After escaping from Winter's cryostasis chamber, and narrowly averting Pierce's offer for her to join HYDRA, Erin had to cool down and simply breath for a minute. The drifting red smoke emitting from her charred hands was slowly dying from the fire that had burned inside of her. One important aspect that Qlifhat's tome had stressed from the very first page was that there is no darkness without light, and vice versa. In order to correctly manipulate shadows, the master would need to keep a light inside themselves, their tranquility, to keep them from being consumed in the shadows. Connecting to the shades always has risks; the stronger the manipulators tranquility, the more they could control it. Having a loved one as tranquility is dangerous because if they die, the master descents into madness. Erin knew of these possibilities before performing her first technique. She couldn't risk losing sight of her inner peace; she didn't want to hurt anyone simply because she couldn't keep the darkness out of her heart.
With shut eyes, she positioned herself carefully on the chilly concrete and eased herself into her meditation. Her little lamp across the room was the only visible light in the basement. This time, not wanting to skip another two days, Erin kept pinching her fingers in order to leave one feet in the doughnut shop and the other in her relaxing state. Winter didn't have two days for her to rescue him; and seeing her only friend in such agony made her impatient. She wanted and needed to help him. She couldn't waste any time.
As her heart slowed down, her tranquility being physically displayed on her hands reseeded back into her. The deadly red smoke filtered through the broken latch and into the freezer. Her small base of operations soon became habitable again. All that was left of her small loss of control was black smut on her fingers and sut spots on her palms. It wasn't long before she pinched herself back into her basement.
"Okay," she sighed loudly. Opening her green eyes, it took a moment for them to adjust to the surroundings. She shifted to stand, but a stinging pain shoot from her thigh. Erin traced her hand along the inflicted area and pulled back bloody finger tips. "Damn," she muttered. "He shot me," she had forgotten that Pierce had lost his temper with her. While the pain was splitting through her body, Erin began to grind her teeth and struggled to find her small box of first aid. "I swear," she spoke as if someone would hear her, "The next son of a bitch that shoots me is going to get gelded." This was the third time a bullet had hit her. When Rumlow had struck her with the cattle prod, that was the second time she was electrocuted. And who could forget that Agent Romanoff stabbed her in the knee on their first encounter? So many scars to remind her of all her trials with SHIELD and HYDRA. Hopefully, she wouldn't get any more.
"Gelded?" a female voice asked behind her. Erin immediately ceased fumbling around her basement and stood still. She didn't know anyone was there. "That's a bit outdated, isn't it?"
The Shadow Stranger took rapid breaths through her nostrils, which were flared with annoyance. I don't have time for this. Who ever just stumbled upon her hideout was about to regret it. Glancing over her shoulder, Erin glared at the woman in a black uniform. Her hair was hastily put together in a bun, leaving a few strands loose and fall around her head. A thick utility belt hung her hips and components were left open for a variety of weapons. Erin knew this outfit; Rumlow and his damn team wore those on the bridge. That's right, Winter was HYDRA's little spy. They know where I am.
"I suggest you leave, before I-"
"From the way you've been fumbling about, I don't have much to worry about."
"Do you know who I am?" Erin used the old desk in the back of the basement to lean on and cross her arms.
"Someone's who's been shot, obviously." The woman nodded her head at her bleeding wound. "And, I also know you're the person who swore to help the man who gave this to you." She tossed the smartphone that Fury had given to her two days ago. Erin caught it and immediately dismissed it by slamming it on the wood.
"What of it?" As hard as she tried, Erin's focus kept being dragged away to her throbbing thigh. She had to get rid of this woman, not kill her. Because of her steady blood loss, she didn't want to resort to her shadows; not yet. If it came to it, she wouldn't hesitate. But for now, this woman had peaked Erin's interest. She was wearing a HYDRA outfit, but spoke about Fury's secret agreement with her; she needed to know how she knew.
"What's the point of giving you a phone if you don't answer it?" the tactical woman replied.
Taking a short moment to check the phone, Erin didn't know she missed fourteen calls. All from the only number programmed into the phone; Nick Fury. It didn't make sense, he had died two days ago, and every call was after the time the hospital had declared him dead. Someone could have used his phone; however, Erin suspected that there were security measures he took to ensure his privacy.
"Nick Fury is dead; I'm not answering a dead man's cell," she lied; she had almost instantly lost it when she returned with her book. There was no why she could answer any call if she didn't know where it was. "I hear bad things happen when you speak to ghosts."
"Bad things are going to happen anyway."
Erin shifted her weight, which only resulted in her leg stinging with more pain; Erin winced, but continued the conversation, "Well, that's inevitable."
"This one can be stopped," she took a step, Erin choose not to move, but to glare her down, "Millions of people are going to be wiped out. At a push of a button."
"Who has that kind of power?" she voiced her disbelief.
One word was all it took for Erin to take a leap of faith. Just one word had her convinced. That one word had Erin's blood boiling and her nerves itching to join the fight. The woman had said, "HYDRA."
Despite her desperate attempts to remain out of the war between SHIELD and HYDRA, Erin found herself being wrapped up by the woman and helped into a slick black compact car. After seeing what they were doing to Winter, Erin just could not refuse to help take down HYDRA. And, a little vengeance for being the pincushion for Rumlow's advanced cattle prod. With her thigh still aching with a familiar pain, Erin held a tight grip around her bandage wrap to hold her red blood inside her body. The woman had introduced herself as Agent Hill, from SHIELD. Erin didn't care; anyway to take down HYDRA and get Winter free from them was all she did care about. A tiny voice was telling her to not use people, but she couldn't calm the large amount of anger in her. Winter, like it or not, was getting rescued. She just wondered how the next interaction with him would be. To be honest, she enjoyed the last time the most, when they were close. Of course, she knew it would be different. His memory was being erased when she left. Even though he was HYDRA's spy, she saw that glint in his blue eyes that he was sorry. Erin just needed to play her cards right to at least break him away from Pierce and Rumlow. After that, he would be on his own to do whatever he wanted; it wasn't what Erin wanted, but there was no way she could force him to remember her, even with her shadows. She had tried and failed.
Her mind was concentrated on Winter. She didn't pay attention to the streets Hill was turning down, the statues they past, or even the direction they were going. For all Erin knew, Hill could have been with HYDRA all along and she wouldn't have caught on until it was too late. The Shadow Stranger had took that risk by just thinking of Winter. Thankfully, Hill had not lied to her about being with SHIELD. However, from Erin's previous experiences with them, it wasn't too much better.
Agent Hill turned off the main streets and drove down into a drainage ditch. A large black SUV was parked in the corner, under the protection of a large building while a small service entrance led underneath. The edges of Erin's vision started to become blurry as Hill jerked the compact car to a halt and parked it. Shutting the engine off, she jumped out and nearly pulled Erin out; having an arm over her shoulder, the SHIELD agent particularly hauled her down the damp tunnel. She was conscious and could recall being led through the narrow service entrance, but it wasn't until a new voice spoke clearly at them for her to recognize what was happening.
Lying face down on a small army cot, Erin rolled her eyes back into clarity. The chilly air of the damp service leaks caused her to shiver and pick herself up and examine her newest setting. Before she could realize where she was, the voice spoke again, obviously angry.
"There's no way I'm working with her." The voice was vaguely familiar and definitely female.
"What choice do we have?" a male voice answered.
"I don't see what the big deal is; she helped me back at the bridge," a third voice.
"You don't know this girl like I do. She's dangerous and-"
"Awake." Erin held her head up to focus on the three people talking about her. After a few quick blinks, she saw the hazy figures recover their details and faces. Oh damnit. As if she expected anything else, the angry female voice was Agent Romanoff; she could easily tell her apart from the rest with her bright red hair. The other two were men, both impressively muscular and tall, one with broad shoulders and a strong chin, the other with more slender physique but with definition nonetheless. Although she wasn't kept up to date with the Avengers and their true identities, it was clear that one of the men was Steve Rogers. The other man was ringing a faint bell in the back of her mind, but she found it difficult to pinpoint who he was. "Nice to see you again, Romanoff," Erin sarcastically said while nodding to the SHIELD agent.
