We Rise, Only To Fall / Steve Rogers

29

The Doctor

By the time we made it to the hallway where Bucky was being held, we saw the bodies of guards slumped on the floor. 

"Shit," I breathed as we walked into the next room, where more bodies lined the floor. I crouched next to one, checking for a pulse, but there was nothing. The Winter Soldier had left his mark. 

"Help me," came a voice from the next room. I glanced up as Steve marched in, finding a man on the floor, seemingly in pain. "Help." 

I lingered back with Sam, sharing a worried glance with him. Steve confronted the man. "Get up." 

When the man didn't move, Steve lifted him up and pinned him against the wall with little effort. "Who are you? What do you want?" Steve demanded.

Sam and I moved to join them as he replied, "To see an empire fall." But as we crossed the threshhold, we saw movement to my left and Sam dragged me down in time for the Winter Soldier's fist to come flying at us, instead hitting the wall above our heads and cracking the brick. 

I cursed and quickly pulled my gun from its holster as Sam tried to hit back but he was flung across the room. I raised my gun and shot at him, attempting to wound him, but he deflected it with his metal arm and kicked me in the stomach, winding me. I coughed and doubled over when he swiped a knife out at me. I scrambled back onto the floor, away from the blade as Steve stepped in and became the Winter Soldier's new target. The pair of them fought, moving through the rooms we had come from, the sounds of impact landing making me wince. 

"Sam, you okay?" I called and when he didn't reply, I crawled over to him, relieved when I saw his chest was rising and falling. There was the sound of metal breaking and then someone falling and I looked up to see the elevator door wide open, the Winter Soldier gone and no sign of Steve. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit."

I looked back and shook Sam's shoulders until his eyelids fluttered open. He groaned and sat up, looking past me to the elevator. "Hey!" he cried and I glanced back to see the man - the fake doctor - standing there. "Hey!"

The man turned back and saw us. When we started to rise, he fled quickly. Sam and I followed, the sounds of alarms blaring around us. We chased after him, back down the corridor and up an empty stairwell. We glanced up and saw the man several levels above, looking down at us. He disappeared again and we surged upwards.

We reached the ground floor level and the door to the atrium was open. "Did we lose him?" I asked, chewing my lip. 

"Not if I can help it," Sam replied as we entered the atrium. 

It was chaos. People everywhere were screaming, evacuating the building. Shattered glass lined the floor and tables were broken, evidence that the Winter Soldier had torn through it. I shook my head, horrified, as we left the building altogether. The streets were just as chaotic but Sam spied a jacket on the ground and went to pick it up.

"The bastard," I breathed. "He swapped clothes."

"We'll never find him," Sam confirmed, and I could feel his anger. I felt it too. "Damn it."

My phone began to ring and I answered it. "Guys?" Steve's voice came and I put it on speaker. 

"We're here," I replied.

"Did you catch the other guy?" Steve asked and my stomach flipped with a combination of anger and guilt.

"He got away," Sam sighed. "What about your guy?"

"I've got him," Steve said. "Come meet me. I'll text you my location."

"Are you safe?" I blurted out.