Music is "Captain America: The Winter Soldier Score Suite" by Henry Jackman.

Picture is the Negative Zone from the Captain America: Civil War trailer.

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"There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain that goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang of tomorrow,
And tomorrow never came."

- Les Miserables, Emtpy Chairs At Empty Tables Part 1

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Recommendation from the audience: "Consequences On Loving You" by erxmthwsxn

Recommendation from the author: "Bucky Barnes x Reader and Steve Rogers x Reader Oneshots" by BeautifulBlues

Send in your recommendation of your book to possibly be featured in next week's chapter!

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

"To quote every Star Wars movie, like ever, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Shut up, Clint. You're not helping."

Ah, best friend super assassins. Gotta love 'em.

The Blackbird hovers above the face of the waters like a ghost in the night, the darkness surrounding it. With the cover of both a Ororo's powers and the nighttime, it's easy to slip onto the surface of the calm Atlantic ocean.

Why the Atlantic ocean? That's where the entrance to the Negative Zone is. It takes a lot of space to create a stable wormhole to another Negative dimension. Reed Richards has been able to keep it open over a large body of water.

The Fantastic Four nearly destroyed the world going to the Negative Zone the first time; playing with powers and machines is dangerous. This lead to one of their colleagues, Victor Von Doom, or Doctor Doom, to be left there for years. When they went back, he was ready for them.

When they defeated Doom and recovered, Tony went to them and funded Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, to continue his work in the Negative Zone. Since then, he's been working on a place to keep dangerous mutants and enhanced people, building a gateway and buildings inside, hiring guards, building nearly a city.

I didn't know that he intended to actually use it. I figured it would be a "break in case of emergency" kind of thing. I didn't know Stark planned to make it into a prison.

There's no greater enemy than a friend, I suppose. There lies the biggest obstacle of this mission: who knows you better than a friend?

"We have a problem," Logan says, from the cockpit of the Blackbird. He's hovering over the controls as Scott Summers flies.

"What now?" Bucky and I ask at the same time.

"The door in closed," Logan says, groaning and turning around. "The door to the Negative Zone. It's supposed to be open for a shipment tonight, but for some reason it's not."

"They know we're coming?" Clint asks, looking to Bucky.

He shakes his head. "I don't think so. Nat, what does radar say?"

She shakes her head while looking at the equipment. "Nothing on radar. Nothing on sonar. Just the giant building in the middle of the Atlantic." She smirks at Bucky. "It's just us out here, James."

He nods, turning to me. "Can you fly out and see if we have any supers flyin' around that might not be on radar or sonar?"

I nod. "Yep."

"Take Wanda, Next Gen. member Katie, X-Men member Riley, and Secret Warriors Agent Amy with you. Amy can make a water spout to carry herself, Katie can do the same, and Riley has control over wildlife of the seas and hydrokinetics. Wanda can make you fly again since your powers are still on recharge mode from being in Stark's prison. Report back through your headset on your suit helmet, and Glory," he places a hand on my shoulder and looks me dead in the eyes, "be careful."

I nod. "No careless flying. Got it." I turn to Amy, Katie, and Wanda. "You ladies ready to fly?"

They all nod, Katie wearing her updated Next Gen. Mutant gear, a blue suit to match her element. Amy wears a white suit with blue streams down the sides.

I click the bottom on the neck of my new suit, and the helmet instantly appears around my head. It looks like some knock-off Iron-Man tech from the way a dozen graphics appear on the visor. They tell me things like where I am, what's around me, what people are in the visual vicinity. Pretty cool stuff.

"Remind me to thank Steve when we get him," I say, turning to Bucky.

Bucky nods and presses the button to open the back door with his metal hand. "Good luck, girls!"

I salute him and walk backwards off the plank, hovering above the water with my powers thanks to Wanda. "Thanks for the lift, Sis," I say as Wanda follows me out of the Blackbird, hand raised and red sparks coming from it. My body floats on a cloud of red chaos magic.

She smiles and comes to float next to me. "Not a problem, Glory." She turns to Katie and Amy as they walk onto the water, waving their hands around to allow the water to float around them. Riley uses her aquatic telepathy to lure a giant fish to her, a shark of sorts, and hops on its back, following the small group as we head over the waters. She controls the water to create easier swimming for the shark with her hydrokinetics.

"You're about a hundred meters or so from the structure," Nat says, through coms. "You should start seeing it-"

"-Holy shit," I mumble to myself, a gigantic building coming into view.

It's absolutely huge, and standing straight up in the middle of the ocean. Roughly three hundred meters tall and the same distance wide, it's no wonder Bucky assigned five of us to search the perimeters.

"We found it," I say, adding to my vulgar comment. "What exactly are we looking for, Logan?"