"How's your knee?" she crossed her tough arms over her chest and glared at her.
"Still works, thankfully," Erin shifted to carefully have her legs dangle off the side of the cot. Her thigh was wrapped and a tight spot could be felt underneath; they had stitched her up. "That knife of yours left a gnarly scar," she took a mental note of the disturbed expressions on Steve and the other man's face, "Definitely tells a story."
"You stabbed her in the knee?" Steve took a defensive step in between the women. "When was this?"
"Oh, it happened over a year ago," she answered causally. "That's besides the point. I don't care how strong HYDRA is, we don't need her. She shouldn't even be here."
"That's enough, Agent Romanoff," all four heads turned to see who had spoken. The three people standing weren't too surprised to see a dead man walking, but Erin's jaw dropped almost immediately. Rather than a proud, intimidating man marching along, with his hands cupped behind his back, Nick Fury limped his way slightly hunched over and one arm in a sling. It wasn't long before she remembered seeing Winter's mission two days prior, watching the grenade fly across the street and explode under the front axle of his SUV. He somehow escaped, but the news report said that he had died. How did he survive The Winter Soldier?
This was a ridiculous plan; completely suicidal. The former SHIELD director, three agents, one veteran, and one shadow manipulator were going to bring down HYDRA. During their meeting to deliberate how they were going to expose HYDRA, Erin held her tongue and simply nodded when someone mentioned her. Romanoff was constantly questioning why she was even there while Rogers shot her dirty looks. The man that she had saved on the bridge was named Sam Wilson, and apparently he had wings. Six people were going to infiltrate SHIELD headquarters, get into the main council room on one of the highest floors, and disable the three helicarriers by switching out a small processor in the belly of each one. Simple, right? Parts were assigned to each person based on what they could do; Rogers and Wilson would be in charge of the processors on each helicarrier. Romanoff and Erin were unluckily paired up to disguise the red hair as Councilwoman Hawley and sneak in that way. Hill was left to quickly reprogram the targeting system on the helicarriers so they would aim at each other, instead of civilians. Of course, Romanoff loathed the idea of working directly with Erin, but Fury had explained that Erin was the only way to sneak her onto the airplane that Hawley was on without detection. The Shadow Stranger bit her bottom lip as Fury seemed to have high expectations of her abilities. She had never had to create a portal on a moving object before, especially one she couldn't see; needless to say, Erin had her own doubts on this plan. They were also going to reveal all of SHIELD secrets as well, all black ops missions, terrorist group, even her small town in Wyoming. At that point, Erin didn't care if people knew who she really was; as long as she could break away from Fury's mission and go off on her own. Once everyone had a decent understanding of how things were going to play out, Wilson and Rogers took a minute to chat. Erin's careful ears heard them talking about someone vaguely familiar.
"I don't think he's the type of saving, but rather a guy to be stopped."
Wilson said that to Rogers, but Erin ignored his claim. He can be saved, even if it's the last thing I do. If Rogers really knew Winter, than it would be better if she just faded after all this. When Romanoff and Fury leak all of SHIELD and HYDRA's secrets on the internet, everyone would look to her as a monster, just as they had before. The fact that everyone would only half of the story would kill her; better to just disappear than to live with the label Monster of Mountain Pass.
Once Romanoff was disguised as the British councilwoman, Hill helped Erin distinguish which inbound flight had the original woman. It took her a few attempts to successfully connect to the shadows miles above them. Holding the connection was difficult, she always relied on something in place, a wall, a foundation, support beam, but the entire plane was traveling incredibly fast. Once she was able to hold it open long enough for Romanoff to jump through and sneak Hawley through, Erin figured her part was over. However, Fury left out the part that he needed her to get him into the council room. No shadows; this time, they would take a helicopter. According to him, she was their escape plan, if anything went bad, he wanted her to get Romanoff and Hill out. She agreed, only for a chance to be in the same room as Pierce; she had her own agenda to attend to.
Erin had never been in a helicopter before; she never even traveled by plane. Of course, she never systematically planned to take down two giant organizations with only six people, but this wasn't the first time she wanted to break into SHIELD headquarters. Hopefully, she wouldn't get ambushed. Everyone had earpieces to communicate the status of their progress. Hill was able to make her way to the helicarrier tower in the building and start the reprogramming of the targets. After a heartfelt speech from Captain America, the three massive fortresses began to rise. The river had divided to reveal the docking bays and the colossal helicarriers. While in the helicopter, Erin was able to just see Rogers jump onto one of them while Wilson took flight to a different one. The Shadow Stranger shifted and leaned back in the uncomfortable seat. Would Pierce actually use Winter? Where would he use his asset? This wasn't going to be easy.
A confirmation came from Rogers and Wilson that they had achieved switching the processors. Only one left. She couldn't concentrate on the two's bantter and coordination to get to the third. Fury's concerning looks didn't go unnoticed by Erin; she just wanted to find Winter.
"Are you here, Memmott?" the former director of SHIELD spoke into the headset.
She turned to him and shrugged her shoulders. Physically, yes. However, her mind was long gone.
"I need you sharp!" He demanded as their flying vessel rounded the skyscraper building. "If anything goes haywire, you need to get Romanoff and Hill out of there. Do you understand?"
The Shadow Stranger couldn't help but smile at the authoritative man steering the helicopter. "When we first met, did you ever think we'd be flying into your precious SHIELD to destroy it?" She chuckled, being reminded of the outlandish trials she had been through, half caused by this man. "I never would have guessed that," What a satire sort of humor.
After circling the entire building to find the landing pad on the correct floor, which was adjacent to Pierce's council room. Fury gave Erin a stern look before exiting the craft. "Your priority is to get them out if anything happens to me, understood?"
"Sir yes sir," she answered honestly, but in a mocking tone. As soon as she knew where Winter was, she wasn't going to hesitate to get to him. The best case scenario was that she could get everyone out alive; but, when did anything work in her favor?
The two jumped out of the helicopter while the propellers continued to spin. Fury led the way to the glass office and pulled the door open to storm inside. It pleased Erin that Pierce was being held at gun point. One of the regular council members was holding the barrel at his big head. Romanoff had taken her mesh mask and wig to reveal her natural features. She was typing quickly at a clear panel. Thin glasses of wine sat on the table; Pierce had celebrated too early. A sly smile cracked over Erin's face, their plan was actually working. Now, she had to get her own information about Winter without tipping off Fury or Romanoff.
Pierce was shocked when Fury entered the office, but then scoffed when he saw Erin. However, he turned back to the former director of SHIELD. "Did you get my flowers? I'm glad you're here, Nick."
"Really? I thought you wanted me dead." Fury walked up to Pierce and stood tall and powerful.
"You know how the game works."
"Why did you put me in charge of SHIELD?"
"Because you were the best. Were the most ruthless."
"I did everything to protect people."
"Our enemies are yours, Nick." Erin allowed their little chat to continue, waiting for them to leak every bit of information onto the internet. Once the world knew half of Mountain Pass' story, she had nothing left to lose. "Chaos, wars. Soon, radiological weapons will destroy Moscow and an electromagnetic pulse bomb will drop in Chicago. Diplomacy? It's a delay, a palliative. You know where I learned that? At Bogota; do not ask, but just followed. We can bring order into the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing 20 million. It's the next step, Nick, if you have the courage to do it."
"No, I don't have the courage to do it."
Over the office intercom, an automated voice said, "Retinal scan enabled."
"What are you doing?" Pierce acted coy, but Erin could smell his fear. "I don't think you'll be approved!"
"I know that you've deleted the password, probably my retinal scan, but if you want to be one step before me, Mr. Secretary," Fury lifted his black eyepatch and narrowed his dark eyes at the suited man, "You have to keep both eyes well open." Romanoff forced Pierce to the retinal scan on the glass wall. It scanned his eye and Fury's scarred eye. After a moment of processing both retinas, the automated voiced sounded again.
"Alpha level confirmed. Coding accepted. Protection removed."
