#Iran is so close to me and the last time I was there I felt drained too | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

perpetuelledaydreaming · 3 years ago

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Do I wanna know? | chapter two

summary: because if we’re being honest, Yelena is one hundred percent an excited tourist and she loves New York, while y/n plans her way out. Meanwhile, although Bucky promised Yori for a full dinner, that might have to wait because he doesn’t appreciate y/n leaving notes everywhere.

word count: 3.8k (maybe this is going to be a short chapter fic for the first part?)

listen to: Death wish- Role Model, Bad blood- Taylor Swift

series masterlist

If we were being completely honest, Bucky was a bit shocked about your whole story as he read file after file on the last few days of what Ayo and the other Dora Milaje had gathered on you, you were a black widow. Bucky, being in Hydra for so long, was aware of their existence and the threat that they pose to everyone that was their mission or that got in their way.

Bucky even recalled that he had been woken up from his slumber to actually train with some and although he usually ended up injuring them, there were a few times when he ended up being knocked out after actually having a longer fight than they usually had. Now, from what he remembered Natasha saying back when they were running away, is that they killed whoever didn’t pass the test. Bucky’s skin was covered in goosebumps as he recalled which ones had failed, which ones had probably been killed because of him.

Another thought popped into his mind as he recalled a mission not long ago, probably fifteen years earlier, a mission involving a target in Iran, a nuclear engineer if he remembered correctly. He had been accompanied by two black widows, the memory of them still seemed foggy but he could almost see their faces if he tried hard enough.

Suddenly, his phone started to ring and he looked down at it, it was Sam.

“Did Doctor Raynor ask you to call me?” Bucky asked as he checked the time on his watch, it was almost five a.m., which you guessed was about five p.m. wherever Sam was.

“It’s nice to hear your voice as well, partner,” Sam stated and Bucky could already feel the smile on Sam’s voice.

“Co-worker,” Bucky corrected him as he closed his files on you but let your picture up as he settled on the tiny desk. He could already see people starting to move on the street, getting ready to work. “So, did she call you?”

“Maybe,” Sam said sincerely with a shrug and Bucky closed his eyes and placed a hand over his face with annoyance. “But I also was wondering why you weren’t answering my texts since yesterday about your date with the pretty Bartender,”

Bucky knew that leaving Sam on “read” about his questions would eventually come to bite him in the ass but he had procrastinated having to deal with his emotions on telling Sam somewhat the truth. That he didn’t feel up to it, that he truly never thought anyone could understand him and his guilt, that he truly felt alone and that he didn’t think of anyone in that sense.

But now, he believed that the last part could be also a lie because there was something about you that he truly didn’t even know how to feel about it.

He’d rather be anything but a target for a trained assassin like you were. But Bucky felt like he had been doomed from the second that his eyes met yours. Did he feel inadequate for being so captivated by someone that had tried to kill him? Yes. He thought about your encounter every day, multiple times throughout the day? Yes.

“It’s nothing, we just didn’t click,” Bucky answered with a nod and he could feel Sam trying to find the words on how to console him and his loneliness, which honestly, he didn’t need right now. “Plus, I’ve been thinking of going back to Louisana soon and perhaps I’ll pay a visit to Sarah,” he said before Sam cut him off.

“Don’t you dare,” Sam warned with a voice flat and hard as a stove lid.

Bucky simply chuckled mostly to himself before continuing. “See, this is what happens when you try to meddle,” he said nonchalantly.

“I hate you,” Sam answered.

In a weird way, it was their way of saying that they cared about each other although neither Bucky nor Sam would ever confess to it. They would truly deny it until the end.

“I hate you too,” Bucky replied with a smirk. “Keep in touch and be careful,”

“Yeah,” Sam said with a groan, Bucky assumed that he was about to get ready to fight. “You too,”

Bucky smiled as he hung up, he was thankful for having Sam to watch his back, even more now that Steve was gone. But soon, his eyes fell back to yours, effortlessly.

God, he thought, he needed to find you.

“I need to find him,” you stated hours later to Yelena as you both ate the pizza you had bought a second ago. Apparently, Yelena told you that it was traditional to eat one slice for one dollar pizza when you first came to New York. So, there you were, you had decided that you needed to take a day off after repeated panic attacks regarding Petrovich, and Yelena had agreed.

“But you already know where he lives,” Yelena answered back, mouth full as she watched you with a pair of heart-shaped glasses she had bought right before eating the pizza. After being free for a while, you realized how fun it was for Yelena to dress in an unusual or out-of-the-ordinary way, you assumed it was the freedom that she had to acquire to actually be whoever she wanted to be.

You sometimes felt jealous of her, you wished you could be that confident but you knew that deep down you, maybe, enjoyed your long trousers in neutral colors and turtle neck sweaters, moreover, you also knew it was easier to go unnoticed that way; just in case someone was following you.

Someone like Petrovich, or Bucky Barnes.

“I know, I know where he lives but he’s a fucking avenger,” you whispered before taking another bite as you watched your phone and realized that you were closer to Times Square than whatever you had anticipated. “Maybe he doesn’t have all the security than others have, but the other’s might freak out and caused them to be more alert if he gets killed in his apartment,”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Yelena stated, clearly not paying enough attention to your plan but to an elegant excentric lady that had just passed close by with a large orange coat that almost touched New York’s streets, she was clearly Yelena’s type.

“What about you?” you asked, deciding that changing the topic was the smartest thing for you to do. “How’s your job going?”

You were a great active listener, nodding and following her with your eyes and trying to call back whatever thing he was saying. Yelena was not the best with things that she didn’t find quite significant on her mind but you always appreciated being the listener in conversations and at least Yelena was always there for you for the difficult conversations.

Yelena simply shrugged as she finished her pizza and dumped the tissues she had on trash close to her as she then put an arm around you.

“I’m having a harder time, a bit more work than what I signed for,” she said as you cocked your head.

“Is it about your younger target?”

“Yes, she’s causing more trouble than anticipated,” Yelena said with a frown, but you could still feel the breeziness as she told you about her problems. “But you know what? Everything is going to be great!” She announced as you took a left on the corner and arrived at Times Square.

You could see the smile on Yelena’s face brightly and before you knew it, she whisked you off to the center of it as you gazed at the larger-than-life screens that surrounded you along with all the buzz of tourists and people close by. You laughed with her before she pulled her phone and took a selfie of both of you with the larger screens that you could catch. Yelena’s joy was contagious as she twirl on the busy streets as if she was a child, she watched with bright eyes everything and it felt like she was seeing colors for the first time, quickly she took your hand, and started to twirl with you.

She didn’t mind the other tourist or other new yorkers glaring at you with snubby frowns on their faces, as they watched you laugh, but before you knew it, you saw a glimpse of something. Your world suddenly stopped turning as you were sure you had caught those dark eyes with cruelty watching you sickly. Before you knew it, your feet gave up and you landed on the floor, Yelena quickly followed as she fell over you because of the sheer force of your game.

But you didn’t mind the pain of landing on the concrete, or of Yelena’s body over you, or your twisted ankle, you had only one thing in your mind.

Was it him? Was it Petrovich?

“Y/N? Y/N are you okay?” She asked with urgency before she saw the spell on your eyes as they frantically looked for any trace of the man you were most scared of but he was nowhere to be seen and you embarrassingly realized that it might’ve been your imagination playing games.

If we were being honest, recovering from the trauma was hard and you couldn’t exactly go to a therapist and you couldn’t find one easily that treated ex-assassins, or current assassins. So, when you had episodes such as this one and the last ones you had been having the last few days, you were left with an unsettling feeling, a feeling of wanting to run away as fast as you could. It took everything in you not to collapse to the floor or to start hyperventilating.

You never felt safe. He might always be right there, waiting for the right time to make you his once more.

“Y/N! Look at me,” Yelena finally screamed at you with exasperation as she cupped your face with his hands and made you look at her straight in the eyes. “You are safe, he’s not following you!”

Yelena wasn’t oblivious, she knew what you were going through. You barely managed to muffled a whimper that left your lips and your eyes shut as you nodded. People were already watching you on the floor having your panic attack and although Yelena wasn’t even phased by it, she knew that you both didn’t need to be the center of attention for this, this was the last thing you needed.

Before you opened your eyes again, Yelena had pulled you up with all the strength that she had, you automatically followed her steps and quickly took her hands before you open your eyes again and wiped some of the tears that were threatening of falling from your eyes.

“He’s not here,” Yelena whispered once more. “You are safe, he doesn’t know where you are and you’re okay,” Yelena assured you, as you squeezed her hand hard as if you were on a rollercoaster.

You weren’t sure if it had been seconds or minutes from falling but soon, your breathing was back to normal and you could let Yelena go. You looked around you and although some people were still staring at you, there weren’t as many as before, but you could still feel the lingering feelings of fear on the back of your mind and your cheeks warming at the thought of what you had done.

“Are you okay?” Yelena asked you again.

“Yes,” you lied as you nodded.

The truth was that you were definitely not okay and that although you were maybe sure that Petrovich had been a hallucination, a fraction of your memories of him, you couldn’t still discredit the theory that he might know that you were in New York. You knew him like the back of your hand and you were aware that you had to move places very fast if you didn’t want to leave any trails behind you.

That’s how it had worked for you for the past few years, you were always on the road, always in movement and you knew that it was a problem if you were in one place for too long because he could easily track you, he could find you and then you would be a prisoner again. If you were being honest, you knew that you were in a constant state of anxiety and the last few days had only made you double down on it. You’d sleep about 10 hours in total the past few days and although you knew that with Yelena you were able to conceal your feelings remarkably well, you could only do so much to hide them from Yelena, or anyone truly.

You had deep dark circles under your eyes and you almost felt frantic, a tight cloud surrounding you all the time, a feeling that made it hard to breathe the more you thought about it. The more you thought about the idea of going back to him, of having to endure the punishments, of having to endure him touching you, it made you feel sick to your stomach the more you thought about it.

You recalled your thoughts as you walked to your place, you had always dreamed about a different life but now, if you finished this, it wouldn’t be a dream anymore. Dreams are not for people who are not living a life already perceived as one.

But you realized that this incident of today only marked a new chapter for your mission.

If you wanted to get out and feel safe from Petrovich, you had to kill James Barnes sooner rather than later.

So, you did whatever good assassin would do when in doubt: review your files. As soon as you had arrived at the small Brooklyn apartment, you dropped your bag and coat on the floor before running to your computer and opening it.

