⤷ march 29, 2014
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When she finally reaches the top floor of the Triskelion, Irina's eyes dart to the helicarriers instantly. There's distant gunfire, Sam flying in the air, dodging ballistics, and explosions everywhere.
She can't tell where Steve is, what he's doing, but she knows he's there, fighting the action head on. It's what he always does. What he always may do.
She steps up to the edge, looking at the helicarriers that continue rising into the air. She can't jump to them, not from where she was. But if she was given a boost...
Her eyes drag down to her hands, her fingers twitching.
The idea comes. It's stupid, downright suicidal...but it was an idea.
Taking a deep breath, Irina slowly retraces her steps back a long way. Once she's far enough away from the ledge, she exhales, and sprints, full speed, back to it. She concentrates. Balls of blue vibrate and form in the palms of her hands, fingers curling and moulding it.
Once she's there, a step away from falling to her death, she pushes the energy out, leaping off the roof as the energy explodes, launching her freely through the air.
She screams.
She screams, loud and terrified, as she flies with no wings, towards the closest helicarrier. For a moment, she doesn't think she can make it, but then —
Irina's landing is harsh, her body rolling many times over before it slows to a stop on her back, and she can press her feet into solid ground again.
She made it.
For a quick moment, she just takes a breather. A long, steady breather, in order to catch her breath. She lays there, on the cement runway, head tilted back as her chest rises and lowers, and groans.
"This is why I quit," she pants. "I can't keep doing this shit."
"Irina?"
Immediately, she's sitting upright, looking over at the voice that called for her with such surprise and confusion.
It's Steve.
Irina stands up, gaping at the captain. He has a new uniform, looks more toned-down and army-worn, but he's still Steve; baby blues wide and shining, pink lips parted, shield in hand.
"Steve?" She chokes out.
Whatever hesitance and wariness Steve might have held in his eyes upon seeing her diminishes instantly, and his shield is on his back, his footsteps hurrying towards her. Their eyes, brown and blue, don't look away from one another, even as Irina's start welling up with tears.
Steve.
It's Steve.
Steve came.
"Irina," Steve exhales her name like it's a breath of fresh air. A spring breeze, a prayer. His hands, though gloved and rough, rise up and cup her cheeks ever so softly, cradling her in them like she's the entire world. "Irina, is it really you? Are you really — can you really still remember me?"
Irina breaks out into the widest of smiles she's ever had, the tears that had built up, casting a shine to her eyes, falling down her cheeks as she leaps into him, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing, desperate to hold onto Steve and never be taken from him again.
"Steve," she sobs, "Steve, it's you, Steve. Steve, Steve, Steve!" She chants with chokes and sobs, tears raining down her cheeks, wetting his uniform.
Steve's hands brush over her waist, as if unsure she was really there, but when his fingers touch her, they jolt back, as if shocked. Steve punches out a breath, and then his arms are wrapping around her waist, squeezing her back with more gentle care, taking his strength into account, but still wanting to never let her go, and showing it.
"They didn't change you," Steve murmurs. "Thank God they didn't change you, too. Irina, thank you. Thank you," he says, voice thick with emotion. "Thank you so much for staying."
Her thumb brushes gently over the skin at the back of his neck, eyes fluttering shut. The action causes a few more tears to cascade down her cheeks. "Thank you so much for coming," she whispers.
There's a distant voice in Steve's ear, and she notices the comm piece stuck in it. It sounded like the female agent from the helicarrier, two years ago. Hill, was it? After a moment, Steve breaks the hug, but keeps one hand on her waist as the other presses against the comm. "Right. Sam, can you give me a ride?"
"What's the plan, Steve?" She asks, her arms sliding from his neck to hold his biceps, frowning. They were back in the game now. A battle needed winning.
Steve looks at her with a stern frown. "You're going to get off this thing. That's the plan for you," he says.
"What — Steve!" She exclaims.
"I can't risk losing you to HYDRA again, Irina! I can't. I won't."
"You can't really risk losing me if what we're doing right now is taking them down," insists Irina. "I want to end them more than anyone — actually, probably just a close second to you... but who gives a damn about technicalities — look, Steve, just let me do this with you!"
Steve's eyes dance between hers, flickering, unsure, but she raises her eyebrows, pushing, and he lets out something between a sigh and low groan. "Jesus — alright. How did you even get out?" He asks as he leads her towards the edge of the helicarrier.
She smirks. "Did what I did best, is all," she shrugs. "And by that I mean I kicked ass and did some major cool sneaking around that should have earned me the Pink Panther theme playing overhead as I did it."
The soldier snorts softly, looking over the edge of the helicarrier, before looking back at her in amusement. "I missed you," he admits.
Her smile falters slightly. "I thought you were mad at me. About not telling you about — y'know..." she murmurs.
Steve shakes his head. "No. No, I could never be mad at you for being scared. Whatever happens, whatever will happen...whatever you did or will do that's bad, I'll stand beside you. I'll never leave you again," he promises, regarding her with a soft look in his eyes. "You're a good person, Irina. A really good one."
Irina looks back at him, lips pursed. "I'm sure there are many who disagree," she mumbles, looking over the edge.
Steve's eyes remain on hers. "I don't care. This is what I think, what I know. It doesn't matter what you did then. What matters is what you do now. And you're doing damn good things," he says. "Now, you ready?"
She glances at the soldier. "Ready for what —" But before she can even finish her question, Steve wraps an arm around her waist, and jumps off the edge of the helicarrier, taking her with him. Instantly, her arms latch around his torso, and she screams, "Not again! Not again!"
They're only in the air for a few seconds, before Sam is swooping in, taking Steve's free hand and pulling them towards another helicarrier. He groans, the weight of them straining, but he manages it, setting them down on the ground and landing beside them. She and Sam make eye contact, the latter looking surprised to see her.
"When did you join the party?" He asks.
"A few minutes ago. Missed me?"
"You missed a cool reveal."
"Oh really? Care to tell me 'bout it?"
"Nah, it'll ruin the fun," Sam says with a grin, before looking at Steve. "You know, you're a lot heavier than you look."
Steve shrugs. "I had a big breakfast," he murmurs.
Irina chuckles, but their brief moment of camaraderie is quickly gone, when the Winter Soldier makes his appearance. He pushes Steve off the edge of the helicarrier, the solider falling out of sight.
"Steve!" shouts Sam, stretching his wings to go after him, but the Soldier grapples one, and throws him back.
The veteran stabilizes his position in the air, taking out two guns and raining fire on the Soldier, who dodges with expertise behind a canon. Sam stashes away the guns, looking over at Irina, who had frozen, staring at where the Winter Soldier had hidden away, panic in her eyes. "Hey!" He calls. "You gonna be all right?"
Words failing her, Irina just nods, and Sam returns it with slight hesitance. He goes after Steve, but the Soldier appear again, shooting a hook that latches onto his wing. The Soldier tears it off, and Sam falls to the ground. "Sam!" cries Irina, running to him.
But the Winter Soldier is faster, pushing Sam off the edge, one wing down. Irina scrambles to the edge as the Soldier stands back, peering over it to look at Sam's falling figure. She's barely able to watch him draw a parachute before a hand roughly grabs at her hair, throwing her back.
She grunts, landing on her rear. The Soldier approaches her, eyes cold as ever, and she scrambles desperately away. "Hold on — hold on!" She pleas, feeling the harsh cement scrape at the skin of her palms as she tries to get away.
The Winter Soldier lifts his foot, kicking her chest and sending her back down, and keeps his foot there to press down on her, constricting her breathing. Irina claws at it, coughing and struggling, weak grunts escaping her lips. "Пожалуйста..." she pauses, staring into his eyes, "...Bucky."
And for the first time for her, she sees the Winter Soldier freeze.
That name.
Was the man who held her at gun point thousands of times, who has choked her to near death, and sliced her chest open whilst she begged for her life...
...was he truly Bucky, Steve's best friend?
The Soldier's eyes shine with confusion again, but it's hazed over, any warmth returning to an ice cold chill. He swiftly takes out a pistol, cocking it and pointing it at her head. She freezes, meeting his eyes with a terrorized one.
Please.
It can't end like this.
"Bucky — "
The Soldier's expression tightens, and right as his finger squeezes the trigger, his hand jerks down. The bullet goes off, but goes through her shoulder instead of her brain.
The agony is still there, and Irina lets out a shout of pain, but she isn't dead. Gritting her teeth, she throws her arm out and harshly elbows the Soldier's knee, taking advantage of his wavering.
The Winter Soldier's foot slips off of her. Irina rolls away, and scrambles behind a jet as he recovers. She clutches onto her shoulder for dear life, putting pressure on the bleeding wound as her chest rises and lowers in short, panicking breaths.
She hears the Soldier shuffle a small ways away and let out a small grunt before she hears him slowly stride away, heavy boots stomping against the ground. Her eyes flutter shut, and she freely lets out a sigh of relief.
But crap, she's screwed. She doesn't have a comm, so she can't keep up to tabs on whatever the hell the others were doing, but it had to have something to do with taking down the Insight helicarriers one way or the other.
Irina glances out from behind the jet, watching the Winter Soldier yank open a door before disappearing.
She decides to catch her breath a few seconds more, working on calming herself down as much as she could with an open bullet wound and being fresh out of torture.
"Okay," she puffs out. "Okay, Irina. You've got this. You've got this...Fuck, I don't got this," she tilts her head back, letting it hit the metal outside of the fighter jet. "I hope you're rotting in hell, Fury, you son of a bitch."
Irina steps out from behind the jet, limping her way to the door the Soldier had gone through. She pulls it open awkwardly with her uninjured arm, sliding through and walking down the long stairwell, her footsteps echoing.
The helicarrier's surface and inside so far seemed completely deserted, and she wanted to assume it was because of the Soldier, but she could never be certain. Not with HYDRA.
Occasionally, as she made her way down, her shoulder would spike with pain, and she would have to stop for just a second to apply more agonizing pressure and catch her breath before continuing.
But even then, Irina stopped very few times, desperate to hurry down so she can find someway to stop the helicarrier, even if it probably meant at the expense of her own life.
But that was okay, because she was one of the only people worth dying so that millions more could live.
When she makes it down the last staircase, there's distant sounds of fighting, grunts and shouts echoing through the metal walls to her. One such cry sounded like Steve, and then, Irina disregarded all pain in her shoulder, and barged through the door into the glass dome area.
She runs along the metal walkway, hand sliding against the railing to help hold her up as her eyes dart to Steve and the Soldier engaged in intense combat.
She walks to the centre, where, among many chips shining green, one was missing.
Irina frowns, looking back over the rim just as Steve slides down and grabs an identical chip. It looked near identical to all the others, but was different in some way. The plan quickly clicking together in her mind, Irina leans over the railing slightly and stretches out her non-bleeding arm to the captain.
"Steve!" She calls. Steve acknowledges her presence with a quick glance, before he and the Soldier are engaging in combat once again. "Hand it to me! Now!" She screams.
She can't see if Steve reacts to her, probably too caught up in fighting his former best friend. But then, when the sliver of an opening arises, he's quick to chuck the chip at her, before the Winter Soldier tackles him off the small metal platform they were on, the both of them falling down to the bottom of the glass dome.
Irina catches it, looking down worriedly at where Steve fell. She relaxes when he stumbles up and waves at her, looking up with a grimace. "Go! I've got this!" He says.
She nods once, leaning away with a grunt and stumbling back to the shelves of targeting chips. Looking down at the one in her hand, she huffs. "Let this be the end, you son of a bitch," she whispers.
Irina looks back at the empty slot, and with no more hesitation, she places the chip inside.
There's a beep the signifies to her the success of their mission, the end of the majority of HYDRA, but her relief is swiftly gone in the wake of a gun firing.
"Steve," she whispers. Irina whips around, stumbling back to the railing and peering over it. There Steve was, lying against the glass floor, blood staining the white of his uniform from a bullet wound to the stomach. "Steve!" She shouts.
Briefly, their eyes meet, and Steve pants, breaths shallow. Irina's eyes are desperate, shining with worry and fear as she looks at him. His lips form the word, voice too weak to speak it loud enough for her to hear.
"Go."
She punches out a breath, as if the word was revolting to her. "No," she pants, gripping the railing with both hands, each slippery with her own blood. She shakes her head. "No, no, no..."
