Project 43: Healing

You don't have a plan

Elias forced himself up and scooched over to sit against another pile of rubble. He was still holding onto the bloody rag, trying to keep his organs on the inside of his body, but it hurt less than before. He had a couple of broken bones, mainly in his ribs, and a slight concussion, but Elias was determined to join the fight going on somewhere around him.

After the ringing in his head got a bit quieter and the bleeding in his abdomen slowed down, Elias groaned slightly and placed his hand on the wall for support. With a growl and a few wobbly steps, Elias was able to get up onto his feet.

He looked around the space only to see it mostly destroyed. The structure of the hall was torn apart. Broken glass was spread across the floor from the shattered containers, the bodies of the soldiers laid bare in the air. Elias' head was still ringing and everything seemed to go slowly. He wasn't sure if it was because of the concussion or blood loss, but he wasn't feeling too well.

Finally, Elias was able to spot Tony and Steve fighting with Bucky lying off to the side, unconscious. It was far from the friendly sparring Elias had seen at the compound. They were fighting to kill each other. Both Steve and Bucky were bloodied and even tho Elias coulnd't see Tony, just by looking at how the man moved, he could see he was badly injured.

Elias started limping towards the scene before he even thought about. His vision was blurred and filled with black spots that changed shapes and sizes with every step the soldier took. He couldn't't hear anything besides the awful ringing in his ears. Still, he was determined that he needed to do something.

Elias remembered he had a rifle when he was already pretty close to the scene. Steve was down on his knees, saying something Elias couldn't make out as Tony kept on beating him up. Slowly and with shaky hands Elias got his gun drawn, but the second he held it tightly, he was seeing clearly again. It was like his muscle memory kicked in. He shot at Tony, knowing that it wouldn't hurt the man, but it would give Steve enough time to get up.

Tony turned to the side to see where the bullets were coming from and froze as he saw Elias. The soldiers couldn't have been easy to look at. Even Steve froze for a second as Elias emptied the round and jumped down to where the others were fighting. Tony turned around, deciding to ignore Elias, maybe out of pity.

Just as Elias landed, Steve grabbed Tony up into the air and slammed him back onto the ground before starting to punch him repeatedly in the head. Elias had never seen his brother like that. Maybe when he was fighting the robots in Sokovia Steve had been a bit brutal, but it was never like that. Elias was truly scared that Steve would end up killing Tony, and at that moment, Elias didn't see his brother, he saw his father standing in front of him.

The world was still foggy and unsure. Elias' feet couldn't find solid ground and he ended up rolling to the ground with his back against the wall. Still, he didn't let go of his gun, not when he was so afraid of the man standing in front of him.

Steve grabbed his shield and continued to hit Tony in the face with it while holding him down with his body. Elias had never been scared of his brother, but he found himself pressed against the wall, hoping he could fall through it. He felt like a little kid again, watching his father destroy their house on one of his rampages again. It was never long before he turned to Elias to take his anger out on.

"Stop!" Elias screamed immediately as he saw Tony's mask flying off. Still, Steve wasn't stopping. He raised his shield back up and Tony shot his hands up to shield his face. Elias watched in horror as his brother brought the shield down with enough force to decapitate someone.

Elias tried to fight the strong urge to fall asleep. His head kept on falling sideways, but he raised his gun and readied himself to shoot. He wasn't going to let his brother kill Tony, even tho he could see the state Bucky was left in. Just as Elias was about to pull the trigger, the gun fell from his hands. His hands had gotten too weak as he fought to stay conscious.