Ardent || MCU

Chapter Twenty Two

Louise sees Schmidt shooting at Steve to her right, her eyes lowering to Steve's shield on the ground as she crumbles down onto the platform she stood on. Making Steve shout and make a run for it.

"Not my future!" Steve yells as he jumps across and rolls down to the bottom level and grabs his shield, deflecting an energy shot before swinging back and launching his shield at Schmidt, knocking him back into the energy reactor in the middle of the area.

"What have you done?" Schmidt, Red Skull, yells out, as streams and clusters of blue hued energy erupt from the broken reactor.

Louise lays flat on the ground, her right arm hanging down the stairs of the platform towards Steve and Schmidt. She lets her mind free, reaching out to Schmidt to take control. Her mind bypassing his restraint to have complete sentient control. She controls Schmidt as if she's seeing through his eyes, making him grab the Tesseract.

The Tesseract bightens, more streams of energy flying through the air as a cluster explodes, opening a portal to space, showcasing stars and a galaxy in full view. The energy streams heavily, eating away at Schmidt's entire hand before moving across his body.

"No!" He shouts, as a stream expands, taking over Schmidt's body as he screams, breaking Louise's focus to keep him locked with the stream. The energy brightens, making the super duo cover their eyes as the stream shoots out into space, disappearing into the portal as it closes and the Tesseract falls to the ground.

Steve glances around watching the Tesseract quickly melt through grates and through the metal of the plane till it melted the last layer and fell through the sky. He turns back to see Louise leaning against the stairs, holding her bloodied waist.

"Hey!" Steve yells to her, falling to his knees as he grabs her hand and pushes on her wound.

"Lou! Look at me." He tries, as she lazily glances around with no focus.

"Louise." He pushes and grabs her face, her blood smearing onto her cheeks as Steve makes her look.

"I'm healing, Steve. Go fix the controls, before it's too late. Go." Louise urges as Steve lays her back onto the platform, moving to the pilot's seat and turning back to face the controls. Louise knows her wound is moving to slow, her blood pooling around her as her body tried to replenish just as fast. Her ears pick up some of Steve's words, her head lolling as he tries to stay conscious.

"Come in. This is Captain Rogers." She hears Steve say, missing words that became muddles.

"Steve, is that you?" She hears a lighter, more feminine voice, Peggy.

"Schmidt's dead. Louise is hurt badly, I have nothing to help her!" She hears Steve speak again, not seeing his head glance back.

"What about the plane?" Peggy's voice responds through the radio system.

"A safe landing site..." Louise misses many words, her eyes blinking slowly as her head felt light.

"There's not going to be a safe landing. There's not enough time. This thing's moving... heading for New York." Steve pauses, watching from the large windows in front of him, he sees his location and his distance from New York.

"I gotta put her in the water." Steve states, jumping to stand and jogging to Louise who was just seconds from becoming unconscious.

"Please, don't do this." He hears Peggy say as he lifts Louise's head to check her pulse. His body trembles, no longer feeling a pulse as Louise's eyes closed. Her body's enhanced heat leaving quickly as Steve felt her life leave. He lays Louise back holding his emotions back as he grabs wires, tying Louise down so she'll stay on the platform as he goes back to the pilot seat and readies himself.

"She's gone." Steve says almost silently, Peggy on her side letting tears fall as she knows what is happening.

"Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die." Steve responds to Peggy and a bit of silence, figuring out the controls.

"I want a rain check on that dance. Alright. A week, next Saturday." Peggy pushes trying to figure out something as Steve nodded agreeing as tears began to slide down his cheek, his mask long gone as he tore it off before Louise--.

"You got it." Steve replies, setting the controls fly down straight towards the water, icebergs and plains coming into view.

"Eight o'clock on the dot. Don't you dare be late."

"You know, I still don't know how to dance.

"I'll teach you how."

"We'll have the band play something' slow." Words go amiss as he nears the sight, remembering visions, scenes, moments with his friends.

Steve stands before Bucky and Louise, both young once again, all of them together laughing and smiling. Bucky stared at Louise with such admiration, watching her laugh, imprinting the moment in his memory forever.

Steve smiles to the thought, speaking once again as he neared his crash site.

"I'd hate to step on your..."

The plane crashes, scraping, tearing, and slamming into the ice, separating pieces and scattering them far and wide. The thick ice beneath the front of the plane collapsed, swallowing the wreckage into the icy water, filling every crack and crevice. The back half shifts, snapping from the front as it sinks down cracking the large ice into an iceberg, causing the last broken piece of the plane to separate across the water. The ice itself migrated from the wind, traveling slowly for miles and miles before crashing into another ice berg, causing the ship to snap through the ice and sink into the frozen water depths, far away from its original wreckage.