oh captain, my captain |STEVE ROGERS 1|

22

I just stayed still as the he spoke.

"You're not my target, I'm not here to kill you. I just need the drive." His voice had no emotion in it and was deadpanned. Without saying anything, I sprinted to the the control panel and plugged in the drive.

I didn't wait a single second before locking in chip so the Winter Soldier couldn't take it out. I heard him running at me full speed, which almost made me piss myself, but I hurled myself off the edge of the helicarrier.

"Alpha locked, Cap." I yelled, making my way to where I saw Sam struggling to get to his helicarrier due to Hydra shooting at him. "I got your tail, Sam." I pushed my hands out as I plunged towards the ground, golden tendrils sprouting from my hands and pushing back all the bullets at the Hydra agents.

"You good, Stirling?" Sam called and I gave him a thumbs up from the ground. It took a couple moments but then he spoke again. "I'm in. Bravo locked."

"Two down, one to go." I said over the comms, running towards the last helicarrier.

"Sam, I'm gonna need a ride." I heard Steve say as I saw him in the distance fighting Hydra agents. Sam made a wide arc in the sky and made his way towards Steve.

"Roger! Let me know when you're ready."

Steve hurled himself off the ledge in front of my eyes, making my stomach sink. "I just did!" Sam got to Steve just in time, grabbing him from the sky and taking him up to the last helicarrier. "Maeve, are you okay down there?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna to keep as many civilians back as I can and clear out the area." I said, making my way to a group of people, seeing the chaos of everything. "Steve, he's here. You need to be careful."

"You stay safe, Mae." Steve's voice sounded in my ear, a sense of finality to it. As a piece of debris fell, I slid in front of the group and forced a golden shield in front of them to keep it from raining down on them.

"You need to get out of here, take everyone you can with you," I explained quickly and ushering them away.

"Who are you?" A man asked as he started to run away.

"My name is Countessa." I replied and thing proceeded to use my powers to hurl the debris my shield had just caught at a band of Hydra workers. "You need to go, sir."

"Cap? Cap, come in, are you okay?" Sam sounded over the comm and I started to panic.

"Yeah, I'm here! I'm still on the Helicarrier." I let out a breath of relief when I heard his voice. "Where are you?" I spotted Sam on the roof of the Triskelion and I flew myself up next to him.

"I'm grounded, the suit's down. Sorry, Cap." Sam grabbed my shoulder as I looked at the broken wing.

"Steve, you need back up, I'm coming up there." I said, but was cut off.

"No, Mae, I need you down there. I can't have any other innocents die because of today." His voice was full of emotion that broke my heart. "I can do this."

"Falcon?" Hill said cautiously.

"Yeah?" Sam replied exasperated.

"Rumlow's headed for the Council."

My head snapped towards his. "That's where Nat is." Sam placed a hand on the side of my face and patted it.

"Daniel would be real proud of you, Stirling. I'm proud of you." He said and I just pushed his hand off me playfully.

"C'mon, Wilson, don't get soft on me." I grinned. "Go get Rumlow, I got it covered down here." Sam nodded and took off as I went to wave off civilians, slashing some Hydra guards and keeping as many people safe as I could.

"Cap, one minute." Hill warned and I looked up at the helicarrier. He was supposed to be out by now. This was taking too long. "Thirty seconds, Cap!"

"Stand by." Steve grunted over the comms and I knew something was wrong. "Charlie--" His voice was cut off and panic seized my heart and squeezed, knocking the breath out of me. "Charlie locked."

"Okay, Steve, get out of there." I said, tears welling my vision as I ran through the perimeter, making sure no other civilians were left.

"Fire now, Hill."

"Steven--" I gasped as he started yelling over the comms.

"Fire them! Fire them now!" I cried out as Hill obeyed and there were explosions everywhere as the helicarriers locked onto each other as targets. Tears flooded my vision as I went to fly up to help him, but them there was something that stopped me.

There was one small girl that was among the chaos, holding a stuffed bear and was sobbing. I knew in that instant it was Steve or that little girl. I also knew Steve would hate himself if this girl died, because that was the man I loved.

I swooped towards her, creating a golden force field around us, keeping the girl close to my chest as what felt like tons of debris hit the force field. I just kept one arm around her and the other up to support the shield. I screamed with pain.

I screamed with pain for Steve. I screamed in pain for the loyal shield agents that lost their lives. I screamed in pain to keep this girl safe from the weight from the outside world. I could feel my face wet with tears as I clutched onto this girl.

Debris was piled on top of us as I now used both of my hands to keep it from crushing us.

"Stirling!" I heard Sam yell in my ear. "Are you okay?!"

I looked down at the little girl, she had fainted and leaned heavily on me. I pressed the earpiece, straining to stand up. "Sam, is Steve--?"

"Don't worry about that right now, Maeve, where are you?" Sam questioned, his voice frantic. "I saw that little girl and that scaffolding—"

I just yelled in pain, pushing up the force field. I saw Steve's face in my mind, smiling at me on the bridge, then the explosions on the helicarriers.

I let out a battle cry, and pushed the debris with all my might with the anger fueling my power. The scaffolding flew away and left a clean circle of where the girl and I were. I felt drained and nauseous as I lifted the girl into my arms and crawled out of the pile of concrete, metal, and smog around us.

"Sydney!" A woman's voice cried out and I turned to see a dirty woman, tears streaming down her face sprinting at us.

The girl woke up at the woman's voice and her eyes lit up. "Mom!" Sydney's mother ran and took her out of my arms, thanking me again and again and again as Sam appeared by my side.

I didn't even hear the change as I watched Sydney wave to me as her mother ran from the terror around us.

"It was her or him." I whispered as Sam gripped my shoulder and pulled me into his side.

"He would be proud of the choice you made, Stirling." Sam tried to convince me while hauling me somewhere safer.

I let my head hang, trying not to look at the debris in the water.