Chapter 29 - Stevie

January 12, 2014 - 6:00 a.m.

"Wanda? Wanda!"

Stevie holstered her gun and crochet by the unconscious girl. Wanda lay on the catwalk, unmoving, hair fanned out and limbs splayed like a discarded doll. Stevie checked her pulse. The girl was alive, thank God. Stevie shook her, gently, then more firmly. Shouted her name. Nothing. The...thing...floating in the air cast strange shadows on Wanda's pale face. She had said something before she collapsed.

It's alive.

The hair on Stevie's neck stood on end. She shook herself, stood briskly. No time for this. If she couldn't rouse Wanda, she'd have to shut down the carrier by herself. Wanda had told her the kill code, in case of emergency, but it seemed like there were a few things about the carrier that surprised her. Maybe Wanda's information was wrong.

The door opened behind her with a pneumatic hiss.

Stevie knew who she would see before she turned around, but her heart still lurched in her chest like someone was yanking it with a meathook. Bucky wasn't wearing his mask this time, and his hair hung lank around his face.

"Bucky," she said, as if her voice could reach out to him, embrace him, bring him back to her.

He raised his gun.

This time, Stevie didn't hesitate. She flung her shield at his face as hard as she could. He caught it in his steel hand, but she had already closed the distance between them. She took the shield in one hand and used the other to force his gun aside, before slamming her forehead into his nose with a crunch.

Bucky grunted in pain, but he wasn't distracted. Dropping the shield, he pulled Stevie into a one-armed bear hug - her back to his chest, his arm at her throat in a metal chokehold. As Stevie thrashed against his grip, he aimed his pistol toward Wanda, where she still lay on the floor. Stevie kicked out with both feet, pushing off the catwalk rail in front of her and knocking Bucky off balance. As he staggered back, his knees hit the rail behind him, and they both pitched over the edge.

They hit the curved floor of the panopticon, and Stevie rolled down the incline into one of the dome's metal support ribs. Ignoring the pain, she leaped to her feet in time to see Bucky doing the same thing not far away. He'd lost his gun in the fall, and blood was flowing from his broken nose. He wiped it with the back of his hand and grimaced.

"Your name," Stevie said. "Is James Buchanan Barnes."

He shook himself, like an animal trying to dislodge stinging flies. She took a careful step forward.

"We've known each other since you were twelve," Stevie continued. "Do you remember La Gleize? The church and the snow?"

"No," It was almost a whisper. His eyes were wide, his face pale. He looked desperate, almost panicked. She took another step forward and he stumbled away from her.

"We have a daughter." She could feel the tears on her face, but she didn't care. "I named her Margaret Mary. Mary - for your mother."

"No!"

Bucky exploded in fury, lunging at her with a knife that appeared in his hand like magic. He slashed at her throat, at her eyes, switching the knife from hand to hand. But if he fast - he was sloppy, too. She'd unsettled him. Stevie, however, felt absolute clarity.

Time to take you home.

She blocked once, twice - then seized his wrist and twisted, wrenching his arm up behind his back until she heard his shoulder pop. Bucky gave a strangled cry and kicked backward viciously. His boot smashed into her knee and Stevie felt something snap. She cried out as her leg gave way, and Bucky smashed his metal elbow into her face.

Stevie reeled backward on the curved floor. Her leg caught on one of the dome's metal ribs she tripped, just barely able to use the momentum to turn her fall into a backward roll. She came up in a crouch, fists raised, ready to fight.

But Bucky wasn't pressing the advantage. All around them, outside the glass bowl they stood in, bombs were exploding in bright orange bursts. Stevie felt a surge of panic - too late- but then she realized they were exploding in midair. Somehow, Wanda had done it.

Wanda floated in midair, the city a web of light beneath her. Idly, she considered the reflections on the Potomac, shining silver, little wisps of cloud gliding over it in the dark. The stars hung above her like fireflies, mirroring the lights below, and she swam in this ocean of light, free and joyous. Then she realized that there was nothing supporting her.

She screamed in panic, but made no sound, and suddenly, a presence enveloped her. It didn't speak in words, but in emotions, sensations. She felt its peace in the air, its assurance. It would not fall, and would not let her fall.

As she relaxed, Wanda realized that the lights beneath her weren't lights. There was something about them...she reached out her hand to touch one, and her vision zoomed in and in. It was a name, a face, a little point of information. Every light was a person. Wanda felt icy cold. This was the list the Captain and the Black Widow had found.

This was the mind of Insight. She was inside it.

The drones cut through the air. Insight could feel them all, could see through them. When the missiles fell, Insight rejoiced at every strike.

