Chapter 7: Bucky
Author's Note: Just so everyone's clear, this chapter overlaps the ending of the previous one, from a different POV.
~ Tirana Sorki
The Quinjet gets one of its wings shot or fried off on the way – Steve didn't see which. All he knows is he ends up gripping an unpleasant handhold on the seats to stay on the seats, and Bruce is trying to calm himself down across from him.
Natasha and Clint pull their gear off and they sprint down the ramp into the chaos.
The Chitahuri are spreading out, firing at anyone and everything in their path with their weapons. They remind Steve of HYDRA weapons, but they look different. They're more rifle-like, though they seem to work similar. It's some kind of energy blast instead of a bullet.
The area started being evacuated, according to Tony, but they still have a long way to go in the number of people scrambling for cover.
Clint has his arrows out, and Nat has her guns. Bruce lingers in the back, wary. He looks a bit green.
"If you get eyes on Bucky, tell me where he is," Steve says, heart flipping. He doesn't want to fight his best friend again, but he can't trust no one else to hurt him. Can't trust that Bucky won't kill one of them, too, and that's not a risk Steve is willing to take.
"You want to talk to him?" Clint asks.
"I'm not sure he's gonna listen, Steve," Natasha warns over the noise, hiding behind and overturned car and shooting at the Chitahuri.
She's right, and Steve knows it, though he hates to even think about it. He can't – Bucky's alive and he has to get him back. He can't accept anything else.
"I'm with you til the end of the line."
"I thought the same about you, Tasha," Clint tells her, "But I still tried, remember?"
"Well," she agrees, "We've come a long ways since Budapest."
Natasha and Clint have history, and Steve is curious about it. Maybe he'll ask some other time. When his mind isn't drowning in the discovery that his best friend is still alive. "We have to get the civilians out of here," he says.
That's something they're not going to be able to do entirely on their own.
He spots police coming in, trying to shoot at the Chutari but it's not doing much good. There's too many of them.
He has to fight his way through the creatures himself in order to reach the police.
"There's people in these buildings that could run into the line of fire," he calls breathlessly, "You take them out through a basement or subway. You need to keep them off the streets. We need to establish a perimeter."
The most important thing they need to do is stop these things from spreading.
"Why should I take orders from you?" the police sergeant asks dubiously.
A Chutari jumps to the ground behind him, firing.
Steve spins to block it with his shield barely in time. It tries to fire at him again and he shoves its arm out of the way, hitting it in the chest and destroying it.
The police officer blinks in surprise before he turns away, repeating the order to the others. Well, that's one thing taken care of. Now he can focus on the battle itself.
Natasha and Clint seem to be handling themselves fine.
Tony's flying overhead, already blasting the Chutari. His blasts are at least strong enough to take them down easily but there's only so many he can take down at a time.
He doesn't know where Loki is, but glancing around their surroundings, it's not hard to spot the column of blue energy that rises up high into the sky where the portal is.
There's a flash of lightning not far away and he catches sight of Loki fighting off Thor. It makes him think, for a moment, about what Loki was saying about their relationship. Hopefully, he'll be alright.
It had been... nice to talk to someone about Bucky. He hasn't had anyone to talk to since he woke up from the ice. Not really. Not about anything personal. Loki doesn't expect anything of him because he doesn't even know who he is. He's the first person he's been able to be himself around since he woke up from the ice and it's relieving.
It often felt easier to ignore it all, but he could never get his mind to stop running it over, to stop thinking about Bucky and everyone he lost. Talking to Loki has somehow eased it up a bit.
Loki might be handling Thor for now, but he's certainly not getting past him. Thor's obviously got every intention of defending the portal and that's the thing they need to destroy the most.
Still no sign of Bucky.
He can't let himself get distracted looking for him when he doesn't even know if he's here, no matter how much he wants to.
Tony blasts his way straight through one of the leviathans carrying the Chitauri. There's many of them, though and they're spreading fast. He doesn't know how long they'll be able to contain them.
"I'm bringing the party to you," Tony calls, flying away from another one of the creatures. It's following him, coming their way.
"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha says flatly, watching in disbelief as the massive creature hurdles towards them.
The thing is enormous and Steve can't think of many ways to destroy it.
"Dr. Banner? Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
Bruce turns towards it. "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."
