Project 43: Healing

I do it all the time

After Elias helped Sam get out of his webbed restraines, the three men took off in a sprint towards the jet just in time to join the others.

As they were running, a yellow beam of light came down from above them and drew a line in the ground. Elias let out an annoyed sigh as he turned up to face Vision. The red man had gotten on his last nerves the last time the two had seen each other.

"Captain Rogers. I know you believe what you're doing is right, but for the collective good, you must surrender now," Vision's voice boomed as everyone else started landing on the other side of the line he had drawn. Tony, Natasha, the Black Panther, Colonel Rhodes, and the weird red and blue man. Elias didn't want to fight them, but he knew they needed to stop the Soldiers from being defrosted.

"Since you know everything apparently, why don't you just fucking listen?" Elias asked, too done to try to be nice. The pain in his hand was pounding as the blood still managed to escape the already-closing wound.

"I know that we have to turn you guys in within the next twelve hours or someone less friendly is coming for you next," Tony answered, clearly not understanding Elias' point.

"What do we do, Cap?" Clint asked as the two sides stared each other down.

"We fight," Steve said after taking a couple of breaths. Elias felt like he should have clapped but decided that he could be sarcastic another time.

Both sides started walking towards each other but soon started running. Elias picked a target, Natasha. He knew he could win against her, the only problem was how far was he going to have to take it. He didn't want to kill anyone, not anymore, but he knew they weren't going to let them leave.

Elias held eye contact with the redhead in a joint understanding of what was about to happen. As soon as she was within his reach, Elias took a quick step to the side and threw a punch directly at Natasha's head, which she was able to dodge. Elias cursed the sparring sessions the two had since now the redhead knew what he was going to do. Lucky for Elias, he had always pulled his punches.

Elias surprised Natasha with the force of his punch as she went to block with her arm. Her blockade fell and Elias was able to kick her in the stomach harder than ever before. Natasha flew backwards doing a flip as she landed, but Elias had already moved on to the next target.

The Black Panther was fighting with Bucky. They were strangely evenly drawn as they both had the other one in a chokehold. Elias interrupted their moment and kicked the back of the black cat's knee, blocking the man forward enough for Bucky to bring his knee up to kick the man in the face.

It had been over a decade since the two had last fought together but their instincts were still there. Elias knew how Bucky fought, he could predict every movement the man made before he even registered it. Neither of them liked it, the reminder of the countless innocent lives they were forced to take together.

Finally, Elias kicked the Panther in his side before Wanda's red hue grabbed him and sent the Wakandan warrior to the side of a building.

As Elias continued to punch, dodge, and make his way through the fighting figures he tried to figure out which decision he made ultimately led him to that point. He was fighting in what could only be described as a civil war within the greatest powers on earth. He wasn't even one of them, he was just a visiting expert who was supposed to help them find a missing person, not fight in the airport to save the world from murderous supersoldiers.

Maybe he should have stayed at the compound or maybe he should have gone to Vienna, maybe then, he could have been able to stop Bucky from giving up information. Maybe Elias should have taken Tony's offer earlier and disappeared to some remote island where he wouldn't know a single thing about the whole situation.