Steve ended up stealing his World War ll uniform from the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian. Now, the next step is to destroy the helicarriers before it causes the world to go into complete chaos and catastrophe. Before we left the secret building that Fury had been hiding in for a few weeks, I secured all my weapons on my person, and Maria gave me a machine gun as a precaution for what is to come. But in the meantime, Steve, Sam, Maria and I managed to sneak into the Triskelion.

We stand outside the door of Communications, waiting for a Communication Technician to open the door to the disruption we caused with their signals. I hear the clicking of footsteps come closer to the door, and I raise my crossbow as everyone raises their gun. The door swings open, revealing a young man and his eyes go wide as he faces Steve.

"Excuse us," Steve announces as the technician steps aside, holding his hands up.

Steve walks over to the communication panels while all the technicians look at Steve, confused yet amazed that they are in the presence of Captain America. But one individual across the room looks at me with pure terror written on their face. His terror amuses me, and my crossbow is still raised, causing the man to flinch when it's pointed at him.

"Attention all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You're heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even order to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The Strike and Insight crew are Hydra as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you," Steve starts to inform everyone in the building over the intercom. "They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, Hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

Steve finishes his speech, and I'm impressed that he came up with it on the spot because I would never be able to pull something like that off. He certainty knows how to convey his ideas.

I look over at Sam who has the same expression on his face. "Did you write that down first or was it off the top of your head?" Sam asks Cap, with a huge smile forming on his lips.

***

Maria informed us that the launch of the helicarriers being initiated; courtesy of someone in the control room of the Triskelion. Without a second thought, the three of us set out to stop them before it would be too late. Once we get outside, agents are everywhere, trying to stop the once the pose as a threat to Project Insight. My heart is racing, the adrenaline is pumping through my veins as my instincts tell me to fight, to kill every damn person in this place. And certainly, on my behalf, that is exactly what'll happen.

"Hey, Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam asks while we're running towards the helicarriers.

Cap looks over at him, briefly, trying not to lose his focus. "If they're shooting at us, they're bad."

The wings on Sam's suit extend, and he flies off, leaving Cap and I to battle against the ones on the ground. As the ground below us ends, we both jump off, landing on the ground below us with ease, but the shock of my feet hitting the concrete goes through my body, sends a wave of pain in my legs that I ignore. Again, we're running forward, in the area where the agents are and that's when they acknowledge our presence, and some start shooting at us.

Dodging the bullets, we attempt to hide behind the grey containers that are in front of us, but bullets are coming from all around us, limiting us in every direction. An agent shows up in front of us, and with ease, I snap his neck as an impulsive decision, catching Cap off guard, surprised. As the agent is falling to the ground, Cap takes the grenade the agent's back and throws it towards the others that are heading in the direction behind us. The grenade goes off, and we both spring into action, running into the smoke. Hydra agents charge at us in every direction and we pick them off one by one, trying to keep each other alive.

"Avalon, behind you!" Steve yells to me, and I turn around, aiming my arrow at the Hydra agent, and watch as it punctures the man's neck.

Noticing how close we are to the helicarrier, I know exactly what to do. "Cap, go! I can handle them!" I yell to him, and a look of hesitation is short-lived as he opens the door to the helicarrier.

Only a few agents remain, making a smirk form on my face as I charge towards them. Murder them in the worst way possible. You are the one who they should fear. You know what you've done, but you're trying to play the role of the hero. We both know you're trying to fool yourself and everyone around you. Yet again, she mocks me for what I'm doing. I thought I was doing the right thing like I'm doing now, but I can't stop. It's like my body cannot rest until every damn Hydra agent is lying dead in front of me.

The agent's fist make contact with my cheek, sending me stumble backwards, but only a devilish laugh escapes my lips because it doesn't hurt. In a fluent motion, I switch out my crossbow with a knife and I engage in hand-to-hand combat with the agent. With every punch, the knife switches from each of my hands, clearly not phasing the agent, but he stumbles, giving me a window of opportunity. Gripping onto his gear, I pull him close, and swiftly, I slice the agent's neck, blood spattering all over my skin. Removing the blade from his neck, I, then, stab him in his abdomen, giving it a twist before throwing him onto the ground. The crimson liquid pours from his wounds, creating a huge puddle around him. I turn around and face the other agents, fear clear in their eyes. Embrace who you really are.

"Who's next?" the words roll off my tongue, laced with pure disgust.

And I go off, charging towards the seven that remain. With their failed attempts to take me down like I have taken down their own, each of them ended up with the same cause of death. Throats slit open as they suffer until the end of their lives. So, here I stand, in the middle of the cast wasteland of bodies as the blood covers the ground beneath me.

"Steve! Cap? Cap, come in. Are you okay?" I hear Sam's urgent voice come through my earpiece.

