Chapter Eight
Steve

I hear Mom and Uncle Sam tell us to attack, and I see the Kree soldiers running towards us, then in a blink of an eye, everything erupts into chaos. There are humans and Kree whizzing past me at different speeds, the sounds of guns, bombs, and clanging swords filling the air, drowning out the sounds of people's screams. Dust, dirt, and blood are already covering the ground. The skies are filled with Kree ships fighting off fighter jets and Wakandan ships, causing the skies to look like blurred flashes of light and color.

I can hardly see the ground anymore, the sun, the blue sky, I can't even see any of my family, I can't see anything. There's too much going on, too much, it's all too much. The only thing keeping me from having a full blown panic attack is Lee, who hasn't left my side for a single moment.

He's been using the vines imbedded in his suit to disarm Kree soldiers, knock them against each other, and beat them up. I've mostly stayed in the form of a wolf, biting into the arms, legs, and other body parts of Kree soldiers, sending them falling to the ground in screams of agony. Their blood is blue, and it tastes different than human blood. Human blood tastes coppery, like metal, but Kree blood tastes how a fire smells. It's like I've dipped my tongue in ash and soot. I don't like it.

Out of the corner of my eye I think I see Dad shooting down a Kree soldier, Uncle Alex fighting off another soldier in tiger form beside him. Uncle Khari must be close by as well. I pounce on another soldier, this time aiming for the neck, catching the woman off guard. She tries to fight me off but my teeth are too clamped in her skin, digging deeper and deeper, until finally I let go, letting her drop to the ground, her hands grasping at her neck in fear and pain. I don't waste time staring down at her, I focus my attention on another soldier. This one has a pretty big gun, and thankfully one of Lee's vines wraps around it and pulls it from his grasp, just as my claws sink into his back. The soldier lets out a yell, his knees giving out and his body falling to the ground, withering in pain.

When I jump off of him and turn around, I catch sight of the female Kree soldier I fought before, finding her hands still wrapped around her neck, but she's no longer moving. