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karimac · 1 year ago

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...in the details, Part 13

A/N: Warning for this series: 18+ audience (minors DNI), some cinematic level violence, some fluff and angst. Doubt that smut will be involved, but it may be implied. I’ll make sure that is noted clearly if it pops up.

All relationships, at this point in the story, are platonic, but there is romance in the cards for Kari and Bucky.

Please do not repost or translate my work. Likes, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

Taglist is open! Please send an ask, and I will gladly add you to the list. If I have added you and you do not wish to be on the list, please let me know, and I’ll take you off the list.

Word count: 5.3k, give or take a word. Not beta read. All mistakes are my own.

Masterlist

It was the morning after the final battle with the Flag Smashers, and all you wanted to do was sleep and not talk to anyone, but here you were, in your kitchen, frosting cupcakes.

Sarah Wilson had been on the phone with you earlier talking about the party she was organizing to celebrate Sam’s accepting the mantle of Captain America, and while you were not planning to actually go to the party, you decided to drop off some cupcakes for the event. And maybe that cake Sam and Bucky drooled over when they last visited your bakery. The one with the Oreo cookies all over the top.

You were not about to tell Sarah that you had gotten your clock cleaned during that fight last night. Oh no. Never admit stuff like that, even if your body was still a long way from being fully healed.

“Why do I do this to myself, Hickory?” you asked your cat as he sat on the floor near the kitchen window, the streams of light from this early Brooklyn morning splashing their sunny glow over his orange fur. “I really am a pushover. But her boys were so sweet, and I couldn’t let them not have good desserts for the party, could I?”

Hickory was a cat of many words most of the time, so his tiny mewls this morning seemed a bit off. He must have been as exhausted as you felt at the moment.

“I’ll be fine, Hickenboogie,” you said as you watched the orange tabby roll over to let the sun warm his belly. “Even if I’m making, what? A hundred cupcakes?”

As you went to set your bowl of frosting to the side, there was loud rapping at your apartment door. Someone had gotten into the building without being buzzed in. Fantastic! Just what you needed.

“Kari? Are you in there? Sarah called and asked me to check on you.”

Bucky. For crying out loud, what was he doing here? You really doubted Sarah asked him to do anything. He was likely just being nosy after last night.

“James, would you just leave me alone! I am not going to Delacroix. Just go down and have a good time. Sarah knows I’m not going to be there. I’d only be a fifth wheel anyway. I saw you flirting with her. She seems like a really nice person, and even if Sam kicks up a fuss, I think you should go for it.”

You never called Bucky by his first name. Ever. OK, maybe once in 1943. And here he was, standing outside the front door of your apartment, suddenly developing the ability to get under your skin.

“I flirt with everybody. Just ask Sam!” Bucky said a bit too loudly for your liking. The funny thing was, you remembered when Bucky flirted with everybody. That was not what he was doing now. He was trying to see if he still knew how to flirt with everyone. Very different concept, and you fully understood why he needed to be able to do it on his own terms. You also wished he were flirting with you, but you really had no one to blame for this mess except yourself.

“What exactly are you afraid of this time? I’m sure Bruce and Wong can live without seeing you for another 24 hours, or was Darcy bugging you again? You do not need to go out on some speed dating thing with her. She means well, but, you know, she doesn’t really understand how big it is for both of us,” he explained as you heard him fidgeting with the door handle. Master assassin and lock picker? Of course he’d have that skill set, but he seemed to be nothing more than antsy at the moment. Then he hit you with the question you didn’t want to hear.

“Was it what happened after Sam’s speech?”

“You mean when Walker decided to be my new best buddy and make sure I was OK?” you replied in a very fake chipper tone. “Or when you decided to start asking too many questions about my health? You don’t want me in your head. Fine. I get it. I don’t need you babysitting me. I just get tired sometimes. Especially if my empathic filtering goes off the charts. The kids in that tour bus were terrified. I drank in a lot of their pain to keep them calm. It isn’t exactly fun, Buck. And I left myself open. I am only human. I do make mistakes.”

While you did your best not to think about what happened, your mind raced as you remembered the group of grade schoolers from Cottonwood, Arizona, all scared beyond words as Flag Smashers boarded their bus. Those poor kids witnessed their driver being tossed out the door and one of their teachers being knocked out before you could even get into the bus. You had to pull out all the stops to keep them calm, even if it meant you falling apart by the end of the night.

“Can I at least come in? Your neighbors might not appreciate me playing 20 Questions outside your do…”

You flicked your hand and opened the door just as Bucky leaned into it a tad. He wasn’t expecting it, so he stumbled slightly as it opened. “Sorry. I’m kind of busy making cupcakes. I’ll get them to Sarah by tomorrow morning. And that cake you and Sam liked. The Oreo cookie one. I thought Cass and AJ might enjoy it, too.”

