Hi guys! Long time no see!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get another chapter up. You see, after I saw Infinity war, I was just so in awe and shock, I just didn't know how on earth I was going to put it into words. Even now, I'm still not sure how the hell I can do this, hahaha

I even considered skipping the battle and jumping straight to the aftermath and their reactions, but my sounding board (husband) vetoed that idea. So here we are...

I also got a new job, and the not for profit I run is taking up a fair bit of my time in the lead up to Halloween too.

But enough about me...how about you guys!

Thanks must go to my reviewers, thanks so much for letting me know how much you've liked the story so far.

Thanks also to Umbreon Gurl, girllyingbythesea901, Kyoya Kumo, MickyMcMuffinx3, Kelrisathefiredemoness, Trikova, Valdra Dae, Rosaline Capulet, lilrose88, Bird in Blue, Monica Startek, Amaterasu Mitsu, Rainnyash, Ellesbellsmells, Emeroth, Lily Carmen Black, Magic126, Socially Awkward Human Being, Chironista and Alyssa McGrath for following along with this story, you guys are all awesome too :D

And so...let us continue with this tale

Enjoy

xo

*CAUTION* POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING AND GRAPHIC CONTENT

Chapter 25

Regrets?

Bucky and Lex stood in silence, side by side, watching as the spaceships crashed into the woodlands of Wakanda. He sighed, watching as ship after ship appeared in the sky above them, before crashing to earth.

"Hey, Lex, you know how you and I have lived a long time, right?" he murmured, glancing sideways at her.

"Me more than you, you mean?" she replied in a nonchalant manner. She met his gaze, the slightest of smirks on her lips. He glared at her pointedly, causing her to roll her eyes at him. "Yes, what's your point?"

"Any regrets?"

She furrowed her brow, seemingly baffled at his current line of questioning. He looked back towards the ships as they began to change shape, apparently opening. She followed his gaze, taking in their surrounds before they looked back at each other.

"I'm starting to think I might regret inviting you into my apartment," she muttered.

"Really?" he retorted indignantly, looking at her with a disgruntled expression. It didn't take long for him to notice the smug expression on her face. He shook his head, smiling coyly back at her. "I was just starting to think I'm glad I took the chance to enjoy your chocolate cake." Lex seemed to blush slightly at his comment, the slightest of grimaces appearing on her lips as she averted her gaze.

"Man, I don't mean to intrude, but that's some weird ass flirting you two are doing," Rhodey commented from the other side of the landing bay they were standing on, with a perturbed look on his face.

"Yeah, they're weird like that," Sam called to him, smirking slightly at the pair. "You get used to it."

Bucky clenched his jaw at their teasing, but Lex just rolled her eyes and made a face at them, before all four turned to watch, as several large, boat like vehicles appeared from an opening in the landing bay, hovering overhead for a moment, before floating closer to the ground. As they landed atop the landing bay, files of Wakandan troops hurried to form up before them, before running aboard as the loading ramps hit the deck.

"I take it these are our rides?" Lex asked, tilting her head to one side as they watched the troops loading up.

Sam scoffed, before nodding towards Rhodey. "These are YOUR rides, we got our own, much faster, and cooler rides."

Lex rolled her eyes again. "Keep it up and I'll clip your wings, FALCON." Her eyes narrowed slightly and she hoisted her blaster onto her shoulder, causing Sam's grin to falter, as Rhodey's eyes went wide. Sam coughed and quickly looked past her as Steve and T'challa appeared from inside the labs.

"Lex, stop scaring Sam."

"Sorry, old habits die hard..." Lex replied, smirking slightly to Bucky, as she turned to look at Steve.

"I wasn't scared! Who says I was scared?" Sam retorted indignantly.

Bucky shook his head with a chuckle and a sigh, turning to look at Steve and T'challa. "So what's the plan?"

Steve stopped before them, looking past them towards the spaceships nestled into the tree line outside the protective shield. "We go out to meet them, and hold them off until Shuri can remove the Mind Stone, Wanda is going to stay up here as protection and to destroy the stone once its out." Bucky furrowed his brow slightly before turning back to look at the alien ships. That plan seemed awfully lacking to him.

