A/N: Alright, my darlings. Here we are, the end of the line. the last chapter. before you read it, i just want to say thank you, for sticking through this story, for staying with Camilla through 25 chapters. it means a lot to me. Here we go, friends: THE END
~A2V~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Barnes!" Nat shouted, "Barnes, what's happening?" no reply. She looked at Tony who was still trying to hack into the system with her.
Then she noticed Diana had gone stock still. They were in Pepper's office, Natasha using the main computer, while Tony was using a hologram tablet. Ever since Steve, Clint, and Bucky left to rescue Valkyrie, all Diana did was pace, and prance around. At one point she got so agitated, they had to let her out of the office. But now, she sat beside Natasha, still as a statue. Nat could swear the dog wasn't breathing. Then Diana let out a blood-curling howl. It put both Natasha's and Tony's hairs on end.
"No," Nat muttered, tears stinging her eyes.
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In a small beach house in Hawaii, Andrea Martinez sat on her bed, waiting for Knight, her large Tibetan mastiff, to come back inside from the balcony attached to her room. She noticed he had stopped pacing, and, slipping out of the sheets, she walked over to him.
"What is it, boy?" she asked as Knight stared into the horizon.
The large dog just looked at her, and gave her a small, gruff woof, then continued gazing out. She patted his head and stood to go back inside when Knight suddenly put his two front paws on the railings and sniffed the air, his ears perked up. Andy watched him closely, and then a few seconds later, Knight began whimpering like a wounded animal and cowered over to Andy.
"Knight, what is it?" she asked, crouching down and scratching his ears, trying to make sense of it all. The dog just whimpered again, like he had been wounded and nuzzled Andy's hand.
"No," Andy whispered, her voice cracking as her tears spilled. They both knew, somewhere out there, Camilla Valentin, The Valkyrie, was dead.
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James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes sat in Steve's apartment's living room, toying with the wing pendants he held in his hands. It had been three months since Val's death, and yet he remembered it like yesterday.
James rushed to her side, "Hey, hey," he murmured, "Stay with me."
"I can't believe you thought I'd kill you," Val accused, trying to smile, but the blood coming from her mouth ruined it. She coughed, spitting out blood.
"Thanks, by the way," he smiled at her.
"I love it when you smile, Bucky," she whispered, lifting her hand to rest it on his chest, where she knew her pendant would be, "You promised, remember?"
"Which one, sweets?" he asked, trying to hold back the tears as he heard the jet lower a ladder and Steve jumped out, covering their backs.
"An..." she stuttered, "And..." she didn't want to say her name, so that she would still be safe. Her eyes pleaded for him to remember.
"Yes, love, I remember," he whispered, "I remember. But you'll be there to help with that, right?" he said hopefully.
Val smiled sweetly at him, "Diana, too, ok?"
"I promise," he said, this time he let the tears fall. Even if they sped to the nearest hospital, she was bleeding out too much to get there in time.
"Bucky, we have to go," Steve said as he dispatched another gunman.
Bucky nodded and lifted Valkyrie in his arms, he walked up three steps of the ladder and let his metal hand hold on the rungs, while his human one supported Val's increasingly heavy body. She was shutting down and turning cold, James held her closer, as if his body heat could stop her from dying. He felt Steve cling to the bottom rungs and the jet started to speed off, the ladder automatically rolling up.
"James?" Val whispered, trying to breath.
"Yes, Camilla, I'm here," he whispered back, they still hadn't reached the jet entrance, the ladder taking longer than usual to roll up because of the weight. Bucky felt Steve shift from below them and watched as his best friend climbed on the other side of the ladder.
"I love you, you know, I always have," she nuzzled closer to him, "I always will."
"I love you, too, Cami," he choked out, kissing the top of her head, "Forever."
Then he felt her take one last shuddering breath, and her pulse began to fade. Steve reached down for her, and Bucky handed her over, knowing that when he would step into the plane and hold her again, she'd be dead.
He fisted his hand around the pendants and felt them mark his palm. He wanted to cry, to let it all out, but he had no more tears, he didn't even know if he had a heart. He had moved out of Stark tower after they buried her body and he and Steve rented a two-bedroom apartment in a quiet neighborhood in the city. Diana still stayed with them, but she seemed as lifeless as Bucky felt. She would eat, go on their usual walks, this time with Bucky, but her head always hung low, and she didn't even growl at squirrels like Steve said she used to. Steve was worried, but he couldn't leave his Captain duties, not when there apparently was an inter-galaxy threat brewing; and Bucky couldn't care less if the world decided to crumble tomorrow. There was no point. Just then he heard a knock on their door. Steve wasn't due back until two days, he looked at Diana who, for the first time since Val's death, actually sat up and perked up her ears. Quirking a brow, James opened the door. He should have checked who it was first, to be safe, but he really couldn't care less. What he saw on the other side surprised him. There was a young woman with honey-colored hair, cut into a short, straight bob. She was dressed in a denim jacket, cobalt blue shirt, dark denim jeans, and knee high flat boots. He couldn't tell who she was behind the large sunglasses, but when he looked beside her, he saw a black and brown dog large enough to be a small horse.
"Andy?" he asked tentatively, and the girl smiled, taking her sunglasses off to reveal a face he never thought he'd see again.
"Good morning, Sgt. Barnes, may we come in?" she asked. James moved away and let her and Knight through. As soon as Diana saw Knight she ambled over and they started play fighting.
"Before you ask me anything," Andy began, fishing through the messenger bag she had slung across her shoulders, "I just came to give you these," she pulled out a Manila envelope that was wrapped in Cling Wrap and put into a Ziploc bag. It had his name on it in black permanent marker, "It was in her will."
"How?" he asked, taking the package from Andy.
"I knew she died," Andy sighed, "Knight and I felt it. A month after, the bank in Switzerland contacted me saying that all of Val's funds and safety deposit boxes belonged to me; apparently, she had it set up that if she didn't contact them after a certain number of days, everything would pass to my name. So I flew to Switzerland, and found the key to her storage unit here. I just came back from cleaning it up."
"This was in there?" he asked, gesturing to the envelope.
"Yes," Andy nodded, "It was under her guitar with a note that said that if she, you know," Andy paused and looked out the window, trying to hold back tears, "If she went, I should give that to you."
"Thank you," James said sincerely, looking Andy in the eyes, then he enveloped her in a bear hug, "I tried, Andy, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Andy let the tears fall silently, "I know you did, Natasha told me the whole story."
Bucky pulled away and looked at her questioningly.
Andy shrugged, wiping tears away from her eyes, "I had to find you, so I went to Stark Tower. Natasha told me everything."
Bucky nodded, "I don't know what your plan is, Andy, but I promised Camilla you wouldn't even look into a life like the one she lived."
"I know, and I promise you, I'm not," Andy smiled, "I came just to clean out Val's stuff, and to give you that," she paused, then asked tentatively, "I also wanted to see if you would give me Di."
Bucky looked at the two dogs rolling on his floor and smiled, "She looks more alive than she's ever been since Cami's death," he sighed, "Yes, sure. I have a feeling you all need to heal together."
Andy beamed, then sobered immediately, "And you? What about you?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, "I guess, I'll read these and see."
Andy nodded, understanding completely, "Thank you, James Barnes," she said as she called Knight and Diana.
"No need to thank me, kid, Diana's yours by rights," he answered as he opened the door for them.
"No, Sergeant," Andy turned back to look at him before she slipped her glasses back on, "Thank you for showing the closest person I had to a mother how it was to be human, to love." She smiled and waved goodbye as James stood, awestruck, staring at their shadows disappear down the hall.
He walked back in to his empty apartment, already missing Diana's presence. He sighed then plopped down on the couch, the package in his hands. He weighed it, it was heavy, but then the Manila envelope did look like it was about to explode. He opened it and ripped apart the cling wrap. Inside were notebooks, recording tapes, CDs, and flash drives. But also, a letter addressed to him.
He pulled it out and tore it open. There was a picture of them together; it clearly wasn't taken by any of the two of them. He flipped it over and saw in Val's writing: from Pepper and Tony. In the picture, their backs were turned, and Val was leaning on his shoulder, he was shirtless. He tried to place the moment and realized it was the day after Val came back drunk, in Stark's music room. There was a second one, this one he had Val in his arms, in her black dress and him in a suit. She was looking up at him, a smile on her face. It was during that dinner in the tower, when they finally got to dance. He looked at the happy smiles on their faces, and he could still feel the press of her lips on his when they ended the dance. Apparently Pepper and Tony were very clever with their cameras. He smiled at the memories before he felt a stab of pain, and he put the picture on the coffee table and began reading the letter. It was addressed the day before they left for the Bahamas.
Dear James Buchanan Barnes aka The Winter Soldier,
Hello, love. If you're reading this then I guess I'm dead, huh? Inside this envelope is everything I could gather about Vanguard, and HYDRA. I don't think you'll need the Vanguard things, seeing as I plan to take him with me if ever I do go down, no matter what. I just hope I did. Anyway, the HYDRA information is nothing new, I'm sure Tony or Fury already have these; and they're not a big threat to SHIELD anymore, so I don't think these are needed. I don't know why I'm leaving them in your care, I guess my instinct's just telling me to do it, and my instincts have never been wrong before. Look how great you and I turned out, huh? *wink wink nudge nudge*
Kidding aside, if you're reading this, then I'm sorry, James. I'm sorry I couldn't follow through on my promise to never let you wake up alone again. I'm sorry I fought you so hard on this, on us. But hey, you made me happy, you made me human, and... I don't know, Barnes, I love you. I'm sure you tried to save me, you and Steve, and I love you even more for it. For some reason, you never gave up on a lost cause. I love you and I always will, because you, you handsome bastard, made me have a heart and then stole it from me at the same time. Don't stop living because of me, ok? Go out, have fun, take a vacation, smile more, finally LIVE your fill of 90 years of existing.
Promise you'll do that for me? Please?
I love you, James Buchanan Barnes, I loved you when you were the Winter Soldier, and I'll love you after I'm gone. Don't burn the world down while I'm not around, yeah?
Your winged tracker, with love,
Camilla
James smiled sadly at the letter, and then folded it up again. He'd report to the tower tomorrow, give them whatever was in the package. Then maybe he'll ask to disappear for a while. He looked at the letter, and then whispered "I promise." "Don't burn the world down," he muttered as he smiled, took the pictures and walked into his room, he put the letter on his desk, under one of Val's bangles that had one of her jet black feathers tied to it with leather twine that he used as a paperweight. "I love you too, Valkyrie," he said as he placed the pictures on the desk, propped up on the paperweight.