WASHINGTON D.C.
2014

BEFORE June even had a moment to regain her breath, the Winter Soldier attacked.

He kicked her squarely in the chest, sending her staggering backwards, towards the edge, nearly forcing her off the carrier entirely. But with perhaps the sheer force of will, June managed to regain her balance. Barnes charged for her, but she ducked beneath his punch and locked one hand around his fleshed wrist, twisting his arm unnaturally and driving her knee once, twice, three times into his stomach, manipulating him further from the ledge. In a spout of rage, the Winter Soldier ripped his arm free from her hold, uttering a sharp, indignant shout of pain in doing so. His inhuman hand rose, and he struck June across the jaw and. She went sprawling across the concrete, palms scraping against the asphalt, rolling ungracefully in a crumpled heap. Sam, who had taken off as soon as she was on board, realized a fraction of a second too late what was going on.

"June!" he cried through the comm. "Do you need help up there?"

June slowly lifted her head. She laid spread-eagled upon her stomach, her entire body quivering with pain and unpreparedness as the salty flavor of blood washed over her tongue and a distinct ringing in her ears persisted. Her gaze flitted up, and not fifteen feet away, the soldier began to prowl towards her.

"No," she grimaced, struggling uneasily, painfully to her feet. "No, just get Steve up here. Don't worry about me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," her voice was strained, an ache blooming throughout her chest, a bruise spreading across her cheek. She spat out a mouthful of blood. "Go."

Her knees shook. The throbbing in her side was unceasing. The pain was dizzying. But she thrust out her arms and her daggers slid from their sheaths to be clutched within taut fingers, and she steadied her stance and raised her weapons and stared down James Barnes with the ferocity of a lion.

"Ty znal yego, serzhant," she said lowly, switching her language once she was sure the Winter Soldier could hear her. You knew him, sergeant.

He did not reply. He did not even appear as if her words had reached him. He took a fraction of a step forward. But like an archangel soaring down from God's left hand, Sam reappeared, with Steve dangling in his hold. June was immediately flushed with relief. While he was still in the air, Steve vaulted his shield at the Winter Soldier, the weapon spinning, cutting through the atmosphere with the speed of a bullet. It struck him in the chest, and with this momentary distraction June seized her opportunity and ducked out of the soldier's sight, crouching behind a stockpile of ammunition storage containments. Their triumph was short-lived. Within moments, the Winter Soldier regained his savage rage and was withholding none of his power. June peeked behind her barrier, just in time to watch Barnes land his boot in Steve's chest and send him soaring over the side of the helicarrier.

June clamped a hand over her mouth to silence the outcry that brewed in her throat; the only advantage she had over the Winter Soldier was that he seemed to have forgotten about her for the moment.

Sam, however, did not restrain his outburst. "Steve!" he shouted in panic, diving after him at once. Sam did not get far. In a fluid movement, Barnes thrust up an arm and, clutching a device June had no name for, aimed a barbed cable at Falcon's right wing. The hook buried itself in Sam's steel feathers, and with a great display of strength, the assassin yanked him sharply back to the ground. Another heave, and the wing was torn off entirely. And still that was not enough, for before Sam had even a moment to gather himself, Barnes leapt forward and struck him in the chest and drove him over the edge of the carrier just as he had Steve.

The Winter Soldier took a second to appreciate his good work, peering over the ledge with dispassionate curiosity, before he stalked off toward the main hangar bay.

June barely allowed herself to breathe as she waited for his heavy footsteps to die out, plus an additional five seconds for security. She lifted her wrist to her lips.

"Steve?" she croaked. "Sam? What are your positions?"

A moment passed. Sam's voice reached her ears. "The suit's down," he said regretfully. "I'm grounded. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Steve broke in. "You've done enough. June, where are you?"

"Right where you left me," she replied grimly, struggling to ignore the aches throbbing through her body. "What do you want me to do?"

Steve said clearly, "I'm headed toward the core hangar. Stay safe and meet me there."

"Barnes is moving that way."

"Like I said," Steve continued without pause, "stay safe."

• • •

FOR the fourth time in two days, June Ivanski faced the Winter Soldier.

So far, it had not become any less terrifying. Even as she stood firmly beside Steve upon a narrow bridge suspending them within the helicarrier, her daggers drawn and eyes aflame, her heart hammered in her clenched chest as the ghost from her days in chains glared steadily at the operatives planted before him. Barnes stood between them and their chance of saving 20 million lives, the targeting chip panel mere feet from their reach.

