Avenger Arising → Bucky Barnes [3]

17|STAR-CROSSED

From the window of the plane the wing engine is semi illuminated, the lower half shining around the rim, the upper half several shades darker. As the jet dipped the line between shadow and light moved, and all the while Ally listened to the hum of the rotors.

If Natasha hadn't of stopped T'Challa in his tracks, would they have been in the air at that moment? She shook her head at the thought of losing when they had come so far. This was it.

From across the QuinJet, Clara rested peacefully on Steve's shoulder. Her younger, fragile body had taken a few hits it didn't need. Steve didn't look uncomfortable as the younger girl slept against him. Steve looked stressed but the young girl's presence seemed to calm him. He too was drifting in and out of consciousnesses.

Bucky sat beside Ally, his hand resting lightly on her back. Neither of them had any idea of what to say next. Ally kissed Bucky, Ally knew they were still the same star-crossed lovers from Brooklyn all those years ago. What threatened her emotions the most was that this was no longer a time for star-crossed lovers.

"What do you think would've happened to us if none of this ever happened?" Bucky had finally spoke, a man so broken that not even Ally could fix him.

"I stopped asking myself that a long time ago," Ally admitted. "It's hard to think about the people we could've been."

"Kepler and Nico would've been alive," Bucky whispered. "I know it."

"They would have," Ally agreed. "Would you have admitted that you loved me if we weren't at war?"

Bucky thought for a moment. "It would've had to come out eventually. The idea of you with anyone else killed me back then, I just didn't think Alchemy Jones would ever be with me."

Ally laughed softly. "We sound like teenagers."

"I wish we still were."

"We aren't," she told him. "We aren't kids anymore. We're fighting a war against our friends...my friends."

"We could still get married," Bucky looked down at his hands. "After this. Run away far from here, start over. No one would know who we are, it'd just be us."

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as Ally shook her head. "I'm tired of starting over Bucky,"  The look of hurt that played on Bucky's face made Ally shiver. "We'll figure out what to do next after this, but right now it's about getting to Siberia."

"Your eyes aren't golden anymore," he commented. "They don't shine."

"That's what happens when you live a life like mine James."

"What's gonna happen to your friends?"

Steve awoke from his slumber, shaking his head. "Whatever it is, I'll deal with it."

Bucky looked thoughtfully at Steve. "I don't know if I'm worth all this."

"What you did all those years, it wasn't you," Steve responded. "You didn't have a choice."

"I know. But I did it."

—

Steve lead them into a bunker. The three of them traveled down into the depths, inside a caged elevator waited for them. Clara was commanded to wait inside the jet, because if anything happened she would have to be the one to contact Tony. The doors of the elevator slide open. Steve nodded to Bucky and heaved up the cage door. Ally, Steve and Bucky walked along a corridor, keeping close to a wall. At the sound of a loud thud they spun around, aiming down the corridor.

"You ready?"

"Yeah."

Double doors part and Tony walks in, his suit shining against the metal interior. "You seem a little defensive."

Steve glared at Tony. "It's been a long day."

"How'd you get here so fast?" Ally spat.

"Alright Jones you don't need to be hostile," Tony snapped. "At ease soldiers, I'm not currently after you."

"Then why are you here?" Steve questioned.

"Could be your story's not so crazy. Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself."

"Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork," Steve lowered his shield. "It's good to see you, Tony."

"You too, Cap," Tony turned to Bucky. "Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop..." Steve signed Bucky to lower his weapon and he does as told.

The four of them cautiously walk along a corridor. With his helmet and face plate reengaged Iron Man lead Steve, Ally and Bucky towards an enormous chamber with capsules standing in it. "I got heat signatures."

"How many?"

"Just one."

As they entered the vast chamber the lights flashed on. Hazy, yellow mist descended within the capsules. Each one contained an enhanced soldier from the 1991 experiment. Steve and the others looked around, bewildered. All of the soldiers had been shot in head. Mercilessly.

"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep," Zemo announced. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

Bucky's mouth dropped. "What the hell?"

"I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here," Zemo appeared in a control room. Steve hurled his shield but it flew back immediately. "Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

"I'm betting I could beat that." Tony remarked.

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve questioned. "Why?"

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized... there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes," Zemo commented "How nice to find a flaw."

"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."

Steve studied Zemo. "You lost someone?"

"I lost everyone. And so will you," Zemo begins to play a surveillance footage from December 16th 1991. Steve stepped over to the screen. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That's dead... forever."

Tony's face broke. "I know that road. What is this?"

—

Bucky looked thoughtfully at Steve. "I don't know if I'm worth all this."

A/N: Hello friends! I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever, literally forever. I'm in my last year of High School so I've been so so so so so busy!! I will finish this book, I promise. Slowly but surely. I'm trying to write as much as I can during Easter Break. I will give you an ending to Alchemy's story, thank you to those who have stayed long enough to read this chapter!