Broken

Eight

We made our way through back entryways jamming signals as we passed cameras. We finally made our way to the Tech room and I jam their signal to make them check it out and open the door for us. A small man opens as Sam and Hill pointed their guns at them. He raises his arms and nobody else in the room moves. "Excuse us." Rogers says as we make our way into the room. We lead them out the room so we have the room to ourselves. Steve moves his way to speak into the intercom.
"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury. And it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not." He lets go of the intercom.
"Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?" Sam jokes to him. "We need to get to those carriers before they launch them. After that they'll speed up that process." I tell the two men. Hill stays there to be eyes and ears.
We walk to the hanger that's now came out of the lake surrounding the headquarters.
"They're initiating launch." Hill says in our ears as we run.
"How do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam asks. "If they're shooting at you, they're bad." I tell him as I separate and Sam take off.
I see one carrier warming up about to take off but an army of men come out from behind boxcars of supplies. They start to aim but I shift to behind one, gun drawn and shoot both ankles. I feel an arm wrap around me and I throw the agent over me hitting hard on the ground. I catch a glimpse of one man throwing a grenade to me as a mother steps to me with a gun drawn. I make a portable to catch the grenade and shift it to behind to thrower who had two other agents behind him, while I grab the gun aimed at me and bend it in half before shoving the butt of the gun in his nose making him fall over. But he falls over and looks as if he was electrocuted, flailing around. I look to my hand to see energy surging. I look up to see men running my direction. I chuckle a bit to myself as they don't know what they're running into. "Hope this works how I think." I tell myself as I throw my hand towards them and that surging energy shoots through the air and to them, they fall like bowling pins, and a burst of energy explodes in the air. "What was that?" I hear Rogers in my ear. "Things just got weird." I say as I continue towards my carrier. "Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about." Sam tells us. "You okay?" I hear Steve. "I'm not dead yet." I give a small smile. I start to notice my carrier has started takeoff.
"Falcon, status?"
"Engaging...All right, Cap. I'm in."
I run up closer to have an accurate shift.
"Eight minutes." Hill says in our ear. "Working on it." Steve replies. I got closer enough, "I wonder." I needed to be closer but was running out of ground. I tried to draw that energy from before but to my feet. I see them glow and I stomp before jumping and I shoot through the air. I get closer and closer. Then I shift perfectly onto the catwalk towards the blades. I walk quickly and replace a blade with ours. "Alpha lock." I tell everyone.
"Falcon, where are you now?" Hill asks him.
"I had to take a detour...I'm in.. Bravo lock."
"Two down, one to go." I tell the group. I move my way to the hangar of the carriers and see the third I had to get to.
"Six minutes." Hill tells us.
"Hey, Sam, gonna need a ride."
"Roger. Let me know when you're ready."
"I just did!"
I shoot myself towards the carrier and see what looked like Sam going down with one wing, deploying a parachute before hitting ground. I got close enough to shift inside.
"Cap! Cap, come in. Are you okay?" Sam asks. "Yeah, I'm here. I'm still on the helicarrier."  I hear Steve struggling. "The suit's down. Sorry, Cap." Sam apologizes. "Don't worry. We got it." Steve says. "Where are you, Rogers?" I ask. "Wing on the south side." He answer as I run to that side and see him hanging. I make a portal under him. "Let go you'll land next to me in the carrier." I order as I watch him drop and land next to me. He falls to the ground not locking his knees quick enough. "You'll get used to that. I say helping him up. He doesn't look to me but leads the way to the blades until we're stopped and see Bucky in the way.
"People are gonna die, Buck. I can't let that happen." Steve tells him. But I froze up. I couldn't move. I couldn't think of hurting him. I was in a different world and it seemed like milliseconds until Steve and Bucks fight fell to the lower level. "ALICE!" I hear Steve knocking me out of it, noticing I was hyperventilating the whole time. I look to see Buck going to fight Steve again and they go back at it. I run to the blade and put the code in to allow access to the blades.
It opens but I feel a sharp pain through my abdomen. I see Steve come back to me weak and shot with the blade. "30 seconds, Cap." Hill tells us. "Stand by."
He places it in until I feel another shot in my shoulder and arm. I fell over and couldn't stand. "Okay, get out of there." Hill tells us. "Fire now."
"But, Steve... "
"Do it! Do it now!"
Suddenly our carrier was being shot at and falling apart around us as Steve stood himself back up. I pull my mask down to breathe better. He looks over and I hear Buck scream. "James!" I yell back but in too much pain to move. Steve hovers over me quickly. "I'm going to get him you need to shift yourself out of here." He tells me. "No. I can.." I try to stand up but immediately fail. "Go now!" Steve tells and I see he looks concerned. Truthfully concerned. He leaves and goes down a level to where James was. I start to cry knowing I couldn't do much. I shift as best as I could but it was off and I feel myself fall 10 feet and notice I'm in an office. Fury and Nat rush to me. "You did it?" I asked them and they turn as I see Pierce shot in a pile of glass. "We did it." Nat says. I relax a bit. They helped me up and to the helicopter. Lay me down but secure me. "I finally let it all out as Nat sits next to me, "I couldn't fight him. I couldn't move." I cry. She looks at me for a moment.
"Please tell me you got that chopper in the air!" I hear Sam on our comms. "Sam, where are you?" Nat asks.
"41st floor! Northwest corner!"
"We're on it! Stay where you are!" Nat tells him.
"Not an option!"

Suddenly we see Sam bust out a window and we turn on our side for him to fall in. Instinctively I hold out my hand to grab him as we flip right side up. "41st floor! 41st!" He tells as us.
"It's not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building."
"Hill! Where's Steve? You got a location on Rogers?" Natasha asks but no answer yet. Sam buckles next to me but me exerting my arm made me bleed more. I couldn't see much until only darkness.

+++

I wake up to Nat next to my bed. I was in a hospital and look to see my shots bandaged and closed up. "Those powers really make for a speedy recovery time." Nat says to me. "They said with how much blood you lost you'd be out for a while."
I look across the hall to see Steve stirring awake with Sam next to his bed reading.
"I couldn't do it Nat." I say holding back tears. "You did more than you needed to." She leaned up and held my hand. I felt comfortable. But so much comfort didn't help the heartbreak.

++

We look down to Fury's fake tombstone. Sam stands between Steve and I as he's witnessed our tension on the ride home after the hospital.
"So, you've experienced this sort of thing before." Fury walks up to us. "You get used to it." Steve jokes. "We've been data mining HYDRA'S files. Looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship. I'm headed to Europe tonight. Wanted to ask if you two would come." He asks motioning for Steve and I.
"There's something I got to do first." Steve answered and Fury looks to me. "I'll let you know when I'm available to help." I say upfront.
"How about you, Wilson? Could use a man with your abilities." He asks.
"I'm more of a soldier than a spy." Sam says wanting to stick with Steve.
"All right, then. Anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me, right here." He says before walking away from his grave.
"You should be honored. That's about as close as he gets to saying thank you." I hear Nat and look to see her walking up to us.
"Not going with him?" I ask her. Waking to her with Steve and Sam following. "Not staying here I'm sure."
"Nah." He says with a smile. "I blew all my covers. I got to go figure out a new one." She says looking at all of us. "That might take a while." I say.
"I'm counting on it."
I feel a buzz in my pocket and see a text. "Let me know when we can get together." I say before walking away. "You're leaving?" Sam asks me. I raise my phone a bit. "Duty calls." I say nonchalantly before walking away.
I look down to see a message from an unknown number.
Coordinates.
They're to the Smithsonian.
I sit in my car and start to drive.