Erin relaxed by inhaling a deep breath; there was no hiding now. Everyone with internet access would know Mountain Pass and for all the wrong reasons. Although, Erin had wondered what else was hidden by SHIELD or HYDRA. She would have to check the files on the interwebs when she got the chance. There was an awkward tension after they leaked everything. Pierce had glanced at Erin, with a smug look. She didn't like the way he was staring at her, but she was told to stay back, just as an insurance policy for Romanoff and Hill.
"Now, aren't you a surprise?" Behind his thin glasses, he was plotting something sinister; Erin didn't have to be a mind reader to see the evil look in his eyes. "Agent Romanoff showing up was a given. Fury's guest appearance was exciting, but you," pointing a lazy finger at her, "I'm completely dumbfounded by seeing you."
Fury and Romanoff followed his finger to Erin; she kept her lips pressed together, waiting to hear what he was going to say.
"Seeing you on the other side," Pierce gave a shrug to convey his lack of words, "It's astonishing."
"What're you talking about?" The red haired woman shoved him a little to intimidate him.
Pierce was more than willing to clarify. "Oh what? You didn't know?" Neither of the two SHIELD agents answered him, so he continued, "Since it's going to be online in a few minutes anyways," he carefully turned to the glass wall that served as a monitor. "Play video file 221 Bravo, three days ago."
The glass played the role of a large television as a camera video began to show. Erin recognized the room, it was Winter's cryostasis chamber. In the recording, Winter was still in his cryogenically frozen tube. After a short pause of watching the still room, Erin had appeared from a corner. Her own eyes widen as she realized that this was an endocturated recording; however, she knew where this was going. Honestly, the work to create such a masterpiece of incriminating evidence was remarkable. In the video, the back of Erin's head glanced around before placing a hand on the tube. The nearby shadows were brought to the cylinder for a moment before cooling sealant began to steam away from the door. Just as she had guessed, they showed Erin releasing The Winter Soldier. That part was true; when she first stumbled upon his chamber, she did manage to free him from the cryostasis. However, the video was lying; it wasn't three days ago, but over a year prior. She had substantial injuries, including Romanoff's knife in her knee, and her long curly hair. In this lie, she had walked straight to him and quickly unlocked him. Well played. Erin had to give Pierce credit for how well made the "recording" was; it was nearly flawless. The only way she could disprove it by admitting to freeing The Winter Soldier at an earlier date; which wouldn't help her anyways. It seems you've had all your bases covered for the launch.
"What the hell?!" Romanoff snapped her head at Erin, glaring daggers at The Shadow Stranger. "I knew we couldn't trust her!"
"Of course not," Pierce agreed with the furious woman, "She's been with HYDRA for years. In fact, she's the asset's caretaker. Without her, we would never have gotten this far."
Lies. Erin felt pinned into the corner, with Fury narrowing his one good eye at her. The only thing holding Romanoff back from attacking Erin was keeping Pierce within arms reach. I guess you didn't want to go down by yourself. The Shadow Stranger scoffed at the people staring intently at her. It was a lose-lose situation. Now, the entire world would see her as a HYDRA terrorist; apparently, she did have more to lose.
In her ear communicator, her mind picked up Wilson and Rogers talking about a "him." Wilson had been grounded by "him," and told Captain America to be careful and to remember what he had said. Hill informed Rogers that he had six minutes before the helicarriers had reached the right altitude to sync with the satellite. He's on one of the flying behemoths. She looked from the corner of her eyes to just see the slowly rising aircrafts. Erin had been successful in switching Black Widow with Councilwoman Hawley, she at least needed to try to get up there.
"Don't. You. Move." Fury held up a handgun in his one good arm; Erin knew his perception was altered from his left eye being blind and that his dominant was his right. She had the tiniest chance of being able to jump through a portal and get to Winter. "Whatever you're planning, stop." It was an order, but Erin was never an agent. Never a soldier. She didn't have to follow his rules any longer; she had what she needed.