"There should be a panel of sorts along the edge somewhere," Logan's voice says in my ear. "You can manually open it from there. Then the entry way on the top of the structure will open, and the breach between this world and the Negative Zone will be opened, too."

"You know Tony won't make it easy to get to," Clint says. "Be careful. We aren't losing anyone else today."

"Aye aye, Hawkeye."

Wanda takes the two of us closer. The three water-enabled girls with us come up close behind. "What do we do?" asks Amy.

I point to the left. "You three... float, I guess... that way. Look for the panel. Wanda and I will go right. Let us know what you find. If you see any personnel, do not engage. Report back and hide. Dive under if you have to. We can't let Tony know we're here."

The all nod, and I take Riley's arm as the others leave. "Riley, I want you to dive under and use your telepathy with the sea creatures to see if this panel is under water. Since you can stay under the longest, with the gills and such, you're perfect for this job. The whole structure can sink if it needs to. Tony might have it so far under than only he can reach it."

Riley nods and silently goes under the waves, holding onto her shark. She calls other creatures to her with her telepathy, and they search the deep.

Wanda and I look farther up, nearer to the top of the structure. When we don't find anything, she lets us stand on the top of it, and I walk to the center where the hole to the breach between worlds is. Or should be, if the door isn't closed.

"Some thing Tony built, eh?" I ask Wanda, stomping my foot on the thick metal.

"Another weapon of destruction," she says, bitterly. "I am not surprised, just disappointed. You would have thought my brother died for nothing the way Stark acts."

I sigh, and before I can reply, we hear an alarm go off, and the building starts to sink back into the waters. Slowly, but it will be gone soon. "What the hell?" I shout, trying to keep my balance as the structure shakes. Wanda uses her magic to keep us floating in air. "What's going on, Bucky?"

"The building is sinking!"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious! Why is it sinking?"

"An alarm was triggered," Natasha says, and I can hear her typing furiously. "I can't reroute it. The whole thing is going under-"

As she continues to tell us the bad news, I hear another door open with a loud bang. The alarm continues to blare. Over the edge of the structure come the Iron Legion, ten automatic weapons that Tony made originally as a peacekeeping force for the Avengers, but these are different. These are guards. They've been ordered to fire on anything that isn't Tony or Tony-approved.

""Uh, Wanda?" I say, nervously, looking to my future sister-in-law for help. "Get us out of here!"

She nods, and without another world, has us flying at speeds close to her brothers to escape the Iron Legion on our tails. "Scott, get the damn Blackbird out of here. You can't be spotted."

"On it."

"Katie, Riley, Amy, come in. Girls? We're being attacked by the Iron Legion. We need backup!" Wanda makes us fly the opposite direction of the Blackbird, keeping us from being found out.

"We're having a bit of a problem ourselves, Glory," Amy says in her New Zealand accent, out of breath. "More Iron Legion are here, too. Katie and I are barley keeping them at bay. Where's Riley?"

"I don't-" Before I can finish, Riley rockets from the water, flying into the air on... a great white shark. The shark takes out one of the Iron Legionaires that was following us. She uses her hydrokinetic powers to make waves so high that they take out a second Iron Legionaire. Then she drives back into the water, swimming off towards Katie and Amy. "Nevermind. Found her. She's coming your way!"

Riley's distraction gives me an idea. "Wanda, drop me."

Wanda looks at me like I'm crazy. "What? No!"

"Just do it! Trust me." I nod to her, showing her my confidence.

She nods, not as sure, but does as I say. She drops me from a height of three hundred feet, from what my visor says. I hold my breath and wait for the crash of the waves around me.

Once under the waves, I push myself back up, turning my eyes towards the Iron Legion following Wanda as she continues to fly away. I push my hands up and pull the cosmic power from around me, trying to muster up as much as I possibly can. I close my eyes, breathing in the power, and let it fly with a flick of my wrist towards the Iron Legion in a bright, golden stream of light.

They explode on impact, falling into the sea in a million, metal pieces. Wanda comes over me and smiles, pulling me from the ocean with her outstretched arms. "That was amazing! Your powers are coming back!"

I grin and begin to attempt flying by myself, barely being able to do it. "I still need a little help, but thanks, Wanda." I sigh, relieved to be back to my old self, or close to it. "I command the power of the stars. How cool is that?"

"We need backup," I hear Wanda say through coms to the Blackbird.

"We're sending out Falcon and Quicksilver right now," Nat says. "Doctor Strange and Hummingbird are going for the panel. Hang tight, guys. We're almost through."

I look to the sea level and see a white line come racing across the surface. "Well, there's my fiancé," I say, laughing to myself.

