Unexpected

XXIX

"Bucky!" Steve yelled once he catched up with the two of them. Nina had just been thrown backwards, hitting he head on the ground. The Winter Soldier turned his attention towards Steve.  "People are gonna die, Buck," he tried again. "I can't let that happen."

The Winter Soldier didn't budge. He just stared coldly at the other man.

"Please don't make me do this," he said as Bucky started marching towards him. Seeing as he wouldn't stop, Steve threw his shield at Bucky, who just protected himself with his metal arm and ran towards him. During this time, Nina managed to stand back up.

"Steve, let me do the diversion and go for the chip," she said, picking up Steve's shield. Steve nodded towards her and she ran to them, using the shield to hit Bucky's head. "Remember me?" She asked, as the Soldier's attention was turned towards her.

They started battling it out, and the two were pretty much equally good and experienced fighters. The only difference was that Nina was pulling her punches, not wanting to kill Bucky, while he had no memory of her at all. Not yet, at least.

That was, until The Soldier managed to take Steve's shield from her and he threw it at Steve, not wanting him to use the chip on the Hellicarier. The thing is, he hit Steve's right arm, making the chip in his hand fall down to the glass bottom of the ship.

A few more minutes, and Steve had received two shots, in his shoulder and left leg. Still, he was trying his best to climb the ship and switch the chips. Nina grabbed Bucky's shoulders to give him a knee blow in his abdomen, but Bucky was faster.

He took out his knife and impaled her with it as she approached him. As the knife ripped her insides, she knew it had hit something important. Immediately, her knees gave away and all she had keeping her standing were her arms on Bucky's shoulder and his own on her waist.

"Bucky," Nina whispered.

And with that, he seamed to remember who she was. Nina's vision was blurry, so she didn't know if he had realised that he had stabbed his friend, or if he remembered that his mission was to bring her back base, not kill her.

Suddenly, the whole ship shook, taking Bucky away and bringing back the Winter Soldier. He let go of her and went after Steve.

Nina's knees hit the ground, sending a sharp pain throughout her whole body. She looked down at her abdomen, there wasn't a lot of blood looting out of her. She guessed it was because the knife was still impaled in her. At the same time, Bucky and Steve were fighting for the chip.

"All set in here," Nat said through the com. Nina sighed.

"Things are.... not so g-good here," Nina whispered to her. She definetly didn't want to catch the Soldier's attention again.

"Are you okay?" Nat asked, her tone definetly worried.

"In not sure," she said honestly. Nina couldn't even feel the pain anymore. Was it adrenaline? No, she knew that feeling very well. "I'm n-not even sure I'll still...uh.. be myself if w-we walk out of this."

She felt all wobbly inside. It was numb, but it hurt. She didn't know if it was still from the knife wound.

"You'll be alright, Nina," Nat reassured her. Except Nat didn't know about her. She knew a lot, but not all. She knew nothing about her species, only that she wasn't human. Nina didn't even have the strength to answer anymore.

Nina looked down at her hands.

They were glowing.

Nina let out a yelp. It had been alsmot two centuries since she had last regenerated, she had almost forgotten how it was like.

But she couldn't.

She couldn't regenerate, not now.

Bucky needed her. He needed to remember her, remember hid old life, his past. How would he do that if Nina looked completely different?

Nina grunted as she threw her hands in her pockets, waiting for it to go away. That was it. There was no coming back, now.