Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

Chapter XXXVII: A Thousand Storms

Joana

Joana pushed all pain from her mind, focusing only on the battle at hand. After years and years of training, she was ready for a fight like this, but she was seriously outgunned in every way possible. She wasn't a super soldier like Steve or Natasha or Bucky. She didn't have wings like Sam and couldn't fly like Rhodes or Stark. She wasn't whatever Wanda or the flying dude with the gem in his forehead were. She didn't have a suit like Spider-Man, Ant Man, or Black Panther. She was a human with a gun and years of training. She found herself fighting alongside Hawkeye, the only other ordinary human there. He wasn't so ordinary, she found out as he slung arrows after his ex-friends. He was gifted with fighting, especially with the bow. And she was pretty sure he was partially deaf.

They were standing as a team against team, friend against friend, brother against brother. Joana caught Natasha's eye across the playing field and clenched her jaw. She didn't want to be doing this. She didn't want to fight her. It felt the same way she imagined it to feel if she were fighting opposite of Danika. It made her stomach twist.

"What do we do?" Joana asked, not breaking eye contact with Natasha.

"We fight," Steve replied. Joana looked over at him in a moment of surprise. This was the same boy who would get beat up in an alley if it meant taking on a bully. This was the same boy only bigger.

So they started forward, walking at first, until the other team was walking, and then running. And then they were sprinting full speed towards the enemy.

'Just get Steve and Bucky to that Quinjet' Joana told herself. 'That's your job. Get it done.'

When the two sides met, they met with a brutal collision. Half the time, Joana couldn't even tell who she was fighting. At one point, Hawkeye appeared behind her, and with adrenaline pulsing through her veins, Joana attacked him.

"Woah! Woah! Chill, Kegley, it's me," he said, putting his hands up. Joana shook her head, trying to get out of the mindset of attacking everyone. She was used to fighting with only one or two other people, not with 6 other team members. She could hardly keep everyone straight. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

The fighting carried on. The only person trying to kill anyone was the Black Panther. He was dead set on Bucky.

"We gotta go," Bucky said into in comms. "That guys probably in Siberia by now."

"We gotta draw out the flyers," Steve replied. "I'll take Vision. You get to the jet."

Joana knew, looking around, just what Sam was thinking.

"No! You get to the jet," Sam said. "Both of you! The rest of us aren't getting out of here."

Joana glanced over at Barton, whose face would have been unreadable to anyone who wasn't feeling the same thing. Fear, maybe, disappointment, yes, shame, definitely.

Joana saw Steve and Bucky hiding behind two boxes, getting ready to run towards the hanger. Bucky looked back at her. She caught his eye and she nodded.

They both knew, somewhere deep in their hearts, this was the last they'd see of each other for some time, that whatever came after this, they would do it alone.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Barton said from beside her, "If we're gonna win this, some of us have to lose it."

"This isn't the real fight, Steve," Joana added.

"Alright. Sam, what's the play?"

"We need a diversion, something big."

"I got something kind of big," Lang quipped. "But I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half... don't come back for me."