Crouching to initially dodge Fury's first few bullets, The Shadow Stranger ran toward the only solid wall across the room. The councilmen backed away, unsure of what she was doing. Romanoff began to squeeze her trigger as well, trying to stop Erin. There was no way those two SHIELD agents could stop her. Nothing could stop her. Coating her eyes in her own darkness, she held out an arm and focused on one of the helicarriers, attempting to visualize a shadow she could jump into. The shadows around the room quickly swirled together and opened a narrow hole. Erin was forced to jump through to get onto the deck of a helicarrier. She rolled onto the thick haul of the helicarrier and immediately broke the connection to her shadows. Two bullets were fired through her portal, but luckily Erin had the sense to remain out of their path. Surprisingly, she had made it out without any injuries. That was a nice change of pace; her thin body carried enough scars.
Harsh wind whipped across her face and blew her hair back. Shielding her green eyes from any possible debris, Erin used a Stage Two technique to open another portal under her. Her body eased downward until she reached the glass dome on the belly of the helicarrier. She dropped onto the platform where the control panel was. Fingerprint smudges were on the keyboard and, with further examination, she noticed one of the processors in the center coil was not like the others. This one was already done. She realized that Winter wouldn't be on this one. Wilson or Rogers had switched this targeting system; there was no need to send the asset to defend it. If just one of the targeting systems was with the original, their plan would fail.
She entertained the thought of switching the processors back, since Rogers was on a different helicarrier and Wilson was grounded, no one could change it. But, that wasn't her. Erin wasn't a monster, despite what all social media was being led to believe at that very moment. Secrets of her and that incriminating video labeled her a terrorist; when in reality, she was just a simple mountain town girl. A small town girl with a large book.
With a defined look at a security camera, silently sending Hill a message, The Shadow Stranger opened another portal and emerged to another helicarrier. This time, she walked onto the glass dome rather than the windy deck. She didn't want to take the chance to being blown away by the strong gusts. Once her foot touched down and her portal closed behind her, loud gunshots were heard.
Erin dropped to her knees and covered her head. "Shit!" she shouted, unaware of the source of bullets. After every loud bang of the gun, she could hear a ting of where the small metal had hit. However, with one bullet being fired, Erin didn't hear the ricochet of metal on metal. Instead, a man groaned in pain and muffled sound was heard of muttering. A cease-fire led Erin to peek over the edge of the platform.
Below her, standing on the glass frame of the belly, The Winter Soldier held a handgun in his mechanical arm. She wasn't a doctor, but she knew that something happened to dislocate his human arm; it was hanging limply and he would slightly wince whenever it moved.
She must had caught his attention because his head turned to her; and for a brief moment, she was relieved. Thrusting his artificial arm upward again, he pointed the barrel at Erin and began to shoot her. She rolled out of the way and shrieked; The Shadow Stranger really didn't want to add another bullet wound to match the one Pierce had given her hours before. Erin crawled around the base of the controls to separate her and his line of fire. So much for not hurting me. She was bitter, and quite literally scared. Rogers had been shot and she suspected he was down for the count. What was she supposed to do? Prove Pierce a liar by sacrificing herself to change the processors? She couldn't necessarily do that; she needed to get Winter out of HYDRA before dying. Could she fight him off? Hell no; she had determined months ago that he would win against her in a battle; besides, she had physically felt the extent of his left arm. It was much more powerful than she had ever imagined. Her tranquility was to save him, not fight him. She doubted her more powerful techniques would actually work against him because of that fact; and she didn't want to risk her life just to find out.
The Shadow Stranger had been ignoring the short chat between Hill and Rogers; but she was brought back to the present when the helicarriers began to rev it's weapons. Upward, through the glass, she saw the large guns on the side of the aircrafts spin and aim. Had Rogers failed? Were 20 million people going to die? How could she prevent another massacre? The side guns moved to a leveled altitude; aiming at the other two carriers. In an instant, the three fortresses open fired on each other; Hill was able to change the targets.
A quick sigh of relief left her lips just as the opposite guns from the other two helicarriers started to shoot the one she, Rogers, and Winter were on. For a steady five minutes, the massive flying weapons unloaded each other until they all began to descend. Within the pit of her stomach, she felt the Zero G's taking into effect as the helicarrier heading downward. She forced herself into another roll as pieces of the ceiling were shot down. There was a strong missile connection, popped her body off of the platform and landed on the glass frame. The pain was familiar when she landed on her shoulder. The drop was shorter, but her joint had never really healed from the fall in the elevator shaft.