"That's it?" Lex asked, a disgruntled look on her face. Steve looked at her expectantly. "That's your plan?"

"We have no idea what we are up against, it's the best we can do for the moment," T'challa answered as Natasha and a large powered suit walked over to join them. Bucky and Lex both looked up at it expectantly. It vaguely reminded Bucky of the Iron Man suit.

Lex tilted her head sideways and examined the suit, stepping forward. "I wasn't expecting Stark to be joining us after last time."

The helmet withdrew, but the occupant was not Tony Stark, but a rather weary looking man, who looked slightly bewildered. "Tony went after Dr Stephen Strange after some more of Thanos' people took him from New York," the man explained, looking down at them.

"First name basis, eh, chummy are we?" Lex replied mockingly, a malevolent smile appearing on her lips.

"Bucky, Lex, meet Dr Bruce Banner," Steve introduced, motioning to the man. "This is the Hulk Buster suit, developed by Dr Banner and Tony Stark together as a...contingency plan." Bucky furrowed his brow, immediately wondering what the contingency plan was for.

"Ah," Lex greeted with a look of recognition, a smirk appearing on her face. "Big fan, love your work. Must ask though, why green?"

The doctor's brow furrowed in confusion and he looked towards Steve, who grimaced at Lex, rubbing a hand on his forehead. Bruce looked back to Lex. "Uh, it's not really something I get a say in."

"Well, I must say, you suit red quite nicely," Lex complimented, turning to move back towards Bucky. "Very sexy."

"Uh, thanks," Bruce replied, looking mildly confused and embarrassed. "Sorry, and who exactly are you?"

"Oh, just a 120 year old enhanced former assassin with psychotic tendencies," she answered without looking back at him and a nonchalant wave of her hand.

They were all quiet, as Lex moved to join the Dora Milaje as they began to load up on the transport vehicles.

"She likes to mess with people's heads a bit," Natasha explained to Bruce quietly, while Bucky tried not to laugh at his reaction.

The transport vehicles sped down the rolling Wakandan hills, carrying T'challa and his troops, the Dora Milaje, the J'Abari, Natasha, Lex, Bucky and Steve, while Rhodey and Sam flew overhead and Bruce ran alongside.

Bucky stood beside Lex, while Okoye stood on her other side. Bucky and Lex both watched as Bruce ran down the hills in the Hulk Buster suit, jumping boulders as he went.

"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha asked through their commlinks.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-". Suddenly, he must have had a lapse in concentration, as the Hulk Buster tripped over a small boulder and crashed heavily into the ground, dirt flying everywhere as it skidded along. He was quick to stand up again. "I'm okay, I'm okay!"

Lex shook her head and turned back to face the front, while Okoye looked back at the Hulk Buster in disdain.

Bucky tried not to laugh at both their reactions and instead looked around at his surrounds. It was all too familiar for him, the tightly packed transport, the tense atmosphere of everyone preparing for battle. He had been in a similar situation before, in Europe. As he looked around, his surroundings became hazy, darkening slightly, as if they were surrounded by high trees and his ears began to ring, blocking out the sound of the wind rushing by.

His head began to hurt slightly, as he heard the sound of heavy artillery whistling overhead, the sound of shells exploding as they hit the ground, shouts for help and medic seeming to come from all around him. He felt his adrenaline begin to peak, his heart rate speeding up and a cold sweat beginning to appear on the back of his neck.

He heard the voices of his men that travelled with him to Europe, orders being shouted and the sounds that were made as bullets and shrapnel ripped through their bodies. He closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly as he tried to remove the hazy images from his head. Images he hadn't remembered in years.

Through the haze and pain in his head, he felt a strong, yet feminine, hand wrap around his bicep and give a gentle squeeze.