You couldn’t figure James Barnes easily the first time you read those files. He seemed so melancholy and alone but you could sense that there was an entire storm under the surface. The long walks he took mostly on the night confused you for a second before realizing what they did for him, when you were feeling overwhelmed you would usually climb to a rooftop or go to an open space, you would feel the wind whipping at your cheeks and nose, but you didn’t care because you felt so at peace. You’d forget your anger, your fears, the overall feeling of being lost, and in those moments you’d only listen to the wind and the sound of whatever place you were around, trying to figure out where the voices came from, what they were talking about, what their lives might be like, what would happen if you had a similar life like them.

But suddenly, between all the lonely times he had and the times he visited the Avengers compound or his doctor’s office, there were few places where he would be other than his apartment, which was the last place you wanted to go to.

But then, between the hundreds of documents and a coffee that you had made halfway on your reading, you found something. Something that could be clearly useful, something that you were sure could make you leave New York in a couple of days. Before you took another sip of your coffee, you highlighted the name.

Yori Nakajima.

On a normal day, Bucky would be fine with going to the restaurant that had somehow become a safe place for him, a second home but right now, he had barely slept as he tried to do his best to figure out how to find you. Although the Dora Milaje had given Bucky a great dump of information, they hadn’t been exactly able to find your current location, they simply had managed to find where you were staying in Berlin before you came to America to kill Bucky.

Therefore Bucky was on his own. He knew he could handle technology, at least far better than what Steve had but he didn’t particularly enjoy using it, but if he meant finding you he didn’t care. Nonetheless, it hadn’t been an easy task to do so, he had to call Sharon for a favor on how to hack some city cameras and she had helped him easily, although, on the back of his mind he recalled his second rule: don’t do anything illegal.

But right now, he truly didn’t care because he needed to know who had sent you and, although he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he wanted to know you.

But the last two days had taken a lot on his mind and now his back was rigid for spending so much time on the desk and on his computer, he hadn’t truly eaten something and before he realized it, Yori had been knocking on his door on the afternoon, claiming that Bucky had promised an early dinner a few weeks ago and he hadn’t kept his promise. Bucky rolled his eyes, trying to explain that maybe tonight wasn’t the best time for an early dinner but Yori had insisted on it.

Too emotionally and physically exhausted to say no to Yori and then listen to him complain about how he was being an awful person, Bucky had simply accepted and promised Yori he would be there by seven. He didn’t want to debate with Yori on why he couldn’t go that night, on why he hadn’t been sleeping, and why, a part of him was extremely embarrassed about running into Leah after not asking her for a second date. He needed more questions regarding his basically none existent personal life. Besides, the longer he kept Yori waiting, the more insistent he would become and Bucky knew it wasn’t just fair to him.

Yori was one of his only and sincere friendships, and following Dr. Raynor's advice, he really needed those at the moment.

So, Bucky quickly put on his leather jacket over his black t-shirt and put on his characteristic black gloves before closing his apartment and walking towards the restaurant. The streets were buzzing with people in Brooklyn and Bucky could feel the warm air of what was left of the summer, he walked through the streets as his mind recalled his childhood memories with Steve as they walked through those very same streets, playing and laughing along, how they would sneak out to go dancing with girls, how they would walk on them as they returned home from school, everything.

Bucky could remember everything and although he always tried to push it away, it chipped at his heart a bit.

But before he realized it, he had arrived at the restaurant, he was missing a couple of steps but suddenly a woman with a long black coat opened the door, she wasn’t facing Bucky’s way so he couldn’t truly see her face but Bucky caught the clicking noise her boots were making against the concrete and how confidently she was walking away, plus there was something he couldn’t quite put his finger on it but he tried to brush it away as he opened the door and entered the restaurant.

His eyes immediately fell to where he always sat with Yori at the bar, he was already waiting for him as he motioned on his hand for Bucky to walk faster towards him.

“You should’ve come at the same time as me,” Yori complained as he shook his head whilst he read the newspaper.

“Well, I’m here now, right?” Bucky stated as he finally sat down with a groan next to him, before he knew it Leah had appeared right in front of him with a sly smile, which Bucky reciprocated immediately with a really awkward grin.

“Nice to see you too,” she said with the soft tone of voice she always had when speaking to Yori or Bucky, and Bucky felt his cheeks turning pink as he nodded. “The usual?”

“Yes, please and I already want to order a miso soup, like the girl who was here before,” Yori stated with a smile as he continued to read the newspaper.

Leah nodded and went to the back to get him and Bucky their drinks but Bucky simply chuckled at the thought of Yori flirting with someone his age, he wasn’t aware that he might have it on him but he realized that he could always be surprised by him.

“So, who's the girl?” Bucky asked as he started to unzip his leather jacket.

“She was beautiful, and she knew so much about pinnacle,” Yori stated with his usually joyful tone. “Right, Leah?”

“Oh yeah,” she stated as she returned with their drinks. “In fact, I think that you know her,” Leah added as she cocked her head.

Bucky immediately frowned and wrinkled his nose as he listened to Leah, he knew for a fact that the few women he knew nowadays wouldn’t be close to this bar and even less would know about the existence of Yori, Yori was Bucky’s friend outside of whatever madness he had been living in, he was Bucky’s window to a common life, to a life without blood, a life without fighting, a peaceful life. And so, he had tried to keep as separate as he could those worlds so that they wouldn’t collide because he was aware of the danger that it might present.

“What?”

“Yeah, she left a note and everything,” Leah said as she kneeled on the counter and took a folded piece of paper, which Bucky grabbed it immediately and quickly unfolded the paper as fast as he could.

Bucky felt cold over his whole body and he was sure if he wasn’t already leaning into the counter of the bar, he would maybe even almost collapse. He could swear he was listening to his own erratic heartbeat and his head started to hurt as he tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened, around the fact that you had found Yori, around the fact that you could actually cause harm. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over him as he realized that he had seen you, that you were there, that the thing he couldn’t quite pinpoint was your perfume, that you had been watching him and that you knew, that you weren’t afraid of messing with him in the vilest way.

Before he realized it, he was seeing red.

“Leah, this is my card and charge everything that Yori wants in there,” Bucky stated firmly as he gave Leah his card. She rapidly blink, unsure of what to make from his reaction but Bucky didn’t wait. “I’m sorry, I have to reschedule Yori,” Bucky stated and he didn’t wait for Yori to answer, he simply ran towards the door, bumping into people as he finally reached the street and started to run towards where you’d gone.

As he ran, the paper on his hand fell on the street.

I’m seeing you.

***

author's note: honestly lI feelike this chapter and the last are more like world setting than anything else? But I'M SO EXCITED FOR NEXT CHAPTER AND I'LL BE POSTING IT EARLY ON KO-FI because shit really hits the fan.

by the way sI'morry I didn't proof read this so it can be messy

anyway, let me know if you liked it and everything in between, your comments make my day so truly thank you for reading!!!

***

feedback is always welcome!!!

donate: help me with my laptop? ko-fi

also available on wattpad (soon)

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mossnix · 4 years ago

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Badboyhalo Manhunt au! smut

hello, i am here with more manhunt au smut :D hope you like it

!! warning !!: this is smut so if you are under 13, please do not read it (or not idc)

ヽヽ ✵ ヽヽ

Iran down the village path, trying my best to escape my hunter, the manhunt had just started and i was given a head start by bbh because he felt nice today, I ran inside the blacksmith and grabbed the few iron bars and iron helmet it had inside, after i closed the chest i hear footsteps in the village and i knew it was bbh since his footsteps were softer than the villager steps, "oh y/n~ where are youu~" he called out with coo, is softly sighed as i thought of a plan on how to escape in one piece, after the footsteps became quiet, i tried my best to leave the blacksmith without making any noise, and it was successful, i started to speed up and then i full on started running to the nearest cave to get more iron and blocks, after a while i saw an entrance to a cave so i ran in and started to mine the clutters of iron dotted around the caves walls.

I got back to the furnace and started smelting, while the iron was smelting i walked out the cave and started to kill some sheep to get food, while i was getting food i heard some familiar footsteps in the distance, i quickly got the wool and mutton and ran back inside the cave, i grabbed all my items and walked outside, and right as i stepped out of the cave i heard a arrow being shot, i quickly duck down as i hear a arrow being shot right above my head, i quickly get up and start to run, i hear a voice behind me yell a "HEY! GET BACK HERE!!" but i ignored it and continue to run away to a snow biome. I dash through the snowy trees as my body stung from the cold, i see a igloo in the distance and i decide to run in there to hide from bbh.

I quickly walk in and lift up the carpet for the trapdoor, but there wasn't one, i start to panic as i hear footsteps come close and closer, i turn around to see bbh there with a devilish smile and a crossbow in hand, i look him in his white eyes and smile "oh heyyy bad,, how are you doing?" i awkwardly say as i lean against the cold wall” hey y/n,, i missed your pretty face" bad says as he walks in and blocks the exit off, making it dark in the room, the only light source was the redstone torch that illuminated the room, bad squatted down and put a finger under my chin "such a defenseless person,, no where to run, no one to help you,, just you and me" he says as he slowly licks his lips, his fangs showing a bit, i gulp as a small blush seeps across my face, making bbh chuckle, "what about i don't kill you, and i just,," he say as he leans in and kisses me passionately, i just smile and kiss back, he slowly slides his hand of my waist and continues to kiss me with passion, after a while we are making out , my legs around his waist and his hands on my waist, holding me closer than ever, we were in love, madly in love.

Bbh suddenly pulls back and looks me in the eyes "i want you y/n,, i want you so badly~" he says under his breath, it sounded so needy, like he had a- oh,,. you quickly look down and see the tent in his pants, that was begging to break free and wreck you raw, you look back at him and give him a nod, giving him the ok to destroy you, bbh saw the nod and started to take off your clothes slowly, taking in your shining skin and touching it with his hand, the softness of you skin making basically wanna just hold you forever, he finally took off your clothes and went for his own hoodie, pulling it off with one swoop, taking his shirt off as well, you watch as he undresses quickly, rubbing your thighs together to show him that you are ready for him to rail you, he threw the last piece of clothes away and crawled on top of you, running his hand down your body wand sharing at it in awe, he grasps his member and lines himself of against your entrance, "are you ready?" he looks back at you and you give him a needy nod, and with that he pushes inside you and bottoms out after a while, it hurt a bit but you got used to his size pretty quick, you gave him another nod and he started to move slowly, your body was hit with a wave of pleasure as he thrusted into you, you moan more as he leaned down and bit you neck, and started thrusting faster and faster, he lets go of your neck and leaves behind a pink mark, "god you feel so good y/n,, so good" you smile as you lean your head back against the wall, "aah,,~ bad fuck~" you moan out and right as you said the word 'fuck' his hand clamped around your mouth, shutting you up, "l-language" he groaned out as he continued to thrust into you,

~time skip cuz i'm bad at writing smut~

you both were tired, it was a long night, with you both going on for 2 rounds, him c-mming inside you both times, your tummy felt warm from the c-m, which made bbh laugh when u told him, he had placed down another bed next to the already one bed there, you were both in the bed, softly cuddling and holding each other close, bbh looking at the many bite marks that were littered on you collar bone and shoulders, after a few minutes you both fell asleep in each others arms

ヽヽ ✵ ヽヽ

#badboyhalo smut #mcyt smut #dsmp smut #dream smp smut

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babygirl-riley · 2 years ago

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Healings

Allison is slowly healing from the recent events, having nightmares to make sure she doesn't forget. How does she cope? While Ghost slowly comes to terms on the light weight feeling he gets when seeing Allison but also what the heavy means with her as well.

Warnings: Mention of rape, ptsd, swearing

Healings and Confessings

War meant victories and accomplishment, being able to save that family from bullets, save your comrades from a certain doom. War also meant failures and wishes, watching your comrades fall, watching as the target you were after escape, and not being able to pull back time.

Simon felt this at this moment. Watching Allison’s normal skin tone turn more white made his stomach turn. After all these months, he was able to continue his bantering as a no flirting policy towards her, just last month though he broke.

“Bravo 0-1; Bravo 0-7 and 0-8, in position.” Simon said through coms.

Allison and him were just looking for the target and making sure it was the correct man they were looking for. Classified mission as well. Need to know bases. There were rumors going around about a new shipment of armory that Iran wanted to transport to a different country and we need to know which.

Simon watched carefully as Allison watched his six.They sat on the hill for hours with nothing changing. Simon would take glances at Allison. Four months since she has been on the team. He grew to like her. Just the other day she made him laugh, an actual laugh, which Johnny never let down since he hasn’t even come close to that break.

Last night they played poker, when she turned red after a little flirting it made his thoughts go wild. He naturally had sexual feelings towards her but knowing that he made her flustered made him think of…

“You know eventually when I retire,” she started getting him out of the thoughts. He shifted looking through the scope once more. “I want to be in the middle of nowhere. In hiding. Somewhere is the forest maybe.”

“Isn’t that so?” Ghost responded giving a glance at her then the scope again.

“Yeah a dog too,” She sighed. “Cabin, you know the typical stupid hallmark type.”

Ghost huffed. “Never took you as a romantic.”

“Eh those cheesy romantic shows are interesting at times,” she shrugged. “My sister and I would make fun of them.”

Simon took note of family, this was her first time bringing up family. He scoffed. “No chap back at home?”

She was quiet for a moment. “No.”

“Good.”

There was a long pause. “Why ask?”

Simon could feel his heart increase. Shit. He should have known better that she wouldn’t call him out. “Just curious.”

It was quiet again. “Do you have a scar?”

Bloody hell. “You have been talking to McTavish haven't you.”

“Well I was curious after last night.”

“After I made you turn red?” The teasing came out. He wanted a reaction and wanted something back.

He heard you shift and chuckled. “Yeah, now all I can think about is what you look like.”

Simon smirked. “I made a good impression then.”

“Just a little.”

“How can I make a better one then.” he froze for a moment. He broke the breach. He can’t back out now.

She scoffed. “I don’t know any ideas?”

“I have a few.”

“Elbroate.”

He was about to say something, not so professional but naturally the target was there. After the mission she gave me a look of we will talk about it later. Little did she know Simon had a few ideas on how to make it up to her.

That’s when he knew he was in trouble. When the thoughts came in. When she mentioned her Hallmark Cabin, he couldn’t help but think he wanted that as well. Having that stupid mutt and listening to the morning forest sounds. Now it could be taken away. Allison laid in the makeshift hospital, IV attached to her, they got her infection out of her leg and was able to be more stable. They did lose her a couple of times. Which made him even more sick.

Soap had to tell him on the heli that he had to move out of the way, since a medic was on stand by when getting her. He didn’t want to, he wanted to hold her, cover her up. Her chest was out vulnerable and with a cut going down towards her stomach. He felt his fist clenched up and his rage fogging into his head.

Now she was here stable, alive. He blamed himself, he does when things like this happens. It’s war. Things are victories or failures. This was a failure. He failed her. Because of her they did have the information where Ghorbrani would be. In a month's time they were going to be trading with the Russians.

He hated this feeling. It made him angry. He never was like this. Vulnerable. Soft. That never came across him. Simon had to stay cold hearted. Because when these things happen he can’t mourn, there will be no time to. Can’t have that distraction.

But he can worry about that later. Right now she will heal and Simon will be right next to her the whole time.

…………………………………………………………….

It was two weeks since being rescued from being tortured. I had night terrors to where I would wake up swimming in sweat. Luckily the wound on both my shoulder and leg was scarring up pretty well. But my brain couldn’t scar up the flashbacks of the torture.

The nightmare would start with the toothy yellow colored smiling men around me, stabbing me, burning me, attempting to drown, and doing what they never got to finish. When it would end would be hearing a shot and flash. This time though, my body hit the ground. Blood coming out of my head. I shot up, panting hard, my hair sticking to my forehead, clothes sticking.

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I had to leave. I looked around my tent. It was empty but my gear and the crate at the end of my cot. I grabbed my boots, slipping them on. I put my gear on and brought my knife and sidearm. There was a spot you found, it was a little bit of a walk from the base but I loved going there to watch the stars.

It was quiet at this time, just a couple of patrols walking around making sure the base was secure. Heading up the hill was the best part feeling the soreness on my leg but when I reached the top it was the best feeling. It looked over the base and the sand field. It was empty out there for the most part. Which means I could see the sky. I stood there feeling the cold breeze hit my face, making me close my eyes.

“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself.” I snapped my head pulled my sidearm out aiming towards the voice.

Ghost. I glared at him and grunted putting my pistol away. “Shit Ghost you could have given a better heads up.”

“Sorry,” He said walking fully up the hill. “Cant sleep?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking away from him.

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “I saw you walking away from the base, just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Anger. Why anger? He didn’t do anything. I scoffed. “What do you think?”

He approached me, standing in front of me to have me look at him. He stood basically a foot taller than me. I forget how tall and how big he is. He could snap me in half. His brown eyes bore into mine. His look was stern. “That you are not.”

“Then why ask?”

“Because I want to.”

I couldn’t argue with him. He was the Lieutenant after all, yeah I am too but he outranks me by experience. Being in charge right next to Price. “I will be back on my feet soon sir.”

He shifted for a moment. “Fox.” He stopped then nodded. “Do you want to be left alone?”

I could feel the tears. “No, can’t we just watch the stars? And talk about this later?”

I sat down looking up at him. He sighed and moved over next to me, pretty close, close enough for our shoulders to brush against each other. Nothing was said for what felt like hours. “Do you know anything about the stars?” I said quietly.

“No.”

“Me neither, well not scientifically. I know what a constellation is, what type of thing. I love being able to see them. To search for each one,” I looked around for a moment to see the three stars lined up. I pointed to them. “Orion's belt. Which would lead you to the dippers.”

He followed my hand, listening carefully. Watching every one that I would point out. Ask questions about each one. Until a shooting star passed. “That's my favorite thing.”

“Shooting stars?” He questioned.

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“My mom would tell us to make wishes, knowing we as a family would make them with whoever would be making it.”

He hummed at the explanation. It was quiet again. Which wasn’t awkward, just a comfortable silence. I could feel his eyes on me every now and then. It was nice having the company, we didn’t need to talk or make conversation just this was good enough.

It went quiet once again. “I am sorry.”

I turned my head to him. He was looking up at the stars. “For what?”

“For what happened,” He whispered. “It was my bloody fault, it happened under my command. Maybe if we brought someone to watch your six, you wouldn’t have gotten captured.”

“Ghost you couldn’t have prevented it. You had to get that information.” I bluntly said, still looking at him.

He didn’t say anything. I knew nothing could change his mind on what he felt. “I was terrified,” He looked over at me. His eyes looked into mine. “You were so pale, so weak. When you passed out I thought,” he paused then placed a hand on my cheek. “I thought you were gone.”

I have never seen this side of Ghost before. I didn’t think it existed. That’s when the memory came up when he grabbed your chin saying ‘I’m sorry love.’ The warmth on your cheek was his hand. The ‘cold hearted man’ was showing something. Right here. Right now.

“Ghost.” I whispered, placing a hand on his leaning into it.

“Simon.”

I smirked. “Simon?”

He didn’t say anything but nodded. “It wasn’t your fault. I am here now.” I said reassuring him. “Some torture wasn’t going to kick me out of commission.”

He chuckled. “Bloody hell I will write that down for next time.”

I huffed and smiled. “Ghost,” Price's voice came through the radio. “What’s your location?”

He took his hand off my cheek and pressed the radio. “Just outside the base sir.”

“Well after you take your nightly stroll we need to plan the next step with Laswell.”

“Rog,” Simon looked at me. “See you down there?”

“Yes sir.” I smiled.

He nodded and got up looking down at me then walking down the hill. I watched until he was safely in the base. Maybe the nightmares will stop now. Maybe just maybe.

#call of duty modern warfare #simon ghost riley #call of duty mw2 #simon ghost riley x allison fox lawson #simon ghost riley x oc #simon riley #simon ‘ghost’ riley #stargazing #these two are a mess

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wiypt-writes · 4 years ago

Text

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve find Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane and, as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left running for their lives and are forced to seek help…

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Language! Violence, and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

A/N: Not one but TWO edits from @angrybirdcr in this one!!

Chapter 14

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion involving a Quinjet and some nasty looking road blocks, they made it out relatively unscathed all things considered and headed to the boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change. Katie told him to leave his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. At her suggestion, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible, he also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so.

They reached the hospital with no further issues. Katie was feeling the effects of the fight in the elevator and the leap of faith they’d taken out of it and was stiff and bruised but she did her best to keep pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” She looked at Katie’s face, her eyes taking in the bruising around her left cheekbone and the split in her lip.

