Warriors (Bucky Barnes)

Operation: Breakout

In the stealth of night, Natasha flew the jet towards the raft prison, with Steve as copilot. They had been picked up Nat, who had provided the jet. She told Steve that if he had plans to save their friends, she was in. Good thing too, because they would have been swimming to the Raft otherwise.

With the others occupied with plans, Gemma was typing away on her laptop, breaking into the Raft's not so secure security systems. It barely got Gemma's blood pressure up hacking their system. Bucky glanced at her, and grinned, watching her work like he'd done time and time before.

"Alright, I'm in their systems now. Let me know when you want me to cut their defenses." Gemma announced.

Steve let out a sharp breath. "She is good. Closed circuit? Closed to who?"

"Told you she's bad-ass..." Bucky raved, beaming at her.

A sudden beeping from the radar silenced everyone. Gemma stood behind Bucky, and watched the radar intently. It was the prison. She looked out the windshield, spotting it's low glow in the far distance. Natasha let out a heavy sigh and glanced at the others.

"Alright, Gemma, it's time. Cut all security measures now." Steve instructed.

Gemma clicked a single key. Suddenly, the lights went out and the launchpad doors opened. Gemma scoffed, and set her computer down. She was obviously proud of herself. Bucky leapt from his seat, and gave her a passionate kiss, before spinning her around by the holster on her hip, and leading her down the ramp.

"Be careful. I'll leave the plane running. Just be quick." Bucky called over the low hum of the engines.

Steve patted him on the back, and followed Gemma and Natasha off the jet. They glanced up at Bucky, who nodded them on before disappearing back onto the plane. Steve took a heaving breath, and led the way into the interior of the raft.

They silently entered the security command post, and searched the few remaining inner cameras. There were lenses on every Avenger that had been arrested. Steve sighed and started towards the opposite end of the room. Suddenly, a group of men walked in, chatting among themselves.

Gemma gave Steve a small smile and struck one man in the knee cap, sending him to the floor, screaming. The others came at them with tasers and batons. Steve and Natasha blocked every blow like it was choreographed. Gemma took a single baton strike to the back. She turned on the man, grabbed his hand, and broke every finger, taking the baton from him. As she struck him across the face, he cried out, and fell across a table, groaning. Everyone had been incapacitated, and Steve leaned on a table, catching his breath.

Gemma sighed, "Well, that wasn't so bad. You okay, old man?"

"Fine. We should get going." Steve panted. "You know, you and Agent Romanoff should get together some other time, I think you two would get along."

"If we live, I'd love to." Gemma chuckled, giving Nat an amused glance.

Natasha grinned and stated, "Maybe when we save everyone's asses, we can train together. We'll see what you've got, cyber nerd!"

Gemma chuckled, and followed Nat as she led the way into the dark depths of the raft.

As they reached a large door, Steve paused, groaning at the lock with a hand print scanner. Gemma rolled her eyes, and stepped around Steve, pulling a device from her pocket. She yanked the panel from the wall, and connected the device to the exposed wires. With a quick swipe of the screen, the control panel pinged, and the doors opened before them.

Natasha smirked, taking the move as confirmation of Gemma's status as a nerd and slowly walked through the sliding doors. Gemma detached the device, and followed her in, holding her weapon up. The room was dark, other than a bright, fluorescent light in each cell. Within each one, sat a single Avenger. Steve approached one cell from the dark, and scoffed. Sam Wilson watched from the other side of the glass, grinning.

Gemma sighed, and started to go from one cell to the next, unlocking the doors. Each person left their cell with a deep sigh of relief. They watched Gemma as she released the others, like what she was doing was unheard of. She got to the last door and paused. Inside the small room sat a crumpled woman with long, red hair. Gemma glanced at Steve, horrified, and motioned for him to join her. He ran to her side, confused, until he looked into the cell.

He shook his head, growling, "That's Wanda Maximoff. They drugged her, those bastards."

Natasha ran towards them, and glanced into the cell. Her eyes lit up, and you could almost feel the anger rising up inside her. She met Gemma's sad glance, and motioned towards the cell lock pad.

Gemma huffed, and unlocked the cell. Steve took a step forward and paused, before picking Wanda up, and carrying her out. Sam and Nat moved in, and helped remove the straight jacket she was wearing. Once she was free, Wanda pulled Nat into a hug, and the tears began to fall.

Gemma couldn't watch the interaction any longer. She moved away as the other detainees moved in to reassure Wanda. Gemma rubbed her neck as she watched the door, standing between the Avengers and trouble. At that's what came.

Suddenly, a man came from the hall, holding up a large gun, aiming it at the group. Gemma gasped, drew her weapon and shot him in the chest. Everyone jumped and turned their attention on her. She held her head while trying to catch her breath. She stared at the man, now splayed out on the floor.

Gemma wheezed, "We should get going."

Steve nodded, and started back towards the large doors. The others followed him like he was their fearless leader. Gemma paused, looking down at her victim, shaking. Natasha glanced back at her, and groaned, before grabbing her by the arm, dragging her along. She trailed behind her, unable to take her eyes off the body. He was so young!

They made their way back to the launch pad, and climbed onto the jet. Bucky stood at the top of the ramp, watching the others climb aboard. As Natasha led her onto the jet, Bucky grinned, and took Gemma up in a one armed hug.

The others boarded quickly. As Sam ran up the short ramp, he paused for a moment, and glanced at the empty space where Bucky's arm should have been. Bucky shook his head, and mouthed, 'I'm fine.'

Steve called to Natasha, "Let's get out of here, before reinforcements show up!"

She jumped into action, and buckled in. Clint quickly joined her. They gave each other a quick hug, before starting the engines.

Bucky took Gemma's hand, and led her to her seat. They held one another as the jet lifted off. They watched the others as they lounged about the cabin. Many already asleep.

Gemma stared off in the distance, mumbling over and over, "I killed a man. I killed that man today. I killed him."

Bucky grimaced, and tried to hold her tightly. She sat there, limp in his grasp. She had hurt people, she had broken the other man's hand, but she hadn't killed them. She had killed a boy, barely old enough to enlist.

Bucky kissed her head and whispered, "You're no monster. If he died at your hand, it was because you had to save your own life, or one of theirs," he pointed to each person on the jet, "You were trying to protect the people they were hurting. I know that doesn't fix it, but I hope you can see that you are not a monster."

Gemma nodded, and closed her eyes, trying to forget, but he was there. She kept them closed, and tried to conjure up other images to block him out. Eventually, the code she was working on for her company popped into her head, successfully forcing the boys face out of her mind. So, she built the code, over and over again, as the jet flew across the ocean, into the rising sun.