Eminence Front // TFATWS

17

[Truth]

Bucky ran to the warehouse while Sam, after returning, flew.

They found John kneeling in the warehouse, shield and hands bloody. The Avengers stopped and John stood and said, "Time to go to work."

John marched towards them and Sam called, "Walker..."

"You guys should see a medic, you don't look so good."

"Stop, Walker."

John looked at Sam. "What? You saw what happened. You know what I had to do. I killed him because I had to! He killed Lemar!"

Bucky sighed. "Don't go down that road. Believe me, it doesn't end well. You're lucky Mary's still breathing. But if anything else happens..."

"I'm not like you or Mary," John said.

Sam looked between the group before saying, "Listen, it was the heat of the battle. Okay? If you explain what happened, they may consider your record. We don't want anyone else to get hurt. John... You gotta give me the shield, man."

"Oh, so that's what this is," John said, looking up before staring at the three Avengers. "You almost got me."

"You made a mistake."

"You don't wanna do this."

Bucky said darkly, "Yeah, we do."

They ran at John at the same time, but he managed to fight them off. He dodged kicks and punches before kicking Sam away and turned his attention to Bucky.

Bucky swung at John, breaking one of the metal supports when he hit it. John dodged it and threw the shield at Bucky, sending him back into a forklift. "Why are you making me do this?" John yelled.

John picked up the shield, pushing Bucky against the lift before throwing him into a pole.

Bucky fell as electricity surged through his Vibranium arm and body.

Sam moved between Bucky and John before saying, "This isn't you, John."

John panted and said, "We could've been a team." He and Sam fought, Sam in the air and John on the ground.

John went to stab Sam with the shield and Bucky lunged at him, knocking him away from Sam. The two exchanged punches, with Bucky ending up on the ground. Once again, John raised the shield.

Bucky and Sam managed to get the shield away from John at the expense of his elbow.

Bucky walked towards Sam and heard John say behind them, "That's mine."

Sam panted and said, "It's over, John."

"It's mine."

---

Bucky made his way to the hospital to see Mary waking. He smiled as he sat on her bed. "Hey. I thought I lost you."

Mary smiled tiredly. "It'll take more than that to kill me. Winchesters are pretty resilient. Did you get the shield back?"

"We did. I'm gonna visit Sam and then make my way to a place I should've gone to a long time ago."

"I want to come."

"Mary, you need to recover."

"Bucky, I warn you now, you leave, I'll check myself out and follow."

He let out a sigh. "I can't stop you, can I?"

"No you can't."

"Very well. But if you at all show any sort of pain or if your wound is bothering you, I'm taking you right back to the hospital."

"Yes, sir."

Mary was checked out and Bucky supported her as they left.

---

The three regrouped and changed before making their way to a refugee camp. Sam got word that Torres had arrived.

Rosie watched as police cars took escorted people away before walking up to Sam and Torres and asked, "What's going on?"

"The GRC is conducting raids to try and find Karli, but so far they've only found her followers," Sam replied, glancing at Rosie. "They've searched this camp, and just like the last camp, nothing. She's gone. We're never gonna find her."

Torres chuckled before turning to Bucky. "Hey, you got your sleeve back. Mary, you feeling better?"

Bucky shook his head and headed for the door. Mary shrugged and followed Bucky.

Sam leaned on the table. "Are you two off to take care of Zemo?"

Bucky turned back to Sam and Torres, remaining silent. He left and Mary followed.

"All right, good to know you survived." He gave a little wave. "They seem sweet together."

Sam nodded. "They are. What's our next steps, Torres?"

"Captain America killing a foreign national in public, it's kinda like a big deal. Like incident big. Folks, uh, higher up on the payroll are all over it now. So, unfortunately..."

"They're taking jurisdiction."

"Yeah." He nodded, noticing the wings Sam had broke. "What happened to these?" He grunted, picking them up.

"So is there anything we can do?"

"Not really. As you can see, they've cordoned off the whole camp, and Karli's a ghost. After what went down, she is laying extra low. Like, under-underground."

"And that's why it makes sense for us to get involved. The longer we let her regroup, the harder it's gonna be to find her."

"She's got people helping her from all over the world, on all platforms. She's really, really good at this thing."

"Yeah."

Torres put a hand on the wings he'd been unpacking. "How'd these break?" Sam let out a sigh. "Anyway, all we can do now is sit tight and just chill. Sometimes, there's nothing to do until there's something to do."

"That's bizarrely wise."

He chuckled. "Well, I'm a bizarrely wise man, Sam."

"Yeah, all right." He chuckled. "Thanks, Torres."

"For sure." He walked to the door.

"Wait, yo, you forgot the wings."

"Keep 'em." He left the room Torres was in.