Grunting and biting her lip down, The Shadow Stranger fought the urge to cry out; if Winter was still looking to shoot her, she wouldn't give away her position. A support beam fell from the ceiling along with sheet metal and panels. Wide eyed, she pushed her sore body away from the general area of the beam. Taking quick breaths to control her throbbing shoulder, she picked herself up and leaned against the center console spire. Annoyed, she took the earpiece out and tossed it away; she no longer was on SHIELD's side. The internet was led to believe that she was with HYDRA for years. All she was an adopted girl in a mountain town. Why did everything have to get twisted and altered into lies? No one would ever trust Erin Memmott again.
About ten yards away, Erin's ears picked up a rough grunting and moaning. She followed the sound and saw Winter pinned under the support beam. He was trying to push it off, occasionally kicking his legs in frustration. "Hell," she muttered. There was no way she could leave him there; he was her reason for being there. Carefully stumbling across the glass frame, Erin placed a hand on the beam, about to open a portal to have him slid through. Rogers jumped down and immediately began to lift it up. Rather than her easy solution, Erin manipulated her shadows around Winter and forced them upward; helping the two lift the abundant beam. With the combined strength, they were able to pick it up enough for Winter to slid out.
Erin grasped in exhaustion and fell to the floor. She was confused as to where her energy went. Using her good arm, she traced her thigh wound from Pierce; it was bleeding heavily. Glancing down, red blood was staining the wraps and what remained of her pants. Linked together with her freshly dislocated shoulder, Erin knew this wasn't going to end well. "Don't you dare pass out," she told herself. "Damnit, not again. You have to get Winter."
Hard punches and loud grunts had Erin turning her head. Winter was sitting on top of Rogers and pounding his face in. With every unsteady strike, Erin cringed at the sound of the was another fall of thick support beam, barreling down fast and broke through the glass. Erin was safe from the gaping hole in the frame, but she had saw Rogers and Winter fall down with the support.
"No!" she shouted. Ignoring her body's request to rest, she jumped up and ran to the edge of the frame. Particularly leaping off the glass, Erin stopped herself short to see Winter holding on to a protruding steel base.
The Winter Soldier glanced up at her; they were definitely not the same blue eyes she saw back at his cryostasis chamber, but they were close. She knew very well that he would try to kill her, but she knew, deep down, he wouldn't. Well, she strongly hoped that he wouldn't.
Leaning on her stomach, she used her right arm to reach to him. He looked wild, savage and ready to rip her throat out, threatening her without words. Erin didn't care. She placed her hand on his mechanical arm and tried to heave him up. Before she could actually attempt to bring him up, his metal arm seemed to scold her. The intense and sudden pain had Erin draw back her hand. Her hand had lost several layers of skin and left a bloody handprint on his arm. Winter had winced in pain, if only for a second. Erin couldn't use her left arm; it was dislocated. And now her right hand was branded to the point of no fingerprints.
Something else had fallen by the time she decided to use her shadows. This time, she wasn't safe. Immediately, her thin, broken and bruised body fell from the helicarrier and towards the river below. She didn't know where Winter had went but she assumed that he was falling as well. Even as fast wind brushed past her and the Zero G's kicked in again, all she could think of was The Winter Soldier. All she wanted was for him to live. He could even kill her if it would help him. As long as he walked away from HYDRA, she would gladly die to ensure his freedom. Closing her green eyes, she had no way to break her fall into the river under her. Her shadows couldn't help her at that height; besides, she figured that she was going to at least die a hero.
All she did while waiting for the smack of water was think of Winter.
Woah, another long chapter. So, it was brought to my attention that if Rumlow had kidnapped Erin, when did he have time to get Captain America? Good question (considering I forgot that bit XD), so, I'm just going to say that Rumlow got Rogers after she past out (lazy, yes I know).
Sorry for the spelling mistakes, grammar errors, and whatever else you can find; only had a few hours before having to go to work to do this!
Well, I hope you like this, even though I didn't have time to proofread this chapter. Thanks for the continued support!