Fire and Ice

•45•

Outside the Raft, there's a Quinjet waiting, and they all hurry into it. As soon as the ramp closes, they take off, flying as high as the thing will go as well as turning on the camouflage feature.

Kate uneasily makes her way to the front, to the bob of blonde hair she doesn't quite recognize in the pilot's seat. Bucky is in the other seat, missing most of an arm — the metal one.

"How was prison?" the blonde bob asks.

Kate leans on Bucky's seat, looking at Nat's smirking face glancing at her as she pilots the jet. She smiles. "What are you doing here?"

"I officially switched sides."

"Good call. And glad to see I'm finally the only red head on the team."

"Well, I'll grow it out eventually. I'll miss the red too much."

Kate sighs. "Good things never last."

"I don't know, sometimes they do."

"Yeah, sure."

"So, what now?" Clint asks. "What's the plan?"

"Run," Steve replies. "Tony, Bucky, and I... the psychologist — Baron Zemo the news said — killed the remaining super soldiers. His real plan was to tear us apart from the inside. I'd say he did that. He's been arrested, but he basically succeeded. We fought each other. It wasn't pretty. So, it's either run or be put back in prison."

Clint shakes his head. "No, I- I can't do that. Either of those things. I can't be away from my family. My address is on file now, it's not like I can just hide there from the authorities."

"I got a daughter, guys," Scott adds. "I'm with him."

Nat shrugs. "Well, Ross might give you a deal if you turn yourselves in. You could ask for house arrest."

"That means staying hidden for just long enough for him to really start looking before coming out of hiding," Clint says.

"Exactly."

"It's worth a shot."

"I'm game to run," Sam says. "I'm not turning myself in. Only family I've got is this."

"I'm running, too," Nat adds.

"Me, too," Steve says.

Kate stays quiet. Bucky and Wanda do, too. Nat glances at Kate again. "And? What about you, Kate?"

"Well..." she starts "... I don't really have a choice, do I? I don't have a house to be arrested in, besides the Avengers compound, and I can't live there anymore." Kara still lives in the house in Queens, and she would let her live there, but she can't ask her to do that. Jones and his wife would let her stay with them, too, if she asked. They've kept in touch, up until the Accords happened and things went crazy. The last time she saw them was after Sokovia, when she went to get some of her dad's things. She won't be able to contact them now. Maybe never again.

"I don't have a choice, either," Bucky says.

Everyone turns to Wanda. She's been sitting on the floor, now out of the straight jacket but still slightly out of her mind. She shrugs. "I don't think I do, either."

Nat nods. "Alright. First things first, we head to a safe place to lay low. I know a few places, but it won't be a short flight, so get comfortable."

"Anything is more comfortable than one of those cells," Scott says. Everyone else agrees wordlessly, settling in for the flight. Kate sits next to Wanda, keeping watch while she recovers.

"So," Kate asks, "what we were you guys doing for weeks and weeks that prevented you from getting us sooner?"

"We were waiting for Nat," Steve replies.