keep you all waiting, but my free time these days is almost non-existence!
Just a warning that the end of this chapter gets a little heavy and dramatic, read at your on risk.
Song that inspired this chapter: Hurricane by 30 Seconds to Mars
Thanks for the support again! It really keeps me inspired! See you!
CHAPTER 17
Russia – Saint Petersburg, afternoon
After getting something to eat and buying new clothes and accessories for their disguise, Steve, Natasha and Sam are scouting the area of the event to find out the possible locations of where the Winter Soldier might be positioned tonight. After they are done, they go to a motel room and start reviewing the plan.
Natasha is sitting on the edge of the double bed with her laptop. She looks up at the two men standing in front of her as she explains everything:"So, I got the names of every guest on the list and made a research. I found out in a social network that this couple here"- she points at a name on the screen of her computer and continues - "is on vacation on a tropical island, so they won´t be able to attend the event. Steve and I are going to pose as them and give their names to enter the event so that we can watch Basov closely. The Winter Soldier is an expert sniper and he prefer to take out his target from afar so he´s not going to be inside, but I´m sure that he isn´t working alone because someone has to warn him when Basov decides to leave. Steve and I will keep an eye for anyone suspicious on the party. Sam, you´re going to stay outside and look for the Winter Soldier on the tall buildings around. If you spot him, wait for us to confront him. Don´t try dealing with him alone, you saw how dangerous he is."
Sam replies with a smirk: "Okay, so I guess I won´t be drinking expensive champagne tonight."
Natasha looks at Sam and gives him a half-smile: "No, sorry Sam."
Steve has a serious expression on his face, he looks at his wrist watch and speaks: "I think we should start getting ready for the charity event."
Natasha now looks at Steve and replies: "Yes, we don´t wanna get there too late. You can shower first, I´ll take a while in there to get ready."
Steve nods at Natasha and goes in the bathroom to shower.
After a couple of hours, Sam is already in his combat suit, sitting on a chair looking at his wings that are on the top of the small table by the window. He is checking them to make sure everything is working properly.
Steve is standing on the opposite side of the room. He is wearing a black tuxedo, his hair is meticulously combed and he is looking at himself on the mirror hanging on the wall, trying to figure out how to attach his fake blonde beard to his face. He hears the bathroom door open and turns around to see that Natasha is coming out of the bathroom. His jaw drops at the sight.
Natasha is wearing a sparkling long sleeves black dress that clings to her body, showing off her perfect curves. She is wearing a dark brown wig that is made up in a classy bun. A diamond necklace is hanging just a little above her low cleavage, it is a loan from an old friend of her, after all this time, she still has some useful contacts in Russia. Her dark eye shadow makes her green eyes stand out and a red lipstick accentuates her full lips. She notices that Steve is staring up and down at her and give him a teasing smile before asking: "Do you like my outfit Soldier?"
Hearing Natasha´s velvet voice makes Sam look away from his wings to the dressed up beautiful spy and then back to Steve who is now blushing. Sam can´t help but chuckle at how awkward Steve is around women, even when the woman is already his.
Steve looks down embarrassed for a moment: "Hum, yes…you look…" he looks up and meets her eyes to continue: "stunning!" He gives her a shy smile.
Natasha smiles back at Steve and walks to him, her black stilettos making tapping sounds on the floor. She stops in front of Steve and leans in to whisper in his ear: "I love when you look at me like that. You make me feel wanted and special so there is no need to be embarrassed about it!" She pulls away from him and lock her eyes with his.
Steve releases a breath that he didn´t even realized that he was holding and nods at Natasha with a half-smile on his face, feeling a little more relaxed.
Natasha reaches up to fix his bow tie as she says: "You look very handsome." She notices that his smile increases a bit as he replies: "Thank you. But I could use some help with this." Steve holds up his fake beard.
Natasha grabs the beard from his hand and says: "Sure!" She gives a peck on his clean-shaved face before carefully attaching the blonde, short boxed beard to Steve´s face. "There. All done!" She says as she finishes her task.
Steve looks at the mirror examining his new beard and says: "This is really weird, it´s not me at all."
Sam replies looking at Steve: "Well, that´s the point of being in disguise, man!"
Natasha grabs her phone checking the time and looks from Steve to Sam: "Okay, time to go boys!" She puts her phone away on a silver wallet and locks her arm with Steve´s, leading him out of the room.
Sam grabs his wings and follows them to the car that is parked outside.
Steve opens the passenger's door to Natasha, who smiles at him as she enters the car, and then he takes his place on the driver´s seat. Sam gets in the backseat.
