B U C H A R E S T, R O M A N I A

May 23rd, 2016

The door to our apartment is unlocked when I get there. I've gone up alone while Bucky's gone for the guns we have hidden in the ground floor. I stealthily enter the hideout, thinking that, if there's someone there, I don't want them to catch me until I have a gun in my hand. My fears are confirmed when I see the silhuette of a man in front of our fridge.

I go back outside and press my back against the wall until Bucky comes back. He's carrying a belt with two holsters and has already put on his, hiding it under his sweatshirt. He hands it to me and I stop him before he gets into the apartment.

"There's someone in there." I mouth as I wrap the belt around my waist.

"Stay here."

He makes his way inside and I can hear the mystery man talking. "Understood." He says before he can see Bucky. "Do you know me?"

"You're Steve. I read about you in a museum."

Steve. As in Steve Rogers.

I don't know how I haven't figured out it was him. As I sneak back into the studio, I spot his characteristic shield. Pretty hard to miss, I think to myself. But I was so startled to find someone there that I couldn't focus on something like that. I decide to step in as well since I don't think Steve is here to act hostile towards us. If he wanted to take us with him, he wouldn't have come to our place first.

"I know you're nervous, and you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying."

"I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore."

"Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive-"

He stops talking when he notices me. "That's smart. Good strategy." He watches me as I walk next to Bucky. He protectively places his hand over mine and I can see Rogers' eyes following every one of our moves. 

Nobody says anything after that and I nod towards the man in the red, white and blue suit as my way of introducing myself. "Captain."

"I wish we would've met in another setting, ma'am." He very politely nods back at me before turning to Bucky again. "This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck."

"It always ends in a fight."

"You pulled me from the river. Why?"

"I don't know."

Bucky told me about that. Before he took me with him, he was involved in a mission with the objective of taking Rogers down. It was then when Bucky learned he was more than a cold-blooded assassin. It was thanks to what this man said to him that he decided to research his past.

"Yes, you do."

It isn't until now that I notice he's holding Bucky's notebook. There he wrote down everything he found out about himself, about Rogers or anything that made him feel closer to his older self.

There's no time for anyone to say anything else before something breaks through the window and bounces into the room. It hits the floor with a metallic sound and when it stops in front of me I recognize it is a grenade. Bucky quickly kicks it away from us and Captain America uses his vibranium shield to cover it and minimize its impact.

We've been discovered and I know what is going to come next. Luckily, Bucky knows it too and lifts the mattress in the middle of the room to cover us as they start shooting through the windows. The authorities looking for us start hitting the door with the aim of knocking it down. I rush to push the dining table to block the entrance, but it doesn't really matter when they get in through the windows.

"Buck, stop!" Steve yells to avoid Bucky fighting back the authorities and complicating the situation even more. "You're gonna kill someone."

"I'm not gonna kill anyone." Bucky doesn't listen to him and neither do I. We lock eyes for a second and with that he lets me know our plan is still going. He pushes Rogers to the ground and thrusts a whole on the wooden floor with his bionic fist. He takes out his emergency backpack and I remember to do the same with mine. I punch the wall to my left and take my own bag. We prepared these a long time ago in case we got uncovered and had to flee anywhere else.

More policemen appear and start shooting at us. Bucky blocks the first bullets with his metal arm but I am quick enough to grab Captain's shield and use it to protect us.

"Get to the balcony and prepare to jump." Bucky tells me and I pass him the shield as I step outside. There's a man hurt on the balcony and I punch him, knocking him out. Better safe than sorry.

There's a rope with a hook tied at the end of it. This is our plan to escape the apartment. I throw it as hard as I can to the building in front of ours and I pull it until it is tense enough. I start tying it to the balcony's railing and once I have my homemade zipline ready, I turn on my heels to look for Bucky.

But there's no one in the apartment.

Apart from the unconscious policemen, the studio is empty. However, I can hear the fighting is still going on in the staircase. I am tempted to go back inside and help Bucky against the agents but before I can think about it twice, I see him jumping from our building to the one before us, landing right next to the other end of my rope. He looks up at me and holds his arms up, waiting for me to get to him.

I throw my backpack over my shoulders and take out my belt. I grab both endings of the belt with each hand start sliding down the rope until I'm next to Bucky, finally free from our persecutors.

"What took you so long?"

"Just wanted to check that I hadn't forgotten my toothbrush."

Suddenly, a black shadow falls upon us in the building's roof.

"Watch out!"

We both duck to avoid the black smudge that lands in front of us. They waste no time in attacking and go straight for Bucky. They kick him in the stomach and Buck defends himself. Still, he ends up finding himself being shoved a ventilation vent. This dude is really fast, it's all happened in a matter of seconds. I jump towards them to help Bucky out, but he sees me coming and throws me in the ground before I can even touch him. He lifts his fist up and I move my head away from its trajectory.  Even so, he doesn't hit me. Instead, he loosens his clenched hands and reveals claws coming from the tips of their fingers. 