"People are gonna die, Buck," Steve said softly, disrupting the chilling quiet. "I can't let that happen."

Silence. His indifference was irking.

"Please don't make me do this . . ." The pain was thick in Steve's breaking voice.

Barnes continued to stare, his chin tilting down in a wordless refusal of compromise. With a heartbroken sigh, Steve grit his teeth, wound up his arm, and swung his shield. Barnes' silver arm shot up in defense and the weapon deflected off of it sharply, careening back to Steve. The Winter Soldier whipped out a pistol, and the next instant the pang of a bullet hitting the shield twanged through the air. Steve knocked Bucky's arm away, the latter lifting once more and firing the handgun swiftly. While Steve continued to gain the offence, Barnes realized his defense was failing. He was thrust back once again, yet this time he spotted a weakness in Steve's stature, a chink in his armor. And with chilling ease, he sent a bullet into Captain America's side.

Steve grunted in pain, shutting his eyes tightly and fighting the agony. June jumped into the scene, kicking off the railing with one foot, propelling herself to the other side, and then again until she had put herself between Steve and the Winter Soldier. He raised his weapons, but in that instant June was quicker. One of the twin daggers flashed through the air, leaving a bloody streak upon the soldier's unprotected fleshed wrist in its wake, drawing an outraged cry from Barnes. Admittedly, causing him pain gave her satisfaction. His grip on the pistol had relinquished for a moment, and a moment was all she needed. She swung around kicked it out of his hand and over the side of the bridge.

The glare she earned was enough to shrivel her confidence. But she stood her ground.

Sensing the increasing danger of the situation, Steve intervened. He leapt ahead of June and struggled with Barnes in a desperate attempt to get to the chip panel that lied just feet before them. With little technique, the Captain struck Barnes with force enough to throw backwards, clearing the path. As Bucky attempted to reengage, June rushed forward, driving her knee into his stomach and managing to keep him at bay for a few precious seconds. But with quickness like lightning, Barnes enclosed a metal fist around her throat. June gasped as her breath clogged in her lungs, and she could do nothing to free it. She squirmed against his hold, pounding her fist into his arm over and over to loosen his grip. Her attempts were in vain, and the next moment Bucky lifted her from the metal grated platform, and thrust her over the railing.

June heard Steve shout her name, but he broke off abruptly and she suspected the Winter Soldier had gotten to him. Luckily, June fell very little distance, catching herself on the same platform from which she had been thrown. Suddenly roar of defiance broke the air, and Barnes tackled Steve over ledge, and the two went sprawling. June craned her neck, watching as Steve and Barnes grabbled in a fierce battle for the last targeting chip, balancing precariously upon a lower platform.

At last, Steve managed to knock Barnes back, taking the soldier's split second of dazedness as an opportunity to throw his boot into Barnes' stomach and send him flying from the platform.

June dropped down and made her way carefully to Steve. He was breathing hard, exhausted and desperate, having lost hold of the targeting blade in the scuffle. Scarlet and violet bruises blossomed over the skin on his face that was not shielded by his helmet. June noticed the slight stagger in his step.

"I'm going after the chip," Steve coughed. "Distract him."

June swallowed hard. "I'll do my best."

So they leapt forward, jumping off the lower platform, Steve rushing for the remaining targeting blade that lied roughly yen yards ahead and June dashing to secure Barnes, blind to his location until her keen ears caught the low hiss of Steve's shield shooting through the air. With swift reflexes, June wheeled around, braced herself, and let the thing slam into her, the force of the Winter Soldier's throw enough to push her stumbling back a good six feet, but with Barnes's on top of her in less than an instant, June had no time to worry.

He produced a pistol once again, eyes gleaming with cold malice. If June had not duked behind the shield when she did, she would have earned herself a bullet through the skull. She swung the shield at his head, but he dodged her onslaught and threw a fist towards her temple. June evaded the strike and clouted Barnes across the cheek with  her dagger, the blade dragging a red gash through his skin. She struck him again before he could counterattack, with so much power the flesh over her knuckles began to split and bleed.