The ride to the event is a silent one. Natasha looks out the window absentminded, Sam is playing with his wings and Steve is trying to focus on his driving to dismiss the fact that he is going to meet Bucky again from his mind, which is making him nervous.
When they are a few blocks away from the party, Steve stops the car and turns around to hand his shield over to Sam, saying: "I don´t think I´ll be able to hide that in my tux, will you hold that for me?"
Sam puts the shield in his arm and smiles a little as he replies: "It will be my honor!" He gets out from the back seat saying: "Good luck!" Then he flies off to the top of a tall building.
Steve keeps driving until they are in front of the building where the event has already started. He stops but he doesn´t let go of the stirring wheel and keeps staring ahead, his mind is far away in thought. He is thinking about what might happen if Bucky doesn´t remember him. He is afraid that there might be no way back for his friend. That thought has cost Steve several sleepless nights.
Natasha glances at Steve and notices his tension, so she puts a hand on his arm and he immediately responds to her touch by meeting her cool green eyes with his worried blues ones. Natasha opens her mouth to say something but, a valet opens her door and interrupts their moment. Natasha smiles politely to the valet and gets out of the car. Steve gets out too and extends his hand for Natasha to take it.
They walk to the entrance hand in hand, following Natasha´s plan and get inside the party without trouble. Once inside they notice that the ballroom is decorated with expensive flowers arrangements and is already full of people dressed elegantly. Waiters are serving fancy finger food and champagne to the guest and a soft classical music is playing on the background.
Steve grabs two glasses of champagne and hands one to Natasha. She smiles in gratitude and starts to look around. Steve does the same, trying to find Basov and notices that Natasha is gazing the other way. He follows her gaze and notices a beautiful painting on the wall of several ballerinas dancing. He leans closer to her ear and whispers: "I didn´t know you enjoy art."
Natasha is caught off guard and quickly looks away from the painting to look at Steve who has a smirk on his face. She replies softly: "Sorry, I was just admiring the ballerinas."
"So, you enjoy ballet?" Steve asks surprised.
Natasha looks away from Steve as she spots General Basov walking right behind them and stopping to chat with some nearby guest. She takes her glass to her mouth and whispers to Steve between sips: "There he is."
Steve was about to turn around to look but Natasha puts a hand on his cheek and force him to look at her face. She says with a fake smile on her face: "Don´t look now!"
Steve blushes a little at his lack of discretion and whispers: "Sorry."
"It´s okay, just follow my lead and try to relax a little, or you´ll draw attention to us. Come on." Natasha grabs his hand and leads Steve across the room to sit on the stools of the bar. From there they can watch Basov and not be so obvious about it.
Steve can now see the General, he glances to his direction from time to time.
Natasha spots a man sitting on the other end of the bar. He is alone; he has a hand on his ear and seems to be talking to himself. Natasha gives a half-smile and leans closer to Steve: "I found the insider. Don´t look, but he is to our left, at the end of the bar."
Steve nods at Natasha and says: "Okay, you keep an eye on him and I´ll watch Basov." He quickly glances at Basov to see that he is still talking to the same guests.
After some time of pretending to drink champagne and talking to Steve about nothing in particular, Natasha notices that the insider is giving the signal for the Winter Soldier because Basov is leaving the room.
Sam is outside, on the top of the building from where he sees a light flicker on the opposite building. He gets his binocular to get a closer look and he spots the Winter Soldier on the rooftop, getting his sniper rifle ready. The light he saw flicker was the reflex on the glass of the scope on the gun. Sam activates his com and says: "I found him! He is getting ready at the top of the black building, right across the street!"
Steve hears him and pretends to scratch his beard as he replies on his com that is on his wrist: "Keep your eyes on him! I´m coming!" Steve stands up and looks at Natasha.
Natasha stands in front of him and she eagerly says: "Go, I´ll try to stall Basov to buy you some time! Just be careful!" She puts her hands on his shoulder and kisses Steve softly on the lips. He lightly places his hands on her waist and kisses her back. Then he pulls away giving her a last glance as he leaves.
Natasha walks over to where Basov is standing and spills some of her champagne over Basov´s suit to delay his departure. She pretends to be drunk as she tries to apologize to him in Russian. He gives her an angry look and then turns around to make his way to the bathroom.
Once outside, Steve makes a run to the other side of the street toward the black building. Since they scouted the area earlier, he knows that there´s a fire escape stairs on the alley beside it. He goes upstairs as fast as he can and when he reaches the top of the building, he sees him.
The Winter Soldier is lying with the sniper rifle on his hand, looking through the rifle scope.
