'Somethings not right with Walker,' Bucky said, voicing his thoughts as they walked out of the apartment. They were headed toward the memorial site again, thinking that they might be able to find Karli again if they didn't wait long. 

'You don't say,' Sam smirked, looking down to his phone as it began ringing. 

'Well, I know a crazy when I see one,' Bucky told them. 'Because I am crazy.'

'Can't argue with that,' Sam said as he raised the phone to his ear. 'Sarah, what's up?'

Sam listened to his sister as Bucky and Clara continued speaking. 'You aren't worried about everyone seeing how the Dora Milaje detached your arm?' Clara narrowed her eyes at him.

'No, you wouldn't be able to do it even if they gave you a step-by-step tutorial,' Bucky told her, Clara raising her brow at the claim. 'Knowing the Dora Milaje, it would have to be precise enough for only them to be able to do it.'

'You mean, precise enough for only them to be able to do while fighting the Winter Soldier?' Clara pointed out. She then shrugged, switching her gaze from Bucky to the street ahead of them. 'Not that it matters, I'd be able to disable it without the not-so super-secret button.'

'She said what?' Sam asked, concern evident, his words stopping Bucky before he could even question Clara. 'All right. Hold on, I know, I know. Listen, pack an overnight bag and take the boys.'

'What happened?' Bucky asked. 

'Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews,' he said, lowering the phone for a moment. Speaking back into it, he continued. 'Okay. Go somewhere safe. Only pay in cash, all right? Let me know when you get there. I know. Look, I love you. I'll never let anything happen to you and the boys - you know that. Okay, bye.'

'Jesus, Sam. You can't seriously think there's good left in her after she's done that?' Clara scowled.

'Karli wants to meet. She left a contact number.' He sent the number a message and a moment later his phone chimed. 'She said come alone.'

'I'm coming with you,' Bucky said, not giving him the option. 

Bucky then looked at Clara expectantly. Clara wasn't sure whether that was a "tell him you'll stay out of it" look or a "you better be ready as back-up" look, but either way Clara let them know that she was coming too. 'You think I'm letting you to get Karli without me?'

'Yeah, I do,' Sam told her. 'This is to talk, not to fight. I don't need you two hot heads following me in.'

'Hey, we aren't-' Clara started.

'We're coming, end of,' Bucky repeated. 

Sam nodded, his expression serious as he began to question just how far Karli was going to go in her search for justice. 'Okay, but we're suiting up before we go anywhere,' Sam told them. 'The last thing we need is getting caught out by Karli or Walker, or anyone else that wants to throw their hat in the ring.' 

*    *    *

'Karli!' Sam yelled as they reached the meeting point. Now dressed in his suit and ready to stop Karli before she could go any further with her threats against his nephews. When he saw her lean over a balcony above them, the walkway running alongside the apartments, he made his way to the nearest staircase. 

Bucky and Clara followed after him, Clara invisible to those around them. 'You called my sister? That's how we're gonna play this?' 

'Sam, I would never hurt her. I just wanted to understand her brother better,' Karli told him, leaning against the stone walkway wall. Standing up, she continued. 'I see you didn't come alone.'

'You have to end this now,' Sam told her, ignoring her comment and getting straight to the point. 

'I don't want to hurt you,' Karli said, Clara watching all the while, with a deep anger beginning to take root. Her words should count for nothing, her reassurances so be completely ignored. Karli couldn't be trusted after everything she had done. 'You're just a tool in the regimes that I want to destroy. You aren't hiding behind a shield. If I were to kill you, it would be meaningless.'

Clara's jaw tightened as she grit her teeth. Karli saw taking lives as no more than small brushstrokes hidden within the big picture. The issue with thinking that way was that, although individually the strokes can be seen as insignificant, when combined with those around them it begins to tell a story. 

In the case of this story, the Avengers had painted the picture - intricate and delicate with thousands of brushstrokes made of both the heroes and the villains the world had faced. The painting told a story of all the lives destroyed, built, and sacrificed to create the world they knew. 

Karli was painting over it in thick, red blood. 

Taking Sam's life wouldn't be meaningless - not to the people who knew him, or all of the people he had saved. Nor were the lives of the three she had killed in the previous bombing, or the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before that. They all meant something to someone. And ultimately, that truth would be the reason Karli came to her own end. 

'I was gonna ask you to join me,' Karli told Sam. 'Or do the world a favour, and let me go.'

After she had spoke, Sam looked down to his forearm, seeing a satellite image appear with a tracking icon not far from their own location. 'It's Walker,' he told Bucky, the man jumping from the walkway as soon as the information reached him. Sam followed, gliding from where he stood to cross the courtyard. 

They didn't wait for Clara, because they had already planned for this. They had planned that if anything went south - if Walker made an appearance, if they had walked into a trap, then they would all follow the corresponding contingency plan. In this instance, the plan was to reach Walker before he could make matters worse by once again confronting the Flag Smashers.

They wouldn't notice Clara hadn't followed that plan until it was far too late. 

As Bucky and Sam leapt from the walkway, Karli moved to pull her mask over her head, and prepared to do the same. Her trajectory was clear to Clara, and she quickly blocked her path with a shield glowing a fierce purple, trapping her where she stood. 

Clara didn't take her eyes off of Karli as she did, not even flicking her wrist as she pictured the shield appearing. It simply just appeared, and she barely had to put any effort into it at all. She didn't even feeling it happening. She was too focused on the rage forcing its way to the surface.

'What the hell?' Karli spat, looking around to see whatever had caused the strange forcefield. 

Strangely, Clara showed herself.

Karli tracked her eyes over the girl as she appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and she recognised her from the fight after the memorial. Karli saw the black tactical outfit snug against her body, she saw the curly brown hair reaching just below her shoulders, and she saw her eyes glowing as though filled with amethyst flames. She saw her hands were the same, held at her sides with violent energy flaring from her skin.

What Karli had noticed before all of that, however, was the absolute, unadulterated fury Clara had finally let show. 

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