• • •

As Bucky and you sped down the highway, you leaned into him, the side of your face pressed against his back.

After all of the craziness that had been occurring, you two didn't have much time alone—which you hated. You barely had time to tell the man 'hello,' a majority of the time, let alone tell him how you really felt about him.

"You alright back there?" Bucky called out, breaking you free from your thoughts.

"Yeah," you answered, narrowing your eyes at the bridge that hovered over the road ahead.

You could almost make a figure out, standing on top of the bridge. As the motorcycle neared it, you could feel your heart skip a beat.

Black Panther, you thought.

You knew Bucky saw him, too, because he sped the motorcycle up.

"Hold on to me," Bucky yelled as his metal arm reached behind him, holding onto your side protectively.

At first you thought he was going to try to speed up and get under the bridge, but boy were you wrong.

Just as he neared the bridge, his right arm jerked the handlebars of the motorcycle so violently that you felt as if the thing was about to flip. This didn't happen, though, and instead, Bucky did a complete U-turn exceeding ninety miles per hour.

You looked over your shoulder to the bridge to see Panther gone. Your eyebrows furrowed, but you didn't have enough time to process what happened next.

As if falling from the sky, Panther came down, his claws catching your back and you were ripped away from Bucky; however, due to the fact that it was his metal arm that was holding onto you, Panther took down the both of you.

The bike skidded across the asphalt until crashing into a car heading straight in your direction on the one way highway, causing the car to veer into another lane and impact with a tractor trailer.

Bucky's grip on you was long lost and now you rolled across the pavement, feeling the asphalt rip through your shirt and scraping your back. You screamed out in pain, meanwhile Bucky was able to roll into a somersault, landing on his feet.

After all, you weren't the super-soldier; he was.

Panther stalked over to you, sounds of horns blaring as cars were trapped on the other side of the toppled tractor trailer that now blocked all three lanes of the highway. Bucky intercepted between you and Panther, giving you enough time to stand up, despite every inch of your body hurting.

You reached into your jacket, pulling out your matte black pistol only for it to be blasted out of your hand. You snapped your head around to see what the hell happened and were met with the eyes of Tony's Iron suit—just the man you wanted to see.

"Well, well, well. . .how did we end up here?" Tony spoke, almost as emotionless as the appearance of his suit.

"Tony," you tried, standing there still while Bucky and Black Panther fought only a few feet behind you.

"No, (Y/N), you can't talk your way out of this. You chose your side; you chose to go against me. After everything, you proved to me that we were never a team. The Avengers was never a team. We were a time-bomb and if I don't end this now, we'll all lose."

You shook your head, tears filling your eyes, "You're wrong. We don't have to fight; this doesn't have to be war."

"That's where you're wrong, kid. This is war," he said, raising his repulsor beam at you—or at least you thought he was aiming it at you.

You turned around, your eyes widening as Bucky ducked just in time, barely escaping the beam.

In the chaos, you pulled out your spare Glock 26 out of your thigh holster—a gift from Natasha that you now really wanted to thank her again for. Panther was lunging at Bucky again, but you raised your gun in time to shoot at his bicep. He grunted in pain, turning to run towards you.

You took off running towards some abandoned cars close to the bridge, using the strength in your legs propel yourself up onto the hood of one and then to the roof. Bucky was close behind you, following your moves up onto the too of the car. You turned and shot at Panther again, but missed, then glanced around for Tony.

"Where'd he go?" You breathed out, realizing that he was no where in sight.

Panther was still coming at you and Bucky, giving Bucky no time to answer your question, though you were certain he didn't know either.

"Here," Bucky locked his hands together, referencing for you to put your foot in them, "jump."

You did as he said, placing your right foot into his interlocked fingers and jumped; with the strength of your jump and the force of his arms, you were able to jump high enough to grab onto the wall of the bridge. You heaved yourself upwards and climbed over the side, looking down as Bucky jumped off the car, his metal fist cracking against Panther's jaw.

You stood up once you were up on the bright, cars passing by only to blare there horns as Tony's iron suit flew in front of them, slamming all of his weight into you. You hit the side of the bridge so forcefully that you heard bone crack. You doubled over coughing, dots of blood splattering onto the asphalt.

"We were friends, Stark!" You yelled, pulling yourself up off of the pavement. "We trusted you!"

"I used to think so, too." He said firmly, "But you let me down."

You felt an ache in your chest—not from your injuries, but from Tony's words. You let him down.

Before you could say anything, Panther came over the side of the bridge, looking to the sky as the one and only Sam Wilson dropped Bucky onto the bridge before landing.