The Winter Soldier did not remain deterred for long. With strings of dark hair plastered over his face, he bared his teeth and snatched June by the arm with uniformed technique, and flipped her over violently, so that as she swung down her back slammed into the helicarrier floor, her head smacking against the glass.

His presence left her, and the world was suddenly enveloped in a blackness as pure and void as obsidian. Sharp agonies like little electric shocks ran up June's spine, through the back of her skull. It seemed she was enthralled in that darkness for an eternity, but soon color began to seep through her eyelids and she blinked, dumbfounded, a few feet away where Steve was disentangling himself from an unconscious Barnes, the targeting blade held tightly in his fist.

June struggled to her feet. "What did you do?" she asked Steve weakly as he approached her.

He exhaled sharply. "Bought us thirty seconds. C'mon."

"No," June shook her head. "I'll cover you. Go."

Steve stared at her a moment, eyes flitting over the bruises shadowing her jaw and eye, the blood streaming from her nose. He didn't want to leave her alone with Bucky, but he had no time to argue. With a grateful and apologetic look, he jumped back into action.

Maria Hill's voice suddenly broke through their comms. "One minute!"

One minute before 20 million innocent people lost their lives. June wanted to vomit, fear was rolling through her so violently. But soon she was forced to forget this fear, because a gunshot shattered the air, and Steve cried out an instant later.

Barnes was back on his feet, a malicious smirk curving his lips. He cradled his fleshed arm close against his body, and June noticed the odd angle at which his shoulder protruded. Steve's doing, she assumed.

She could not linger on small details. June sprinted forward without a strategy in mind. She only knew that she had to keep the Winter Soldier distracted, no matter what it took. She fought dirty, aiming her kicks at Barnes' injury, manipulating her attacks so that he was forced to either use his dislocated limb or suffer her inflictions. Her methods worked until Barnes managed to catch the front of her suit in his metal fist and swing her to the ground, pinning her down with a knee atop her chest. He ignored her struggling, eyes raising as he lifted his pistol slowly, and with obvious triumph, pulled the trigger.

The malevolent grin that spread over his face told June that the bullet had found its target.

"No," she sputtered, breathless under the weight of the soldier knelt on top of her. Finally, out of pure anger, June took one of her daggers and buried it in Barnes' thigh.

Now we're even, she thought. You son of a bitch.

His cry of pain and rage broke the air, and he rolled off her, blue eyes snapping. June did not care what he did to her henceforth. Her mind was on Steve, and whether or not he was still alive.

And then, as if the universe could read her thoughts, Steve's strained and agonized voice flowed from her earpiece.

"Charlie locked. Fire now."

He had switched the blades.

June's blood went cold, frigid surprise shooting through her. But Steve's words eventually registered and somehow she was not immediately abhorred. She was not sure if she was ready to die. But a small part of her did not protest the prospect. Besides, her lips could not formulate a protest.

Hill attempted to argue, but Steve interjected. "Do it!" he shouted. "Do it now!"

Without paying a thought to Barnes just feet from her, June clambered to her feet and ran. To where, she did not know. Steve had damned them. And then the roar of cannon fire tore through the world, and the helicarrier keeled forward. June was thrown painfully to the floor as the carrier's nose lurched down towards the Potomac River, its engines sputtering out. June struggled not to think about the horrors those back on the ground were experiencing.

An enraged scream ripped the air, and June turned to see the Winter Soldier trapped beneath a collapsed supportive arch, thrashing with true panic in his wild eyes. To June, he looked more like an animal gripped within a snare than he did a man. Steve saw his friend as well.

June had never before seen such steadfast loyalty possessed by anyone. Steve was on the ground in moments, staggering past June and falling against the beam Barnes was pinned underneath. He gripped its sides and heaved with all his strength, straining under the tremendous effort, his injuries nearly crippling him. All June could do was watch. Watch as Steve managed to give the Winter Soldier enough room to wriggle free, though he looked far from grateful. Confused, yes. Unbelieving. But not humane. Steve relented his hold, and the beam dropped with a clamoring boom.

Barnes swayed to his feet, as did Steve. The latter, realizing how close June was by his side, swatted her away, giving her a less-than-ceremonious push backwards.

"Get back," he said, voice hardly above a whisper. He swayed to face Barnes.

"You know me," Steve insisted, lurching forward unsteadily, eyes pleading and desperate.

The Winter Soldier snarled, hair blowing over his eyes, blood staining his face, his breathing shallow and labored.