“You are dodging. Again,” Bucky said as he sat down on a stool near your kitchen counter. “Whoa, sorry, Hickory,” he added as the orange tabby looked up at him but then went back to sleep. “What are you trying to avoid now?”

“Buck, please. You haven’t wanted to share every memory you have, and for good reason. Some of the things that happened since we started working together, they remind me a bit too much of when my husbands died. I don’t exactly want to relive all that.”

That was only a fraction of what was going on in your life at the moment, but you were not about to drop that ton of bricks in Bucky’s lap, even if it meant you had to keep up some stupid façade and lie as if your life depended on it.

“You had two, right? Husbands,” Bucky asked as you nodded. “Can I help frost or something?”

“Yes, Galen and Thomas,” you said as you put a tray of cupcakes in front of Bucky and got him a bowl of frosting, a spatula and a knife. “Pick your instrument of choice for the frosting,” you added before you looked at Bucky’s clothes and shook your head. “Want an apron? Don’t want you messing up your Henley.”

“What does it say? The apron, I mean?” he asked as you grabbed him a plain blue one. “Oh. No jokes on it?”

“Not everything is a joke, Buck. Not for me. Not for anyone,” you sniffed as you tried to hold back a stray tear before you got another pan of cupcakes and a bowl of frosting. You were still not fully pain free from what happened to those kids or to yourself. “Once the frosting sets, we can put these little shields on top of the cupcakes. I know. Cheesy. But the kids should love them.”

“Hmmm…” Bucky said as he tried to slather the frosting on his first cupcake without using too much. “I’m not exactly good at this…”

“You will be fine. It takes practice,” you whispered as you set down another frosted cupcake. “Thanks for helping. What else do you want to know about me?” Your hands shook slightly, and you flexed them a bit to get yourself centered again. “Lingering issues after that mess on the bus. I couldn’t go in sword swinging, so I had to take a different tack. It was a spell Wong told me about. Got the kids off the bus and me onto it just in time to take out that fool. It switches people’s locations. Nice one to keep in my back pocket. Just wish I had seen that other lunatic behind the driver’s seat.”

“Yeah, I saw the kids appear on the sidewalk before you blasted that guy out the doors of the bus,” Bucky noted as he kept frosting more cupcakes. “Kids. Did you ever have them? I mean, you like them. You get along great with Cass and AJ. And again, sorry if I got stupid on the docks. Joke fell really flat.”

You were not about to go back to the talk about that mess on the docks. Not today anyway. “Sadly, no. I’ve never had children.”

That wasn’t true. Not exactly anyway. But there was no way you could explain everything without looking like a lunatic. Saying “Well, a part of me that lives in another universe has about five of them last time I counted. I can list them all from all the timelines. I was tasked with birthing an army. No one ever said how…”

Yeah, that sounded so very sane and normal.

“Not that I don’t want them still,” you continued as you found some patriotic sprinkles in your cupboard. “It just never worked out for me. And I didn’t want to adopt a child on my own just to have me die and leave them alone. That would be cruel. And what agency would let someone like me adopt a child? It just isn’t very realistic to think it is even possible.”

You wanted nothing more than to change the topic, but you said Bucky could ask you questions, so in this quagmire you would stay for the moment.

“That day Steve and Sam had me in that vice,” Bucky started but stopped just as he finished another cupcake. “Why the hell did you do what you did to prove who you were? I knew who you were. Steve knew. You didn’t need to sing that song…”

“I needed to prove who I was because, let’s face it, who in their right mind—besides you and Steve, I guess—would believe my story? And Sam. Bless his heart, he doesn’t think I escaped Bellevue.” Bucky chuckled at the name of the most famous psychiatric hospital in New York City. “Was my singing that bad? I did flub some of the words, I know, but I didn’t think I was that bad.”

“Your singing was never an issue,” Bucky chuckled as a bit of frosting slid off one cupcake. “And the way you did that thing with the drinks was great. I remember that from the Whip and Fiddle. But you didn’t need to put on a show. Not for us anyway.”

“It’s always an issue, Bucky,” you said quietly as you noticed the vanilla frosting you had been using was running low, so you got out the ingredients to make more. “I always need to prove myself. I…did Steve ever tell you about what happened during the five years you were gone? Not my most shining hours.”

“The thing that scared everyone? Yeah, he told me, but I didn’t want to broadcast it to anyone. I don’t understand what makes you you,” Bucky said as he set down his knife and cupcake, “and I was not about to dredge up what happened. You were trying to get us back. Steve said you kind of lost it when it didn’t work. And Tony…”

“Tony wanted to lock me away in a padded cell, but Thor told him to stop, because he understood my grief. And Bruce told Tony to give it a rest because I was trying things that none of them could. Steve took me to the infirmary so I could heal when it all came crashing down. I was weaker than I realized. He saved my life. IV fluids can work wonders when you push yourself too much.”

