And We Go On

To the upside now

After what happened in the plaza, John takes off. He finally realizes what he’s done.
We quickly follow him and find an abandoned train station. We can hear him yelling and when we walk in, we see him kneeling on the floor against the shield. We all walk in and stop, just looking at him. Then he gets up and starts walking towards us.
Sam tries to reason with John, but he just gets more agitated.
“He didn’t kill Lemar, John. Don’t go down that road. It doesn’t end well.” Bucky says seriously.
“I’m not like you.” John bites back. Bucky just looks down.
“We don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
“John…” Bucky starts, looking at the shield.
“You gotta give me the shield man.” Sam adds.
Then John looks up at us. “Oh, so that’s what this is. You almost got me.”
“You made a mistake,”Sam adds.
“You don’t wanna do this.” John says, looking at us.
Bucky finally looks up then says, “Yeah, we do.”
Then we all launched at him. Back and forth we get tossed around. Punched. Kicked. Hit with the shield  We each try to get him at the same time but he’s good at separating us. Then John throws the shield and it launches Bucky away and into a machine. Bucky grabs the shield but John runs over and screams at him, “Why are you making me do this?!” He then launches Bucky to the other side into a pole and I see electricity course through his arm and him.
I quickly rush over to him and kneel beside him, seeing that he’s unconscious. I stay next to him then watch as John and Sam fight. As I slowly see Bucky stir, I see Sam in trouble. I quickly pull out my bow and launch some ice arrows at him, but he knocks them away. Then I see Sam trying to fly away with the shield.
He pulls Sam down, lands on top of him and pulls apart his wings.
“No!” I scream and run towards him. But John looks up and sees me coming and launches the shield at me. It hits me square in the stomach and I’m launched backwards. I get the wind knocked out of me and just lay on the floor in pain as I hear the sound of the shield hitting the ground.
“I am Captain America.” I hear John seethe. Then he picks up the shield that has somehow landed close to him again and he goes to kill Sam.
Then thankfully I hear Bucky and he crashes into John. Bucky is pretty beat up but at this point, we all are. As I finally get my breath back, I make my way to my feet and see the two of them successfully pull the shield off John. He lets out a gut wrenching yell as I hear bones snap on the arm it was strapped to. Bucky and Sam start to walk away, shield in hand, and I walk over to join them.
“It’s mine.” John says angrily. He goes for Bucky who blocks him, then clocks him with a punch right across the face. I can see the two of them have an idea and I take a step back as I watch Bucky pick John up and Sam uses his booster pack to fly up a little and slam John with the shield. They all fall to the ground and I myself drop to a knee.
They are all breathing heavily and I have a mild coughing fit. Cool. Injured by Captains shield. That wasn’t ironic. I get it under control and then look up to see Bucky. He slowly rises and picks up the shield then walks over to Sam. He drops the shield next to Sam, looks at him, and I can see he’s angry. Then he walks away. I watch him go as I rise to my feet again and watch as Sam takes the shield and tries to wipe the blood off of it.

We attempted to regroup back at the building where the funeral was, but it didn’t seem like we had much left to go on. Torres said it was out of his hands, and without saying a word, Bucky started to leave.
“Going to take care of Zemo?” Sam questions. Bucky doesn’t respond but just looks at him, then keeps walking. I look at Sam, who nods to me, and I quickly run after him. I follow him for a while till we are more alone on the street then I finally jog up to him and catch his hand. He stops for a moment, but doesn’t turn to me.
“Bucky.” I say his name quietly. I can feel how stiff he is, and I can’t imagine what he’s going through. I feel him relax slightly and as I let go of his hand, he turns around and hugs me. I return the hug and we just stand there for a while, not saying anything.
“There’s something I have to do. To finish this. But you have to trust me.” He says as he pulls enough away from me to look me in the eyes.
“I trust you.” I say with no hesitation. He leans down a little and gently kisses me on the lips. Man, I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for this. It makes my heart flutter and my whole insides feel warm and happy. He lingers for a moment and then pulls away. I can see the promise in his eyes. The promise that things are gonna get better.
"I will always love you, for what it's worth." He says. I let the words settle over me. Then I take one of his hands, intertwine our fingers and he turns around to lead me away.

We end up in Sokovia. Or rather, where the memorial is. Bucky asks me to wait a ways away and let him go alone. I reluctantly agree, only because I can still see them and hear them.
“I thought you’d be here sooner.” Zemo comments when Bucky reaches him.
“Don’t worry. I’ve decided I’m not going to kill you.” Zemo adds.
“Imagine my relief.” Bucky states as he clicks the gun at his side. Bucky glares at Zemo as he begins talking about Karli again. There is a long silence between them, and I see Zemo get nervous. Then Bucky raises the gun to Zemo’s head, and I see Zemo nod slightly. As if he's saying he understands.
I get worried, but Bucky told me to trust him. So I stay put. Then Bucky pulls the trigger, and nothing happens. Zemo looks confused, and then Bucky drops all of the bullets onto the ground. Then the Dora Milaje is there. I then begin to slowly make my way towards Bucky.
“I took the liberty of crossing my name off in your book. I hold no grudges against you for what you feel you had to do.” I see Bucky nod at Zemo's words as I am finally at his side.
“Goodbye, James.” Zemo says. Then he looks at me. He smiles and little and adds, “I am glad to see he has come around.” Bucky looks at him confused but he doesn’t get to ask, he walks away with the Dora’s.
Ayo tells us their plans for him, and tells us to be scarce in Wakanda for a while. Bucky claims it’s fair enough, but when she starts to leave, he calls her back. He has one final favor to ask her.

Bucky and I make our way back home to the states, where we finally get time to talk about, well, everything. We are sitting on our bed, me at one end and him at the other, sitting up. For a few minutes, we just sit there silently. Then to my surprise, he speaks first.
"I'm sorry I've made you feel like I'm shutting you out. I've just been having a hard time with, well, everything." He pauses for a moment. "The person I take to lunch every Wednesday is a man who's som I killed as the Winter Soldier. His son wasn't even a target. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's the one who set me up with that date. I didn't want to go, but I wanted to be polite to her and hopefully do something for him. I didn't talk about you to my therapist because I was there to work out my problems. And I never considered you a problem that needed fixing."
He was too dang sweet sometimes. He was making my heart pound, and in a good way.
"As for not reaching out to you, I was so lost in myself after failing again to tell him the truth. I figured you had just had enough of me and left. But after waking from a nightmare, a different one than usual, I called you so worried." He explains, reaching out for one of my hands.
"What was your nightmare about that made you so worried?" I decided to probe.
"I dreamt that you were no longer here. I had you, then I lost you forever." He looks down as he recalls the dream. I squeeze his hand. I had had so many nightmares myself, reliving the day he disappeared. No matter how often he was with me, there was part of me that could never let it go.
"Well, I am here. And I love you. And I always will." I assure him, smiling. He looks up at me, and slowly smiles himself. He gently pulls me forward till I am kneeling in the bed. He gets onto his knees as well and meets me gaze. He cups my face in his hands and just stares into my eyes. I can feel all the love, and happiness, and joy in his gaze, and I return it with my own.
"Just do me a favor." He adds.
"Yes?" I question.
"Don't ever let someone else be as close to you as Zemo was. You are mine, forever." His face is serious but I laugh a little as he drops his hands to my shoulders.
"Someone a little jealous there?" I tease him.
"You have no idea." He comments and then hungrily kisses me. It's deep and passionate and tells me everything I ever worried about was nothing. He was mine, and I his. We were soulmates. And we were going to be just fine.