Fighting The Past - Book Two

Chapter Eight

Everything had been a blur, a rush of noise and colour that Natasha had struggled to bring into focus. The one thing that she had recognised though was Steve's voice, he kept telling here everything was going to be okay, that they had got her out. He repeated it over and over again to reassure her and anchor her.

It had only been the sudden rush of cold night air that had pulled Nat back to her senses, as she turned to look back an explosion erupted from inside, tearing down a large chunk of the base that Antonia had set up. The ground shook with after ripples, nearly tripping Nat over, but Steve kept a tight hold on her, keeping her steady as they rushed toward a Quinjet that was waiting by the treeline.

"Y/N..." Nat managed to force words through her split lips, ignoring the pain that had been inflicted on her from all the torture sessions carried out by Antonia's people.

Steve tilted his head a little to look down at Nat.

"They're here Nat, they came with us as well. They came to find you. We'll be meeting them at the jet, okay? Just keep moving with me, not much further to go now" Steve promised, he then glanced around to see other members of the team appearing and heading toward the extraction point.

The explosion hadn't been part of the plan and Steve had forced himself not to scald Yelena for it when she had replied over the comms earlier. Getting in and out with as little disruption had been the plan, but Steve couldn't argue with the fact that it did now distract Antonia and her thugs, hopefully for long enough that they could get to the jets and be a safe distance away before their attention returned to the Avengers.

A few minutes later and Steve hurried Nat up the ramp into the quinjet.

"Who are we waiting on?" Steve asked Tony who was flipping switches in the cockpit getting the jet prepped to go.

Before Tony could answer, Wanda appeared on the ramp of the jet, red swirls of magic wrapping around her. She spotted Nat and rushed forward, grabbing her friend in a tight embrace. Relief washed over her, the mission had been a success, Natasha was safe.

The embrace lasted for a few moments, before both women stepped back, tears and smiles on their faces as they looked at one another. Wanda had feared she wouldn't see her best friend again, the months searching for her had been hard and at times felt completely useless.

"Don't ever do that again, okay?" Wanda joked softly as she wiped a tear from her own face.

"I'll do my best to avoid being kidnapped by lunatics, it's not something I'd recommend doing" Nat responded smiling more through the tears of relief and happiness.

Yelena came rushing into the jet next, she glanced around and then saw Wanda with Nat, for a moment a look of irritation crossed her face but she pushed it away. She'd deal with Wanda later, for now all she wanted was to be with her sister.

"Let's get this bird in the sky, before we have any unwanted company trying to join us" Yelena suggested, before pushing through to get to Nat.

Maze spoke up then, she had searched the two joining cabins of the quinjet and had been unable to find Y/N, part of her had hoped they would appear with Yelena but that didn't appear to be the case. Nobody else seemed to have clocked onto the fact Y/N was nowhere to be found.

"Where the hell is Y/N?!" Maze snarled looking around at the Avengers.

"They're not with you?" Wanda asked, her heart sinking as she looked between Natasha and Maze.

"Would I be asking if they were!" Maze snapped as she headed toward the ramp of the jet, intent on heading back, not caring if anyone else bothered.

"Wanda get us back in there right now" Natasha said as she stepped forward, grabbing two handguns from the small armoury on the wall.

**

Y/N clenched their jaw, grunting in pain as they pulled out the taser barbs from their chest and then their back. Tossing the bloodied bits of metal to the side, Y/N slumped against a pile of debris that had fallen from the roof of the base, courtesy of the explosion. Their body was exhausted, muscles still refusing to respond properly after the volts of electricity had coursed through them from the taser shots.

Reaching a hand up they tapped the comms piece in their ear, but all they got was distorted white noise, no sign of any signal or connection to the rest of the team.

"Useless piece of crap" Y/N growled as they pulled it out and threw it away in frustration.

The courtyard was a complete disaster zone, flames and smoke swirling around, blocking most of Y/N's view. They had to get out of here, but Yelena had done a pretty good job at causing injuries that restricted Y/N's movements.

Y/N knew the should have been furious with Yelena, that they should want to hurt her but deep down Y/N was aware of the fact that it had been their own actions that had caused Yelena so much pain in the first place. So maybe Yelena was entitled to hate them, to want them as far away from Nat as possible. Dead might have been pushing it though, which is what Y/N feared they would be if they didn't find a way to get the hell out of here soon.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Bucky stepped through the flames, a smug tone in his voice as he smirked at Y/N, his vibranium arm clenched in a fist.

"Fuck you. Come any closer and I'll kill you Barnes, I won't hesitate" Y/N snarled viscously as they watched Bucky slowly walk toward them, though for once Y/N wasn't confident in their threat to cause harm.

This had gone from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. Y/N hadn't known how they were going to get themselves up and out of here and now they were faced with Bucky blocking their way. Blood trickled down the side of Y/N's head from a large wound from Yelena's baton and they were fairly certain they had several broken ribs. They'd have to ignore the pain though if they wanted a chance of getting out of here in one piece.

"Looks like the Avengers really couldn't care less about you Y/N. They're already long gone by the way. Guess this was their way of getting rid of their unwanted trash" Bucky sneered as he began to circle Y/N.

Y/N reached for the knife strapped to their thigh, but before they could bring it up, Bucky struck like a viper, his vibranium fist smashing into Y/N's arm, causing a sickening snapping noise as the bone in Y/N's forearm broke. With the small amount of strength they had left, Y/N managed to roll to the side narrowly avoiding another punch from Bucky that had been aimed at their chest.

"Pathetic, that's what you are Y/N. Absolutely pathetic" Bucky spat as he stepped toward them as Y/N used their good arm to try and drag themselves across the courtyard, "Did you really believe that you could have a happily ever after? You never deserved it, you spent years and years hurting people, you chose to be a cold hearted killer. You were never capable of changing, no matter how much you tried to lie to yourself and others that you could."

Y/N didn't respond, they let Bucky spout his nonsense, letting him distract himself as they reached for a broken piece of pipe. As Bucky lunged forward again, Y/N brought the steel pipe round and stabbed it into Bucky's lower leg, causing him to let out a yell of pain.

"You stupid little bitch!" Bucky growled as he grabbed Y/N by the throat and lifted them up from the ground, his vibranium hand squeezing tighter, cutting off air from Y/N as they hung helplessly in his grip.

Lifting their good arm, Y/N hit Bucky's arm weakly as their vision began to blur, their lungs struggling to pull in oxygen. They couldn't even summon their flames, they had nothing left to give now. Maybe Bucky was right and they hadn't ever deserved the chance to be happy, maybe this was what was meant to happen, they had cheated death so many times in the past, perhaps death was finally calling in the debt owed.

"You'll die alone Y/N" Bucky said as he tightened his hand even more.

"They're not alone."

Natasha stepped through the glowing red portal.

Guns pointed at Bucky.

Y/N's eyes could barely stay open, darkness slowly creeping in as they began to lose consciousness.

The last thing they saw though was Natasha, Maze and Wanda appear in the courtyard through the portal then it all faded away as their body succumbed to the damage done to it.

Death wouldn't be collecting it's debt today.