Make You Feel My Love
~Book IV~
Disclaimer: I do not own Civil War or any other Marvel characters in this story. All I own is the story I've come up with and my own characters.
Chapter 12
The airplane ride did not take as long as Maria had expected, and by the time they had arrived in Vienna, the parts of her hair that had managed to get wet had almost had time to dry up.
The building was still smoking by the time they had arrived there. Firefighters, paramedics, police, men in suits and more were running around either towards the tower, or towards people in need. It was chaos, and Maria could not help but be remembered of what happened in Wakanda a while back…
Sharon left the three heroes, who were dressed in civil wars with glasses and hats on to protect their identity even more, in a café close to the building where the bomb had gone off to go to work. Though not before promising to help them in any way she could. Why, Maria was unsure. But she was sure it had something to do with Steve and although she did not like it, she was happy Sharon was helping them. After all, none of the three of them had any means of tracking down Bucky – but the CIA had. And for the CIA, Sharon worked.
"I didn't see her," said Maria with a frown.
"I'll call her," said Steve quietly, taking out his phone and walking outside.
The two heroes left continued eating their little cakes and drinking their coffee in silence, until Sam gently touched Maria's arm, causing her to look over at him.
"You okay?"
"Yeah… I think."
"You looked a little spooked when you exited the bathroom earlier today," he said quietly, glancing over at Steve.
"I just… fell asleep in the bathtub. Made me remember – well, you know," she lied with a soft smile on her lips.
"Yo, I know you. There's something else, isn't there. Something-"
"Don't say I look different too," said Maria with a frown.
"I gotta say, though, Tony ain't wrong. There is something," he said.
"Nat said so too…"
Sam frowned, "Did she say anything else?"
"Just to call her if there were 'any changes'," huffed Maria. "She seemed to know, just like Tony."
"Well, I don't know. All I know is that, to me, you look more… fluffy."
"Excuse me?" chuckled Maria, earning a sheepish look from Sam.
"It's like you're more precious somehow… I dunno."
Steve interrupted their conversation as he returned, "She's fine."
"She tell you to stay out of it?" asked Sam, earning a nod from Steve. "She might have a point."
"He'd do it for me," defended Steve.
"In 1945 maybe," said Sam, earning a look from both Steve and Maria. "Look, I'm not saying this is not a good lead, 'cause it is. It's just that I'm trying to consider all of our options. The people that shoot at you, usually end up shooting at me too. And I ain't as bulletproof as M over here."
"Nat just said they'd arrest us," said Steve quietly.
"Let them try," added Maria, crossing her arms over her chest to which Steve smiled.
"Tips have been pouring in since that footage went public," said Sharon's voice as she suddenly appeared next to Maria, startling her. "Everybody thinks the Winter Soldier goes to their gym. Most of it is noise. Except for this." She slid a file over to Steve which he took and opened. "My boss expects a briefing, pretty much now... so that's all the head start you're gonna get."
"Thank you," said Steve quietly, glancing at her through his sunglasses.
Sharon made to stand up again, though added a few words first, "You're gonna have to hurry, we have orders to shoot on sight."
"Only him or also whoever aids him?" asked Sam, to which Sharon only glanced at him before walking away. "Great…"
"This is it," said Maria, not sure if she wanted to smile or frown at the excitement she felt. "We might just find Bucky."
"And then bring him in," said Steve before adding, "If he did it."
Both Sam and Maria nodded, "Where is he?"
Romania, Bucharest
In an old building in a more remote part of the city, Steve and Maria climbed a couple flights of stairs until they reached the door where the super soldier was supposedly living and hiding. Maria managed to open the door with some lock picks before the two entered, closing the door behind them. Sam was positioned on a roof-top nearby to keep a look-out, something he could do the best with his new gear and x-ray vision. All three heroes were wearing their suits.
"This place looks…"
"Horrible," finished Steve.