“Rumlow.” Katie snapped back, unwilling to discuss any further. Her patience with this whole situation was running thin and she was sick of not knowing who she could trust. She had resigned from SHIELD for this precise reason, and here she was, getting dragged once more back into their shit.

“Where is it?” Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he reached up and threw down his hood.

“Safe.”

“Do better.” Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

“Where did you get it?” Natasha asked.

“Why would I tell you?” Steve countered.

“Fury gave it to you,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”

“What’s on it?” Steve ask, ignoring her question.

“I don’t know,” Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. “Stop lying,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I only act like I know everything, Rogers.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn’t you?” Katie said, looking at her.

“Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in…”

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around away from Natasha, groaning.

“I’m not gonna ask you again,” Steve threatened.

“I know who killed Fury.” Natasha spoke as Katie turned to face her again. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

“So he’s a ghost story.” Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

“Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me.”

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

“Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis.”

“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.” Steve half joked.

“Going after him is a dead end. I know, I’ve tried.” Nat stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

“Let’s find out what the ghost wants.”

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat hummed as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette on their way out to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha’s commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team, in which Katie and Natasha’s stealth skills really had been put to the test, although Steve hadn’t objected to one part in particular where he’d had to kiss his girl on the escalator, they had bolted for Natasha’s car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks.” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something.” Nat responded.

Despite himself, Steve couldn’t help but quip back playfully. “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat replied, her voice full of a smirk. “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat beside him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus, Nat!”

“What were your exact words?” Natasha continued, a teasing expression on her face. “Oh yeah, if that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-“ “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie hastily cut her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend went, he supposed that there were far worse things she could be saying.

“So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” Natasha asked a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve looked over his shoulder at her. “And we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat.“

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don’t answer it though, you’re kind of answering it, you know?”

“What?” Steve asked exasperatedly.

“So before in the Apple store… you guys were like engaged…” She began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned and, upon hearing her, Steve felt something in his stomach tighten.

"That bad an idea huh?” He asked stealing a glance over at her.

“I didn’t say that.” Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” Katie shot him a look.

“You gonna grace my other question with a response?”

“Which was?”

“Whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” He stole another glance at her but before she could reply he felt Nat shift a little.

“You asked her?” She aised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, of SHIELD, of everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up.”

“What, like you?” Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it’s not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.”

"That’s a hard way to live,” Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

“It’s a good way not to die, though.” Natasha mused unconcerned.

“You know, it’s kind of hard to trust someone when you don’t know who that someone really is.” Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn’t want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn’t, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

“Yeah.” Natasha replied, looking through the window. “Who do you want me to be?”

“How about a friend?” Steve jumped in.

“Well, there’s a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.” Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every inch of her being. And she wanted him to know, in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.”

Steve’s head whipped round, his mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak.

“Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal.

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

She nodded, returning her gaze to the front, and he did the same as her fingers tangled into his right hand where it was resting on the pillar between their seats, gently pulling it into her lap so she could trace shapes on his palm.

And, surprisingly, there was no sarcastic comment from the back seats.

*****

“It’s some kind of recording,” Natasha frowned as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp and after a long search, just as they were ready to give up, Steve had spotted that the munitions building was in the wrong place. Further investigations had led them into a huge, underground bunker and, after an hour or so more of searching, they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal.

Natasha had plugged in the USB device into the port, which had activated the system and now, well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

“I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945.”

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

“Who is that?” Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

“Do you know this thing?” Natasha questioned sceptically.

“Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He’s been dead for years,” Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

“First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.” Zola explained.

“How did you get here?” Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

“I was invited.”

“Operation Paperclip.” Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value.” Katie replied, her eyes still on the screen.

“They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.” Zola continued.

“HYDRA died with the Red Skull,” Steve snapped.

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.” Zola said confidently

“Prove it.” Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

“Accessing archive.”

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original SHIELD founders.

“HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

Various photos flashed up as he spoke of events through the course of modern history. Besides him Katie gulped when they reached the assassination of JFK, and the photo zoomed in on a grainy image of the masked man with the metal arm in the distance, aiming his rifle, The Winter Soldier.

“That’s impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you,” Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

“Accidents will happen.” The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed. By HYDRA.

When she spoke again, her voice was as desperate as she was. Desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem.” The screen drawled back

“You killed them?” Katie’s chest was heaving, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

“HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security.” Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feltl the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. “Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA’s new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum.”

Steve’s anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie’s had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

“As I was saying…”

"What’s on this drive?” Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

“Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.”

“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Katie demanded.

“The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it.”

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

“Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops.” Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

“Who fired it?” asked Steve, as he starting to look for an alternative escape route.

“SHIELD.” She looked at him, then to Katie.

“Admit it Captain, it’s better this way. We’re both of us, out of time.” Warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. Catching on to what she was saying, he easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

“Get in!” Steve yelled. Natasha hopped down into the space, then Katie followed, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit a split second later. Instantly, heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above rained down into the space they were hiding in. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly as she spoke.

“Nat?”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as, following a third huge heave, light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty shove, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I am, but Nat’s passed out.” Katie blinked up at him, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down on the floor and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong. I think she just fainted, she doesn’t do well in tight spaces, like me.” Katie coughed harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer.

“Quinjets.” Her eyes grew wide.

“Let’s go.” Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble as they headed back to the truck.

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good five minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop.

In the front of the truck, Steve’s head was also reeling. All this time, HYDRA had grown within SHIELD, he’d gone into the ice for what? He wiped his hand over his face and glanced in the rear view mirror. Katie was looking down at Natasha, gently carding her hands through her friend’s hair, but he could see her eyes were wet. He felt another flash of anger. How could Fury have not noticed? How could Peggy have not noticed? So many goddamned questions.

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie looked down at her. “We’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So, where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie shook her head. “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie licked her lips. “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do. Any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “And it’s a crazy one, but one that no one will ever suspect as no on in SHIELD knows the guy exists. Not yet anyway.” Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she finished. “Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve shook his head.

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” Katie snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Once they had tracked down Sam’s address, which was fairly easy to figure out when you had access to JARVIS via a StarkPhone, Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told him all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve, being the gentleman that he was, let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

“You okay?"

"Yeah,” She replied quickly, too quickly.

Steve set down the towel he was drying his hands with and entered the room then sat on the chair across from the girls. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at Natasha carefully. “What’s going on?”

“When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra,” Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. “I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

“There’s a chance you might be in the wrong business.” Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

“I owe you.” Natasha sighed quietly, “Both of you.”

“It’s okay,” Steve smiled.

“If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?” She asked quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

“I would now,” said Steve. “And I’m always honest.”

“Without question.” Katie added as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

“Well,” She said as she looked back at Steve. “You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing.”

“Well, guess I just like to know who I’m fighting,” Steve sighed in response, although she had hit a nerve.

“I made breakfast,” Sam’s voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. “If you guys, eat that sort of thing.” He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late eighties. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Doll.” He started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say was eating her up.

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” Katie sighed gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then.” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie swallowed, shaking her head “I don’t know what’s worse, Steve.”

She looked utterly lost and broken and Steve felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the three had shared in the truck and he knew just how to do it.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” He looked down at his girl as she gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears.

“No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up. “wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But Steve loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips. “You’re a nightmare.”

“Yeah but you love me.” She grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do.” His lips met hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on.” Steve took her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.

“You all look a hell of a lot better.” Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

“Well, it’s been an eventful twenty-four hours.” He responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked at Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

Katie sat down next to Steve at the table and looked at him, then to Natasha before they launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened as Sam listened intently asking questions and serving coffee out to them as they continued explaining over the next thirty minutes or so.

“So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?” Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam’s countertops.

“Alexander Pierce,” Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee. It was amazing how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place following food and caffeine.

“Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world,” Natasha walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

“He’s not working alone, Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star.” Steve continued.

“And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too.” Katie added, as the three of them shared a glance. There was another piece of the puzzle.

“So, the real question is,” Steve looked at Katie then to Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t.” Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

“What’s this?” Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

“Call it a resume.”

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

“Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission-that was you?” Natasha asked and Sam nodded. She then turned to Steve. “You didn’t say he was a para rescue.”

“Riley?” Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

“Yeah.” Sam answered gently.

“I heard they couldn’t bring in the choppers because of the RPGs,” Natasha recalled. “What did you use, a stealth chute?”

“No. These.”

Sam handed Steve another file and he opened it, his eyes growing wide as they looked down at Sam soaring through the air using what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

“I thought you said you’re a pilot?”

“I never said a pilot.” Sam countered with a little chuckle and a smirk.

“I can’t ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason.” Steve shook his head.

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There’s no better reason to get back in.” Sam almost scoffed.

“Where can we get our hands on one of these things?” Katie asked, looking up.

“The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall.” Sam supplied, his tone a little dejected.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” He almost smiled, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” Katie looked to the man who nodded. “Then yeah, I can track him down.” She affirmed, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All four of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if two of them did get caught, the other two still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they now had courtesy of some expert searching via Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” She spoke and Steve nodded.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss.”

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed. Your forty’s programming has been well and truly broken.” Steve rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so what does it matter?” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned.

“You wanna marry her…” She said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now.” Steve tried to shrug it off and Nat snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers! Soon as you can get a ring on it we all know you’re gonna.”

“Who’s we?”

“Everyone.” Natasha added sagely. “You two are like ultimate couple goals. It’s cute.”

Steve took a deep breath, staring ahead as he drove before he took a deep breath. “You know I kinda already asked her.” He looked back at Natasha who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly, but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted, and-” “Great proposal.” Nat cut him off with a snigger. “What did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle.” Nat mused. “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile. “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and, upon arriving at the base, they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched three guards, Natasha another two before they reached the room they were looking at. Natasha easily hacked the security codes thanks to something on her phone, Steve didn’t ask what, and they met no one on their way out.

Frankly, it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking but he wasn’t going to complain. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

***** Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for Katie and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

“So you know this guy we’re looking for?” Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

“Vaguely.” She sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. “But I can work with what I have.”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?”

“Simple, I’m going to check his work calendar.” Katie nodded at the laptop

“And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” She grinned

“Good morning again Miss Stark.” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour. Again. And it’s urgent.” “Of course.” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and access someone’s calendar without them noticing.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask,is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark? Maybe call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” Katie shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

Once she had explained what she needed, JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow him to access the information without being detected.

It didn’t take long. Fifteen or so minutes later Sitwell’s calendar flashed up and Katie gave a little yell of triumph.

“JARVIS, you are a genius, buddy!”