"No, I don't!" he screamed vehemently, throwing a sloppy punch at Steve and falling to his knees as he did. Steve disregarded his own pain, threw a glance over his shoulder at June, and struggled to regain his footing.

"Bucky," he begged. "You've known me your whole life."

Barnes roared in outrage and violently backhanded Steve, throwing him to the ground. But Steve was nothing if not persistent.

"Your name," he choked. "Is James . . . Buchanan . . . Barnes—"

"—SHUT UP!"

Barnes punched Steve across the face and he went soaring, but was back on his feet in seconds, ripping off his helmet, ashy hair sticking up at odd angles, his face swollen and shining.

"I'm not gonna fight you," Steve breathed. His shield slipped off of his arm and down into the churning gray waters of the Potomac. "You're my friend."

At these words, a flicker of understanding passed through Barnes' eyes. But he stomped it out and leapt at Steve, tackling him to the floor with a vicious growl of frustration. And still June only watched, helpless, shaking from head to foot.

"You're my mission," Barnes sputtered, his voice trembling and terrified. "You're—!" he struck Steve's face. "My—!" twice more. "Mission!" again and again.

He hit him over and over, as if he could punch away the truth of his words. But June knew the personal hauntings of the Winter Soldier were surfacing truly for the first time in decades, right before her eyes. Bucky Barnes had suffered hell, and he looked like he'd rather crawl back through than face the eyes that stared up at him. Bucky wound up his fist, as if preparing to pummel Steve further, but something unspoken, something unseen, stopped him abruptly.

"Then finish it," Steve answered softly. "'Cause I'm with you . . . 'till the end of the line."

And suddenly a veil over Bucky's eyes lifted, and his countenance fell with utter horror, his gaze not leaving Steve, mouth agape with shock and eyes glistening with something that may have been tears. Words perched on the edges of his lips, but they never drifted into the air, because suddenly a great shadow closed in, and a massive piece of razed infrastructure dropped into the stomach of the helicarrier, crashing through the glass floor, and in a shower of debris and glass and fire, June and Steve fell from the sky.

• • •

WITH hair sopping and clothes drenched with smelling river water, June dragged herself up the shore, coughing and retching and gulping down air. She kept her head down, body heaving, quivering. Heavy footsteps came up near her, water  sloshing as a second person trudged out of the Potomac, dragging dead weight behind them. June lifted her eyes, and met the shaken stare of James Buchanan Barnes.

He clutched the front of Steve's bloodstained uniform tightly in his metal fist, but quickly set the unconscious man down on the muddy ground, eyes still locked on June. There was something different about his eyes, now. They were afraid. Unsure, and bewildered. But almost gentle. Broken and weak. Human.

Blue like the sky.

For the second time in her life, June gaped into the eyes of Bucky Barnes, and not into those of the Winter Soldier.

For a long moment they looked at each other, both tentative as to what the other would do next. At last, Bucky began to turn away, and June noticed that he still favored his dislocated limb.

"You should get that arm looked at," she called after him dryly.

Bucky glanced back at her, face darkened and unfaltering. He had never heard her speak in a non-Russian tongue. Setting his jaw, he turned away, stepped into the thick brush that blanketed the shore, and when June blinked again he was gone. She knew she should go after him. Arrest him. Detain him. But she could not bring herself to follow Bucky.

"Hill," June croaked into her comm as she sat up gingerly. "We need evac. South tip of the Potomac. Hurry."

A few tense seconds later, Maria's voice cracked over the transmission. "Roger that. Sit tight."

With a heavy sigh, June moved for Steve, lifting his head into her lap and attempting to smear away what she could of the blood and dirt and ash that painted his face. She did not know how she survived the fall from the carrier. She did not know why Bucky pulled Steve from the grasp of Death after spending the past week trying to deliver him there. June did not know many things. But for the time being, she did not care. With pain and nausea lolling through her, she watched in the far distance the fist of black smoke reaching for the sky, growing from the crumbling remains of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s D.C. headquarters. Minutes passed, and suddenly the whine of a chopper reached her ears. A helicopter bobbed into view, and through the windshield, June saw a man with an eyepatch and a flash of scarlet hair.

• • •
soooo that was a lot of action omggg I feel like I should be paid for this lolol
what did you think?? ugh Bucky and June are already my babies y'all i can't wait