villain | STEVE ROGERS 18+

f o r t y f o u r

August 17th 2017
Avengers Compound

It was the middle of the night. Steve had no idea what time it was, frankly, he didn't give a shit what time it was. His eyes were going blurry from being awake for so long. He had went into Tony's office as soon as he had went to bed. He had given up on the search for Ember. It had been three weeks since He called Steve saying there had been 3 people who escaped from the raft, one of them being Ember. Tony looked for the first week, but as soon as it was said on the news that one of the fugitives had been shot dead outside a nightclub in Nevada, Tony lost hope of getting Ember back.

But Steve was still searching.

He had used Tonys I am Iron Man password to get into the hidden files, giving him access to a full view of everything that happened in Embers life. He found everything he needed to build a solid case that Ember had been manipulated throughout the time they kept her in HYDRA, and eventually wiped her memory so they could let her go without the fear of her leaking their information into the world. He didn't know why HYDRA didn't just kill her, but he's sure as hell glad they didn't, because the time he spent with her was some of the best he'd ever spent in his life.

Now he was searching for her. He needed to find her, explain himself. Give her the chance to live normally again.

He had maps of the world spread over the desk, marked with circles around places she'd been seen at (Peter had shown him how to to use FRIDAY to look for security camera footage, it was actually quite easy) she'd been seen in South Carolina, then a Hotel in Hawaii, in the space of three days. She then somehow ended up in Brazil, he had FRIDAY run a scan for her and there was footage of her in a cafe in Rio. But after that he found she bought a plane ticket to Australia under a fake name. He lost her after that.

Australia was a big place. Her flight there was 7 days ago. He'd been searching for a sign of her in Australia ever since.

"You're still awake?"

Bucky was stood in the doorway.

"Mhmmhmmm." Steve replied, opening another tab on the computer.

"Steve this has been going on for too long, you need sleep."

Steve sighed, "What I need is to find Ember." He snapped.

"I get that, but you can't do that without sleep, Stevie."

Steve rested his head in his hands.

Bucky looked at Steve, sympathy in his eyes, but at the same time, deep down Bucky knew that this was all really Steve's fault. He jumped to the conclusion that Ember was evil straight away, without even properly researching everything first.

"I held a gun to her head," He whispered while his head rested in his hand, "And I nearly pulled the damn trigger, Buck. The least she deserves is an apology in person from me."

Bucky sighed, "Just don't be at it for too much longer, alright?"

Bucky tossed him a packet of cookies.

"To keep ya' going, pal."

And left Steve to continue his research.

He opened his phone. His camera roll was mostly empty, apart from a few... What did Peter call them? ... Memes? And some pictures of him and Ember. His favourite one was a selfie of them on their first date.

He was distracted by a flashing light coming from the computer, and the voice from FRIDAY echoing in the room.

"Ember Rose has been spotted in a bed and breakfast, in the suburb St Kilda, Melbourne, located in Southern Australia."

"FUCK."

It would take Steve at least a full day to fly there, at a push he could do it in 14 hours with their advanced technology. He had chased this for so long, but hadn't actually tried going after her yet.

A gut feeling told him it was now or never.

"FRIDAY, alert the team I'm heading out of country as of now."

"Sending alert right now, Captain Rogers."

Steve rushed to his room, stuffing a duffel bag full of anything he might need. Clothes, money, (he'd exchange to Australian dollars as soon as he'd get there) weapons, (just incase) caps and glasses for a disguise, and he threw in a box of condoms, y'know, incase things on this trip really went the way he wanted them to.

When he left his room, and locked the door, Bucky was standing in the doorway, a duffel bag of his own slung over his shoulder.

"Buck? What're you doing?"

"You didn't think I'd let my best friend do this alone, did ya?"

August 17th 2017
Somewhere over the ocean

Steve permanently had FRIDAY checking the Bed and Breakfast security cameras. So far, Ember had entered her rented room, and hadn't came back out of it yet. It was nighttime in Australia, Steve could only pray they wouldn't be too late.

He'd never been this scared in his life, not even when he was about to crash his jet into the ice to save the whole of New York. That was easy for him.

But going after a girl was a whole new territory.

Ember was alone, and had been for months.

She had warned him about the shit enhanced humans went through when going to the raft, and as soon as things went sideways, that's exactly where Steve had her sent. He was so heartbroken because he was so sure she had lied to him, that he hadn't thought about all of the variables of the situation. He had royally fucked up, and he would never forgive himself for it. He'd never get the image of her trembling body with his gun held to her temple while he watched her sob. That was his fault, his doing.

Steve was supposed to be the one who saved peoples lives, not ruined them.

But he had a second chance.

And her life was the only one he cared about saving.