And indeed it did. The apartment was old and probably abandoned. It was dark in there, the windows having been taped over with some old newspapers, keeping the sunlight out while also keeping snooping eyes out. Bucky used it just because nobody would notice him being in there. But no one could stay inside forever, cooped up without any supplies to survive, and so some people had seen his face there in Bucharest and reported it to the task force, who was now on its way to find Bucky themselves and bring him in – dead or alive. Luckily, it looked as though Maria and Steve were first on scene.
Bucky was not home, though a few things in the apartment told them that he had been there, and was still living there. Steve walked over to the one belonging he could see, which was the only thing in there making the place look inhabited; a book on the counter in the kitchen area, while Maria walked over to the bedroom. The bed look used, the sheets thrown to the side, though she wondered if he was getting any sleep at all. Steve had troubles sleeping, even if it helped when she was near, and she could not even imagine what horrors Bucky saw in the night during his sleep; Bucky had done horrible things just like Maria, though he had done more horrible things than her. She had nightmares, yes, but she coped with them with the help of her friends, Bucky had no one.
Apart from the bed, there was a mirror in the bedroom. Though [YC1] it could not be used anymore. Maria noticed it was impossible to get it off the wall, which someone, from the looks of it, had tried to indeed do, though it had only resulted in cracking the glass. Instead, whoever had tried to get rid of the mirror, had painted it over with black paint, making the mirror unusable. As she entered the bathroom, she noticed that the same thing had been done to the mirrors there, along with anything else that was shiny. The tap was painted over with a black paint, the showerhead was and even the small handle on the toilet was. Someone had tried to get rid of every reflection in the room, and Maria doubted it was someone else but Bucky. Peeking out into the bedroom again, her eyes landed on the windows taped over with newspapers and it suddenly hit her…
If there was something Maria could relate to from past painful moments in her life, then it was not wanting to see one's reflection, because it did not reflect who you were in real life. What one saw in the mirror, was the outside and not the horrible inside. Reflections were fake, and they can remind one of who you are on the inside just as well as they can remind someone of what is wrong with their bodies on the outside. The black paint and newspapers used to remove all reflections was a sign of Bucky's suffering; of his hate towards himself and what he had become and it pained her to see it.
Wanting to share this with Steve, she walked out of the bathroom and towards the kitchen again. Though Steve was not alone anymore. Bucky turned his head to look at her as she stayed in the doorway, a surprised look on her face while Bucky had a neutral, unreadable look on his face.
"Do you know me?" asked Steve quietly, gently placing the book back down on the counter.
"German Special Forces approaching from the south," said Sam through the ear-piece.
"You're Steve. I read about you in a museum," he said, avoiding eye-contact with both superheroes.
"They've set the perimeter," reported Sam.
"I know you're nervous, and you have plenty of reason to be, but you're lying," said Steve.
"I wasn't in Vienna," said Bucky, still avoiding eye-contact and, indeed, acting nervous. "I don't do that anymore."
"They're entering the building."
"And we believe you," said Maria quietly, earning a look from him. "But not everyone will. And those people who won't believe you are coming right now. And they aren't planning on taking you alive."
"That's smart. Good strategy," said Bucky quietly.
"Don't say that," she began though quietened down at the look of Bucky removing his gloves, showing off his metal hand.
"They're on the roof, I'm compromised!"
"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck," pleaded Steve.
"It always ends in a fight," he said simply.
"Five seconds."
"You pulled me from that river!" exclaimed Steve, starting to become frustrated with Bucky's clear unwillingness to acknowledge the fact that Bucky actually knows Steve. "Why?"
"I don't know," said Bucky simply, finally looking up at Steve once more, the frustration in his eyes evident.
"Three seconds."
"Yes you do," pressed Steve quietly.
"Breach! Breach! Breach!"
At Sam's yells, Steve and Maria looked towards the window, causing Bucky to do the same. At the exact same moment, a bomb was thrown in through the window, breaking its glass and the newspapers covering it. Steve reacted quickly by using his shield to bounce it back away from the three of them and before it could go off, Maria used her powers to elevate it outside of the apartment where it went off in the middle of the air – hurting no one and nothing. It was not the biggest of bombs, though she was sure it was not the worst they had either.