Steve's lips form the word again as he tilts his head back, shutting his eyes.
"Go."
"No, no," her voice thickens with tears. Irina pushes herself up. "No. No, I'm not letting you go, Steve Rogers. Damn it!" She hisses, another spike of pain pouring from her shoulder with another gush of blood, thick and red.
There's a scream of pain, and both eyes drift over to the Soldier, stuck under a fallen pillar of metal, straining against it with all his strength, but to no avail.
She meets Steve's eye again, recognizing the desperate, pleading light in his baby blues.
"I have to help him."
She purses her lips.
"After all he's done?"
Steve nods.
"He's my friend."
Irina pauses, her lips parting slightly. She wants to let the Winter Soldier die with HYDRA, after all he's done, to her and to others.
She wants never to fear him again, to not worry about his cold blue eyes peering at her through her apartment window as he readies the sniper shot to kill her, to not have to glance over her shoulder every time she passes by a dark alleyway or street corner, the perfect time to drag her away and have her killed in silence, never to be seen again.
But Steve.
Steve wants to have his best friend back.
Despite all the terrible acts the Soldier has committed, all he's done...
...Steve still wants him in his life.
Just like her.
She swallows, letting out a shaking breath. After a moment, Irina nods, despite the sad look on her face.
"Then go save him."
Steve's smile is weak, but it's still there while he stumbles up and over to the Winter Soldier. With a tired pant, Irina slowly climbs over the railing, despite the pained grunts she gives with her shoulder screaming at her to stop. She falls down to the metal platform Steve had, and lays for just a moment to suppress any sob of pain she might have given.
"You know me," says Steve.
"No, I don't!" She hears the Winter Soldier scream.
Irina opens up her eyes, not knowing they had squeezed shut in the first place. Fire and smoke rang around them. She didn't even know the Insight helicarriers had begun raining fire down on one another until then. They were going down, and she knew they couldn't get out in time to safety.
"Bucky," Steve pants. "You've known me your whole life."
The Soldier roars again, another sound of impact reaching her ears. Irina pushes herself off her back and over onto her stomach. With her unhurt arm, she presses her hand against the metal surface and pushes herself up, whimpering slightly with pain. The blood that coats her hand from pressuring her bullet wound ends up making it slip. Her face clashes with the harsh metal.
Irina groans, pushing herself back up again, pulling up her knees so she can stand on them.
In the distance, she hears Steve, tired and panting, bleeding out, but determined and confident, still pushing forwards. "Your name...is James Buchanan Barnes."
"Shut up!" cries the Winter Soldier, throwing another punch that meets Steve's shield. Still, the blonde stumbles back, too weak to fight anymore, only talk to the Soldier — to his friend.
"Steve," pants Irina softly under her breath, stumbling to her feet. They slip on the vibrating surface of the collapsing helicarrier, but she holds herself steady. Because no matter what, she's getting to Steve.
"I'm not gonna fight you," Steve says to the Soldier, dropping his shield. It falls out a hole in the glass, disappearing below. "You're my friend."
The Soldier lets out another roar, tackling Steve to the ground.
Another violent shake sends Irina tumbling over the edge of the platform, falling to the collapsing glass dome below. She lands awkwardly on her hip, and hears it crack with a cry of pain.
Behind her, there's grunts, punches being shoved again and again into Steve's face. She watches, hopelessly, as the Winter Soldier brutalizes her friend's face. "You're my mission!" He grunts with every punch.
"No," she whispers, reaching out her arm to crawl desperately towards them. Towards Steve. Because not him. Anyone but him. Let her die, let her lose her life — not him, anyone but him. "Please..."
The Soldier raises another punch, but pauses. She hears Steve speak, his voice slurred with pain. "Then finish it," he murmurs. "'Cause I'm with you 'til...the end of the line."
The Winter Soldier freezes.
And then, the pillar at the centre of the room collapses, breaking apart the glass beneath them.
And Steve falls.
"No!" Irina hears herself scream, reaching out, and watching hopelessly as the Soldier latches on to the helicarrier, and her friend falls to the waters below.
From where he holds on, the Soldier looks up from where he watches Steve fall, and meets her eyes with shining blue ones, the first time she ever sees the light of a real, breaking human in him.
The rest of the dome collapses, the two remaining bodies following closely after their friend.
And somewhere in the world,
the sun goes out.
𓆩*𓆪
Irina gasps to life.
Somehow, she's ended up on a beach, not too far from the Triskelion. She's soaking from head to toe, and from the way she immediately begins coughing up hacks of water, she knows she'd ended up in the water.
But how did she get out?
Turning onto her right, on her uninjured hip, Irina continues to softly gasp, catching her breath. The last remains of water in her lungs are coughed up before she hears the sound of splashing coming from the bay the last helicarrier had fallen into.
She looks over, watching the Winter Soldier drag out Steve's body from the waters, and drop him onto the sands of the beach.
Her breath hitches, aching to go and touch her friend, make sure he's still alive, and, thanks to whatever saint that may be out there, she watches him softly gasp for air. And sighs with relief.
They'd made it.
Steve'd made it.
And then the Soldier turns to her.
Irina looks up at him, at the conflicted look in his eyes as his eyes drift from Steve to her. She freezes, gulping softly, worried for another fight she knew she couldn't win.
But then he lowers to one knee, and looks into her eyes.
And then stands back up, walking around her, and slowly trekking down the beach.
Irina finds her breathing patterns again, and coughs. "W — Wait!" She stammers out, turning around and slowly forcing herself up, despite the screams of her body and mind, soar and battered as they were.
The Winter Soldier does not stop, not until she's stumbling after him, following without even knowing why, only that she needs to stop him. Needs to get to him while she can.
Her hand reaches out flimsily, barely brushing against the Soldier's before he's whipping around and raising his metal fist to punch her.
She tosses her hands up beside her head, eyes wide as she portrays physically that she means not to touch him again. "Hey, hey," she whispers hastily. "Just calm down, okay? Please?" She asks weakly.
The Soldier pauses, expression unsure, his bottom lip wobbling while his eyes look conflicted. After a long silence, he slowly lowers his fist, and Irina lets out a relieved breath.
"Okay. See? No harm from me. Just — " she frowns, "...where do you plan on going?"
God, it was insane, talking to the Winter Soldier as if she knew him. Maybe she should leave, go back to Steve and get them both to the hospital. But then —
"...Don't know," the Soldier grunts softly, his eyes still on hers, watching her for any sudden movements.
Irina purses her lips. "I — Okay... Don't worry — Hey, hey..! I — Listen, shit, I...hear me out on this, alright?" She asks. "I don't know who you are. I don't...I don't want to know entirely, but..." she meets his eyes, an empathetic light in her own, "...I feel like you're like me, in a way. So I — I think I want to help you," she forces out.
The Soldier looks at her, regarding her with distrust. To him, she's still a traitor, someone untrustworthy. Fair opinion, really. She could just leave him, let him run off...but she thinks of Steve, lying a small ways back, unconscious, and only wondering if his best friend could come back to him like she had.
"They didn't change you. Thank God they didn't change you, too. Irina, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for staying."
Irina's eyes set in determination. "Let me help you. For Steve," she says. That gets a jerk out of him. "I'm going to stretch out my hand, okay? Standard business proposal procedure. I'm going to hold it out. If you agree, you shake it. If you don't...you just go on your way," she looks at him sternly, "but it'll break Steve."
The Soldier lets out a small huff, trying to act like her last words mean nothing, but when he glances away, she sees the conflict raging in his eyes, lips parting and shutting as he struggles to think.
"Bucky," she whispers. The Soldier's eyes dart back to her, shining with something she couldn't identify. Her lips purse into a frown, eyes shining earnestly, "...please."
He frowns, swallowing nervously. He looks away again, face now hidden by his dangling brown locks.
There's a small punched out breath, and then the Winter Soldier is staring at her again, eyes set.
𓆩*𓆪
Me when "Thank you so much for staying.";"Thank you so much for coming." is this fanfic's equivalent to "You came?";"You called.":
"Пожалуйста." = "Please."
Anyways we're almost done with Act Two how we feeliiiiinnn??
Good? Good :)
NEXT CHAPTER 🗣️🗣️
𓆩*𓆪