Relapse ★ Bucky Barnes

Torturous and Scattered Memories

"What about the core?" Marlena coughed out.

"I'll protect it," Wanda spoke up as she glanced over at Clint. "It's my job."

Clint nodded in response before he, Natasha, and Steve took off, leaving Marlena with Wanda.

"I'm really proud of you, Wanda," Marlena said to her.

Wanda smiled in response to her words, and Marlena turned to head out until Pietro appeared.

"Get the people on the boats, both of you," Wanda instructed the two of them.

"I'm not going to leave you here," Pietro replied.

"I can handle this," Wanda retorted, just in time for one of Ultron's sentries to burst into the church. Wanda destroyed it immediately, leaving Pietro to nod his head in an approving manner. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before. You understand?"

Pietro let out a sigh and walked over to Marlena, placing his hand on the small of her back. "You know I'm twelve minutes older than you?" he teased his sister.

She only laughed and shook her head. "Go."

Without warning, Pietro scooped Marlena into his arms and sped away. He sat her down on the ramp to one of the boats and Marlena chuckled before looking up at him. "Was that really necessary? I could've ran by myself."

"Yes, but had you done so I would still be here waiting for you to arrive," Pietro replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "I am a very impatient man, Marlena."

Marlena scoffed and shook her head. "Yeah, that hasn't changed one bit."

"You still know me so well," Pietro said, a grin on his face as he patted Marlena on the arm. "Even to this day it still disgusts me."

Marlena rolled her eyes at his remark and grabbed his wrist. "Let's go see who else needs to be saved."

Pietro hummed in response and allowed Marlena to pull him back onto the floating city. They stopped, though, when the deafening sound of gunshots rang throughout the area. Marlena looked up as the Avengers' quinjet soared over the city, numerous bullets raining from its guns. She knew better than to think one of the Avengers was responsible for the gunfire; it was Ultron.

A look of fear flashed across Marlena's face as the jet neared Clint, who was carrying a small child in his arms. Her heart began to pound dangerously at the thought of Clint and the boy being struck, and without a word, she turned to look up at Pietro. He looked down at her before looking back to Clint, and Marlena knew from the look in his eyes what he was planning to do.

"Pietro, don't!" Marlena yelled as he removed himself from her grasp and ran away, directly into the line of fire.

The bullets were coming too fast, but that didn't stop Marlena from trying to stop them. She threw her hands up and released a wave of telekinetic energy in a desperate attempt to prevent the bullets from hitting Pietro and Clint, but not only were the bullets too fast for her, Pietro was as well.

The gunfire fell silent, as did everything else surrounding Marlena. She lowered her hands and let out a breath before running as fast as she could towards the area Clint and the boy had just been standing. Clint was a few feet away, still holding the boy in his arms, while Pietro stood in front of them with bullet wounds covering the entirety of his body.

"You didn't see that coming," he said to Clint before falling to the ground.

An excruciating amount of pain entered Marlena's body as she felt her mental connection with Pietro dissipating to nothing but an empty void. Her body began to tremble in fear and sadness when she was met with the devastating realization as to what was happening, and she ran over to him as fast as her aching legs would allow.