Age of Darkness | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Thirty-Two: I Have Seen Worse Sights Than This

Music is "Borealis" by Jo Blankenburg.

Picture is Jane Levy as Glory.

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"Take courage, my heart:
you have been through worse than this.
Be strong, saith my heart;
I am a soldier;
I have seen worse sights than this."

- Homer, The Odyssey 20:18

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Recommendation from the author: "Siren's Song" by RaeBlue.

Recommendation from the audience: "Marvel One-Shots" by Xoxo_Sadie21.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The Wakandan football or what American's call soccer, stadium: that's where Ororo and T'Challa had set up the Prison 42 inmates for the night. From suited superheros to strange looking Inhumans to aliens from other worlds, over 500 people sit, lay, and remain in a state of utter nervousness in the large dome.

When Pietro and I walk through the doors, the noise sounding like there's a game going on, we easily spot Wanda, Natasha, and the rest of the team lined up along the sides of the stadium, handing out papers to everyone they can reach, along with food, water, medications to those who need them, and anything else that they've been lacking in the time they were in Prison 42. Ororo speaks in a motherly, but booming voice, telling them not to be afraid, that they are safe, that all they want to know is what special needs each of the Wakandan guests need and what to call them. Unlike Tony, we don't ask for names, secret identities.

I scurry over to Wanda, who has her hands full collecting papers from the freed prisoners as they lift them up to her. "Wanda!" I shout. "Let me help you with that."

She shakes her head. "No, that is alright. I can handle this. Bucky wanted to talk to you, though. He said to tell you to find him."

"Where?"

"He's in the locker room, I believe."

With a nod to the Scarlet Witch, I run towards the small doorway on the side of the stadium, down a small flank of stairs, and into a large room filled with gear and lined with lockers. Bucky sits on one of the benches, his eyes observing my feet as I walk closer, his hands folded in front of him. His shoulders are drooped like he's been defeated already. "Bucky? Wanda said you wanted to see me?"

Bucky's discouraged face doesn't change. "They're taking Steve to the courthouse this evening. I heard it on the news a couple hours ago." His eyes lift to meet mine. "It's going to happen, isn't it? That thing you warned all of us about. It's going to happen, and we're half a world away." His fists clench, his jaw doing the same as rage fills every atom of him at the thought of losing his best and longest friend.

I come to sit beside him on the metal bench, laying my hand over his clenched fists, trying to loosen the tension. "I don't think it's going to happen."

"What makes you say that? It's not like that's what you've been warning us about since you got here."

"I had another vision."

That's when Bucky's eyes look up from my feet to my eyes, shock and a bit of anxiety replacing the rage. "What? You saw him get saved?"

I gnaw on my lower lip. "Not exactly."

I tell him everything I saw: Steve and Tony looking towards the sky, Magneto having an army of Ultron bots that have taken over Tony's suits, Asteroid M. All of it drains any hope from Bucky's face, and that's a sight I never wanted to be responsible for.