Steve pulls his fake beard off his face and walks toward him slowly and before he can say a word, the Winter Soldier suddenly turns around, startled by the sound of Steve´s footsteps. He quickly gets up and speaks surprised: "Captain America!" He starts to walk toward Steve and continues in a threatening tone: "You´re are not my mission this time. You should stay out of my way!"
Steve stops leaving a safe distance between them as he speaks: "Bucky, I came here to talk to you. Please listen to me, you have to stop this. This assassin they´ve turned you into is not who you really are."
The Winter Soldier seems amused by Steve´s remark, he replies sarcastically: "And you know who I am?"
Steve says almost as a plea: "Yes! You´re my friend, James Bucky Barnes! You fought by my side and I´m here to help you remember that you´re a good man!"
The Winter Soldier is annoyed now and replies angrily: "This Bucky, who you speak of, is long gone. I´m the Winter Soldier, and I don´t need your help!" He charges against Steve and they get into a fist fight.
The sky is dark and cloudy, it starts to drizzle.
Sam is watching Steve and the Winter Soldier fighting from the opposite building so he speaks on his com: "Widow, you should join us out here! The Captain is fighting!" Sam picks up Steve´s shield and flies off toward the black building.
Natasha replies: "Copy that!" as she quickly leaves the party.
Steve already got blood coming out from his eyebrow. He is mostly blocking the attacks and is still trying to reason with Bucky: "Stop it Bucky, I not here to kill you, I just want to talk!"
Sam swiftly lands on the top of the black building near Steve and shouts: "Hey Steve! Catch!" He throws Captain America´s shield to him.
Steve grabs his shield just in time to block a punch from the Winter Soldier´s metal arm, which makes a loud noise.
The Winter Soldier gets mad and starts a sequence of punches with his metal arm against Captain America´s shield, the noise from the impact sounds like a bell ringing, and the punches are so strong that they are making Steve back away a few steps.
Before Natasha goes upstairs, she picks a small knife from her bra and quickly tears the bottom of her dress, leaving its length a little above her knees so that she can move more efficiently. She hears the bell-like sounds as she runs up the fire escape staircase.
Steve took too many steps back and he is now on the edge of the building trying not to fall.
Sam screams: "Look out!" and he flies off toward Steve.
Steve is moving his arms forward to try balance himself, but the Winter Soldier gives him a little push saying: "Goodbye Captain!"
When Natasha gets to the top, she sees the Winter Soldier pushing Steve out of the building and all she can do is scream: "Steve!"
Steve disappears from her sight as he falls off the edge, but a few seconds later Sam comes up flying, holding Steve by his armpits and clumsily lands on the top of the building letting go of Steve as he says panting: "Man, you´re heavy!"
The Winter Soldier turns around and snarls, striding toward Sam saying: "Let´s see if this bird can fly without wings!" He grabs both of Sam´s wings, crushing them as he lifts Sam up in the air and swirls him around before throwing him out of the building.
Steve screams: "No! Sam!" He runs to the edge trying to catch Sam, but it´s too late.
Natasha charges against the Winter Soldier and grabs him from behind, putting her legs around his torso and trying to choke him with her arms on his neck. The Winter Soldier is gasping for air but he manages to gather the strength to grab Natasha´s arms and flip her over his head. Natasha groans when she lands hard on her back, but she quickly gets up and hits the Soldier´s face with a high kick. The heel from her shoe does a nasty cut on his cheek.
Steve is looking down, trying to see what happened to Sam when he hears Sam on his com: "I´m okay, I managed to glide to a nearby window, but I´m grounded!"
Steve lets out a breath of relieve and takes his wrist to his mouth to respond: "Glad you´re okay! Don´t worry, we´ve got this!" He turns around and notices that Bucky is speaking with Natasha, but he can´t understand what he is saying because he is speaking in Russian.
The Winter Soldier put his hand on his cheek and then looks at his bloody hand. He meets Natasha´s eyes and says bitterly in Russian: "Why are you fighting with Captain America, Natalia?"
Natasha is surprised by his question and replies in her native tongue: "There´s too much evil in this world and I don´t want to be a part of it anymore! I´m going to fight for the good guys for a change, you should try it too."
The Winter Soldier chuckles: "So you´re trying to be a hero? You know there´s no turning back for us, you are living a lie! You will never erase your sins!" He runs to Natasha and tries to hit her, but she ducks to avoid his punch and pass her leg under his feet to trip him. He falls down on his back but he quickly sits up and reaches for Natasha´s left tight, pulling the black strap that he spotted as he fell and finding a small gun. He holds the gun up, pointing it to Natasha and, with a smirk on his face, he says: "Ah Natalia, you haven´t changed a bit and you never will, no matter how hard you try!"
