WORLD'S WEIGHT ▹ tfatws

[ 014 ] chapter fourteen

"Doesn't matter, my faith's on you." Czarina answered without any skepticism. It's nothing but the truth. The shield has some weight on her because it represented the first hope she had in many years working under HYDRA. But what mattered most to her was the person behind the shield, Steve Rogers. He was the one who made choices that helped Czarina get out of the inescapable prison. And Steve chose Sam to be the next bearer of the shield in the new age. The captain entrusted it to a person who's more than capable to continue its legacy and Czarina knows it herself. Shield or none, she'll follow Sam in this fight.

"You sound so much like her than him." Sam looked at the girl, eyes glistening in a moment of realisation and reminiscing.

"I just hope I also have her strength." The blonde scoffed. "I'll need it when you face these Flag Smashers."

"Hey, before you think about any fight, heal yourself first." Sam lightly dismisses her current thoughts as he goes back to his old seat.

When she's left alone again Czarina's eyes landed at Bucky who's by the front row of seats, he seems to be resting with head hung low and eyes closed. She'll talk to him when they land. Oftentimes when her father is displeased by her actions he only remains passive about it. He prefers leaving it in silence and letting it eventually pass rather than speaking on the matter. The girl can't quite figure out why yet since before, back when they were still a pair of soldiers for the enemy, he easily banters with her about orders to do and strongly lectures her when something on a mission goes south.

Now he doesn't even talk to her about things Czarina has done that bothered him. She wants that change.

Their plane started shaking sideways, causing all of them to grip on their seatbelts in an instant. "We're close to landing, fasten yourselves." Zemo informed them from his chair.

Here they go again. On another foreign land, running after an imminent danger instead of the other way.

━━━━━━━━━━

She was a lot better upon their arrival in Riga. Czarina can once again move with no trouble, her wounds are fully closed and don't hurt anymore. Though they rode a rented van to drop them off on a smaller town inside the city they still had to walk a few minutes to reach the Baron's manor.

"I heard what became of Sokovia." Zemo started as he roamed his gaze on the street they are currently at. "Cannibalized by its neighbors before the land was cleared of rubble, erased from the map." The man spoke with bitterness about his former home's fate, Sokovia. The fallen country that was completely obliterated by the time the Avengers battle was done. Half of the population were decimated, countless properties turned to dust in a day along with civilians nowhere to go. It was a complete devastation. Levi only mentioned it to her twice

We turned their home to ash and called it saving. No wonder he's coming after the Avengers. Her brother said from their distant conversation upon escaping The Raft many years ago.

"I don’t suppose any of you bothered visiting the memorial?" Zemo continued as they walked. "Of course not. Why would you?"

"Levi did." Czarina muttered under her breath, inaudible to the rest of the team. The guilt and shame followed her brother like a rageful ghost, even in the midst of going rogue and turning against his hero friends Sokovia didn't leave his mind. Especially learning about Zemo' true purpose of infiltrating the Avengers. She knew it too well, when even when they were on the run he visited the memorials and mass grave sites of the country.

"We are here." The baron stopped in front of a grey and white, marble walled mansion.

"Actually you three go, I'll take a walk for a few minutes. I'm feeling a little suffocated." Czarina stayed a few steps behind her company.