I haven't been able to see their face. It is still hard because they're standing above me with the sunlight behind them but I swear I recognize cat ears. 

"Wait, are you actually a cat?!"

They don't answer and are about to hit me in the face when Bucky throws himself at them. They both roll on the ground while I take the chance to stand up. I'm pretty sure the dude's a man dressed as a black cat. I look around me to try and find something useful to attack him with. I don't want to use my guns because we're not trying to kill anybody. We just want to leave.

The man in the cat costume doesn't manage to stick his claws in Buck's face because I strike him with a steel beam.

I hit him with all my strength but I'm left with half of the beam in my hands. It had broken in two and the man is still standing as if nothing had happened.

Suddenly, we're all being shot. A police helicopter hovering above us won't stop their attack. Bucky and I hide behind the roof's vents but the man in the black costume doesn't even move. The bullets hit his face and chest but they just ricochet. His suit is bulletproof if not indestructible.

Another flying silhouette hits the helicopter, forcing it to disengage. I can see Captain America has made it to the roof and while they're all distracted by the helicopter, Bucky and I flee away from that scenario.

We end up getting in the middle of the road, running into a tunnel along with the traffic. Thanks to the serum, we're able to run faster than the cars. What I've almost forgotten is that running after us is another man enhanced by the serum.

Rogers is getting closer to us, the man in the cat costume too. I make the mistake to try to run faster.

"Shit!" I exclaim when I almost trip in the middle of the road. Thankfully, it doesn't slow me down, but I say it loud enough for Bucky to look at me worried.

"What?!" He yells, without stopping. "What's wrong?!"

I pick up my pace to run next to him. There's nothing wrong. I get sarcastic when I'm stressed and, in the middle of this madness, I can't help but let out a comment. "I didn't lock the door!"

Now I hear police sirens as well, coming from ahead of us. The official vehicles are coming in our direction and we're forced to switch lanes, now running against the traffic flow. When we first step in there is only a motorcycle approaching us, thankfully. I pass by it first, but Bucky slows down.

From the corner of my eye, I see him throw the man off the motorcycle and hop on it. When he drives by me, he sticks out his arm and I get on behind him. 

"Anna! If they get me, you run away! You hear me?!" He says against the wind while driving as fast as he can.

"I'm not leaving you!" I'm not going to let them take him for something he didn't do. He's not going to get rid of me so easily.

The mystery cat-man is getting close to us. He jumps over me but I block him, adding too much weight on the bike and making it lean to the side. I manage to balance on the seat while I try to push the man down. He's too strong, even for me. Bucky is the one who kicks him and he finally lets go.

"I'm gonna use the explosive!" I inform Bucky without waiting for him to reply. There's no time to discuss our options. I get the small device out of my bag and throw it to the ceiling of the tunnel, making it stick to it for a few seconds. Then, the bomb explodes and the ceiling collapses. But before the debris blocks the entire exit, the black cat manages to jump through the dust. I see him coming straight for us with his claws out and I can see what is going to come next.

He scratches the wheel of the bike and Buck loses control. The bike falls on its side and we start spinning on the ground. I shut my eyes close hard to avoid any rocks getting into them, but I can feel them cutting through the skin on my cheeks anyways.

When I stop rolling, the only thing I see is Bucky laying on the ground, the mystery man in black staring deadly at him and Captain America standing between the two of them. I hear the sirens of the police cars getting closer and I immediately look at Bucky. He slightly shakes his head and I know he means for me to run. But I ain't leaving him.

That? Never.

A man in a suit of iron lands between us. I've seen this man before, on the TV. He's not the Iron Man, yet his attire is very similar. He's Colonel James Rhodes. And he's pointing the blasters in the palms of his hands at us.

We're totally surrounded at this point. To be honest, I'm shit scared. We talked about what we'd do if we got arrested but now that the situation has come, I have no idea what to do. I feel tears blurring my sight as my eyes follow Bucky's movements. The policemen are getting out of their cars and they're all going for him.

"Stand down, now!"

I can barely hear what they yell. My heart is beating so fast and loud, I can hear it in my ears. I see Bucky putting his hands behind his head and mine tremble as I do the same.

"Congratulations, Cap," Colonel Rhodes says. "you're a criminal."

The police officers poke Bucky's head with their guns to make him stand on his knees. Almost immediately, the cold metal hits my nape as well. One of them kicks me behind the knees, forcing me to kneel.

I can't stop the tears from falling down my face. I don't want to know what they're going to do with me after they find out all I've done.

"Hey! Let her go!" Is the only thing Bucky says.

"Rhodey, she's got nothing to do with this." Steve backs him up on this one and succeeds to convince the man. Steve helps me up but I'm so terrified I don't even look at him.

The sole thing that makes me partially forget my anxiety for our future is when the man in the cat costume finally takes off his mask and reveals his identity.

I have to thank the TV again, for I wouldn't have recognized him if I hadn't seen him on the news about the Vienna meeting.

"Your highness."

He's T'Challa, the new king of Wakanda and the son of the man Bucky has allegedly killed.