Bruce turns to Hulk as the leviathan flies closer and he smashes his fists into its front. He's actually able to slow it down a bit even if it plows him back.
"Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment," Steve calls to the others,
"Barton, I want you on a roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than five blocks – you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
The others nod.
Tony picks up Clint, flying him up to the top of one of the buildings with a snippy comment, of the first reference in this time Steve actually understands. Clint draws his arrows to start shooting at the Chitauri with his arrows again.
Steve turns to Natasha. "You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk? Smash."
Hulk grins ferally and jumps for the next wave of approaching Chutari, ripping his way through them. At least he's focused on who he's supposed to be smashing.
Another leviathan flies through the portal as he and Natasha keep fighting. And it's flying straight for the white house.
Tony mid-flying through another one of them and he'd never be able to get there in time to stop whatever it's about to do. There's nothing Steve can do to intervene either – he's attempting to fight off at least three Chitauri at once – as the leviathan flies down and goes straight through the side of the building.
It collapses in a cloud of debris as though it isn't the most important historical building in the U.S. And now it's just gone.
Well.
It does make strategic sense that Thor would choose to attack the capital like this. He just hopes no one was inside when the building went down, but they probably aren't that lucky.
"We're going to have a problem," Tony yells from above, flying past as he shoots down a few more, "They're spreading in every direction. I can't keep them all in."
He was afraidof that. The area is so open, there's nothing to slow them down from going everywhere. Tony's not nearly enough.
"Do what you can," Steve calls back grimly.
"None of this is gonna mean anything if we don't get that portal closed," Natasha calls, as she yanks the weapon away from a Chitauri, using it to smash one.
Another comes up behind her and Steve throws his shield at it, knocking it down before it can fire.
"Loki was handling that." At least he hopefully was.
He hasn't seen him in a while. Or Hulk.
"Doesn't seem like it's working," she points out.
"You'll need a ride if you're gonna get up there," he replies, glancing around.
She's about to reply when another group of the creatures jump them. There's more coming in from every direction and at least this group is focused on them instead of spreading the attack further but there's more than they'll be able to fight off alone.
A blast catches him in the side, throwing him to the ground. It doesn't burn, but it was enough to knock his breath out, and definitely with enough force to bruise badly. He reaches for his shield, trying to push himself up, anyway.
Another blast flies over his head, nearly hitting him.
And Natasha's. – not doing well.
There's a sudden flash of green and all the creatures right in the immediate vicinity are thrown to the ground.
Loki's standing next to him, his palms still glowing green.
The color slowly fades and Loki offers a hand to pull him to his feet. "That looked underwhelming," Loki snips. "You ready for more?"
Steve almost smiles despite the circumstances. "What? You gettin' sleepy?"
Loki blasts another incoming wave in response.
Steve collects his shield, moving it to block another blast when Loki speaks again.
"I saw your friend."
He stills.
Bucky. He's here. Right now.
His heart is pounding. This is – really happening. "Where?"
"Guarding the portal with Thor."
Then he has another reason to go after Bucky because someone needs to get through to the portal to shut it down. "I'll handle that," he says, "And the portal."
Loki nods. "I hope you are able to reach him."
Steve runs for the portal. It takes him a while to get there, especially with how many Chitauri he has to dodge on the way. By the time he does, it's to see Hulk smashing Thor into the ground, who for once doesn't just get back up.
That looked painful enough Steve almost feels bad for him. Almost. He would if not for the destruction all around him.
A bullet flies past his head suddenly and he ducks barely in time, spinning around.
There's only one person here who'd be using bullets instead of energy blasts.
Bucky's standing on the ground not far from the portal. He's here and very much alive.
"Bucky," he starts.
His mind is whirling. Spinning – Bucky is standing right in front of him, but it doesn't feel real. It's too soon, and he tries to remember what Loki said, but in reality, nothing could ever prepare him for this fight.
Not for having to fight Bucky, his best friend, the one who was always there when no one else was, until he wasn't, and the one he tried so hard to save and failed.
Bucky, who died trying to protect him.
"People are gonna die. I can't let that happen."
He doesn't react, hands on his rifle. His eyes are narrowed sharply, obviously anticipating combat. He's braced for it. He's ready.
Steve is not.
He never will be.
He also doesn't have a choice.