A second bomb was thrown inside via a window close to Maria and before she could react, Bucky had kicked it away from her and towards Steve, who placed his shield over it as it went off so it only dented the floor and nothing else. A yell was heard from outside the apartment and Maria quickly reacted by placing herself close to Bucky, lifting her hand up and catching whatever bullets they shot through it with her powers, making the bullets stop in the air and limply fall to the floor in front of his boots. Bucky turned and watched her protect him with wide eyes, seeming surprised and unsure of what to do next. Though he quickly recuperated and suddenly, using his metal arm, threw a nearby table at the door to keep both the bullets and the agents there outside for a little longer.
"Thanks," said Maria quietly, out of breath from having used her powers.
Agents suddenly smashed through each window there and the fight was on. Steve used his shield to push away and knock out enemies, while Maria used her sword to do just that as well.
From the other side of the room, Maria heard Steve yell something at Bucky, though she was too busy with the agent in front of her who was managing to dodge her every sword-move. When he took out his gun, aiming it at her, she finally managed to get in a good hit, which he thought he was going to block by grabbing the sword between his hands. It would have been a good move, had her sword not been special. Honestly, she thought these people had had a briefing on the Avengers they might encounter, and he still managed to pull that stunt.
The agent went flying backwards against the wall before sliding down to the ground, unconscious and very much hurt.
"Damn…" said Bucky as Maria looked back over at Steve and him, who were staring at the agent in front of her.
"His own fault," she shrugged before another agent jumped inside, immediately beginning to shoot at them. Bucky dodged some bullets by making them hit his metal arm instead of himself at first, though soon Maria had lifted her hand up and was making the bullets hit walls and ceilings instead of either of the two men.
However, she did not notice a second agent entering behind her, and both Steve and Bucky, moving together as a team (only proving to them that Bucky indeed did know Steve and remembered everything from his past once more), moved over to Maria. Bucky grabbed her arm to pull her away from the agent, while Steve protected her from the bullets he shot at her. She lost focus on the first agent for a second at this move, and a bullet hit her leg before Bucky once more used his own arm to shield her. However, she was barely fazed by it and merely raised her hand once more, making the remaining bullets he shot at her turn around and hit his own legs.
"Damn agents…" she hissed, placing a hand over her already healing wound while Steve knocked out the guy behind her. "It's okay, I'll heal."
Another agent appeared next to Maria and Bucky and before she could react, Bucky had, using his hand which was still on her arm, pushed her against the agent, causing both of them to tumble out onto the balcony. The guy lost his gun while she lost her sword, and while Bucky continued fighting inside Steve came to help Maria outside, knocking out the agent before he could find his gun again.
"You okay?" he asked quietly, earning a nod from Maria as he helped her up. "Sorry about him."
"He doesn't want to get caught by any of us. No, I get it, it's fine."
The two of them re-entered the apartment, Maria once more holding her sword, and they saw knocked out agents all over the place. Thuds and groans were heard from the stairwell and the two quickly made their way towards it, finding Bucky making his way down the stairs slowly, taking out whatever agents attacked him with ease. And so they followed, helping Bucky as much as he could while still trying to stick with him, something he obviously did not want as he kept trying to get away from Steve and Maria at the same time as he fought off the agents.
At one point, Bucky quickly made an escape while Maria and Steve were busy fighting off agents, jumping down several levels before disappearing into a corridor. Hurrying as much as they could, Steve and Maria fought off the agents back to back, Maria lightly tapping the agents with her sword, while Steve knocked out agents with his fists and shield. As they were dealt with, Steve led the way down the stairs towards where Bucky had disappeared and they noticed a shattered window at the end of the hallway.
"He jumped out," sighed Maria. "Go after him."
Steve glanced back at her once before nodding his head. Speeding up his running until he reached the end of the hallway, he jumped onto the windowsill before, with only one foot, jumping over the large distance between the two buildings, reaching the roof of the building Sam had been keeping a lookout from with ease. The jump was impossible for any human to do and survive, and even if Maria would survive, she would have ended up down on the street as she could not jump that far. She pressed her finger against her ear-piece as she approached the broken window, calling for Sam instead. Though she was surprised to not find Steve and Bucky fighting each other or chasing each other, but instead seeing a third person dressed up in a suit resembling a cat-like creature fighting mostly Bucky while Steve ran to help.