“Why thank you, Miss Stark. But I only have about sixty seconds before I will need to close down the connection.”

“Understood. Right let’s see where you’re at, you fucker.” Katie mused, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” He read, pointing at the screen.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked up at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half.”

“Cutting it fine.” Katie mused. “Ok, thanks J, you can disconnect.” “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it.” Nat’s voice instantly spoke as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm.”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat snorted sarcastically.

“And that’s going to be our only window before he’s back at the Triskellion at two-thirty.”

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA?” Sam asked.

“About twenty five minutes.”

“Okay, so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone.” Katie tapped at Sam’s laptop. “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District, so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat.”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There.” Sam tapped at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down. We can take him up high…”

“And kick him off the edge.” Katie nodded.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Okay so we got the where, now we need the how.” Steve sighed. “We can’t just pick him up at lunch. If the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

”But how do you get him to get in the car?”

“Simple. We give him a choice.” Katie eyed her gun where it lay on the table. “Do it or die.”

***** It turns out fear of death is a very, very good motivator.

Their plan went off perfectly. Natasha spoofed a phone number which Sam used to call Sitwell once he emerged from the restaurant after lunch. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, asking Sam why on Earth he would what he was being instructed to do.

And then Katie had aimed her gun sight at him from her hiding place, the red laser sight clear in the middle of Sitwell’s chest.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I’d hate to mess it up.” Sam smirked.

Sitwell, resigned to his face, followed Sam instructions and as he left the little plaza upon which the restaurant was situated, Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the bar Sam was sat at and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back.

“One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” She informed him, her voice low. Sitwell instantly tensed. "Miss Stark.” He grumbled out, seemingly more annoyed than scared. “Of course you’re involved with this.”

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of the security team with him had realized what had happened. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

“You made me a wanted fugitive.” She shrugged. “Didn’t have much choice.” She stopped walking. “Now, get in the car.” She ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car.” She repeated. Sitwell stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?” Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They drove two blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant.” Sitwell sighed, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was an arrogant little bastard, Steve had to give him that. The soldier easily manhandled the Agent onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where Sitwell had almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

“You’re right. It’s not.” Steve released Sitwell, smoothing out his suit, letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

“It’s theirs.” Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to Sitwell’s chest, sending him tumbling over the edge.

“So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?” Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah.” Steve smiled, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, as Sitwell’s screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola’s algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight’s targets!” He rushed out.

“What targets?” Steve demands.

“You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who’s a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future,” Sitwell continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

“The future? How could it know?” Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

“How could it not? The twenty-first century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it,” He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, “Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola’s algorithm evaluates peoples’ past to predict their future.”

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

“And what then?” He asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me.” He mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

“What then?” Steve demanded louder.

Sitwell sighed as he looked at Steve. “Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.”

**** Chapter 16

**Original Posting**

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #Katie Stark #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers fic #steve rogers fanfiction #mcu #mcu fanfic #captain america #chris evans #chris evans characters

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hxneyandespressx · 4 years ago

Text

little red string of fate

vii - truth or dare

Stars twinkled across the midnight sky as passing clouds filtered the moonlight. A large bonfire crackled brightly on a chilly late November night. A group of college friends hung around the fire in Luke’s backyard, having a get-together. Laughter and clinks from beer bottles made up the melody of the night. Everyone was having one last family fun before the stress of the holidays and final exams.

“Hey! Let’s play a game, guys!” Derek said, calling for everyone’s attention within his vicinity.

“What do you suggest, chocolate thunder?” Penelope asked, sneaking in a quick wink at her friend.

“How about truth or dare?” Luke suggested. A plethora of nods and a few disgruntled grumbles were heard.

“Ok, I’ll start,” Luke said, clapping his hands together in excitement. He looked around the group to choose his target and his eyes set on one of his friends. “Tara, truth or dare?”

“Truth.” Tara said while taking a sip of her beer. Luke took his time to think of a question.

“What is the most expensive thing you have stolen?” Luke asked.

“I stole an antique gramophone.” Tara said honestly.

“Really?” Spencer asked in excitement.

“Well, it was worth 3,000 dollars.” The graduate student said cooly. Everyone gasped in shock. No one in the group would have thought that Tara Lewis had the guts to steal an item, let alone an antique gramophone.

“How?” Spencer asked.

“A magician never reveals their secrets.” Tara winked. Everyone groaned as they wanted to hear the story behind the stolen gramophone.

“Ok, I’m gonna spice things up. Emily.” Tara called the brunette’s name.

“Yeah?” Emily asked.

“Truth or dare?” Emily smirked, ready for any challenge.

“Dare.”

“Strip as many clothes off as countries you have lived in.” Tara said, feeling proud of herself for thinking the idea. Emily stood there in shock. She had lived in plenty of countries during her childhood. Thanking the universe that she had lots of layers on, Emily began to strip her clothes one by one, as she calls out a country she had previously lived in.

“Japan.” Emily unraveled her red plaid scarf around her neck.

“Argentina.” Emily pulled the gloves off her pale hands.

“England.” Emily took off her hiking boots.

“South Africa.” The brunette slipped off her black socks, her feet touching the frosty grass.

“Iran.” She took off her dark blue parka jacket.

“Germany.” It took Emily a few seconds too long to take off her turtleneck sweater, the cream-colored one that JJ sometimes would steal from her close.

“Egypt.” The girl took off her thermal shirt, goosebumps forming from the contact with the wind.

“France.” Emily pulled off her tank top, the final layer on her torso. Out in the open was her chardonnay red bra. The jocks of the group whistled loudly, but Emily could care less. She stood proudly, not wanting her ego to get hurt from a little wind.

“See. Did it. And now I get to pick the next person.” Emily said proudly.

“You don’t want to cuddle up next to your girlfriend?” Derek teased the brunette.

“Shut up, Morgan. Because you teased me, I get to ask you now. Truth or dare?” Emily asked, rubbing her arms to feel the warmth. The brunette silently cursed at the universe that it was a cold night. To her left, JJ had a look of pity for her girlfriend. Wanting to wrap Emily with her jacket, JJ decided against it as she would get yelled at by the boys.

“Dare!” Derek shouted excitedly. Emily took a few seconds to think of a dare that was perfect for Derek. Once the idea popped into her mind, the brunette smirked mischievously.

“Call the third person on your contact list and say, “I think I might fart,” and then hang up.” Emily said, without a hint of laughter in her voice.

“Ha– easy.” Derek grinned as he took out his phone from his jean pocket. Scrolling through, his previous smile turned into a frown. His thumb wavered over the contact of the one person he didn’t want to mess around. Hotch. Derek was dreading to call his friend, knowing that he will get yelled at once he heads back to their apartment. Wanting to rip off the band-aid, Derek called Hotch, hoping he would pick up.

“Hello?” A rough voice said on the other line.

“I think I might fart.” Derek quickly said the statement and hung up the call. Everyone around him started to laugh, the noise ringing into the starry autumn sky. Derek rolled his eyes and took a sip of his beer.

“Shut up, Prentiss,” Derek said sarcastically. “Now, who’s ready to be the next victim?” The tipsy man thought for a while before picking the next person.

“Matt, truth or dare?” Derek said to call out the athletic man.

“Hm… Dare?” Matt said after a few thoughtful seconds. Derek smirked as the perfect dare appeared in his mind. Knowing that Matt had a crush on a particular redhead, Derek wanted this opportunity for them to get together.

“I dare you to… get your crush’s phone number.” Hearing those words sent a chill down Matt’s spine. Across from him, Kristy lightly blushed as Derek told Matt the dare.

Matt handed his drink to Luke and made his way to where his crush stood.

“Nice to meet ya,” Matt greeted her. “What's your name?”

“Kristy. What’s yours?” The auburn-haired girl asked.

“Simmons. Matt Simmons.”

“Alright, Simmons,” Kristy said, with a teasing tone. “Impress me with your so-called moves.” A small smirk appeared on the redhead’s slightly flushed face.

Matt softly coughed into his fist as he thought of a way to get his crush’s number. Wanting to be cute, the jock thought of an idea.

“Are you the sun?... Because you’re so beautiful, it’s blinding me.” Matt said, with a soft smile on his face. Feeling nervous, he shoved his hands into his jeans’ front pockets while waiting for an answer from the girl in front of him.

The redhead smiled and softly laughed at Matt’s attempt. The jock now felt like he ruined his chances with the most beautiful girl in his eyes.

Kristy asked Penelope for a paper and pen, knowing that the eccentric girl was prepared for anything with her stationery collection in her purse. With a sparkly pink gel pen, the auburn-haired girl quickly scribbled something on a piece of stationery paper. Once done, Kristy folded the paper and placed it in Matt’s hands.

“See you later, Simmons.” Kristy winked at Matt, taking her stuff, and left the party. Everyone watched the whole scene unfold, in awe that Matt Simmons actually did the dare.

Matt unfolded the piece of paper in his hands and gasped softly at what was written. It was Kristy’s name and phone number. The boy was shocked that he was able to get his crush’s number. He smiled softly to himself, telling himself that nice jocks do get the girl.

taglist: @homosexualyearning / @ssajelle / @iconicc / @sunlightgalaxy / @jemilyology / @jemilysparis / @pumpkin-stars / @lgbtbau / @drinkingcroissants / @abbyprentiss / @pen3mily / @morcias / @hotchsbabygirl / @gravelyhumerus / @notsosmexy / @devilsbaby-doll / @hqtchner

#honeys stories #criminal minds #matt simmons #kristy simmons #matt simmons x kristy simmons #misty #misty fanfic #misty fanfiction #little red string of fate #userablake

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cheyentjj · 4 years ago

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Soldier like no other

Pairing: captain Syverson x Aeven Moody (oC)

Summary: when military veterinarians are put to use...

Warnings: angst, shot wound, mentions of ear i think? Hurt dog...flatlining.

A/n: so this is something came up with after I got some good news today (I know weird right), and I’m thinking of maybe making a part two. Let me know what you think and if you want a part two to follow.

¨ah my girl! ¨

Giggling, she lost herself in the warm embrace of the old man in front of her. ¨hey pop. ¨

Having been overseas for a couple of months, she had missed the man who was the closest thing she had to a family. She couldn’t wait for him to tell her about all the things she missed. He always did. But even before she could let go of him, she heard the clearing of a throat behind her.

Curiosity making her turn around, only to be followed by her posturing up her body, arms behind her back, shoulders straight. Like they thought her.

¨sir, ¨ she voiced firmly.