"We're in!" Ronnie Hill, or Hummingbird, says. "Stephen and I found the panel, and I hacked it. We're in! The door is opening."

Wanda and I start to fly towards the Negative Zone entrance, Pietro following below. "How are things going with the Iron Legion?"

"Almost gone," Amy says. "Between Katie, Sam, Riley, and I, they're all but destroyed."

"Ain't no one got anything on this bird," Sam says. "Woo!"

I can't help but laugh at Sam Wilson. If there ever was a true kid at heart, Sam would be him.

"We're on our way to the entrance," Scott says. "I'll drop everyone off, then take cover a couple miles away and wait for your signal. How in the world do you plan to get everyone in that prison onto the Blackbird? She's overweight as it is with all you."

"Don't worry, Scott Summers," I say. "We have a plan. Don't we, Buck?"

Bucky laughs. "That we do."

Wanda flies us up to the top of the entrance building. It's stopped sinking, the Iron Legion is all but destroyed, and the alarms have stopped. "Tony will be here in less than an hour," I say while landing. "We have to move now."

The door that keeps the breach closed begins to open, revealing a blue, swirling vortex of terror. I glance over the edge of the breach, cringing. "Dear Frigga, that looks too much like what took me from my world to this one."

Pietro comes to stand beside me, an arm around my waist. "Do not get too close."

I turn and smile up at him. "Don't worry. I won't fall in."

His concerned look turns to slight annoyance. "And do not shove me in this time, okay?"

I laugh, throwing my head back as the other Avengers arrive at the entrance point. "Okay, I promise I won't."

Pietro pulls me close and gives me a kiss on the lips. "What was that for?" I ask, breaking apart.

"Do I need a reason?"

"Touché."

Once the Next Gen. Mutants (minus Vlad for obvious reasons), the New Avengers (minus Steve for obvious reasons); the trio of Deadpool, Kamala, and Jessica Drew; and some of the X-Men arrive with the new recruits, we wait for Riley, Amy, Stephen, Ronnie, Sam, and Katie to come to the entrance.

Bucky walks up to me and pats me on the shoulder. "You did good, Glory. Steve would be proud."

I give him a small smile. "Holy shit," Deadpool says, looking over the edge.

Clint does the same as Wade, making nearly the exact same face of dread. "Awww, man. I am not going in that thing."

"Watch your back," Nat teases. "I will push you."

Clint's face turns slowly to his assassin best friend. "Why do I even know you?"

"Budapest."

Clint groans and crosses his arms. "Fucking Budapest."

The rest of our company arrives within seconds of Clint and Nat's bickering. "This is it," Bucky says. "It's open and stable. When you go through, you're going to want to hold your breath, but don't. Keep breathing naturally."

"What happens if we hold our breath?" Clint asks, nervously, as if he doesn't want to know the answer."

Bucky chuckles and crosses his arms. "You'll explode. Who wants to go first?"

I take a deep breath in and step forward. "I will. Everyone can follow me."

"I will go with her," the Maximoff twins say at once.

Bucky nods. "Go in groups of two or three. Hold hands so you won't get pulled away into... somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?" Clint says in a very high-pitched voice, clenching his hands around his arrow tightly. "This is payback for scaring you in the vents a couple years back, isn't it?"

Bucky smirks and looks to Natasha. "Go with his scared ass." Then he turns to the three of us Maximoff's. "Go when ready."

Wanda takes my hand, and I take Pietro's. "See you on the other side," I say aloud.

Then we dive into the breach.

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

{Third Person P.O.V.}

The alarms go crazy. Tony stark is thrown from his restless sleep, filled with nightmares about Steve dying, all of them dying. Just like before Ultron, and he was helpless to stop that. What's to say he can do something about this disaster that's partly his creation.

"What the-" Tony says, flying from his bed.

On the other side, Pepper awakens. "Tony? What's going on?"

"I don't know, Peps," he answers, turning to his screen that says "ALERT" in large, blaring letters. As if the giant alarm wasn't enough. "My god."

"What?" Pepper comes over to him, rubbing her eyes from sleep. "Is something wrong with the Avengers?"

"It's the Negative Zone. They've attacked it. They're trying to get in," he says, a shocked expression on his face. "I'm deploying the Iron Legion." He presses several buttons and has his Atlantic Iron Legion deployed. "That should keep them busy while I get ready."

"Ready?" Pepper asks, then a realization hits her, and her eyes widen. "Oh God. No. Not that thing. Please, Tony, you know how I feel about it."

"I don't have a choice, Peps." Tony places his hand on the screen, unlocking the security clearances to his workshop. "Friday, get the new one ready for takeoff."

"The... new one, Sir?"

"The Destroyer Suit. It's time to take her out for a spin."

END CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.