"Who the hell is the other guy?"
"I don't know," replied Maria, placing herself in the window, lifting up her arms before jumping so Sam could catch her.
Together, she two flew over towards where the fight was, however they did not manage to get there in time before a helicopter filled with agents appeared above Bucky, Steve and the new guy.
"Put me down!" exclaimed Maria as she saw the agents in the helicopter prepare a large automatic gun of some sorts, and together Sam and Maria landed a few meters away from the fight.
Immediately, Maria lifted her hand up, keeping the bullets away from Steve and Bucky. For a while, things went alright, though there were a lot of bullets and they were not stopping either.
"Sam," said Steve over the com-link.
"Got it," he replied, taking off towards the helicopter.
The many bullets and their velocity was taking a toll on Maria. The pain in her stomach appeared again even though she had dealt with more bullets during her training. It was not until it happened now that she realized that the pain resembled what she had experienced in her dream. Her vision started to wobble and she was sure she was screaming in agony.
"Let go Maria!" called Steve with a worried voice from where he was stood on the roof.
However, she did not have to let go as Sam managed to take the helicopter down. She let out a breath of air as the bullets stopped coming and she could stop using the void inside of her, though her knees gave in and she fell down to the ground, clutching her stomach tightly.
Sam landed next to her, saying something in his ear-piece about her which she did not hear as she felt too lightheaded.
"M, talk to me," his voice said as he crouched down in front of her, lightly placing a hand on her forehead.
And suddenly, the pain was gone. Just like that, she was back to normal. She straigthened up, looking down at herself in confusion.
"I-I'm fine again," she said, nodding her head. "I'm fine. It must be the powers or something."
Sam was looking at her with a furrowed brow, though he still nodded.
"Where's Steve?"
"I told him to go after Barnes," said Sam, helping her up. "You up to following them?"
Maria nodded before turning around, letting him grab onto her shoulders and lift them both up into the air.
"Sam, I can't shake this guy," said Steve's voice over the com-link. "I can't let him get to Bucky."
"We're on it," said Maria, looking up at Sam as he flew down where his gear was telling him Steve was at. They entered a heavily trafficked road existing underneath of the ground – like a tunnel, yet more open, and they flew over towards where they, indeed, saw the cat-man hanging onto a larger SUV. According to Sam's gear, Steve was the one driving that very SUV and Sam sped up.
As they reached the end of the tunnel, they saw Bucky use his metal arm to grab an upcoming motorcycle, holding onto it and swinging it around which made the driver fall off, before, mid-air, Bucky jumped up onto the bike and drove off.
"Damn… I doubt he needs our help…" said Maria before focusing back onto the cat-man.
She looked down before Sam let go of her, making her land on the cat-man. However, he was prepared for it and grabbed her around the throat, throwing her against the back of the SUV before letting go. Luckily, Maria reacted quickly by taking out her sword and stabbing it into the car so she could use it as a handle to hold onto the car. Steve kept driving, unable to do anything else but that while the cat-man climbed the car and jumped from the SUV to Bucky's motorcycle. What happened after that, Maria could not see, though as Steve swivelled away from something and the cat-man suddenly tried to reach for her leg as the SUV drove past him, she assumed Bucky had managed to shake him off.
Luckily, the cat-man did not manage to grab her, though he did manage to grab Sam who was still following them all.
The next thing that happened, happened way too fast for Maria to follow. She heard an explosion and Steve begun to break heavily and steer the car to the left, when suddenly the car's side hit something and begun to roll forwards. Maria hung onto the car during the first roll, but her hands slipped off her sword's handle during the second and she was flung forwards, sliding against the concrete beneath her for a little while before coming to a painful halt in the middle of the road. The car rolled past her, stopping a little ahead of her while Sam stumbled down to the ground next to her, breathing heavily.
"Ow…" she grunted.
