I just want to take a moment to say thank you. I know there aren't many of you who read every chapter and stay up to date with my story, but I owe you so much. I've had a rough couple of months, as I'm sure we all have, and the amount of positivity and support you've all shown me has helped so much. You're honestly the best. You're the real heroes of this story. I just think you should know that.
ALINA
"Alina, come on!" Steve was standing behind my shoulder, looking in a panicky way between the bomb and Wheel's body. He was only unconscious, but at least he was out cold, for now. He'd managed to burn a hole through my jacket and shirt. My right shoulder, only just above my bandages, was beginning to blister. Steve had been hit in the leg, volts of electricity had gone through him. I thought he was going to die. Luckily the super soldier serum was handier than I'd thought.
"I'm trying." I hissed, my tongue between my teeth. The bomb was open in front of me as I worked through the wires and circuit boards. "They really wanted to make sure this bomb wasn't going to be diffused easily."
"Alina we have 30 seconds." Steve reminded me.
"Do you want to do this?" I shot back, sweat from my concentration dripping down my cheeks. Though it wasn't surprising given the day I'd had, even I had to admit I had sweat a lot that day. I swore that if I got out of this alive I'd take the hottest, longest bath possible.
Steve sighed. "You're better than me." He admitted.
"Damn right I am, one wrong move and this whole thing blows, you're lucky I have steady hands."
"You were shaking like a leaf earlier."
"Steven Rogers I will bitch slap you back into the 1940s if you don't shut the hell up." I responded, wiping the sweat off my face before trying to get back to my work. "I don't have the right gear for bomb diffusion, this is nearly impossible." I carefully snapped another wire.
"I'm lucky you're a Stark."
I paused. "If you get out this, and I don't, tell him I'm sorry." I didn't turn around. I didn't want him to see the look on my face. "And tell him I love him."
"You'll be able to tell him yourself." Steve placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Don't touch me when I'm working." I shook him off, still working, my hands moving as fast as I could push them without accidentally blowing myself up, and Steve along with me. "I don't have that super soldier blood that you do. I don't heal like you do, and I can't heal myself. I've done the calculations in my head. Even you must realise that out of the both of us you're more likely to live if I'm unable to stop this. Just... promise me Steve. Please. Promise me you'll tell him."
Steve crouched down beside me. "Ali-"
I stopped working and put my hands on the sides of the device in front of me to steady myself. I turned to look at him finally, silent tears tracking their way down my face.
"Promise me Steve." I whispered. He realised in that second that I wouldn't be able to do it, something I'd worked out just before him but hadn't truly accepted until then. He realised in that moment that I was doomed, that I'd been holding out for him, trying to save him from the horrible truth.
His beautiful golden retriever smile was wiped from his face, his expression as broken as I felt. "Alina..."
"Please." I took in a shaky breath. "Promise me?"
BOOM!
The room exploded into unbearable heat and bright red light. The floor disappeared and I was thrown sideways, falling down and down and down.
My vision went dark.
I was standing on a beach. Four years old again, with frizzy brown curls down to my shoulders, clutching a sea shell in my chubby little hands.
"DADDY!" I shouted, running back from the shore. "Daddy, look!"
I unclasped my fingers to show him the gorgeous cream and peach shell in my hands, it's middle a spiral.
"Wow!" He took it from me, turning it around in his fingers. "This is beautiful sweet pea." He ruffled my hair, making me giggle. "We're going to have to keep this one." He put it with the mountain of other shells I'd collected beside him, all of which he'd said we had to keep.
I beamed, and clasped my hands behind my back, swaying slightly on the spot. "Are you going to show uncle Tony?" I asked.
"Hey Tony!" He called to the man beside him who had a book open, resting on his face. He laughed and shook the man. "Tony, look at what Ali found."
Uncle Tony grunted and removed the book, dropping it beside him. He whipped off his sunglasses and looked at it. "Cool."
"Hey, c'mon man, it's beautiful." My father laughed. "She's really got an eye for those kinds of things, hasn't she?"
Uncle Tony raised an eyebrow at me. "Do you want to collect things when you're older?" He asked me.
"I want pretty things." I smiled. "Like the robots Daddy makes."
"You should try making them yourself." He glanced at my father. "Have you got her building circuit boards yet?"
He shook his head. "She's too young for that, just let her have a childhood."
Uncle Tony shook his head but after a warning look from my father winked at me and said, "Real pretty kid." He put his sunglasses back on and gingerly put his book on top of him. Before long he'd resumed his gentle snoring.
"Maria!" My father called. "Look what Ali found."
My mother walked up the beach from her swim in the sea, trying to wring out her hair a little. "Let me see." She picked the shell up. "This is a real find Ali, where'd you get it from?"
"Over there." I pointed at the sandy sea shore. "In the wet bit. It was all ucky so I washed it in the sea."
"Well you've made it all clean." She gave me a kiss on my cheek. "You know with these shells if you put them to your ear you can hear the sea calling to you."
"You can?" I asked, eyes wide.
"Look, let me show you." She bent down and pressed the open part of the spiral to my ear. "Can you hear it?"
I nodded. "I can hear it Mommy."
It was the sea, calling to me. Its soothing rumbling swirling round and round in my ear, waves crashing onto the shore, over and over again, moving in and out. The white foam running up and down my little legs. It was the sound of home.
With a gasp I opened my eyes and spat out the dust that had filled my mouth. I coughed until I thought I would hack up a lung and then spat out the grit from my tongue.
"Steve?" I croaked. I couldn't see through the rubble. I couldn't see anything but dust and blocks of concrete. My body was at an awkward angle in a tiny pocket of rubble, blocks of concrete all around me. Somehow, as if by magic, my head hadn't been crushed. A couple of metal beams were sticking out all over the place. I heard a trickle of liquid running around my feet. I looked down, expecting to see blood, but even in the dim lighting I could tell it was water. A pipe had burst, and it was beginning to fill the small area I was in.
It was pitch black, the electricity had gone out, and I had fallen at least three floors downwards when the explosion had hit.
"Steve!" I called out louder this time, panic beginning to take over. I began pulling bricks off my stomach and lifting them away with my free hand, allowing both of my arms full movement. I tried to get up in the cramped space but my leg was stuck under what seemed to be the remains of the floor from above. I cursed under my breath and tried to lift it. Even though I was strong, really strong, it wouldn't budge. My muscles bulged as I tried again to shift the massive rock, but it was in vain. It wouldn't move. Not even a tiny bit. As the shock began to drain from me I realised with a start that my leg had been crushed. I couldn't feel anything but a horrific pain coming from my right leg.
"STEVE!" I shouted. I got no response. I pulled the radio out of my belt and clicked on it.
"Hello, someone, anyone, come in?" It didn't even crackle. I hit it against one of the rocks closest to me and tried again. It was broken. With a yell I chucked it as hard as I could, but it rebounded against a piece of caved in ceiling and hit me in the head.
"Ow." I muttered. I was basically sitting down, my legs stretched in front of me. I could feel the water getting up to my waist now. I held out a had and light steamed from my fingers. I let the orb float in the air. The water was filling up fast.
"STEVE!" I screamed. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I was going to die, I was going to drown.
"STEVE!" I screamed again at the top of my lungs. I bent over and coughed again, a grating cough that hurt inside my chest. "STEVE!"
"ALI?!" My heart leapt out of my chest.
"Oh my god, STEVE!" I called. "I'm over here, I'm stuck! Something's crushing my leg, I can't lift it!"
"I'm coming, keep talking to me."
"Okay, I've cast some light."
"I can't see it, I think you're under some rubble." I cast another orb and moved it out between the cracks.
I coughed again, the bitter taste of blood in my mouth. "Can you see that?"
"I can see it, I'm on my way." I heard bits of rubble shifting and moving around. "Call to me again." The voice sounded closer this time.
"There's water, it's past my waist, a pipe burst." I replied, trying to shift my leg out from underneath the rubble. Yet again, no use.
"Just give me a second." The voice was close now. A huge piece of concrete lifted up in front of me and was thrown to one side.
Steve's face was glowing from my light, his cheeks covered in dirt and dust, with a fresh cut on his lip. I had never been happier to see him. I thought my chest might explode.
"Oh thank god." I sighed, putting my hand on my chest. "I thought you were dead."
"Can't get rid of me that easily." He grinned, jumping down into the space I was in, his feet splashing as they hit the ground. The water was nearly up to my chest now. "I'm going to get you out of here, okay?"
"Don't keep talking, help me lift this thing." I tugged at the massive slab of concrete.
Steve sucked in a breath as he looked at my leg.
I snapped my fingers in his face. "Yeah, I know, I'm very aware it's not great, we don't have time to think about the damage right now, help me get this off me."
"Yeah, alright." He bent down and together we tried to lift it up. It made a grinding noise as we lifted it a couple of inches. It slammed back down on my leg and I screamed in agony.
"Sorry!" He yelped.
"It's fine." I grunted. "It's heavy."
He crouched down and together we began to heave the at the flooring. The water was up to my chest now.
"Don't. Drop. It." I panted, my aims straining from the shared weight.
"I'll do my best." He groaned, his face going red from the effort of keeping it up. "Can you move your leg yet?"
"No, my foot is caught on something." I shot some light down the crevice we'd made above my leg. "It's a piece of metal wire."
"How thick?" He grunted.
"Pretty thick."
"Can you unhook it?" He asked, his arms shaking.
I leant over and tried to pull at my foot which was complete submersed in water. "I don't think so." I muttered. When I leant forwards to reach my foot the water was up to my neck.
He gave out a little groan. "Either move it or get your head out of there, I can't hold this much longer."
"I'm trying!" I shot back, tugging at my leg.
"Alina!" He warned. "It's slipping!" I felt the slab on my shoulders, pressing down on me.
"Don't crush me!" I yelled, hands scrambling desperately at my foot, slipping over my boot. "Just!" I pulled my head out and grabbed a rock from nearby.