¨officer Moody. ¨ he saluted. ¨I'm afraid we had a situation come up. We need you on a mission.. ¨

Her eyes went wide. A mission? Now? She just got here. It was supposed to be her well earned off time. Averting her eyes to Pop, a sad smile playing on his lips but nodding none the less as if to tell her it was okay. They would meet another time.

A sigh escaped her lips, a lone tear following soon after. ¨where to, sir? ¨

~~~~~~~~~~

And that’s how she found herself in a chopper flying over desert after desert. Tiny villages passing by below.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere between Saudi Arabia and Iran. She knew close to nothing about the mission she was just sent on. She knew it had something to do with special forces, so really her commanding officer probably didn’t even know anything himself.

¨just 2 more minutes, officer. ¨ she heard the pilot say.

She got ready for the rappel she was about to experience. Definitely not her favorite part of the job.

¨go! ¨ and she did. She and one of the other officers dropped from the helicopter into the small camp special forces had set up.

It was no more than a building in decay, a couple of small houses scattering the grounds around. The smell of the sun on the dry sand making her stomach churn for mere seconds like everything could burst into flames any minute now.

¨lieutenant Moody. Follow me. One soldier mentioned. He seemed to be the only calm one around.

Men and the odd few women rushing from here to there, barking orders at one another. Shouting words she couldn’t even understand.

¨why am I here, sir? ¨ she asked.

She figured since everyone seemed so rushed, he’d better fill her in now before it was too late.

¨shot wound. ¨is all he said.

To this point, she had no idea why they send her, but now she knew. From the 200 other vets they could’ve picked, she was the most specialized in gunshot wounds. Not once had she lost a patient who suffered the nasty effects of such a small piece of metal.

¨ok. ¨

The soldier guided her through the chaos swiftly to then just point at the tent a few feet further. She knew time was of the essence here, so she paid no further mind to the panicked expression on the man’s face and rushed inside. Her assistant close by following with all the equipment.

As soon as she stepped foot inside that tent, she knew why everyone was so restless.

In front of her stood a tree of a man. Barking profanity after profanity at what seemed to be the local medic. The medic’s eyes filled with tears, his hand holding pressure on the wound of the patient.

The large man, a giant, in both height and width, started uttering curse words no human had the right of knowing, so that when she stepped in.

¨leave. Now.¨ she told the man. Who she now realised was the captain.

He looked taken aback for just a slight second before placing his wrath on her.

She and her assistant moved in sync. Setting up the right materials before taking over of the medic. He left within seconds. The captain, however, only came closer.

¨i said leave¨ she gritted out.

¨no that is my dog! You better save her. They said you were the best.¨

If this was her first time meeting a scared pet owner, who happened to be a soldier, she’d be terrified. However, it wasn't her first. Won’t be the last either.

¨and I am, but you need to step out of the room so I can do my job.¨ assistant now at the ready to start the procedure.

The captain still showing no sign of stepping out. She looked over at him and for just a second she allowed herself to admire him.

His buzz cut well kept, but his beard long. She knew that when men were sent on assignment; they needed to be shaven. She could only imagine how long he had been stuck in this hellhole. His eyes, the truest blue she had ever seen in her life, showing the true terror he was feeling.

He acted like the scary man people probably saw him as, but he wasn’t fooling her. He was just like any other soldier with a service dog. Terrified to lose them. Too attached for their own good. For every soldier that lost their dog, lost their sanity.

Her eyes went to her assistants and nodded to her hands covering the bleeding wound. She understood and took over on the pressure.

Eaven , with her average height, strong but dainty build went to stand in front of the giant. And before he could even get a hold of himself, she slapped him in the face. Hard.

¨what the f...¨

¨get it together! You are going to leave this room and let me do my job. You are of no use in here. You are going to check on your men before they burn the place down.¨ she told him firmly.

She could tell he had little fight left in him, and she felt sorry for the man. Under any other circumstances, she would take her time trying to make him feel better, but she had no time.

She tapped the underside of his chin.¨chin up, shoulders straight. You're a soldier. Now out! In this room, I am captain.

She saw a slight flicker in his eyes. The realisation of her actually being there. The understanding of her words. For a second, staring into her eyes so deeply, as if answers to all his questions lied there. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, he gave just the slightest nod before exiting the infirmary tent. She could not disappoint him.

¨lets save this beauty.¨

It took only minutes to have the surgery going. Eaven being in her element, going with the motions like she had done it a million times. To her, it was a dance practiced day and night for years and years on end.

But the tricky part always scared her. The part where everything was out of her hands for just a flicker of time. The moment the bullet would come out. The moment that would reveal just how much damage was done.

Knowing there was no point stalling the moment, she just pulled it out, but it didn’t even take a flicker of time before the german shepherd in front of her flatlined.

Jumping into action, her assistant started sucking away blood while she clammed the artery the bullet had severed. Immediately starting an internal heart massage on the dog, she could only hope for the gods above to hear her prayer.

¨c’mon, girl. He will kill me if you die on me.¨

Eyes darting to the entrance of the tent, she hoped he wouldn't come running in.

@raspberrydreamclouds @hlkwrites @henrythickcavill @eldarwen333 @madbaddic7ed @toomanyfandomsshreya @mary-ann84 @mariestark @twhstuckylover @geralt-of-baevia @killjoy-assbutt-1112 @infinite-shite @inlovewithhisblueeyes @klaine-92 @foodieforthoughts @luclittlepond @the-soot-sprite

#syverson x reader #cpt syverson #syverson fanfiction #captain syverson #syverson x ofc #veterinarian #army #dog #syverson aika

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sixth-light · 4 years ago

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Original Horse Girl Andy insists that Nile learn about the best mode of transport, a ficlet:

The fourth time she fell off, Nile didn’t bother getting up right away. It would happen, she was just taking a moment. It turned out to be a sad fact of the particular brand of immortality she’d been...given...that the bruises healed so quickly she barely noticed them, and likewise the two broken toes she’d had so briefly this morning, but the ache in her muscles was just as inescapable as it had been in Basic. At least the grass was soft and the sun was out.

Andy appeared over her, silhouetted against the bright blue sky, a halo of light on her short hair. Nile had been prepared for her to look impatient – impatience was Andy’s thing, of the four of them, she was learning that – but it was worse: she looked amused. Maybe even, hidden in the corner of her mouth and the tilt of her head, the tiniest bit sympathetic.

Nile got to her feet. Her horse had wandered a few feet off and was trying to stick its head through the fence - apparently the grass really was greener there. “Let me guess – we go again?”

“No,” Andy said. “Here’s your next lesson about horses; they only put up with so much. We’ll walk them for a bit before you get back up there.”

Despite what she’d said, Nile’s horse only made a gentle sort of huffing noise when she took the reins to lead it, and nudged her in the shoulder with its nose. It didn’t seem that put out that Nile couldn’t stay on.

“You still haven’t said why this is so important,” Nile said as they made a slow circuit around the field. Nile still wasn’t quite sure these two great beasts – horses were a lot bigger than she’d thought, close up – weren’t going to break another toe or two. “Learning to ride.”

“It’s useful. Horses don’t break down, they don’t need gas, they don’t need roads -”

“I believe you, but tell me honestly, when was the last time you needed to ride?”

“Iran, 2002.” Andy’s response was prompt and without hesitation. “Saved our asses – as much as they ever need saving.” She grinned. “Book hated it. Next time you see him, ask him about it.”

Andy kept doing that, kept telling Nile things she should ask Booker next time she saw him. Nile didn’t know what to say to any of it; what were the odds she’d remember, ninety-nine years and seven months from now? But she didn’t think Andy was saying those things for Nile, so much.

“Just so we’re clear,” Nile said, “that was eighteen years ago.”

“You never know.” Andy was firm, the tone that said you wanna argue? Go ahead, worse than any drill sergeant. “Now – get back up there.”

The first time, Andy had given her a leg up. The second and third and fourth, she’d let Nile do it on her own. The horse, Nile thought, was very patient as she scrambled and rolled onto its back. Andy, of course, sprang up from the ground like it was nothing, and sat bareback on her own horse like they were one creature.

Nile made herself hold the reins lightly. Head up, back straight, use your knees, not so stiff; she ran through the instructions in her mind. None of that made sitting astride what felt like a warm, hairy sofa any easier. It just meant she hadn’t fallen off again. Yet.

Andy patted her own horse on the neck. “Once more around, then we’re going to try going a bit faster.”

“I will fall off again. You sure about this no saddle thing?”

Andy snorted. “Saddles make you stop paying attention to the horse. You fall off, you’ll learn quicker. I don’t have all the time in the world to teach you, you know.”

She looked away after she said that, towards the trees on the other side of the field. Nile waited until she looked back. “Joe and Nicky can always show me how in a few decades. If it ever comes up and we’re not making our escape by hovercraft, or something.”

“They’ve been promising hovercraft since before you were a gleam in your father’s eye,” Andy said with the dignity and disdain of someone who’d seen a hundred futures come and go, “and Nicky still rides like he’s wearing mail.” She amended that last when Nile frowned. “Chainmail.” Then she nodded to a tree on the other side of the fence. Nile recognised it; she’d been lying in the grass next to it. “Look, all the way around and you’re still here. Time to up the ante.”

The best thing about doing this with Andy and nobody else, Nile decided, was that there wasn’t anybody else around to hear the noise she made when Andy clicked her tongue and they went faster.

When they got back to the farmhouse, after a whole lot of extra work in the stable that made Nile contemplate again how much less trouble cars were, Nicky had his rifle stripped down on the kitchen table and was meticulously cleaning every part. Joe was chopping onions; he’d explained to Nile, a few months ago now, that Nicky loved cooking and would fight off competitors to do it, but hated chopping onions.

“Have a good afternoon?” Joe asked.

“I found out about muscles I didn’t know I had. But yeah, I think we did.”

“How many times?” Nicky didn’t look up from his work, but she could feel his attention shift.

“How many times what?” Nile said, holding on to the out he’d given her.

“Fourteen,” Andy said, shuffling through kitchen drawers and giving up to open the bottle of beer she was holding on the edge of the stone bench, a trick Nile was going to have to learn. “She fell off fourteen times. I thought it’d be a lot more,” she added, in Nile’s direction.

“There was no saddle,” Nile pointed out, for the others’ benefit. “Forget stirrups. Not even a saddle!”

“Andy thinks saddles make you stop paying attention,” they chorused together, without even looking at each other.

