The Black Winter

Chapter 14

  "Leave, before you become apart of my mission."

  "Joan, we're on the same team here."

  "No, we're not. You guys don't understand how long I've been trying to find him. You don't understand what he's capable of."

  "Joan, we miss you. We can work together. Bucky misses you," Natasha says.

  I freeze at hearing his name. I look down to my white cloves that cover my hands. I missed him, I really did, but after everything that's happened, I can't go back with them. Not only that, but I my only mission is to take down Hydra.

  "Who else is here?" I ask.

  "Me, Bucky, and Rose are in the building. Tony, Steve, and Wanda are not to far, their on crowd control."

  I nod my head and take my shot of vodka. I look up and see Rose. I sigh and throw my head into my hands. I can tell that Natasha looks to where I was looking.

  "She's grown up a lot. Her fighting still needs a lot of work, but personality wise, she's gotten better," Natasha says.

  "She's still a prick. It doesn't matter," I say while standing up. "It was good seeing you Nat, tell Bucky I said hi. Oh and tell Steve and Tony to go fuck them selves."

  I walk away and into the crowd. Well now that their here, this leaves some complications. I decide to start scanning some of the halls. I walk up the stairs and onto the balcony that wraps around the entire room. I walk around, trying to get a Birds Eye view. Then, that's when I spot Ivan.

  He was wearing a black tux with a red handkerchief. His hair was gray on the sides, and a deep brown on the top. The sides where shaved and the top part was longer and slicked back. He had the same cold gray eyes that he wore many moons ago.

  I straighten up and my my way down the stairs. As I'm walking to where he was, I end up running into someone. I turn around to apologize, but then I see that it's James. Shit.

  "Joan?" He asks confused.

  I turn around and keep walking, but then he grabs my arm and pulls my back. I turn my head and I can't help but get a sense of warmth.

  "Joan, what are you doing here?" He asks. I could see so much emotion in his eyes.

  "James, you need to leave," I tell him.

  "Bucky, I can't seem to find-Joan?"

  Both James and I look over to see Rose. I get out of James grip and make my way to where he was, but he's gone.

  "Shit," I say under my breath.

  "Joan, what's going on?"

  I turn around to face James. Next to him is rose. I grab the both of them and pull them into a room. I close the door and lock it behind me.

  "Listen here, you two need to stay out of my way, got it? You have no right to be here. This is my mission, my kill. You aren't taking him away," I say through my teeth.

  "Joan, killing him isn;t the answer," James starts. "Come back with us, we can help you. We'll take him down together."

  "Shut up James. This is my mission, I am killing him and you can't stop that."

  "Joan, is that really what you want? Wouldn't you just be proving him right?" Rose asks.

  I turn my attention to her. They were leaving me with no choice. I sigh and pull out a needle filled with sedatives.

  "Joan, you don't want to do this," James says.

  I rush to James and swing around his neck so I have him in a choke hold, and in one movement, I stick the needle into his neck. I Pull it out and watch as his body falls limp against the floor. I then grab out some widow bites that I stole from Nat and throw them on Rose, stunning her and rendering her unconscious.

  I walk out of the room and lock the door behind me. I make my way to once of the tables, and that's where I spot him. As i make my way to him, I pull out my gun ad cock it back. He's drinking with some other higher ups, and. It's clear that he is drunk.

  I go to point it at him and right as I pull the trigger, I am forced to the ground. Everyone around up starts screaming and running. I look up and see that Ivan is now gone from his spot.

  "Fuck!" I yell. I force myself up and start to dart towards the direction that he went in.

  "Joan! Stop!" I hear Steve yell.

  As I'm sprinting, I end up spotting him. He's running into a room. As I'm about to follow him, I am surrounded by Hydra agents. I grab one of my knives and one by one, all the agents dart towards me. They come at me left and right, I use my knife, sticking it into either the neck or the skull.

  Then, Steve comes in and starts to fight with me. Once he comes, everyone turns their attention onto him. So, I dart towards the door and try to open it. But it won't budge. I start to throw my shoulder into it. Eventually it breaks and I fall to the ground.

  I force myself up and see foot prints in the snow running away from the building. I sprint in the direction of the foot prints but then none other then Tony motherfucking Stark stops right in front of me in his Iron-Man suit. He points his hand at me and I can hear it fill p with energy.

  "Joan, enough. Your coming with us," he says.

  "Tony, you have no clue what you are letting go right now. I need to get to him before he kills more people," I tell him.

  "Stand down," he says once more.

  I can hear foot steps from behind. I turn around and see James, Steve, and Nat are now right behind me.

  "This doesn't have to end in a fight Joan," Steve says.

  I look down to the snow, seeing that the new snow is already covering up the old snow, meaning by now I'll never be able to find him. I think about my odds, even if I start fighting them, I don't stand a chance. I'm to low on amo and I left my knife in one of the men's head. There's no way that I would be getting out of this fight.

  "Fine. Look, just let me go ok? I won't be able to get him, not now. The snow already wiped away his tracks. Just let me go."

  "I'm afraid we can't do that Joan," says Tony.

  "And why's that?"

  "Because your out of control," he says.

  "You don't understand! Are you all really so blind? He's a monster! He's killed more people than you could ever imagine!" I yell.

  "Look, truth is Joans, we need your help."