Secretive - Bucky Barnes

17 || Miraculous

»You've got to be kidding me.« I exclaim, throwing my hands in the air in a grotesque gesture. It is only then that the already cold are around us, still and rigid like a stone sculpture, seems to cool down a couple of degrees. »James isn't- he can't be immortal.«

He really cannot. If James was immortal, if I brought that malediction upon him; I could not forgive myself. It would torture him. He already lived through enough, each day of his life covered in shadows from his past. People looking at him like he was the devil himself, still, although they all know he has not been in control of his actions. These haunting memories following him around like a puppy on a leash, a bad, evil, nasty puppy, never leaving him. And if they miraculously happen to disappear for merely a few hours, they come down crashing with a force greater than nature herself can provoke. It would mean endless suffer if he was never to die, his life never to end. Repeatedly be thrown back into a phase of his life filled with such evil burning, and no escape, never, because I love him. This just is not fair. He has a right to die. 

And what about Steve and Rebecca? Are they immortal, too? If not, how heartbreaking would it be not to lose only one, but two of them. Nike told me of James's inability to pass the bridge like it was a wonder. Alastair told me Semi-Gods would die eventually after a few centuries. James could not take seeing his children die, yet could not stay away should their last minutes arrive. He would watch them leave in his arms, for them to know he is always at their side, always, and no matter that it would break himself. Twice. 

»I'm not kidding.« Nike clarifies, clearing her throat. It sounds more like a sweet lullaby, and it is annoying how engulfing her perfection is all the time. »It would've been stupid-«

»I heard you the first time, thanks.« I growl in irritation, hands rubbing through my face before I inhale and try to clear my mind for a second. »How long do we have until they arrive on Earth?«

»Two hours, at top. Once they discover I'm gone, probably less.«

»How long takes the ride to, uh, Olymp?« The word, spoken to a real Goddess from that Greek mythological place, feels foreign. Feels grave, weighs on my tongue like cement. 

Her eyes widen for mere a second, obviously surprised by my willingness to go or by the fact I do not make a fight of anything. I could not care less. »Five minutes, if you know where to go.«

»Let me guess« I continue, glancing back to her with the glowing gold once more stinging my sensitive eyes slightly, »It's some weird travelling like Thor and Loki are using to get back to Asgard.«

»It's not the same, but you'll get some nausea at the first times just as much. However, it will be over fast, and once I brought you to the temple-«

Deriding, I raise my chin high. Like I did almost all the time at Hydra's, not letting anything get too close to me but challenging them to try their luck slicing my throat. »Bold of you to assume I'd go with you.«

Nike seems a little caught off guard, the wreath in her right hand twitching once with the shudders running through her arm. And she does not seem used to be spoken to so provokingly, so mockingly, with such less respect. But she is going on very thin ice since the second she has landed in my front, with each step she took that got her closer to me, and next to the fact the ice melts, it is my ice she is walking on. »Of course, I am going with you. I will guide you to the temple and try to get everyone at ease to listen to you.«

»I will make them listen, trust me. But leaving James and my kids unprotected? Not a chance. You will stay here, and you will keep your eye on them without letting them see you. We're playing by my rules, now. You're the Goddess of Victory, after all. Shouldn't be a problem then, should it?« I do not like to be as bossing around. But I have to. I would do anything to protect my family, and if it means to ride roughshod over my mother, so it shall be.