My breathing hitches at the thought of Steve being hurt as I curse under my breath about how I should've been there.

"Yeah, I'm here! I'm still on the helicarrier. Where are you?" I exhale a breath at the sound of Steve's voice.

"I'm grounded. The suit's down. Sorry, Cap," Sam explains to Steve.

A light bulb goes off in my head, realizing what I have to do. I'm not going to stay here and do nothing, when I can help Cap because I can feel Winter's presence. And that's not a good sign, in my personal opinion.

"Cap, give me like two seconds and I'll be there," I say through the intercom. I begin to run towards a plane I see about twenty-five feet away. Smart move.

It's like I can see Steve's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Avalon, how are you going to do that? Sam can't bring you up here!" he states, in a way, it's seems like he's trying to protect me from going up there. God, you're so stubborn.

He answers me as I'm opening up the door to the place. A grin forms on my face and I go sit down in the pilot's seat, and turn the plane on.

"I'm an assassin, not a wimp," I state while proceeding to get the plane off the ground and into the air.

It's not everyday where an assassin, like myself, gets the once in a lifetime opportunity of flying a plane to help out Captain America. It's a dream come true, I would assume, but now is not the time to talk about my hopes and dreams because I don't have any.

As I manage to get the plane of the ground, I head in the location of the third and final helicarrier. Though, I do realize that whatever I'm about to do, it can kill me, but that's the least of my worries. Everything is going smoothly, as expected, but with the luck I have and forgetting that Hydra wants me dead, something hits the plane, causing it to shift in direction. Then, I'm hit three more times and the plane fills with smoke. That's when I know that this is not going to be straightforward to get out of.

Looking out the right window of the plane, I observe the distance between the helicarrier and my location because at any second, this is either going to explode or go into engine failure and I plan on seeing another day before dying on a damn plane. All options I consider, the best one I can make happen is to get extremely close to the helicarrier and making a risky, life defying jump for it. And it's the only thing I can do. I jerk the wheel sharply to the right, opening the door above me as begin to stand up on the seat. The time frame to jump is small, so I have to jump at the right time, or I'm going down. Letting go of the wheel, unexpectedly, the plane explodes and I jump. With the force of the explosion, it propels me forward and my hand just barely grabs ahold of a bar. I pull myself up and over the bar, noticing that I actually made it into the helicarrier and i see Steve on the platform a little ways from me. My vision goes red in my left eye and I wipe it away, acknowledging the scrape by my eyebrow.

"Told you I'm not a wimp," I say aloud, causing Steve to turn around, his face noticeably in relief.

Once I make my way to be next to him, my eyes widen at the sight in front of me. Winter. My body freezes and Steve puts his arm out to protect me in the same way Winter did to me back in Paris of '78. Only this time, I'm not as stubborn and I let it happen.

"People are going to die, Buck. I can't let that happen," Steve says to the brainwashed assassin in front of him, only to receive a cold glare. "Please don't make my do this."

Visibly, he's not going to back down and Steve says a simple, "Watch out," so I'd move out of the way and he throws his shield at Bucky, but he dodges it with his metal arm. My mind becomes overwhelmed at the sight of the two fighting in front of me because I don't physically know who to protect. I know I said that I have to protect Winter, but Steve is my friend and I promised him I'd help him 'save the day'.

"Avalon, catch!" Steve yells in the midst of fighting, and tosses me the chip.

He previously had been trying to insert it into the targeting blade system, but Winter kept getting the way, refusing to let Steve do anything to Project Insight. I make a run for the system, seeing that the two are too distracted to see me, but I'm wrong about that. As I'm about put the chip into its place, my head is slammed into the metal pole of the system, and then, I'm thrown onto the ground. My eyes meet the cold glare of Winter's icy blue eyes and it's like he doesn't even recognize me. Roughly, I'm being yanked up by my jacket and Steve tries to grab my out of Winter's hold, only to be pushed away. His hand moves to my neck, his grip is closing my airways, and I try to rip his hand off as a reaction. And in an instant, he projects me over the railing, my back meeting the cold, metallic surface. My crossbow made fall not as bad as I thought it would. I gasp for air as my lungs burn and feel tired.

Get up and do something! Don't just lay there, defeated. You know the damage you can cause. I swear to god, Avalon, make them remember why you're one of the strongest and determined assassins ever created. No wonder why Hydra liked you so much.

Steve and Winter land on the same surface I was just thrown onto just a few moments ago. Picking up the chip that fell from my hand, Steve looks at me quickly as I throw him the chip and I jump down from the surface, landing on glass below me. Not even five seconds later, the two super soldiers fall onto the glass, but Steve runs towards me and Winter throws Steve's shield at him, making him go down from the force. The chip ended up out of his hand, so I go and grab it, only to turn around and see his shield blocking me before Winter begins to shoot at up.

