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karimac · 2 years ago

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...in the details, Part 11

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: 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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