“Wait, what? What did you do?” Bucky was suddenly very agitated, and you were not fully focused on his tone and body language at first. He was truly freaked out.

“What?” you asked as your eyes bugged out a little bit when it finally hit you. “Oh! No. I wasn’t doing…”

It took you much too long to realize Bucky was worried you had done some odd, old and draining blood spell. You had done them long, long ago, but that was back before electricity was the norm.

“It was a very old spell, one my Mamo used when I was a baby when she wanted to talk to the deceased members of our clan. Sorry. My grandmother. Mamo is the Irish word for grandma. It just takes a toll on your spirit, and I tried it a few times before Bruce saw me naked as a jay bird in the gardens they had at the facility. Yeah, that is part of the spell too, as is doing it on Samhain. Halloween. But there was no one there to talk to, so continuing to do it made it worse. As I said, not my finest hour. It broke me when I couldn’t find your spirit…”

Now it was Bucky’s turn to look at you with saucer-like eyes.

“Well, I couldn’t try to zero in on a million different people, so I picked you. I tried Sam, too, but it was like you guys never existed. If I were to do the spell this year, I’d be able to see any number of people across the veil. My family. Your family. Natasha and Tony. Loki. That night? I saw no one except my siblings, and while I love them, I knew they would be there. That failure sent me reeling. I didn’t talk for days. And we both know that could not be normal.”

“For two minutes, could you please stop with the put downs? Some of us don’t like to hear them. Me. Sam. Sarah. The boys…”

“I am so used to people just working around them that I don’t…” you started to say before you set down everything and just pulled up a stool next to the one Bucky was sitting on. “I don’t realize how it affects everyone else. Sorry.”

Bucky started to chuckle, and then he let out a loud laugh. “Your hair. Frosting,” he said as he pointed to a few wisps that were now very sticky from the vanilla frosting making a few spikes on the tips.

“Didn’t catch it all in the hairband. Again,” you muttered as you started to laugh along with Bucky. “Why did you really show up today, Buck? It can’t be because your inner baker was screaming to come out and play.”

“Last night was scary. You zoned out, and that scared me and Sam. We thought you were dying. We have no idea how this all works with you, and I’ve been afraid to ask. Steve was, too, I guess, and Sam, when you guys were in hiding.”

“Why are you remembering all this nonsense about me?” That was the only thing you could say as you looked Bucky in the eye and prayed something from your past was not trying to catch up with you again. “Or better yet worrying so much about me?”

“And why do you remember things about me?” he asked with an equally deadpan expression. “We are both old. We’re both likely going to outlive most of the people around us now, at least for a little while. Being connected is…nice. Now, back to last night. What happened?”

“After I helped those kids, I did exactly what you said. I zoned when I cracked my head on that building. I can go into a fugue state and start connecting in weird ways to the world around me. I knew you were there, but my brain wasn’t connecting all the dots. If that makes sense.”

That last part you hated. You wanted nothing more than to tell Bucky everything about your life. How the person he saw was only a tiny part of everything you were. That at this very moment there was another Kari dancing with another Bucky at something called the Hellfire Gala in a world where a group called The X-Men were protectors alongside The Avengers. She was thanking him for an assist a very long time ago on the steps of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, if killing her was truly an assist. Yes, that Kari was reborn thanks to the bladed excellence of The Winter Soldier, but this part of Kari could not tell Bucky all that. Not yet anyway.

“Do you want some coffee? A beer? I should have asked when you got here,” you said as you looked down to see Hickory had finally decided to get up and go eat his kibble while you chatted with Bucky.

“Beer, thanks. I just wanted to convince you to come down to Delacroix, mostly so everyone can see for themselves that you are OK. I know once Wong and Bruce get involved, it may take weeks until we see you again. And Parker. That trip of his for school.”

“Look, Sarge,” you started to say as you handed Bucky the beer. His eyes lit up, so the nickname seemed to be a good choice. “If it will make you feel better, then down to Delacroix I’ll go. But you and I can go together. I am going to need help hauling these cupcakes. But I may not stay the whole time. Does that work for you?”

“Yup,” Bucky said as he drank his beer. “And the Sarah thing…”

“Look, if you and Sarah hit it off, well, that is beautiful. You deserve happiness, Buck. I am not going to stand in the way of your happiness. Ever.”

{{Even if it would make me happier being with you}} you thought as you smiled at Bucky again.

“And yes, I know Sam is likely sticking his oar into the water and messing it up for you guys. Having eight brothers taught me a lot, and I am betting you might have played the part yourself back in the day, right? Maybe I can help there, if you need me to? Your call.”

“Whatever happens, well, happens,” Bucky noted as he looked at the tray of tiny shields again. “I think we all want the day to be about Sam. That’s what really matters.”