His eyes shot open and everything brightened, the rolling hills of Wakanda speeding by once again. He looked to his left, to see Lex looking at him in concern, her hand around his arm that held his gun. "Bucky, you good?" She gave his arm a firm squeeze, looking at him pointedly. Clearly, she had noticed what had been happening to him, although he wasn't sure how.

He looked at her for a moment, taking in everything about her. Her long blonde hair, that was pulled back into a high plait and was currently draped down her shoulder like a thick rope, the faint scars that skirted her face, to her deep brown eyes that held so many of her emotions, when her face tried to deceive the truth. She was the one person, other than Steve, that looked at him without any judgement from his past actions. She could sympathise with him, and although she hadn't needed to be kind to him, to leave the safe life she had made for herself, she had thrown herself into the deep end to help him and his friends at the first chance she had got.

He gave a small smile to her, nodding. "Yeah, I'm okay, thank you."

She tilted her head slightly, her inquisitive eyes still showing signs of concern for him. "You sure?

He reached across with his spare hand to pat hers reassuringly. "I'm good, don't worry."

She raised her eyebrows at the gesture, a slight pink tinge creeping across her cheeks, but sighed and released his arm again, looking back out of the transport as it sped down the last hill. Bucky looked past her and saw Okoye looking between them, the slightest of smirks on her face.

When the transports finally slowed, they began disembarking as they banked sharply, leaping over the sides of the transports. T'challa's Dora and Kingsguard formed up alongside their J'Abari counterparts, T'challa greeting M'Baku.

Bucky, Lex and Natasha formed up beside Steve, while Bruce stopped behind them, retracting the helmet of the Hulk Buster to see with his own eyes what lay ahead of them, while Rhodey and Sam flew overhead. They watched as two figures exited the tree line beyond the protective shield.

Sam swooped overhead. "We got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line."

T'Challa, Steve, and Natasha began to walk to the edge of the barrier, where two strange looking creatures that vaguely looked like disfigured humans, were waiting on the other side of the barrier.

Lex leaned towards Bucky. "You starting to feel like you've seen everything now?"

Bucky frowned slightly, considering her question, before shaking his head. "Nope, I'm starting to wonder what else I haven't seen, actually."

Lex frowned and looked thoughtful as Natasha, T'challa and Steve began walking back after conversing with Thanos' minions. "Fair point. I've lived a hundred years, I've seen a lot of shit, but this... this takes the cake."

Natasha, T'challa and Steve fell back in line with them as Lex finished speaking. "You might regret saying that," Natasha commented as Lex moved over to let her stand between her and Bucky.

"Why's that?" Lex asked her smaller counterpart with interest.

"I get the feeling nothing we learnt in the Red Room could have prepared us for this," the smaller woman answered quietly, her eyes drifting back to look towards the tree line.

Bucky glanced sideways at Steve. "Did they surrender?"

"Not exactly."

Bucky looked to Lex, who responded by switching her weapon's safety off and flexing her shoulders slightly. She gave him the slightest of nods before focusing her attention back to the tree line.

T'Challa began to lead the Wakandans in their war cry. "YIBAMBE!"

"Hey, Natasha," Lex murmured quietly as the Wakandans continued their war cry, not taking her eyes off the tree line as she raised her weapon and looked through the scope.

"Yeah?"

"I like the new colour, looks good."

Bucky and Steve both turned to look at her, their brows furrowed as they tried to come to terms with Lex's sudden and rather poorly timed compliment. Natasha's normally red hair, was now blonde, obviously in an effort to make her less recognisable to those trying to find her. While it was an obvious change, the compliment could have been better timed.

"Oh, thanks, it's different, not sure I'll keep it, if we make it through this," Natasha responded casually, earning raised eyebrows from the two male super soldiers.

"Is now really the time for this?" Steve asked incredulously, looking back towards the tree line as there seemed to be a commotion coming through the trees.

"No time like the present, Cap," Lex replied with a mischievous smirk, glancing at Bucky and winking. "Wouldn't want to leave Nat wondering, 'cause, you know. End of the world and all that." Bucky shook his head and grinned too. She was one of a kind.

Until next time

xo

Krayzee