"Please don't make me do this."
Bucky's head tilts, but he doesn't move.
There's no other way around it.
Steve grits his teeth and throws his shield.
Bucky catches it with his metal arm, throwing it back, and Steve grabs it, raising it barely on time to block the shots from the rifle. He presses in closer, slamming his shield into the end of the rifle. Bucky drops it and goes for a smaller handgun.
Steve tries shoving him with his shield, and he skids back into the side of the building, kicking one of Steve's legs and sending him stumbling back awkwardly.
He is not ready for this fight, mentally, or physically after having a drawn-out skirmish with the Chitauri. He aches from the various series of injuries he got from them, especially where one of them shot him.
Bucky wrestles his shield away in retaliation, throwing it across the ground where it drops in a spinning circle in the dirt. The gun goes off again, and Steve gasps at the flare of pain in his thigh.
They don't even know how to shut off the portal right now – forget about knowing whether it's a fast turn-off, and there are too many coming through. They're outnumbered and outgunned by now.
He just has to get up, to keep moving. They've done this before.
Or, Steve used to do it all the time, but it was always Bucky who came to drag him out of the messes he made for himself.
Steve goes for his shield again but is cut off when Bucky comes at him with another knife. Where is he even getting these from? Steve could swear he dropped at least one on the helicarrier that he didn't pick up.
Bucky is fast with that thing. He doesn't remember Bucky using knives before, but he's good now, and keeping up with him is hard. He's so fast, and Steve isn't used to having people who can keep up with him. Well, Thor could, but he's Asgardian, so that's different.
"Buck, stop!" Steve yells, grabbing his arm, panting. He can't reason with him when he's not himself, but he has to try – this is his best friend and he –
Bucky wrenches away from him and they both stumble backwards a few steps.
The portal is whirling behind Steve. He's closer to it now – that's progress. Not close enough progress, but progress.
"You know me."
"No, I don't!" He doesn't remember. Amnesia – Steve knows that, but his heart still aches. This is his best friend.
Bucky pulls a knife out again, stabbing at him. He jerks his arms up to block it and stumbles back from the force of it again.
"Bucky, you've known me your whole life. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes."
"Shut up!" Bucky throws him into the wall behind him, and Steve grunts as he smacks through what he's pretty sure is a pile of debris. Yeah, whatever. Add it to the injury list – he'll heal anyway. He doesn't want to fight Bucky, but the choices in that are slowly starting to fall away.
The blade comes at his throat, and Steve tries to brace Bucky's arm away from him, but the metal is strong. Stronger than he is, he thinks, and the blade is what must be half an inch from stabbing him when there's a woosh of air and someone flies in, kicking Bucky off him.
Someone... with wings?
Well, he's seen stranger things today.
Steve pushes himself up with a groan.
"Hey, cap," the man says, offering a hand to pull him up. Steve takes it, swaying unsteadily on his feet again. "I was near DC, saw the chaos, thought you could use a hand."
"Thanks." He's panting, rubbing at his injured stomach.
Bucky is picking himself up, grabbing one of the other man's wings and throwing him at the thoroughly broken through wall. Unlike the others, he's not wearing much of a protective suit, and worry instantly bubbles up, but they don't have time.
Steve grabs up his shield again, making for the portal while Bucky is momentarily distracted. It's protected by some kind of energy wall that he tries – and fails – to penetrate.
And if he can't break through the energy wall, he doesn't what to do instead. Loki would probably have an answer, but he's not here right now, and –
Bucky's already coming at him again, knife in hand.
They don't have time for this. More Chitauri will probably be coming for the portal soon.
Steve has no idea if this will work, but he runs at the energy field, trying to slam his shield through it in the hopes that it'll be able to break what's powering the portal. All it does is explode in a blinding explosion of energy, flinging him back.
The shield mostly shields him from it as he lands on the ground with a groan.
Well.
That's clearly not going to work.
He rolls over slowly, trying to push himself back up only to see Bucky lying on the ground not far away. And he's not moving to get up.
"Bucky?" Steve calls, worry flaring up inside of him instantly.
He stumbles over to his side, crouching next to him. He's alright though temporarily out of it.
Steve just needs to make sure he can be here to try talking to him when he wakes up again, but first he needs to find some way of shutting down the portal.
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