The lab burst into flames and I was sent tumbling backwards as the fire blew around me. I let out a cry and a cabinet came crashing down on top of me. It took me a second to gather my consciousness. Alarms were blaring as everything was on fire. I could see everyone slowly getting to their feet. Bucky's eyes turned to me wildly and he came over and flung the cabinet off of me like it was nothing.
His eyes connected with mine and as soon as he saw I was okay he ripped his eyes away. Everything was shaking around us and I looked around and realized Zemo was no where to be seen. Sharon was slammed into the table next to us and Sam was laid out on the ground. I could see everything starting to catch serious fire and I knew that was nothing but bad news as I noticed all the gas tanks.
We all scrambled up to our feet and started making our way down the stairs to get as far away as possible from this. We were all coughing struggling to get out of here. However a second explosion sent the whole shipping container flying and we went tumbling down the stairs and out back into the shipment yard. We scrambled out and instantly had our guard up. There was still people looking for us.
It didn't take long for shots to be sent our way. We all did our best to stay covered and take out the bounty hunters. Sam said to go left, but Bucky was on his own page. It was a complete disaster and I wasn't sure if we were making it out alive. We all had to hit the deck to avoid getting killed. My shoulder was absolutely killing me, but now wasn't the time to worry about it.
"You like living here?" Sam yelled as he was shooting across the ship yard.
"It's not terrible." Sharon shouted back seeming to be very focused.
"What happened to going left?" Bucky yelled at Sam as he was able to make it to us.
"You went the wrong way!" Sam growled at him through the smoke.
"I was clearing the way!" Bucky screamed waving his now empty gun around.
"I came out first, you had to follow me." Sam said clearly subjecting to this argument.
"And where are we now?" Bucky howled.
"Guys not the time! We're being shot at incase you can't tell!" I roared at them and they both stopped talking for a moment obviously taking the hint.
"I'm out!" Sharon said now out of magazines.
Bucky too was out and Sam and I both were on our last few rounds. We were now stuck in a very bad spot. I sat with my back to a pile of exploded debris trying to read what was next for us. I wanted to conserve my bullets while we were concealed for the moment. Though, I'm not sure how much time we'd have before we were out numbered.
We all looked very worried for a moment, but another explosion went off across the yard. It took a moment to make sense of it, but Zemo had been the cause of it and he started to attack several of the bounty hunters. Sharon called for us to go and we all quickly followed her directions. He seemed to have a grasp on things so I wasn't going to wait around to see if he had it handled.
We ran away from all this mess and two more men jumped onto us as we tried to dive into a shipping container. Bucky shoved us inside and took on the two men. He ripped a pole from the shipping container and whacked one man right in the head and then sent the other one like a javelin into the others chest. I could see his wild eyes as he was worked up and stood still in spot. We unfortunately didn't have time for that. I grabbed him by the chest and pulled him along.
We came out the other side and almost as if on cue a car pulled around. Zemo was in drivers seat and I had so many questions, but not a care in the world to worry about it right now. I was instantly passed by Sam and Bucky who didn't look happy with Zemo.
"You're going back to jail." Sam said looking at him.
"Do you want to find the super soldier girl, Karli or not?" Zemo asked shrugging casually.
"He's right we need him." I said sighing because I was originally the last person to want to admit this. "There's three of us and now we know at least 20 of them."
"He just shot the key to all of this!" Bucky said yelling at me now.
"He also just stopped the one person who knew how to make that serum." I said sharply. "I don't know about you but 20 sounds like a enough to me, we don't need anymore."
"If you try that shit again..." Sam warned as he followed me into the car. I knew Bucky was glaring at me, but I didn't care to stick around here any longer than I need to.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Zemo said and Sam hopping into the back seat. I sat down in the front not wanting to be next to Bucky right now. If he wanted distance and to be detached that's one thing, but to ignore me until you want to yell at me is taking it too far.
"Well that was one hell of a reunion." Sharon said closing my door as Bucky got in behind me.
"You should come back to the states with us." Sam said looking to her.
"I told you I can't. Just get me that pardon you promised me." She said looking to Sam. Clearly helping out Steve and Sam had gotten her in some deep shit.
"Thanks for everything." I said to her and with that Zemo sent the car forward.
I looked around us and the entire ship yard was destroyed. I rested my head on the head rest and took a deep exhale thankful we had gotten out of that. I was beaten to shit and I was starting to feel the pain from my arm. I looked and saw my arm was bleeding pretty badly, but I frankly didn't care. I'd have to be hit a lot worse if I was going to pass out from blood loss.
"Sorry about your seats." I said looking to Zemo and he noticed I was bleeding.
He shrugged and didn't looked bothered by it. Sam however, leant forward and his face cringe when he saw it.
"That doesn't look good Val." He said. "That's the same arm as last night."
"When it rains it pours." I said almost laughing. "I hope you guys got enough information from him."
"We got enough." Sam said and I saw Bucky shake his head and look away in the rear view mirror.
I knew he wasn't happy, and maybe that wasn't the smartest move, but it's what had to be done. If we had left him alive there was a chance he would just get away and make more. I sat back in the seat taking slow deep breaths just wanting for us to get wherever we were going so I could clean my arm up.
•
We had gotten back onto the plane we had been on when we had left Berlin. I went straight for the bathroom as soon as we were able to walk around the plane. I ripped off my jacket and my arm was a whole mess. The entire shoulder and upper arm was covered in a purple and red mess. I had an obscene amount of blood dried onto me so I got some paper towels and wipes as much as I could off.
The bruises were dark especially around where the bullet had gone in. The poison had clearly been made to kill someone because it took a hard hit to kill me and I was still feeling it like it was fresh over 24 hours later. My body can handle a lot more than most people given the serum they put in me, but without Sharon I don't know if I could have prevented that.
I was searching the cabinets for something to wrap it up with, but I was left with nothing. I guess I could have waited until we landed, wherever that was. I was just in so much discomfort and I felt like a mess. I however, heard a knock on the door and it was Sam. He held out a first aid kit and I took it with a thankful smile.
"You alright?" He asked me.
"Better than ever." I said with a small laugh as I disinfected my arm.
"Doesn't seem like it." He said leaning in the doorway to talk to me.
"I'm fine, just doing a shitty job of catching bullets and knives with my shoulder." I said laughing softly.
"I can see that, you've taken a lot of hits for us, I'm glad you're okay." He said and I gave him a small smile.
"It's the least I could do." I said as I was trying to clean the skin around my cut. "God knows everyone's upset anyways."
"What's up with you and Bucky? We heard arguing last night." He said and I exhaled. "You guys haven't said a word to each other since, not unless you've been yelling. He's even acting weird with me."
"We're just keeping our distance." I said not looking at him.
"What happened?" He asked pushing me to talk which I really didn't want to do.
"Nothing happened it's what he wants." I said shaking my head.
"Why does he want distance, Val? Come on, one of you has to make sense here and he's not budging." He said and I exhaled wiping my arm clean.
"He's worried about losing control and hurting me. Therefore he won't even look in my direction." I said trying to start wrapping my arm.
"How is that preventing anything?" He asked me.
"I don't know Sam, out of sight out of mind I suppose." I said getting frustrated. I was exhausted, I was in so much pain, and all I wanted to just have Bucky at my side. I was getting emotional and I just didn't want to have these feelings right now.
"He's acting very weird Val, I mean you know him better than anyone. It's probably not personal." He said looking at me with sad eyes.
"It is personal, I think that's why it hurts more." I said pressing my lips together and a tear fell down my face.
"I can talk to him." He said placing a hand on my good shoulder.
"No." I said firmly because there was nothing to say. His mind was made.
I was struggling to wrap my arm and he went to go help me, but Bucky walked up to us. He looked to Sam for a quick second, but his eyes focused back on me. He saw I was crying and I turned away and look down so he wouldn't see.
"Zemo just had the pilot change course to Latvia, he has a house we can stay at." Bucky said and I could feel his eyes watching me.
"I need to go talk to Zemo, help her." He said handing the bandages to Bucky.
I exhaled and stood there refusing to even look at him. I felt his hands on my arm and he didn't say word. It was so painfully awkward between us, but I was more bothered when he accidentally put too much pressure against my arm. I winced and I looked to him and his face was filled with worry.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly.
"I'm fine." I said shortly looking away again.
"Your arm looks bad." You said flatly.
"I'm aware." I said in a cold tone. "Look I can just do this on my own."
"Stop moving." He said in a softer tone. I stayed quiet, but I'm sure he saw my upset.
He wrapped my arm up fairly tightly. I could tell he was taking his time and I just wanted to lay down. I didn't care where we were going I just wanted to lay down and actually rest. I felt horrible and I was clearly overly emotional and I just didn't want to deal with any of this. Zemo had told me so much about where I had come from and it was hard enough to process it when I had so much all going on.
"You're upset." He said softly.
"I'm going to go lay down." I said trying to push past him but he blocked the door.
"Val." He said with little to now emotion.
"No, you want distance and that's fine but you're not going to pick and choose when you're talking to me." I said trying to push him out of the way but he held out his arm.
"Can we just talk for a minute?" He asked me.
"I don't want to Bucky." I said as I felt my eyes welling up with tears.
"I'm sorry Val, I'm just worried about you. I don't like this either." He said in a hushed voice putting his arm around my waist.
"No, just please no." I said pushing back against his chest. "Cut it out."
I walked out into the main area of the plane and I curled up into a seat in a far off corner. I brought my knees into my chest and rested the side of my head on them. I looked out the plane window and tired to focus of crying quietly. I was just done.
I wanted to just focus on this mission and figure all of this out when it was done. I missed Morgan and I missed Bucky and I was worried about this Karli girl and what she was planning. Nothing seemed to be peaceful anymore and I just longed for the days before this all got complicated again.