"Steve, he's not going to stop," I tell him, right before he throws the shield in Winter's direction, but he blocks it and it tumbles to the ground.

Winter charges towards the both of us with a knife in his right hand, and I go to pull mine out, but Steve pushes me out of the way. Winter's knife goes into Steve's shoulder and my anger rises like waves when the tide comes in. Steve manages to get Winter off of him and pushes him into the wall, but the assassin notices the chip in my hand and immediately comes after me, and that's exactly what I wanted him to do. He pushes me into the metal bar behind me, trying to get the chip out of my hand, but I use my legs to kick him hard in the abdomen, sending him stumbling backwards. This only made him more frustrated with me than he had been moments ago. My hand curls into a fist, aiming for his nose, and with great excitement, I punch him square in the nose, sending his head back. Briefly, I can see the injury on his neck that I caused yesterday; it's swollen and the darkest red I've ever seen, but it makes me happy that I can inflict pain on him like he has to me.

Although, I believe fighting him to be ever so easy, I can't help the fact that I hate fighting against him. Avalon, you have to make him remember! He slams me onto the ground, his focus is only on the chip in my hand, and all I want him to do is look at me, and remember that I'm not the enemy.

"Winter, stop!" I scream at him, desperately, and it distracted him enough that I wrap my arm around his neck, pushing him next to me as I keep my choke hold on him.

He's stronger than me, but I'm not weak; I can keep him down long enough for Steve to take the chip out of my hand and put it in the system. As Steve is climbing up and over the railing to get to the system, Winter regains his strength and pushes me off of him, and before I can stop him, he raises his gun at Steve. He pulls the trigger, the bullet pierces through Steve's stomach, and he collapses in front of the system. In my earpiece, I hear Maria tell Steve that we only have thirty seconds until launch. Steve, being one of the strongest individuals I've come to know, gets back up on his fight, and places the chip in the system. Oh my god, we did it.

"Okay, Cap. You and Avalon need to get out of there now!" Maria states, but I see Steve collapse to the ground once again.

"Fire now," Steve says, tiredly, and Maria tries to argue with him, but indeed, she listens to the soldier.

As the helicarriers begin to destroy each other, debris begins to fall all around us, but a part of the metal structure falls onto Winter, trapping him underneath it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Steve slide down the metal wall, and help get the bar off of Winter. As always, I go to help the super soldier even though I'm not much help, but I know this is Steve's best friend and I want to save the both of them even though one of them wants to kill me. Winter pulls himself up, and struggles to stand back up again.

"Avalon, get out of here," Steve says, breathlessly, hoping that I'd listen.

I shake my head at him. "No, I'm not leaving you. I came to help you, not let you die!" I admit to him something he already knew, but before I can keep protesting, debris falls in front of me, sending me backwards onto the glass that was already breaking.

My forearm gets caught underneath something, and I have to watch the scene play out in front of me. Winter keeps fighting Steve as he talks about how they knew each other and that Bucky was, in fact, his best friend from childhood. After a few tries, I get my arm free and I push myself up.

The world begins to fall apart around me. As Steve falls from the helicarrier, I scream "No!," as if I failed to keep him alive when I promised everyone otherwise. Winter turns to me, confusion radiates off him. Out of pure anguish, I run towards him, wanting him to feel the pain he has put me through these past few days. Not only did he have a mission to kill me, but he couldn't see past all of the bullshit Hydra put in his mind. Once again, for the third time, he wraps his metal hand around my neck as he slams he into yet another metal bar, against the broken glass. His blue eyes are full of hatred and I'm filled with pure terror.

"Winter!" I manage to yell, causing him to loosen his grip on my neck.

But he doesn't say anything.

"If you kill me, I hope you wake up one day and realize that I wasn't the enemy," my voice squeaks as tears swell in my eyes, threatening to spill, but I don't want to give him the satisfaction.

Explosions happen all around us, but it's like we're frozen in time and nothing really matters but this moment. This might be the last one I'll ever have and I'm certainly going to take it for granted. I'll go out with a bang.

"I'm the Red Ghost. Your mission, your old partner, the only person you actually talked to," I try to explain and he releases my neck slightly. His eyes focus on my face, trying to figure out why he knew me. And I hoped he'd remember just the nickname he had for me.

The glass started to break from underneath me and I knew that I don't have much time.

"If this is it for me, my death is on your hands. Steve will never forgive you," and at the mentioning of Steve's name, he squeezes my neck tighter than he did before and I have to say one last thing. "But you're going down with me."

And with all the strength I have left, I break the glass from underneath us, sending us plummeting into the water below.

A/N - hiya! i'm coming at you with a new installment so enjoy and i'll see you next week! - kenzie (: