Steel Hearts

- 27 -

The trilling of the beaded bracelet caught the attention of T'Challa's kingsguard. She held her palm up, projecting a small hologram of the dome surrounding Wakanda and she announces, "Something's entered the atmosphere."

"Hey, Cap. We've got a situation here," Sam announces over our earpieces. Luckily, I had grabbed one before getting on the quinjet.

We all turn to face the window to peer outside, watching as large flaming chunks of metal were falling from the sky. They exploded upon impact with the dome.

I muse in confusion, "What the hell?"

"We have a protective dome around the city," one of T'Challa's kingsguard, Okoye, explained, "It prevents the world from seeing us and protects us from unwanted visitors."

"God I love this place," Bucky sighed lovingly.

"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys," Rhodey announces, "We got more incoming outside the dome."

"Are those ships?" I ask as they drop down into the dirt, wedging themselves upright outside of the dome. Debris was sent flying into the dome, the contact settling a rippling effect as it protected Wakanda. Several more ships wedged themselves into the ground outside of the dome.

"It's too late," Vision breathed, pushing himself upward while holding his wound. Continuing to try and stand despite the pain, "We have to Destroy the stone now."

Nat turns around and orders, "Vision, get your ass back on the table."

"We will hold them off," T'Challa decides, moving toward the doorway with his kingsguard following closely, "Evacuate the city, engage all defenses. And get this man a shield."

Steve turns to the new redhead, "Wanda, as soon as that stone's out of his head you blow it to hell."

"I will."

"Wanda," I turn her to me, embracing her quickly, "If you need me, let me know. I'll be there. You can do this."

She sucks in a deep breath, nodding ever so slightly while squeezing my hands, "Perhaps when this is all over we can have another sitcom night, yeah?"

Pulling her into another embrace, I agree, "That sounds nice."

Sending a warm smile to Vision and Shuri, I pat his arm gently before turning to follow Steve and T'Challa. He took my hand in his as we jogged side-by-side silently. I didn't bother looking at him, we both knew this was going to end in one of two ways and I just hoped it would be the best-case scenario. We only knew that if we were going to make it out of this, we needed to fight side-by-side like every other time we've fought for our lives and the lives of others.

Neither of us was fully prepared to be reunited today, but maybe that was for the better. We were running out of time and I hated that Steve had spent his entire time after the ice fighting and racing the clock. It was something I wish I could change, but I couldn't. But without it, we never would have met and I was grateful for it. As much as the two of us needed to speak on the issues between the two of us, we had bigger issues at hand. Earlier this morning I had hoped that I wouldn't see anyone, but I was grateful that he had stopped me.

Once back in the states, I was more than likely going to be arrested; but I would much rather fight for all lives across the universe than sit in a prison cell. I had many things that I wanted to say to him but didn't know how to verbalize them. The universe had a funny way of thrusting Steve and me together in the most inconvenient of times.

Bruce had gotten into Tony's Hulkbuster armor while the rest of us were loaded onto small hovering vehicles. I had one hand gripping the railing while my other was curled around Steve's torso to stay upright. He was gripping my waist tightly