"How the hell did you—" Tony started, only to be stopped as something soared through the air behind him, hitting him in the back, sending him down on his knees.

Steve came into view further down the bridge, wearing his Captain America suit and you then realized it was his shield that had just brought Tony down. You were finally upright, one hand on the side of the bridge for support; you were sure you'd either badly bruised or maybe even cracked a rib, but the adrenaline was masking the pain.

Tony's mask began to retract, revealing his face as he stood up, turning to Steve. No one said a word, but you knew something bad was going to happen. Like Tony had said, this was war.

Peter came swinging upwards onto the bridge, landing on his feet on the opposite side of the bridge as you. He perched himself on the side wall, watching intently.

"I never wanted it to come to this, Rogers," Tony finally spoke as everyone stood there idle, waiting for someone to make a move.

You glanced over at Bucky, his blue eyes narrowed at you and you knew exactly what he was doing—examining every inch of your body for any sign of injury. He hadn't even seen you hit the side of the bridge, yet he was checking on you anyways.

"I know. But it has." Steve said, picking his shield up from the ground.

Behind Steve, Wanda came into view, red energy glowing in an aura around her hands. You turned your gaze from Bucky to Wanda and Steve as you still held onto the side of the bridge, wondering where the hell Scott was.

As if in a dream, everything following the moment you averted your eyes away from Bucky seemed to happen in a blur. Wanda's hand moved gracefully, yet lethally as Tony's suit began to make noise; she was literally tearing it off of him.

He pulled his hand up to aim his repulsor beam at her, though you could see the struggle due to Wanda's psionics. Panther lunged sideways at Bucky, his claws dragging across Bucky's face before he used his metal arm to throw the male off of him towards Tony. Panther then turned his attention to Wanda as he took notice of Tony's predicament and he ran towards her.

As he crossed in front of you, time stood still. You watched as an arrow flew through the sky from below, like it was shot from several hundred feet down the road below the bridge.

Panther barely missed it; it grazed his shoulder and soared through the air.

As if in a dream, you looked over at Bucky, his eyes widening and all color draining from his face as he took off running towards you. He was yelling, but you couldn't hear anything.

You felt a pain in your stomach, your knees going weak as you fell limp, backwards.

The arrow hadn't hit Panther; it hit you.

All you could see was the sky as you fell and it felt as if you were falling in slow motion. A string of web—Peter's—came into view. It was nearing you closer by the second, and it finally attached to your stomach above where the arrow was imbedded in your abdomen. You hung inches above the asphalt, Peter leaping down from the bridge.

"(Y/N)!" You heard Clint's voice as he obstructed your view of the plain, blue sky. "No," he said once he realized that he'd shot you instead of Panther, "This is all my fault. This is all my fault. Holy shit. Holy sh—"

"No," Bucky's voice sounded as you felt someone pull you into their arms.

"She's not gonna make it." Peter breathed out.

"Don't say that!" Bucky yelled angrily, his lip quivering.

You wanted to speak, but you couldn't find the words. You could only look up at the sky, and Clint who hovered above you. You turned your head a little, Bucky now coming into view.

His eyes were as blue as the sky, tears falling from them, "Please, don't you dare die." He pleaded you.

"What happened?" You could hear Steve's voice coming closer.

"I-I never miss. I never do. I'm so sorry. Damn it, what have I done?" Clint's breaths were raspy and you could hear him choking back tears.

"Is she in shock?" You heard Sam ask.

"Guys," you finally spoke, though your voice was only a whisper.

"(Y/N), hold on. We're going to get you help."

"No," you choked out, the taste of blood in your mouth, "I'm okay. I'm gonna be fine."

"But you're bleeding out, you won't last—" Sam spoke but was hushed by Bucky slamming his hand over his mouth.

"You just keep talking, baby, we'll get you home. Stay awake, please, (Y/N). I can't lose you." Bucky choked out, his voice cracking.

"I'm not—" you coughed, "I'm not goin' home, Buck."

"Don't say that, just hold on." Steve spoke, his voice rushed.

"Just hold on," someone else said, but by this point you couldn't make out who it was.

"Stark!" Bucky screamed out, "This is your fault! You did this to her!"

Bucky let you go as Steve pulled you into his arms instead.

"Bucky wait!" Steve yelled back as you heard his footsteps growing farther and farther away.

"I'm ending this. Now."

And those were the last words you heard as you bled out in the arms of your best friend while the man you never confessed your feelings for walked away in rage, going to kill Tony Stark.

[ SORRY !!!! ]