“And I’m right,” Andy said with satisfaction, taking a swig of her beer. “Nile, you want one?”

“I’m gonna shower first, but thanks.” Nile made it all the way out of the kitchen before a thought crossed her mind, and she poked her head back in. “Hey, you guys are into bets. Anybody want to bet me I’m never going to need to ride a horse?”

Nicky gave Andy a quick sideways glance. “Sure. A hundred euro says you will.”

“That’s a terrible bet,” Joe chided them, sweeping a pile of onion across the chopping board with his knife, as practised as Nile had ever seen him cut a throat. “She can only lose.”

“But I get to live in hope,” Nile countered.

“Sounds about right to me,” said Andy. “In the long run.” She tilted her head. “It’s not that bad, right?”

“On the scale of ‘you tried to get me to jump out of a plane when we first met’? It’s not that bad. But I still say we’re gonna get that hovercraft first.”

Joe turned to frown at her. “What?”

“Ask Andy,” Nile said, winking at him, and went to have her shower.

#the old guard #andromache the scythian #nile freeman #tumblr fic #my fanfic

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lucianalight · 4 years ago

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Get To Know Me

@chaotic-undying-loki @philosopherking1887 @tremendouslydecadentfire @kinathewolf Thank you for tagging me in various Get To Know Me memes during my hiatus!❤️ I combined all of them together and made new long meme!😅

1. Name: Luciana(for fandom purposes, not my name irl)

2. Are you named after someone? I am named after a Persian god.

3. Birthday: March 30

4. Where were you born? Tehran, Iran.

5. Zodiac Sign: Aries

6. Gender: Genderqueer

7. Sexuality: Ace-spec

8. Height: 153 cm

9. Eye color: The iris is green with a brown ring around pupil. I thought it’s hazel eye color, but apparently it’s central heterochromoia.

10. Do you have kids? No.

11. Hogwarts House: Slytherin

12. Favorite Animal: Cats

13. Do you have any pets? Unfortunately no, but I’d really like to have a cat.

14. Average Hours of Sleep: 6-7 hours

15. Blanket I Sleep With: In summers I sleep with a blanket and in winters I sleep with a quilt.

16. Favorite colors: Green, purple, black.

17. Favorite book: Blindness by José Saramago, Metamorphosis Franz Kafka, 1984 by George Orwell, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

18. Last song I listened to: Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Santa Esmeralda

19. Favorite song: My Immortal by EvaneScence

20. Favorite musicians/artists: EvaneScence, Within Temptation.

21. Last film I watched: Joker and I really disliked it.

22. Favorite TV show: At the moment Lucifer and Good Omens.

23. When was the last time you cried? Last week.

24. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No.

25. What are your hobbies? Reading, Learning, Writing, Obsessing over my special interests including fandoms.

26. Inspiration for a muse: Loki, sometimes Lucifer.

27. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their eyes and the vibe I get from them.

28. Scary movie or happy ending? Happy ending.

29. Sweet, spicy, or savory: Savory

30. Any special talents? I’m fast learner and I have a good memory. I’m also good at finding patterns.

31. What sport do you/have you played? Kung fu, yoga.

32. Favorite subject in school? Math, Literature

33. Dream Job: Researcher, Author

34. When I Made This Blog: September 31, 2017 but I started posting on November 17.

35. Followers: 1.4k

36. Why I Made This Tumblr: I joined tumblr to follow some artists who drew Ragnarok’s speculation comics. At first I was just lurking and liking posts. Then I watched TR and it made me so disappointed and angry that I had to write my opinions about it and find people who shared similar viewpoints for emotional support :D And now I’m still here writing metas and enjoy interacting with great friends I found here :)

37. Reasons Behind My URL: When I made my blog I felt a connection with archetypes like Loki, Lucifer, Prometheus. They all share similarities and are associated with fire and light which can be interpreted as knowledge. So I found a name with close meaning to these archetypes. Luciana means illumination, light, moon and I like the way it sounds.

38. Current Time: 12:22 a.m.

I’m not sure about tagging anyone since this is really long. So if you’re seeing this consider yourself tagged.

#i have lots of new followers and i thought this would be a good post if the want to know me #get to know me #tag game #personal

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imaginetonyandbucky · 4 years ago

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Keeping Me Alive

Chapter 10: Get Out Alive

by @dracusfyre

Now

“Save who you can,” Tony said to himself as he splashed water on his face.

He blindly grabbed for a towel and dried off, meeting his eyes in the mirror for what felt like the first time in years. “Don’t look back.” He straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, and went out into his bedroom. He picked up the photo that sat on his bedside table and took it out of the frame, tucking it into the pocket of his pants. Glancing around his bedroom, he nodded once, and went down to his workshop. He saluted the painting of Howard on the wall then dug out the photo of the Winter Soldier from his desk and set it on fire, dropping it to the concrete floor and watching it burn.

“Ready, JARVIS?” he asked. He ground the last bit of embers into the concrete to put them out.

“Are you ready, sir?”

“Yep,” Tony lied. “Let’s rock and roll.”

“Let it Burn Protocol initiated.” As JARVIS spoke, Tony felt the first explosion rock the house, rumbling through his feet as he stepped into the matte black suit in the gantry in the middle of the room. The facemask closed over his face as cracks appeared in the walls of the lab, and as the ground fell away from his feet he was already in the air.

36 days ago

Once he was sure that Stane was gone for good, Tony went down to his work shop and said, “Wake up, JARVIS, we have work to do.”

Sitting down at his workstation, he opened up the master file with the suit schematics and eyed the hologram critically. The hardest part of the suit to master was going to be the flight system, so he isolated and magnified that part from the diagram, studying the repulsors built into the gauntlets and boots with stabilizers along the back. “Start machining the parts I’m going to need for these,” he said. “Circumstances have changed and we are going to need to hit the ground running, so to speak."

“Yes, sir,” JARVIS said, and the whirring of machinery became a low hum, punctuated by sharp bzzts as parts were cut and de-burred. Tony studied the prototype, exploding the diagram, moving it around, and after a while came up with a short list of non-critical design items he could spoon feed to Hydra to show his ‘enthusiastic’ cooperation. An hour later, the whirring stopped and the sudden quiet broke Tony out of his concentration. He sat up and stretched, wincing as his back popped. Standing, he went over to the coffee maker and started a new pot, then dug under the counter for his emergency stash of scotch, splashing a fingers worth in his mug while he waited for the coffee.

He had realized two very important things today. The first was that the Soldier needed saving even more than Tony did; the knowledge that the man was Hydra’s slave, kept ignorant and locked up until Hydra needed an attack dog, had shifted Tony’s world view like a kaleidoscope, shaking up everything he thought knew and making an entirely new pattern. The second was that he couldn't keep waiting around for a chance to escape, he was going to have to make one.

This suit, he knew, was the key to both of those realizations. But this half-baked, insane plan to rescue the Winter Soldier was going to kick the anthill big time and Tony also knew he needed to have some kind of plan for dealing with Hydra in the aftermath. This wasn’t going to be like Afghanistan, where he thought he was out and got pulled right back in again. The stakes were way too high this time.

With that thought in mind, when the coffee was done, he filled up his mug and went back to his desk. He pulled up the operating program for the suit and created a subroutine to overload the reactor, ignoring the flash red warning that said that this would result in a critical core breach and an uncontrolled chain reaction, and set the activation code as “Last Resort.”

One way or another, he thought as he sipped on his doctored coffee, this suit would be his way out.

32 Days Ago

Tony stared tiredly at the news as he took a swallow of stone-cold coffee. The breaking report was about the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Iran was already blaming Israel, who was of course denying it, but in response Iran was threatening to pull out of the treaties against nuclear enrichment and swore they could split the atom within the year. Political and military analysts were seeing storm clouds on the horizon unless someone backed down and talking about how another war would tax America's already overstretched military. Tony, meanwhile, could tell that this assassination had Hydra's fingerprints all over it, and knew that this was almost certainly the work of the Soldier. "JARVIS," Tony said, muting the television. "I need you to break into Hydra’s servers and find everything you can on the Winter Soldier. Cross reference it with the name James Barnes.” There was a chance that Stane had made the name up, but it seemed unlikely – from what he could tell, the Soldier would have responded to anything, and ‘James Barnes’ was a lot more specific than a simple ‘John Smith’ or ‘Joe Blow.’ “Actually, while you’re at it,” Tony said, having a sudden thought, “I want all of Hydra’s files. Copy them to one of SI’s remote servers.”

Hours later, Tony was just finishing up the wiring assembly for the repulsor system when his computer dinged. Setting down the soldering gun, Tony rubbed his eyes tiredly and turned on his monitor to see what JARVIS had found. To his dismay, there were thousands of files on the Winter Soldier; as he scrolled down the list, he realized that they went back decades. “Fuck,” he said aloud as he looked at the dates and the file names, most of which were a string of letters and numbers that no doubt made sense to someone in Hydra but gave no clue as to what the file contained. He buried his head in his hands and tried not to cry at the enormity of the task in front of him. He was so tired that his eyes were blurry and his head was pounding, but every time he tried to close his eyes he kept seeing James’s body arching with pain and hearing his screams.

“Sir, it has been twelve hours and thirty-six minutes since you last ate,” JARVIS said. “And you’ve made four mistakes in the past fifteen minutes. You need to rest.”

“I have?” Tony pulled his magnifying glass back over to the circuit board and saw what JARVIS was talking about. “Shit. Alright, fine.” He pushed away from the desk and went to the bar sink next to the coffee pot and ran his head under cold water for a second. He came up and wiped his face and the back of his neck, shivering as water dripped from his hair down his back, and went upstairs to look for food. Leaving his work shop felt like he was crossing into hostile territory, like he could be attacked at any moment. And he could, he thought as he opened the refrigerator. Stane had made sure that he always had free access to Tony’s home, because a locked door meant secrets and the only secrets Hydra allowed were their own. He wished he could just walk away from this place, blow it up and find a place to live that Hydra had never stepped foot in, a place that would feel like it was his –

He froze with a jug of orange juice in his hand. He stood there, thoughts racing, for so long that the chiller on the refrigerator came on with a hum. Then Tony said “Huh” to the boxes of leftovers and absently shut the fridge door, OJ still in hand.

25 Days Ago

“JARVIS, this doesn’t make sense,” Tony said, rereading the file for the fifth time. “This thing is saying that the first Winter Soldier was James Barnes, but the current Winter Soldier is James Barnes.” It was hard to think that it was a clerical error, since the earliest files went back to the 1940s and consisted of paper files that had been scanned into a computer sometimes in the 80s. “Is it an alias? Are all Winter Soldiers called ‘James Barnes’ as a security precaution?”

