Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT LVI: Friends vs. Friend (A What If? Scenario for CACW; Pt. 3)

Set just after previous one-shot

Adelaide Lehnsherr

I saw Steve's shield slam into Tony, distracting him from hurting Bucky. I pulled him up to face me.

'We have to get out of here, James.'

'I know.' Just then Bucky was taken out by Tony again and slammed up against some pipe-works. I ran up behind Tony and began to grab his gauntlets. Bucky did the same, only crushing his right gauntlet with his metal hand forcefully, twisting the armoured hand. Tony kicked me sharply with his foot, and I flew and landed. I heard the high-pitched whine of one of Tony's rockets from his suit flying. I looked up to see a huge fireball exploding on one of the top levels, making some pipe-works fall down. All three of us were thrown down a level and landed near Steve. Bucky jumped up and offered me a hand, pulling me up with him, cradling me close to him. I was limping, a sharp pain in my leg from when a particularly heavy pipe had slammed into my leg.

'Can you run?' Steve asked me.

'Yeah. It'll heal quick. Just keep Tony off of us.'

'Good. Go. Both of you.' Bucky took my hand, and we raced towards our ticket to freedom. He slammed a control panel, and the opening several floors above opened. I activated my wings slowly, and took Bucky and I to each floor, landing gingerly, softly each time, due to the injury in my leg.

'Tell me your leg can hold up,' Bucky said softly.

'It can and it will. It has to.' I landed on the third level and looked down to see Tony speeding up towards us and activating my wings once again, I pulled the now-extremely heavy super soldier up the levels with me, keeping an eye on the open top. Tony was catching up with us now, and soon enough he kicked Bucky away from me. I tried to charge him, flying, but he used his repulsor blast from his hand to send me into the wall and onto a platform near Bucky's. He took fire at Bucky, but Steve landed in front of Bucky, using his shield to deflect the blast of the Iron Man armour, sending Tony into a wall, nearest me. I got up and bolted towards Steve, landing on the platform next to Bucky and Steve.

'He's not gonna stop. Go.' I flexed my wings again and took Bucky to the top. We had just got to the top of the vertical tunnel, right below the large round door that granted us our entrance into the cold Siberian air, when we were thrown back and down with the force of an explosion. We both landed harshly on the same platform. Tony was flying up now, and Bucky got up and so did I, both trading blows on the Iron Man fiercely. Somehow, Bucky found an iron pipe and began fighting Tony with it. I, however, was slammed into another wall, and felt myself near blacking out. I ran towards Tony, but he grabbed Bucky from behind and put him in a headlock.

'Tony...' I trailed off in pain, '...please don't hurt him.'

'Do you even remember them?' he growled to Bucky.

'We remember all of them,' Bucky growled back, the super soldier rapidly losing air now. Bucky fell from the platform, taking Tony with him. I jumped into them, trying to deviate the trajectory of their fall. Soon, Steve crashed into us, sending us down further. Steve and Tony fell into a large space, snow and wind flowing in onto a cold concrete floor. Bucky and I fell on a platform. He woke up first and saw me laying next to him, just conscious. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He grabbed the shield and jumped down to help just as Steve was being pinned down by Tony. I flew down soon after.

The three of us began to fight Tony, ganging up on him from all sides, the vibranium shield flying around between the three of us super soldiers, all of us getting hits in. Suddenly, Tony zapped Steve with a repulsor blast, making him fly into a wall, leaving only Bucky and I to fight him. Tony aimed an energy blast, but the two of us forced him against a wall, a machine of pure power flowing between the two of us. Tony tried to fight him off, but I pressed his armoured face into the wall while Bucky tried to root out his arc reactor, yelling as he did so, sparks flying everywhere. I screamed in anger.

Just then there was a blast of blinding light and the final disintegration of the arc reactor, and the two of us were thrown to the ground. It was all a blur. I tried to get up, but Tony zapped me with an energy blast, and I fell down, feeling sick. I couldn't feel anything in my right arm and I felt weak. My leg throbbed painfully. I could just feel warm, flesh fingers laying on top of mine, resting there, almost in reassurance. Out of the haze of my darkening vision, I saw Bucky laying there, his hand resting on top of mine. He looked like a mess. His metal arm was completely blown off, and I could tell he was in pain, as was I. I could just hear the sounds of Tony and Steve battering each other to bits.

Suddenly, Tony was near me, and I grabbed his foot, but he spun around, kicking my face. I landed on my back again, groaning in agony. Looking to my right, I couldn't see anything but drying blood on a stub of what was once my right arm. I moved my left hand to feel it. There was nothing there. Nothing at all. I looked to see Steve bashing Tony apart with his shield. Finally, the mask was blown off and Tony cowered in front of Steve, who instead of smashing the shield on his face, smashed it into his already damaged arc reactor and twisted it in there, then leaned on it, gasping for breath. He slumped off of him, panting. Soon enough, he got up and twisting the shield out of the arc reactor, fit it onto his arm, limping towards us. He pulled Bucky up, then came over to me and scooped me up in his arms bridal style, letting my good arm loop over his shoulder.

'Steve... the arm's gone - my arm's gone...'

'I know. I know.' Leaving Tony on the floor, we limped off, but not before we heard Tony yelling after us.

'That shield doesn't belong to you! You don't deserve it. My father made that shield!' Steve stopped, and so did Bucky. Then, with a dull thud, the shield fell to the floor, scratch marks clearly showing. Almost as if in closure, he sighed and walked away with his best friend trailing behind, slowly and painfully.