“Agreed,” you said as you looked at all the cupcakes and smiled. “Now, want to learn how to make that cake? Care to smash up some cookies for me to mix in the batter?”

The rest of the baking session with Bucky went well enough, and you were able to box everything and have it ready to portal to Delacroix the next morning when he made it back to your place. You made sure your portal was near the house but around the back so no one could get spooked by it. You just wished the rest of the team could have been there, but there was technically no team at the moment anyway.

You smiled as you watched Bucky run over to the table where Sam, Sarah and the boys were sitting, with Cass and AJ trying to get Bucky into some sort of play fight as he brought over the cake.

“So, this is the famous cake?” Sarah asked as you pulled a small red wagon full of cupcakes behind you. “Sam has talked about this cake for weeks. Thanks for making it.”

“Hey, anything for our new Cap and his family!” you replied as a group of kids came over to check out the wagon’s load of goodies. “There are plenty of these to go around, but I think you guys better eat your lunches first.”

“Are you going to show us any magic?” Cass asked as you sat down at the table with everyone.

“Guys, what did we talk about?” Sam said as you looked at everyone there and realized this was not going to be a simple picnic event for Sam.

“We can talk about that later. Maybe when everyone else heads home,” you said quietly as you looked at the boys and then Sarah. “And only if your Mom is OK with it. Her house. Her rules. Always.”

You really had not been planning on any sort of show today, but letting Sarah have the final call was likely the easiest way to keep this sort of thing away from prying eyes. Not everyone liked magic, and that was no exception for this part of Louisiana. The preternatural might have been more accepted here, but it was still not a thing everyone loved or fully understood.

The conversation, thankfully, turned to much more mundane things, and you were very happy it did when you saw Bucky and Sarah chatting as the boys and their friends tried to hang off Bucky’s arm. It looked right. He looked stress-free and happy for the first time in ages.

“And is that what you were hoping for?” Sam asked as he, too, watched his nephews hanging off Bucky’s arm. “That cyborg and my sister would hit it off? I thought you two were, you know, getting closer? Beer?”

You looked at the bottle in Sam’s hand. Crimson Voodoo. A local favorite indeed.

“Thanks,” you said as you took the bottle from his hand and tried to convince yourself and Sam that this is what you wanted. “Sam, Bucky deserves a family. He deserves peace and happiness. Your sister deserves someone who thinks the world of her and can take care of her and the boys. It’s a win-win. My life is too messed up for anyone to feel at peace with me. Someday I’ll try to explain everything, but today is not that day. Today is your day.”

As it started to get dark outside, no one seemed to be heading home, and the kids were a bit upset that there were no fireworks set up to cap off the night.

“Guess I need to take care of this,” you said under your breath as you got to your feet and walked toward Sarah and the boys. “Sarah, I can fix this, but as I said before, your house, your rules.”

“You have fireworks in your bag?” Sarah chuckled as she shook her head. “Wait. You aren’t kidding.”

“Nope, I’m not,” you replied as you walked to the end of the pier where the kids were all looking pretty forlorn. “Sam, a gift for you and your family and friends here today,” you said as you turned to look at everyone there. Sparks started to dance on your fingertips, and soon the night sky filled with magically-created fireworks. “A gift from the Tara Mount and from Asgard,” you added as more pyrotechnics danced above the crowd. “Frigga and Loki showed me this trick long ago. It’s only fitting to share it tonight.”

“What the hell is that on your back?” Sarah asked as you slowly lifted off the ground.

“I forgot you’ve never seen these,” you said to Sarah as your raven wings unfurled. “I need to get a bit of lift before I do the next part.”

Sure, Sam and Bucky had seen you fly. But the dance you were about to do was not anything you had done since, well, the day your cousin Rhys got married to his beautiful bride Alice back in the 1850s! Oh, that was a bit of craic! Well, it would have been more fun if Rhys’ sister Rhiannon had not fed that dragon wedding cake and Champagne on top of Westminster.

“I usually don’t do this for anyone but family, but if you all are Captain America’s extended family, then that is good enough for me,” you said as your wings slowly transformed to something akin to gossamer and glitter, the light of the fireworks dancing off the delicate lacework of the fairy wings you now sported on your back. “My grandmother, Siofra O’Cathain MacOrish, was called the Black Faerie of the battlefield. Tonight I wear these wings to thank her for making it possible to be here with you today.”

As you hovered in mid-air, you started to dart over the water, well clear of the shore and the boats anchored there. The sky lit up with a multicolored display that at times looked like ribbons of red, white and blue and at others like the giant bursts of color in the event that Macy’s held each July 4th on the East or Hudson Rivers in New York City. The shrieks of delight from the children made it all worthwhile as you finally landed back on the dock after about 15 minutes of flash and sizzle.

Maybe it was the music that helped make it special? No one could tell exactly where it was coming from because it was all around them. A bit of remembered sound from your cousin’s wedding night and a snatch of air current, and suddenly the air was full of a song played long ago on a starry night for your tribe back then, the lovely lot you called The Avalonians.

The flight was glorious, and you wondered why you did not do it more often over the years.

The way you did not stick the landing, on the other hand, was annoying. Especially when Sam, Sarah and Bucky ran over. The lift of raven-like angel’s wings was one thing in battle, but the faerie wings on your back now were another thing entirely. The fact you had not called them out in over 100 years meant you had forgotten much about maneuvering in them once you got back to Terra Firma.

“I am fine!” you protested as you finally pulled back your wings and flexed your arms a bit. “Just didn’t time the footfall properly. I am not Simone Biles by any means. She would have aced it.”

“No more jokes. You could have gotten hurt,” Bucky said as he reached out his hand to you, but you pulled back slightly as he did. Muscle memory was a bitch at times, and a tiny part of you could not help but remember Katowice, St. Petersburg, Budapest and several other places where you and Bucky did more bodily harm to each other than you had let on to anyone else. Even Steve never knew the full extent of the battles you and his best friend were part of over the years. It was probably better that way.

“It’s nothing that a good night’s sleep won’t fix. I’m still not right after that mess with the bus,” you answered as Sarah shot you the mother of all looks. “Even old warriors like me need time to heal.”

“You could have said something,” Sarah said as she just kept looking at you, concern and pain mixed in equal measure in her eyes. “You did not have to bring all that food, and you did not need to do all that fireworks stuff. These two said you’d pull some crazy stunt eventually...”

“And they were right,” you replied, tucking your hands behind your back so the slight tremor you felt was not visible to everyone else. “Because, well, this is how I was raised. Never say no when your help is needed. Always take care of family, even if you are dead on your feet. Leave a place better than you found it if at all possible…”

“Kari, did your fireworks have a finale you didn’t mention?” Bucky asked as he pointed behind you, a multicolored fissure opening above the bayou waters.

“That isn’t me!” you shouted as the raven wings of your office appeared, along with your armor, sword and shield. “Get everyone to safety! Now!”

“Wait. Is that a Quinjet?” Sam shouted as he worked to get everyone off the dock as quickly as possible as a plane maneuvered through the fissure.

“No, that’s the Zephyr…” you said as you stood with our mouth open. “SHIELD ship that vanished a few years ago. Fury was never able to track it down.”

The jet landed on the shore away from several houses, and you, Bucky and Sam made your way to the landing site. By now, thanks to some quick thinking by Cass and AJ, Sam had his shield at the ready, but you prayed he would not have to use it.

“SHIELD ship Zephyr One. Damn,” you muttered under your breath as you got to the now lowered ramp. “I thought you were dead! And so does Fury!” you said as two men made their way to the top of the ramp.

Standing in front of you were Phil Coulson and Daniel Sousa.

“Nice to see you again, Chief,” Coulson said as Sousa gave him an odd look. “One of my trainers back in the day.”

“And Peggy Carter’s best friend in mine,” Sousa added the duo was soon joined by Melinda May.

“She never told you? Either of you? She was the original 0-8-4,” May noted as she walked down the ramp.

“No, I helped Howard Stark coin the term,” you growled as you looked at May. “The world knows full well where I am from and how long I have walked this ground. I’m just a hell of a lot older than I look.”

“Oh my God, we are home,” Daisy Johnson said as she walked up next to Sousa, his arm snaking around her waist, leaving no question about their status as a couple. You had heard about the Inhuman’s encounters with some preternatural allies, and you wanted to hear more about that, as well as how Sousa was actually there with them now.

“Home?” Bucky whispered in your ear as Sam leaned in to hear his comments.

“If you weren’t home, where were you?” you asked Coulson as the rest of his team filtered off the ship. You vaguely knew them by physical attributes, but not all the names were clicking in your mind at the moment.

“I was hoping you might be able to tell us,” he said as you looked at him, and you could tell already this was not the Phil Coulson you knew. Not totally anyway. “From our calculations, we’ve been gone about five years.”

“The blip,” Sam said as you shook your head. “Oh, tá sé seo ach iontach. I mean, this is just great,” you said as you rolled your eyes. “You lot like cupcakes, right? Please say you like cupcakes. And beer.”

You grabbed Bucky’s hand without thinking and prayed he could actually hear the words you were thinking in that crazy link of Wanda’s. {{I wanted this to be a happy day for Sam. Not one where his family would be in the middle of this nonsense. I’ll get them all out of here fast. Just…could you please help me figure this out?}}

A brief nod let you know Bucky heard at least some of your request.

“Sarah, I’ll get these folks out of here and back to New York ASAP. I just hope I can find Maria Hill or Nick Fury. How do I explain that their world is about to get turned upside down again?”