“Facial pattern analysis indicates that it is the same James Barnes,” JARVIS said, and it flashed up an image that looked like a scanned-in polaroid; in it the man was unconscious on an operating table, face dirty and bloody and pale. Next to it JARVIS pulled up an image from Hydra’s own security footage of what the Soldier looked like without his goggles and mask on. There was a vague resemblance to Tony’s eyes, but as the facial recognition algorithm measured the features in each photograph, the conclusion was mathematically precise – there was a 99.7% chance that it was the same man in each photo.

Tony’s face went slack with shock. “How is that possible? He’d have to be almost 100 years old!”

“That part I don’t know, sir.”

“Holy shit.” Tony went back to the original file, reading it more carefully. “James Buchanan Barnes,” he read. “Born 1917. American POW.” He paused at that and sat back in his chair. “Why does that sound familiar?”

In response, JARVIS pulled up a Wikipedia page on Tony’s screen. As he read it, Tony was speechless; for a long moment, he flipped screens between the dead-eyed man from Hydra’s surveillance footage and the smiling man with his arm around Captain America, but this time he didn’t need JARVIS to tell him that it was the same man. The implications made his stomach turn, and as he stared at the screen he exhaled shakily and covered his mouth with his hands. 80 years. James Barnes had been in Hydra’s clutches for 80 years.

He stood suddenly, sending his chair rolling backwards. “We’re doing another flight test. Right now.” 80 years was already far too long, and Tony wasn't going to let it be one more day longer than it had to be.

19 Days Ago

“Tony!” Ms. Potts said with surprise. “I didn’t expect you in the office today.”

Probably because Tony had been dodging Stark Industries for a while now, only coming out of his lab long enough to get her to leave him alone before burying himself in work again. It had occurred to him as he got in his car to go to SI headquarters, blinking in the bright sunlight, that this was the first time he had been outside of the house since Stane’s forced excursion. “Yeah, I wanted to meet with you,” Tony said, shutting the door behind him. He set a stack of papers in front of her as he sat down.

“What’s this?” She said, flipping through the papers. There was a line of confusion between her eyebrows which only deepened as she started reading them.

“I’m making you CEO of Stark Industries,” Tony said. “Effective two weeks from now. Should be an easy transition, you do most of my job anyway.” He grabbed a pin from her desk and clicked it, the sound loud in the sudden silence. “Sign on the highlighted line, please,” he added, holding the pen out to her, and despite everything he had to smile at the stunned look on her face.

11 Days Ago

Tony put a hand on Rhodey’s arm and met his eyes, willing him to understand. “I’m saying that Afghanistan wasn’t a random attack,” he said urgently. “I think I was being targeted, and I think whoever did it might try again.” He palmed a thumb drive from his pocket and slid it across the table. In the Hydra files, JARVIS had found that a senator named Stern had been behind the Afghanistan attack, apparently trying to get Tony out of the way so that his good buddy Justin Hammer and his company Hammer Industries could take over SI's lucrative military contracts. There was all of that and more on here, just enough information that if Rhodey put all the threads together he would start getting the bigger picture. Pierce, the STRIKE teams, all of it. “If anything happens to me, I need you to finish what I’ve started.”

“Tony, if you are afraid for your life-“ Rhodey started, still looking dubious but starting to get alarmed.

“Not just me. You. Ms. Potts. Anyone I'm friends with. I can’t do anything to make these people suspicious,” Tony insisted. It was strange to feel like he was lying even though every word he’d said was true. “No unexplained bodyguards, no sudden trips, and absolutely no cops.”

“I don’t like this,” Rhodey said emphatically. “You’re asking me to sit back and wait to see if someone kills you!”

“I know what I’m doing,” Tony said. That part was a lie. He had a plan in the broadest definition of the word; mostly he was making it up as he went along and praying he could handle the fallout. “I need you to trust me.” Rhodey’s mouth was a grim line and his jaw was tight, and Tony knew he wasn’t convinced so he pulled out his trump card. “I can’t do this unless I know you are safe,” he said, lowering his voice and leaning forward. “I won’t risk you.” It took a long minute, and Rhodey looked like he was swallowing something unpleasant, but he finally nodded and put the thumb drive in his pocket. Tony exhaled and sagged with relief. “Thank you."

“When this is over, you better have a good damn explanation,” Rhodey said threateningly, and Tony barked out a humorless laugh.

“You won’t even believe me when you hear it.”

8 Days Ago

After Tony hit save on the final design of the suit, he stumbled over to the couch and landed on it face first, exhausted. He was laying on the couch, eyes drifting shut as he went over his plan for the hundredth time trying to figure out if he’d missed anything when the lab went dark. “What the hell, JARVIS?”

“Sir, it’s been 56 hours since you last slept,” JARVIS said. “I’m turning off your systems for a minimum of twelve hours.” The light in the stairwell going up to the main floor turned on, its glow just enough to let Tony get from the couch to the door without running into anything.

Tony stayed stubbornly on the couch. “We don’t have twelve hours to waste,” he said. “Turn my power back on.”

The lights stayed off. “Sir, you are a hazard to yourself and others.” Tony scowled and wondered if he had actually programmed JARVIS like this or if he was channeling the man himself. "Also, there's nothing for you to do while I assemble the suit."

“Fine. Ten hours.”

“Ten hours," JARVIS repeated. "I will be monitoring the situation while you sleep,” he added, and Tony knew that he meant not just monitoring Stane and James, but also Tony’s vital signs to make sure he actually slept.

“You’re insufferable,” Tony accused as he made his way up the stairs.

“Yes, sir.”

2 Days Ago

“Sir, there’s something you should see.”

Tony looked up from the fine-tuning he was doing on the suit’s shoulder-fired weapons to look at the computer screen. JARVIS had maximized the window where he was constantly monitoring Pierce’s communications and highlighted a text that had just been sent. It was to an unknown number and all it said was lvl 10, CovJer10131973 nlt 200810162200Z. The first part was clearly a target identifier and Tony knew enough about the military to recognize the latter as a date time group, set for five days from now. “Bring up the camera feed,” Tony said, and sure enough when Tony looked at the video surveillance of the room where James was kept, he could see that the lights in the room were on and a technician was already in the room powering on computers. They’d found out a while ago that what Tony had taken for a hyperbaric chamber was in fact a cryostasis chamber, which partly explained why James was almost a hundred years old but looked younger than Tony.

“Shit." Tony exhaled long and low, feeling his heart rate spike with nervousness. "How long it takes to thaw him out? Was that in his files?”

JARVIS was silent for a moment. “Evidence suggests approximately 24 hours from the time the procedure is first initiated,” he said.

“Right,” Tony said grimly, turning back to his work with a new urgency. “Guess it’s time.”

Now

Tony flew north along the coast as his house collapsed into the Pacific Ocean behind him, throwing billowing clouds of dust and smoke into the air as carefully placed explosives reduced it to a smoking ruin. It was thrilling and terrifying to know that for all intents and purposes Tony Stark was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. He'd become a dead man after all, and now the only thing left was this suit and his mission: rescue the Winter Soldier then burn Hydra to the ground.

“Pull up James' video feed for me," Tony said as he flew. Since he was over water, he set the suit to autopilot and shifted his attention to the small window at the corner of his HUD. James was out of the cryostasis chamber, sitting on a chair as a medical assistant appeared to be taking his vitals. Every now and then he shivered, still shirtless. Other technicians were milling around, tending to the computers, and standing guard were was two members of the STRIKE team, hands on their weapons as they kept an eye on him. His records had indicated that he was prone to ‘erratic violent outbursts,’ which Tony figured was code for “periodically tries to fight back.” Tony had actually been happy to read that, because it meant that Hydra hadn't managed to break him completely. Right now, though, James just seemed willing to numbly submit to whatever the technicians were doing, his long hair a curtain in front of his face as he stared at the floor.

“Sir, we are approaching the facility,” JARVIS said, and minimized the video. Tony flew lower to the water, navigating around the giant cargo ships at dock. Even for a twenty-four hour facility it was late, and there were only one or two ships that had people still unloading shipping containers. He landed close to the Hydra facility but out of the line of sight; he had managed to camouflage the suit to the best of his ability, but he couldn’t hide the bright lights of the repulsors so he made the rest of the approach on foot.

JARVIS’s scanners found four total guards around the building, patrolling in pairs. By sticking to the deep shadows cast by the stacked shipping containers and the orange-yellow glow of the sodium-vapor security lights, Tony got within hearing distance and hit them with a pulse of high-pitched wave frequency. They both stiffened and fell over, paralyzed, helmets bouncing off the pavement hard enough to knock them unconscious. Tony bound them with their own zip ties and hid them out of sight, then used his backdoor access to the security system to unlock the doors and set all the surveillance cameras on a one hour loop. As he strode through the door into the lab, all eyes turned to face him, and before anyone could even speak there was a brrrt noise and they fell to the floor, killed by the precision targeting system Tony had built into his suit.

When JARVIS confirmed they were all dead, Tony took off the helmet and looked down at one of the bodies; the one closest to him had been here a month ago, monitoring James’ vitals as they wiped his mind. This was the first time Tony had killed anyone and he expected to feel..something, sad or upset or even vindictive, but he didn’t really feel anything. It all felt too easy, and Tony knew it was because he had designed a suit that had made it that easy. All the more reason that Hydra couldn't be allowed to get their hands on it.

James was still sitting in the chair, watching Tony as he approached; he hadn’t even gone for cover as everyone around him had died. Tony wondered if it was out of surprise or indifference. “Do you know me?” He asked, coming to stand in front of him. James studied his features for a moment and shook his head. “My name is Tony Stark. You are James Buchanan Barnes, and I am here to rescue you.” Tony offered him a hand to get to his feet, but James didn’t move, he just stared at Tony with those glacier blue eyes. There wasn't blankness in them now, only a narrow-eyed look of consideration. “Come on,” Tony tried again. “We’re escaping. We have to hurry before more people show up.”

James didn’t move. “There is no escape from Hydra. The only way out is-”

“Death, I know.” Tony kept his hand out but gestured expressively around the room with the other. “But they never said whose death.”

James studied him again, then turned his gaze to the dead bodies. Finally, after a long moment, he took Tony’s hand and let him pull him to his feet.

#tony stark #Bucky Barnes #tony x bucky #winteriron

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