Winters War

Chapter 8:

        The landing was hard but not hard enough to have me land anywhere else but on top of Sam. "Could have used that shield."I snap. "Get off of me."he says before pushing me off. I don't stay out of it for long though as I realize Blue isn't here. "Where's Blue?!" "Here." Just then I see a small hand stick up from the ground, her index finger pointing to the sky before falling back down.

      "Baby!" I quickly run to her, hoping to god some how she is okay. She lays still for a moment, her right side pressing into the dirt. "Blue?" "Yep still alive, just very tired."she responds. She sticks her hand out for me to take to help her stand. It hardly takes anything for me to get her to her feet. God she must be skin and bone.

      This time she wraps me in a hug but not the kind of hug that says "I miss you" more like you're seeing a friend. "Are you okay? What happened to you?"I start to ask as I hold her close. She pulls away and gives me this dumbfounded look. "Do I look okay?"she snaps, "I was taken and tortured by those people, no I'm not okay." "I know, I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you. I have been there Blue, I'm here for you."I tell her as I take her left hand.

       The silver ring that once rest upon her finger was gone. My heart sank a little realizing she either left it somewhere, or it was taken, but considering everything I'm thinking it was left behind. "You have a family to think about!"she shouts. "What's the big deal?! I'm just going out for a drink!" "The big deal is you're never here Bucky! You go out for a drink every night! There is a little girl in that room right now who at this rate is going to grow up not even knowing what her dad looked like because you're never here!" I just roll my eyes and grab my jacket before making my way to the door. "You can't just drink the pain away Bucky! He's gone, he's gone and not coming back!"she shouts, her voice cracking as she speaks. I remain silent as I walk out the door, slamming it shut.

        Sam finally gets up and joins us as I remember back to what they were and push back the memories of the past. "Those we're all Super Soldiers." I say to them. "I know."Sam responds. His eyes then meet Blue's, "it's really good seeing you again Blue."he says hugging her again. She just smirks for a second before turning her gaze towards the road. "Come on, we should probably head out before Karli finds us."she says before making her way back towards the road.

        For a while there is mostly silence as the 3 of us walk down the road until I finalize decide to break the ice. "Sorry about Red wing." "No you're not."Sam reply's. Blue just walks in silence. Something tells me that she is going to be this way for a while, I just wish I could figure out what happened to her.  How did she end up on that truck? What did they do to make her so, quiet? The question that weighed heaviest on my mind though was how did they break my girl?

         "What's going on in that big cyborg brain of yours?"Sam asks me. "It's computing." Sam begins to laugh before saying "you know what? I can actually see it. I can see the gears turning. Oh they're malfunctioning, shutting down. Yep their on fire." I hate this man sometimes. "We gotta figure out where the serum's coming from."I tell them. "Yeah and how in the hell after 80 years are their 8 Super Soldiers running loose?"

        Once again silence falls, all you can hear is our footsteps on the pavement. That's when I notice one set of footsteps as fallen silent. I stop and turn around to see Blue looking all around her, taking in the grey clouds, bright yellow flowers and the deep greens of the grass and trees. "Hey what's going on?"I ask as I walk towards her.

       "Where's Storm?"she asks her eyes not leaving the world before her. "She is being taken care of."I tell her. "Where is she?"she snaps. "I left her with Pepper."I tell her. I watch as the strain and stress in her shoulders relaxes just for a moment until the sound of a car forces its return. Sparks begin to jump from her finger tips, her body stiffens as she gets ready to attack. I haven't seen her this way I'm a very long time.

          John Walker and his henchmen round the corner their horn sounding. She is about to strike when I place my hand on her shoulder. Her body tenses even more than I thought it ever could making her flinch away at my touch. "Easy Blue."I tell her. She starts to calm down as the Jeep slows down beside us. Blue never flinched away from me before, she was never scared to have me touch her even back in Hydra. Whatever they did to her really messed with her.

       "So that didn't go as planned huh?"John says. Everyone just remains silent as I gently grab her hand and begin to walk away. It's then she pulls her hand away and crosses her arms as she walks. "Okay."he replies as he pulls the Jeep up again, "look at least we know what we're up against now, huh? And we're pretty sure it's one of the big 3 so." You have got to be kidding me.

         "Aliens, androids, or wizards."Sam says. "Yeah pretty sure." "There's no such thing as wizards."I tell them. "Alright then it's aliens or androids."John replies. "Or Super Soldiers." "Shit Super Soldiers, for real?"asks his friend. "Yeah." Out of habit I glance over at Blue, her body is still tense, her arms still crossed, and her eyes only focus on the ground.

        "Wow. Alright, well, then we gotta work together."John says. "That's not happening."I snap. "I think we stand a much better chance if we all just..". "Just because you carry that Shield it doesn't mean you're Captain America." "Look I've done the work, okay?" "You ever jump on top of a grenade?"I ask. "Yeah, actually I have. 4 times. It's a thing I do with my helmet. It's a reinforced helmet." "Look it doesn't matter if you have put in the work"she finally says, "just because you put in the work doesn't make you some hero. It does not make you an Avenger."

        Everyone goes silent after that for just a few moments. I can tell by the look on his face that her comment stung but I don't really care that it did. "Look, it's 20 miles to the airport. You guys need a ride." More silence. "Guys. Gary, stop. Get in." With reluctance we do first Sam, then Blue, and finally me. This is going to be a long 20 miles.