Cosmic [s.r.]

1:16

I leaned my head back in the holding van we were kept in. I needed someone to look at my wound. I'm no doctor, but even I know I've lost too much blood.

"It was him," Steve spoke out. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me.

"How is that even possible? It was, like, 70 years ago?" Sam asked, unsure.

"Zola," Steve answered. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..." 

"Steve, it's not your fault," I said, not believing my voice. I was tired, exhausted, and loopy from the blood loss.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," Steve explained to us.

I leaned my head back, the position of my arms for the cuffs not helping my case. My head pounded as much as my shoulder did.

This isn't your end yet, child. You serve a greater purpose. A voice rang in my head.

"Did any of you say something?" I asked, trying to move past the pain, but when no one confessed I

"We need to get a doctor here," Sam said to the guards, noticing my pain. "If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." One of the guards threatened Sam with a taser stick before digging it in the guard beside them and kicked them across the head.

"What the hell," I muttered, not believing my eyes right now.

"That thing was squeezing my brain." The guard removed the helmet to reveal Agent Hill. "Who is this guy?" She asked Steve, motioning to Sam.

We pulled up to some kind of dam before Agent Hill opened the side door of the holding van. Steve helped me out of the van and used himself as a support for me. Hill pulled open a gate letting us all in before closing it behind her.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint." Maria called out to a man who ran up to us.

"Maybe two," Sam added.

"Let me take her." The guy waved us over.

"She'll want to see him first." I looked over at Steve with a confused glance, to which he returned.

We were led down a hallway to which we all came to a stop. The doctor pulled open a curtain to reveal a tired Nick Fury.

"About damn time." He spoke which made me let out a small laugh. In the seat beside him was Nat, setting her phone down on a table beside her. She gave up her chair for me to sit down in and the doctor began to work on my injury.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache." Fury listed his injuries to us. I thanked Nat quietly as she handed me a juice box to get my blood sugar back up.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung." The doctor piped up.

"Let's not forget that." Nick sighed. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"Fury we watched them cut you open. Your heart stopped." I piped up in an exhausted tone.

"Tetrodotoxin B." He answered simply. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked from beside me.

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Maria explained.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead." He stated lightly. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

We watched as Nick Fury looked at a photo of Alexander Pierce from 1992. He simply shook his head, unable to believe what he's turned into.

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize." He started to explain. "He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." He said, tossing the photo back onto the small pile of papers. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch," Natasha spoke up.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." He said, lifting up the side of a briefcase to reveal three microchips.

"What's that?" Sam asked, eyeing them.

"Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized." Maria showed us the screen of her laptop, showing the plan of the project.

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Nick added on to the plan.

"One or two won't cut it," Maria explained. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die." I nodded at her statement.

"We have to assume everyone abroad those carriers is HYDRA." Nick eyed us all. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left..."

"We're not salvaging anything," Steve spoke up. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this." Fury argued.

"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised. You said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."

"How many paid the price before you did?"

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury said solemnly.

"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Steve asked. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too? S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, it all goes."

"He's right." Maria piped up at Steve's words. Fury then looked over to Nat and I and we just nodded at what Steve said.

"Don't look at me," Sam said when Fury looked up to get his opinion. "I do what he does, just slower."

"Well..." Fury looked up at Steve, leaning back in his chair. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain.