After the Forties | 𝐁. 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡

The next day, Lyra and the team prepared themselves for the fight that was to come in just a couple of hours. Steve gave his iconic little speech to keep up the team spirit after they thought it was enough preparing. Their hearts beat imagining the chaos that might take place a few moments later. Especially Lyra.

Steve told Lyra to stay, that she didn't have to go fighting, but she insisted. To be honest, she didn't even know if it was a good idea or not to be in the fight. All in her mind was that now she had the opportunity to meet Bucky again after the longest time. It was the only chance, no one knew if she got to meet him again after this fight or not. Even if it was her fighting him. She knew that if this fight was really going to happen, she had to fight against him, against the love of her life.

She thought about it often, how she was going to meet his eyes the moment they reunited. Knowing that Bucky had been through hell all this time, she didn't have any clue if she could be someone that he could trust. Maybe not, but she was going to try anyway. It might be hard, no, difficult, to even look him in the eyes and tell him that she was his best friend, she was his lover. When he didn't remember himself, how could he remember her?

The second they would meet face to face, Lyra was sure she would be stunned and frozen. It wasn't a benefit for their team indeed to be losing focus. Because how could she just stand there and begin to fight him? That was what Steve was scared about if Lyra joined the fight. Yet, he understood her side of story. She waited her whole life for this to happen, for meeting Bucky again. He couldn't just forbid her because he even promised himself that if there was a slightest way to reunite her and Bucky then he would take the chance. It wasn't the way he wanted the reunion to be too because he didn't even expect Bucky to be alive. But that was the only chance, so even if he reassured Lyra to stay and not fight, he knew he couldn't.

So, when they all gathered with each equipment on their side, Steve sent a glance towards Lyra every one minute, silently praying for her to be okay. He just didn't want her to be disappointed seeing Bucky not in the right sense like he was to be. He didn't want her to lose her focus during the fight due to her missing feelings. He knew Lyra was mature enough to sort out her priorities, that today to save people all around the world was the top priority. But there was nothing that could guarantee that she wouldn't be distracted by Bucky.

It was nerve-wracking when Lyra thought about what could happen by the time they faced each other. She wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, a little part of him was still there. He wasn't fully The Winter Soldier that could kill anybody in a second. It might sound stupid and crazy that she believed he would come into realization the second he saw her face. Maybe by showing him her, he would be back to Bucky. It killed her internally that even when she hadn't met him yet, she already assumed and imagined things.

Lyra held the battle staves on each side of her body tighter. Fortunately, even when she'd left her staves inside her and Steve's apartment, this small S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarter provided more weapons. It was good that she didn't have to change her weaponry because she was already very familiar with those battle staves. Though, it might need a little time to adjust herself to these ones, but nothing to worry about weaponry.

Other than those battle staves, Lyra prepared herself with a small pocket of parachute behind her back and a pocket gun just in case. Fury gave her, Steve, and Sam each a replacement targeting chip for avoiding the helicarriers killing the original future victims. It hadn't been decided yet which carrier they had to go onto, so they only had to go with the flow, seeing the situation that could benefit them.

Natasha wasn't allowed to be in the big fight yet due to her loss of blood yesterday. That was another reason besides of her being the only capable hacker to put her into disguise team. Meanwhile, Maria volunteered herself to be in the controller room of Triskelion, seeing she had been there for a rather long time and had known the area inside and outside.