Steve is watching the scene and fears for Natasha´s life, so he runs toward the two.
Natasha rolls to the side as the Winter Soldier starts to shoot at her saying angrily: "This time I´ll get you out of my way, forever!"
She gets up and runs as fast as she can to take cover, a bullet grazes her right arm so she slides the rest of the way behind a wall.
Steve shouts angrily: "Leave her alone!" and throws his shield, hitting the gun on the Winter Soldier´s hand, making him drop it. Then Steve jumps on him and quickly pins the Soldier down and tries one last appeal: "Come on Bucky, look at me! You´ve gotta remember me! Please!"
The rain is getting heavier and Natasha´s wig is not only wet, but it´s starting to fall on her eyes from all her moving around, so she pulls it off and let her red hair fall to her shoulders. She takes a peek from her hiding place and sees that Steve is struggling to keep the Winter Soldier down and realizes this isn´t going to end well so she yells: "Steve, you have to finish this or you´ll die trying to save him!" He doesn´t answer so she looks around and spots her gun on the ground nearby. She counted how many shot the Winter Soldier fired at her and she knows that there is still one bullet left so she makes a run for her weapon.
The Winter Soldier manages to hit his knee hard on Steve´s gut and gets out of his grip, rolling them to the side. Reversing the positions, he pins Steve to the ground and grabs Steve´s neck with his metal hand. He is choking Steve to dead.
The Winter Soldier looks down at the gasping Steve and says sarcastically: "What´s the matter with you Captain? Are you trying to save every assassin on the world? We are beyond saving, friend!" He says the last word as if he is disgusted by it.
Steve grabs his metal fingers with his hand, but can´t get them off him, he tries to breathe but can´t get the air to his lungs. He feels his throat getting crushed, and he is slowly losing consciousness.
When Natasha reaches her gun, she turns around and sees that Steve is lying nearly unconscious and that the Winter Soldier is getting ready to snap Steve´s neck. No time to hesitate, she knows that she has to finish this now.
Natasha points her gun at the Winter Soldier and mutters: "Forgive me Steve." She shoots the Winter Soldier on the back and the bullet finds his heart. The Soldier lets go off Steve and falls limp to the side.
Steve sits up and coughs a couple of times before he realizes what has happened. He looks from the dead body of his friend beside him to Natasha standing a few feet away still holding her gun up. She is frozen, a single tear rolls down her cheek, but it gets mixed with the rain that is now pouring on them.
Steve panics and kneels beside the body of his friend: "No, no! Bucky! Talk to me!" He tries to find a pulse on his neck and finds nothing. He rests his hands on Bucky´s unmoving chest and lowers his head, sobbing at the body of his dead friend. His blonde hair is dripping on Bucky´s lifeless face.
Natasha slowly lowers her gun and after a few minutes she starts to speak in a raspy voice: "I´m…sorry, Steve! I had to…he was going to kill you…" her voice trails off.
Steve sobbing stops when he hears Natasha´s voice and he looks up at her with his glassy blue eyes for a moment and then looks away because he can´t stand to look at her right now, it pains him even more to do so. He knows that he is still alive thanks to her, but he feels like he is barely breathing due to the heavy weight he has on his chest. No matter what everybody said about Bucky, Steve still had hope that he could come back and be himself again and Natasha just shattered it. The love he feels for Natasha is not enough for him to overcome the disappointment he is feeling, not this time. Realizing that there is nothing else he can do, he stands up; fixes his gaze on the fire escape stairs and walks by Natasha without saying a single word.
Natasha holds her breath as Steve passes her and his indifference as he leaves, makes her realize that she ruined everything. Her eyes follow him as he climbs down the stairs and when she can´t see him anymore, she lets out a shallow breath. She feels like she has a hole on her chest. She falls to her knees and tears flow freely from her eyes. She looks forward and watches as the rain washes away the blood from Bucky´s face, but there is still a pool of blood coming out from his back that even the pouring rain can´t wash. "Too much blood, too much red. Can you wipe out that much red?" Those words linger on Natasha´s mind and she puts a hand on her mouth to try covering the sobs that are coming out from her chest. She silent prays for a God that she doesn´t even believe in, but she begs to Him for help, for forgiveness. She begs that Steve come back to her because he is the best part of her, and after all that she had been through, she fears that she won´t be able to go on by herself. Who will save her from all the demons she is up against?