My wonderful tag crew--thank you!: @historygeekfics, @arrthurpendragon, @starryeyes2000, @chickensarentcheap

And up to lucky Part 14—What in the world do you do with Agents of SHIELD if there is no more SHIELD? And how will the surviving OG Avengers feel when they learn Phil Coulson is not quite as dead as Nick Fury lead them to believe?

#oc appreciation #fyeahsuperverseocs #mcu oc kari macorish #mcu multiverse oc #bucky barnes x female oc #sam wilson #sarah wilson #aj wilson #cass wilson #phil coulson #melinda may #daniel desousa #daisy johnson #quake #the cavalry #agents of shield #sam wilson is captain america #the winter soldier #oc creators unite!

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karimac · 1 year ago

Text

...in the details, Part 11

All relationships, at this point in the story, are platonic, but there is romance in the cards for Kari and Bucky.

Please do not repost or translate my work. Likes, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

Taglist is open! Please send an ask, and I will gladly add you to the list. If I have added you and you do not wish to be on the list, please let me know, and I’ll take you off the list.

Word count: 3.1k, give or take a word. Not beta read. All mistakes are my own.

Masterlist

That last Flag Smasher lived up to her to name as she sent you flying through the air and crashing into a pizzeria’s brick wall near that bus. You’d been to this Ray’s location, and you felt bad because the guy had just gotten his windows replaced after some idiot tried to rob a nearby bank and used a sonic weapon to make his point. Now that Tony was gone, these tech geniuses started crawling out of the woodwork because they suspected no one could stop them. It was a good thing Wong liked that Ray’s too, and, how did Sam put it? Oh yeah. Wong whammied the jackass to Riker’s Island?

You looked over toward where the kids had been teleported, and you thanked the pantheon those students and their teacher had been safely removed from danger. They’d have quite the tale to tell their pals at Dr. Daniel Bright Elementary School, the Home of the Bears! At least that’s what their shirts said.

You would never have expected John Walker to be the one to come give you an assist, but there he was, remnants of his homemade shield in hand, fighting off another jacked-up assailant who was trying to keep this horror show going.

Before you could feel the back of your head, everything went white, and you suddenly were not trying to get back to your feet on that New York street. You were Goddess knows where, and your sister Dana was trying to get you moving.

“Kari, please. Pete needs healing, and I am not up to it,” your sister said as her hands shook. They were covered in the blood of one Pete Wisdom, cranky Brit spy and current MI 13 agent. A mutant with the power of hot knives coming from his fingertips. But how did you suddenly know all that?

Back home, Dana was never one to rely on the use of magic for very much. Tall and thin with short dark hair and piercing blue-green eyes, Dana would have reminded many of the actress Keira Knightley. She was a lawyer by trade and a badass by nature.

And to top that all off, Dana was long dead. At least back home she was. She’d been killed during a standoff at a court house. Her client was a mystic, and some maniac hit Dana with a poisoned dart that was meant for said client.

She was, in this place anyway, terrified about losing her true love. You could feel the pain radiating off her in waves.

“I’ve got him,” you said as you placed your hands over Wisdom as you noticed many other members of the X-Men in the middle of some bloody brawl against an as yet unseen foe. But if you were seeing this, was their Kari suddenly at the mercy of the Flag Smashers now?

As you concentrated, you felt the pull of your own world and the tug of at least a dozen more. This was all going to pot fast, and you had no idea why all these pieces of you were making you into the human equivalent of taffy.

{{What the hell is Bucky going to think?}} you mused, keeping your thoughts to yourself as much as you could in case a family psionic link was being used. These people might have never met a Bucky Barnes, and you did not need to sit here explaining everything.

He would have gotten quite the laugh out of the spandex uniform you were wearing. Blue and yellow with a red X in a circle on each shoulder. What had possessed you to wear this outfit in this world was beyond you, but you hoped you’d find a more suitable one soon. It drew too much attention for your liking.

“I think most of these wounds are clean and healing,” you said as you looked up at Dana, the small smile of relief on her face worth every bit of energy you put into healing her lover. “But have him checked out when this is over. Pete can be too damned stubborn, so wheel him into med bay if you need to.”

You started to get up, but you turned your head to see if you could figure out which world this was before you got to your feet. Was this the one with Nathan Summers? Or maybe this was the world with Logan Howlett? Steve Rogers? Thor? It always got too confusing when those little shards Merlin sent into the multiverse actually started to make themselves a bit too vocal. It gave you headaches, and sometimes you wondered if it was making you crazy. You would have spoken to Bruce about it, but he likely wouldn’t have had many answers about it. And telling Sam or Bucky anything was out of the question, at least for now.

The ground around you started to shake as a Sentinel, a large robotic killing machine, made its way onto the battlefield, and the world went white again.

“Barnes! Wilson! I think your girl needs a medic!” Walker shouted as he stood over you. It didn’t take long for Bucky and Sam to make it to your side. You knew that much, even if you appeared to be dead to rights to everyone else. The screwy link to Bucky, courtesy of Wanda, still seemed to be quite active in your head. But you were not too certain it was in Bucky’s anymore. Pity that.

“Kari! Kari! Wake up!” he shouted as he knelt at your side while Sam checked for a pulse. You felt his hand on your wrist, and you tried to open your eyes. You just couldn’t at the moment.

When the white haze vanished this time, you realized you were still no closer to home than you were a few moments ago. You hissed under your breath as you looked up at the night sky, the battle dress of your last location now replaced by some Celtic-inspired gown of green velvet. You smiled as you looked over to see both Steve and Bucky, but they didn’t seem to be as pleased by whatever was going on. They were dressed in some sort of modified armor and looked more like men from your early life at the Tara Mount or Camelot than two men from 1940s Brooklyn. Only thing missing at the moment were their horses.

“Are you back?” were the only words Steve uttered before a volley of flaming arrows came over the parapet of the castle where the three of you apparently lived in this world. “Your Majesty?”

Oh, this world you did not like thinking about at all, and that was because you were queen of this place, and you were always more happy being a field general than you were as a member of the ruling class. Living in a tower, be it ivory or stone, sucked.

“No, I am not your queen, but I take it she has explained it all to you?” you asked just as both men pushed you back to the ground as more arrows came toward you. You tried to put up a shield but could not. No powers. This was new and most unwelcome.

“I will try to get her back to you as fast as I can,” you said to Steve and Bucky before the castle shook as a flaming boulder slammed the wall just behind you. “I am so sorry you had to go through this.”

“Ssh, we understand,” Bucky whispered in your ear just as he grabbed your left hand and Steve your right. They both looked concerned as hell, and not just because you were their queen. This one felt different. Polyamory? That was your closest guess as you smiled and squeezed both men’s hands.

{{Why is this happening?}} you thought as you felt both men move off you, and as they did, your reality was flipped once more, the white haze returning again.

“Should we call Strange? He might be better than a regular hospital run,” Sam suggested as Walker sent the last of the combatants to dream land with a couple of upper cuts now that his shield was kaput. “Are you still connected to her? That stuff Wanda did?”

“Sam, I wish I were, but I can’t feel a thing,” Bucky replied as he continued to kneel next to you. “I am not crazy about that damned link thing, but right now I’d take it.”

As your eyes blinked this time, your last location gave way to a crazed looking steampunk version of London with banners bearing your father Ronan’s face flying from every building in sight. You usually did not hate seeing the man who many said resembled Liam Neeson, but this was insane.

In this world your father was the worst despot known in history, and you had fled his court to marry Ryu, a demon warlord of the House Harada. Your sister Hayley, known as Camellia in this realty, had done much the same, but her life was tied to the son of Vlad Tepes. You really could not stay here long. Death was not something you wanted to face, and in this dimension, it was more likely than not to happen. Ronan did not like the “gutter trash” of the world mixing with the pure mystic blood of his family, even if he had fathered a bastard or two along the way himself. If your father had ever met his doppelganger, well, it would not have been pretty. Your father was fair, loving and tolerant beyond measure. This version was a sadistic imitation at best.

Two sets of hands grabbed your upper arms and pulled you backward, and thank heaven that action seemed to send you home to your own world where Bucky was hovering over you. The lights of an ambulance were visible just down the block, and you could smell the aroma of garlic someone had burned wafting out of the pizzeria window. But you could also hear the whispers from that last world as you regained your senses. Two men seemed to be very happy you were not dead, but they were also shocked that you weren’t.

“Hey, you back with us?” Bucky asked as he, Sam and Walker all stood looking at you. You wanted to throw up, but you would not do it in front of these gentlemen.

“Sorry. That eejit packed quite a wallop,” you said as you grabbed Bucky’s arm to get back to your feet. “I’ll be fine. But I do feel sorry for the guy who owns this place.”

“Her version of fine and mine are very different,” Walker said as he looked down at his now broken shield. “You may want to have those medics check her out to be on the safe side. I thought I heard her speaking Japanese a few minutes ago, and I have no idea who she was talking to, Barnes.”

“I am here, Walker, and I can speak for myself. Tourists. I interacted with them earlier,” you said, lying through your blood-covered teeth as you tried to keep the trio off the scent of what was really happening. “The bump on the wall made me get hazy for a few minutes, so the most recent language set started playing in my head. Telepathy can be a bitch. I’ll be fine. I’m pretty damned hard to kill.”

“I don’t care what you say, we are having someone check you out,” Bucky said as Sam nodded in agreement. “You missed Sam’s speech. It was pretty amazing.”

“I heard some of it,” you said as you tapped your temple. “I’d have helped with the truck, but those kids needed me here.”