"What are you doing?"
"Shut up!" I leant forward and steadied my nerves. I let out a yell as I smashed my bone with the rock.
"What the hell Ali!"
I smashed it again, hearing the crunch of bone against stone. I wrenched my foot free and rolled sideways my face going underwater just as the flooring crashed back down. I burst through the surface of the murky water, gasping for air.
Steve sank down to the floor, laughing in relief. After a second I joined in and together we giggled manically for a few moments.
He turned to look at me, a grin spreading over his face, his golden hair no longer neat and perfect, his cheeks flecked with water and grime.
I grabbed the front of his suit, pulled him to me, and kissed him. He cupped my face as he kissed me back, his hands wet from with water. I pulled him closer as relief and adrenaline flooded through me, unable to get enough. The kiss with Nat was sweet, but this was something else entirely. I felt safe. Safe like I'd never felt before.
When the kiss finally broke he rested his forehead on mine, both of us breathing hard, his thumb stroking my cheek.
"Glad you didn't slap me back into 1940?" He asked breathlessly.
"Keep talking and I won't be." I snorted.
He pulled away from me and stood up. "Let's get you out of here."
"Please." He put his arms under my shoulders and knees and lifted me up. I winced as my right leg hit a jagged piece of concrete.
"That looks really nasty." He breathed, glancing at my foot. It was hanging limply from my ankle as though it wasn't really a part of my body and had just been added on for symmetry.
"It fucking feels it." I grimaced, my arms wrapping tightly around his neck.
He began to make his way cautiously over the rubble, making sure to avoid hitting my leg on anything. My lights followed us, showing a path through the wreckage. Doorways were blown apart, cell bars were lying randomly in the rubble.
I took a sharp intake of breath.
"Did I hit it?" He asked quietly.
"No, it's just," I winced again, "adrenaline is wearing off a little, it just hurts, that's all."
I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against his chest, feeling my body move up and down with every step he took.
"Nearly there now." He murmured. "I can see an exit."
I nodded, trying to keep my breathing steady. If this was anything like what Roara had experienced in that cave I wasn't surprised she'd gone insane. This pain was enough to drive anyone crazy. She'd walked like this too and even though I wanted to punch her in that smug face I had to give it to her, the woman had guts.
I felt the fresh air on my face and heard shouts.
"I can't fight like this Steve." I held tighter to him.
"I know, I'll find someplace safe." He sped up and as soon as the sunlight hit my face I thought I would weep with joy.
"ALINA!" I heard Tony's voice calling me, coming closer. "Alina, thank fucking god." I felt my body being passed from one person to another, this time I was being held by metal arms.
"She's hurt her leg, badly." I heard Steve say, but it all sounded like it was underwater. "She had to break her ankle to pull her foot out of a wire."
"I've got it from here triangle, the others need you, they've got Hulk under some kind of spell, he's gone on a rampage."
"Bruce is here?" I asked.
"Yeah, don't worry about that now." I felt Tony lift off from the ground, but didn't open my eyes in case I was sick.
"Why'd you call Steve triangle?" I murmured.
Tony sighed. "Because he's shaped like one dumbass."
I nodded against his chest. "Sounds about right."
We landed on the outskirts of the forest, not far from the road. He laid me down on the ground and I finally felt able to open my eyes. "I feel like shit."
His helmet came down from his face and disappeared into his suit. "Well you look beautiful."
"Was that sarcastic?"
"Not in the slightest."
He took a finger and a needle came out of his suit. He pressed it into my leg and, like the injection Bucky had given me, I felt the pain melt away instantly. But this was far stronger stuff.
I sighed in relief and a dry laugh came out with it. "I've got to get me an endless supply of that stuff."
"Well you're not getting it, it's highly addictive, remember what happened to Roara?"
"Remind me?" I joked.
He inspected my leg, looking up and down it. "The only real break is in the ankle I think, but you've got a nasty gash in your thigh. Something seems to have been protecting you." He pulled out a bandage and began to wrap it tightly around my leg. I could still hear the muffled noises of fighting going on behind me.
"You should get back." I dragged myself up so I was sitting with my back to a tree trunk. "Sounds like they need you."
"Right now you need me." He didn't look up, still working on my foot. "I'm going to set the ankle, but you'll need an operation for this long-term."
"Give me some good news please doc," I looked him up and down, "cause God do I need some."
He finally looked up at me for a moment. "Aditi's alright."
I threw a twig at him. "You couldn't have told me that earlier?!"
"I wasn't at all busy with fixing your leg was I?" He retorted, going back to my foot. "Besides, I figured I'd wait until you asked for good news."
I rubbed my eyes. "That is good news."
He nodded. "Stay here. Someone will be back for you."
"Go beat their asses Iron Man!" I called as he lifted off from the ground and sped away.
I closed my eyes. Just rest, I told myself. Just five minutes. Then try to stand and go and help. Just give yourself five minutes.
I don't know if you've ever told yourself to nap for only five minutes, but it's never just five minutes and when I awoke it was mayhem.