Wanda began to weep, and her tears hung in the air around her like jewels. She felt the attention of the machine turn to her- its confusion at her sorrow.

"Those people," she called out to the sky. "You're killing them!"

Still, it could not understand her. Of course. What would something as vast and strange as this being know of death? So she dug into her own memories, to show them to it. The explosion in her house. Dust. Fear. Her mother's face, covered in blood. Days later, emerging into the rubble that had been her neighborhood. Bodies in the street. People wandering like ghosts. The Hotel Tavasi burning, steel frame a gutted shell. Her and Pietro, clinging to each other, starving and alone.

The presence pulled away from her like a hand from a hot stove. She could sense it thinking at terrible speed - vast currents like thunderclouds, lightning flashes of powerful emotion.

What a mind, she thought, in wonder. Beautiful and terrible. And all Pierce could think to do was strap it into a weapon. How uninspired. She regretted ever working for that man.

Finally the storm quieted, and Insight manifested in front of her. It was just a face, made of golden light, male, but fine-boned. Wanda had seen it somewhere before - yes. Her friend Nora's icon of Saint Gabriel. He spoke to her. His voice was gentle, but his mouth didn't move.

Don't cry, Wanda.

The figure now had a body, indistinct and vague, except for two perfect, slender, golden hands, which it used to touch her face, her tears.

I'm going to make everything all right.

The figure tried to show her something - a vision, grand and glowing - Wanda tried to see, but it was too bright. The light overwhelmed her, and she lost consciousness.

Outside the glass, dark silhouettes moved against the lights of the city. The drones were returning to the carrier. It was over. Stevie began to laugh in sheer relief. Bucky turned to her, right arm dangling limp, face still bloody.

"It's over, Bucky," she said. Blood from her own probably-broken nose was running into her mouth. She wiped her face with a gloved hand. "It's over. Come with me."

His chest heaved, left fist clenching and unclenching. He looked like a trapped animal, eyes darting, looking for escape. His eyes met hers, and for a moment, she saw him recognize her. For a moment, she thought he'd come to her.

"You're my mission," he growled.

He charged her, coming in with a kick, but Stevie was faster. She caught his foot and twisted it, sending him to the ground. He tried to rise, but as he got to his knees, Stevie was already behind him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a chokehold she'd learned from Natasha, legs around his chest. He kicked out, clawed at her arm with his steel fingers, but Stevie didn't feel the pain.

I won't lose you. I won't let go this time.

Finally, he went limp. Stevie released him, panting from exertion. He was still breathing. She took a moment to slump in relief. He'd be alright.

As she stood, the carrier lurched. Her leg spasmed and she almost fell. The lights below were getting smaller, which meant the carrier was climbing. Rapidly. It was time to get out.

"Be back soon," she told Bucky's unconscious form.

She limped to the catwalk and started to climb the supports. Halfway up, her knee was already throbbing. Wanda still lay on the floor at the top, unmoving, but the strange alien shape had changed. Stevie couldn't pinpoint how, but its motion seemed more...purposeful, somehow. She scooped up Wanda and made her way through the corridor, knee joint grinding with every step.

When the entranceway hissed open, Stevie's ears popped. The wind howled across the carrier's deck with vicious, breath-stealing force. It took all Stevie's strength and balance not to be swept away. She buckled Wanda into the quinjet and set the autopilot for Stark Tower. The girl still slept, looking ridiculously young, although Stevie supposed she wasn't that much younger than she was herself. She hobbled out onto the deck. There was still time to get Bucky. It'd be hard to drag him out to the F-16 that he must have arrived in. Her knee was stiffening, and screaming in pain with every step. But pain didn't matter. She'd take him to Stark Tower. Once they were there, she could make him remember.

The quinjet lifted off into the dark sky, which Stevie thought was getting just a little brighter. She braced herself against the wind and turned to begin her walk across the deck - and Bucky was there, in the entranceway.

She didn't hear the shot. But she felt it hit, like a hard slap. When she looked down, she saw the blood seeping into the white stripes of her uniform, turning them red.

"Bucky," she whispered. His face was frozen in horror.

As she spoke, the pain struck her, like a hot poker driven through her stomach. She stumbled, and her knee buckled beneath her. She tried to grab something, but the wind caught her. The last thing she saw was Bucky, steel arm reaching toward her, before she was tossed off the edge of the carrier into space.

And here it is! Changed from the film, of course. I felt uncomfortable about Bucky pummeling a defenseless woman. I just...I think his subconscious memories of Stevie wouldn't allow him to do that. Using a gun is more remote. Another cameo in this chapter! Who is it? I bet you can tell - I kind of namedropped him. ;-)