As you looked toward the ambulance and dreaded having to go see the medics at all, you heard what could only be called a “squee” from a group of teens near one of the police barricades. You recognized the girl with the high pitched joyful tone from a local vlog about The Avengers. She lived in Jersey City and had a thing for sloths. She also shared a name with a famous politician, albeit it was pronounced differently.

“Guys, hold up a minute. You too, Walker,” you said as you waved to the girl and her male companion. “Nice Captain Marvel shirt, my dear. She’d get a kick out of seeing it.”

“Oh my Gawd! Bruno!” the girl shouted before the police tried to keep them behind the barricade. “They saw it!”

You hobbled over to them, much to Sam and Bucky’s chagrin. “You two should be headed home before you’re missed. I know what a pain curfews can be. Many a time I’ve avoided them myself. But that was in the Sixth Century, so maybe that doesn’t count too much?”

“The subways are all shut down, and we can’t get a bus right now,” Bruno said as his friend pulled out her phone. “Kamala, that may not be a good idea…”

“Kamala Khan. Sloth Baby, right?” you asked before another “squee” escaped the girl’s lips. “Trust me, guys. Cap, you may want to talk to these two over here,” you said as you motioned for Sam to walk over. “I mean, this is Captain America after all, and he just gave the speech of his life. I need to go get my head examined, and I mean that quite literally,” you said as you pointed to the back of your head. “Good luck, Kamala and Bruno. Oh, and if you are ever in Manhattan at a more reasonable hour, come pay me a visit,” you said as you made two business cards appear out of thin air. “Lunch is on me. Sam, be nice to these two,” you said as you waved to Walker to join you and Bucky. “These two can keep me in line with the medics.”

“And why do I not believe that for one second?” Walker asked as you laughed.

“John. May I call you that?” you asked as you leaned more into Bucky’s arm as you kept walking. “None of this, from Baltimore to Madripoor and now Manhattan, has worked out as any of us had hoped. Especially for you. I can see things that are coming in small ways, and I know our paths will all cross again. People enter our lives for a lot of reasons. All I can hope is that, when we do meet again, we are all on the same side and without as much angst. Buck, I can go to the medics myself. Maybe you and John should finish that talk you started before,” you said as you pointed at your head. “Before I made the dent in the wall of Ray’s.”

“You really going to do it?” Bucky asked as you pointed toward the ambulance and walked slowly toward it. As you sat down on the step near the rear door, you looked first at Bucky and John, and then back toward where Sam was actually talking to Kamala and Bruno.

“You didn’t tell them, did you?” a tall woman said as she came up to check your wounds. “That you knew I’d be here?”

“Enya, I haven’t told them about you or Dev or Mina yet, and I am certainly not about to tell them I alerted you before this all started tonight,” you said as your sister-in-law Enya Sun slowly healed you of your wounds. A daughter of Avalon and one of their best warrior priestesses of the Holy Isle, Enya made short work of your issues, but she made it seem a lot longer so that those who needed to talk could do so. It was a long practiced ritual you had both done on battlefields for centuries. Your tiny bit for peace. That’s what Dev always called it.

“What did you see? You went walking again, didn’t you?” Enya asked as she tried to “balance” your body, mind and spirit after that attack. “Walking” was what Enya called your contact with the parts of you in other worlds.

“I saw enough to know trouble is coming, but I can’t tell what the hell it is yet,” you replied as you flexed your shoulders before smiling up at Enya. “Three places this time. One was Londinium. You know how much I hate that place. But two men were able to touch me. I have no idea who they are, but they seemed surprised to see me. One reminded me of my father. My actual father. Not that crazy copy.”

“That stupid spell you did made it worse. You know that, right?”

You rolled your eyes as you turned your gaze back to Bucky. “He does not need me making a mess of his life again. I’m hoping he hits it off with Sam’s sister. She’s…”

“Normal? Not a mystic? What?”

“Not me. I’ll leave it at that. He deserves so much more than…”

“More than someone who loves him like you do? Than someone who nearly burned Hydra to the ground in his name?”

“He deserves peace,” you said quietly as you got back to your feet. “They all do. And you and I know it will never happen.”

“Too damned cynical for our own good,” Enya added with a laughed. “I’m going to get you home now. You need sleep. And tomorrow we can talk about Silver Hand over there.”

“Don’t call him that. He’s the White Wolf. Winter Soldier if you must. But he is not some Celtic hero reborn.”

“Call him tomorrow, OK?” Enya asked as she slung your gear over her back and opened a portal to Brooklyn. She whistled at Bucky so he could see you exit the area with her. The last thing you heard was Bucky groaning and throwing his hands in the air.

Next: Part 12, or Is this the moment of truth?

Taglist: @arrthurpendragon, @historygeekfics, @starryeyes2000, @chickensarentcheap

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