Her back, on which she had slid forwards on the concrete ground, was on fire (not literally), and the pain in her stomach was beginning to return again at the same time as the cooling sensation of her healing powers healing her body appeared as well. Sirens were heard coming from the other side of the tunnel, where the ceiling had not caved in and exploded, and Maria knew they had failed.
Sam crawled over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as she lay there, frowning at the pain.
"M?"
"I'm fine – healing…" she grunted, slowly moving to a sitting position.
A sudden familiar thump was heard from where Steve, Bucky and the cat-man most likely were, and Maria quickly turned her head in the direction of the sound, seeing War Machine land in front of Steve and Bucky, his weapons out.
"Up! Up!" some agents called as they made their way towards Sam and Maria.
Sam begun to help her up, though as she moved the pain in her abdomen increased, causing her to gasp and fall back to the ground.
"M?"
"Shit…" she breathed, her hand grasping his arm tightly. "Shit, shit…"
Her body began to shake from the pain, yet the agents kept yelling at her to stand up.
"Hey! Do you mind!?" yelled Sam back, before giving out a small screech, "Did you just TAZE ME!?"
"It's okay…" breathed Maria, "Just help me stand…"
A cold sweat was beginning to form on her brow as Sam, basically, dragged her forwards towards Steve and Bucky, holding one arm around her waist. Both her hands were clutching her stomach and she was trying her best to not faint from the pain. It was worse than in her nightmare, mostly because it was real, and it was starting to worry her seeing as she was not using her powers. Perhaps Tony and Natasha were actually keeping something dangerous from her…
"Maria!?" exclaimed Steve at the sight of her, wanting to move towards her.
"Don't move!" yelled some agents, tensing up and pointing their weapons straight at Steve.
He bit down some words, exchanging a worried look with Maria before holding up his hands again.
"I'll be fine…" she whispered, mostly to herself. "I'll be… fine…"
She stopped mumbling to herself as an agent grabbed a hold of her, handcuffing her and pushing, although he did not have to, her down to the ground. Before her, she saw the cat-man remove his mask, revealing a dark-skinned man staring at Steve with an intense look. She thought she recognized him from somewhere, though could not point out from where. And when Rhodes greeted the man as 'Your Highness', Maria was even more confused. Vans parked near them, and soon, the heroes were led in there, Maria mostly dragged before the doors were shut close behind them.
"M?"
"I'm fine," breathed Maria as she leaned her head against the seat, breathing heavily and closing her eyes.
"Maria, what's wrong?"
"Remember that stomach ache I told you about? The one I got when I tried to save you from that explosion?" asked Maria quietly, keeping her eyes closed. "It's so not my powers…"
Silence ensued throughout the van, a heavy and worried tension filling up the van. Behind her, the cat-man sat in silence and way in the back, Bucky was seated in silence. Steve and Sam were sat in front of her, though no one said anything.
"I'm sorry…" she said quietly.
"For what?" asked Steve from in front of her.
"Being so annoying… This is not what we need right now," said Maria quietly, sighing at the excruciating pain that was still not going away, nor was it getting any better.
Behind them, the sound of a fainted scream was heard as one of the soldiers was thrown backwards from the SUV Steve had driven through the tunnel. Some curse words were heard from his fellow soldiers while some even laughed at his stupidity, before Rhodes walked over with a blanket in his hands, grabbing the sword the soldier had been trying to get before wrapping it in the blanket and handing it to the soldiers.
"This is not your fault," said Steve quietly. "We'll get through this."
"Steve…" she breathed before letting out a groan at the pain as it increased even more.
Loosing all control of her body, she felt herself get lightheaded again and she slowly slid down until she lay down on the seat. It was nothing she wanted to do, but she could just not keep herself up anymore. Her muscles would not work anymore as all she felt was the pain in her abdomen. It truly felt as though something was twisting around inside of her, trying to get out.
"She fainted, I believe," said a muffled voice before darkness consumed her.
Thanks for reading! Hope you all liked this chapter, it was a bit difficult to write all the action and stuff, but I think I managed OK. What did you guys think?