The Shadow [a marvel fanfiction]

Civil War: Chapter Six

They holed up in an abandoned warehouse in one of Berlin's industrial sectors. The air was musty and dust and debris covered the floor. Various pieces of machinery and other tools had been left to rust, joined by stray cigarette butts, trash and shitty spray paint. Outside, they could hear the helicopters and police vehicles looking for them. Their refuge wouldn't last long; they needed a new plan now.

Marie had dragged several wooden pallets across the floor and piled some semi-clean canvas tarps on top. She curled up on her make-shift bed with her arm as a pillow and stared at dried paint drips on the ground.

Sam and Steve placed Bucky in a side room, clamping his metal arm in some metal industrial vice. His body was slumped over, hair dangling in his face and completely limp. Nearly an hour had ticked by and he still hadn't woken up.

Helicopter blades thumped overhead. Marie tensed and closed her eyes. She counted her breaths, in and out, until she reached ten and started over again. Aches throbbed all over, her bones grinding together and her muscles straining to keep going. She desperately needed sleep, but her bruised eyes couldn't stay closed.

Marie shifted and winced as she pressed on yet another sore. Special ops had really beat her down; the number of bruises seemed to multiply every hour. The swelling finally went down on her cheek bone, though Sam pointed out the skin was still green and yellow.

Another helicopter passed over them. Marie's fingers twitched and she forced herself up, padding quietly to Steve's side. They peered through one of the many gaps in the walls and eyed the helicopter's movements. It didn't appear that they were using thermal imaging—or, if they were, it wasn't picking up on their heat signatures. Whatever the reason, it was good enough for her.

Marie glanced at Steve's still-silent profile. She toed the line that had been drawn between them and brushed her hand over his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

She winced at the bite in his voice but didn't back down. He needed to understand and to see the bigger picture. He couldn't just shut her out; that wasn't fair.

"Steve." Marie gripped his shoulder tighter until he finally looked at her. "We're on the same s-side here, you know that right?"

He exhaled slowly and nodded, his jaw still tight. "Yeah, I know."

"So, are you going to-to-to talk to me? Or are we going to stick to this—to this weird s-silent dance?"

Steve stared down at her. It was strange to look at Marie, his little sister, and see an identical stranger instead. The hesitant, anxious girl he used to look out for was now firm and independent; she didn't need him or any of the Avengers anymore. Marie left them and grew up and now he didn't know who she was.

"What were you doing with him?"

The question rang with the soft, painful notes of betrayal. Marie swallowed past the sudden dryness in her mouth and answered honestly. "I-I know he was important to you, Steve, but you-you have to—you have to understand that this Bucky isn't the one you lost. Part of him is still—is still there, but the things HYDRA did... that changes you. You can never go back. All Bucky knew was a-a-a life of torture. He's never been able to make choices until now.

"When I found him, I knew I—I knew I couldn't let him disappear again. For your sake, my sake, and his. He deserves the right to-to-to choose what happens to him and-and how. I will never take that away from him. It was never about keeping him a—keeping him a-a secret or keeping you apart, it just needed to happen on his terms."

Marie bit the inside of her lip and eyed Steve's expression. He'd gotten better at hiding it from her, or maybe they grew too far apart to read each other. The thought made her stomach twist. Her bridges were breaking down and she was desperately trying to fix at least one of them.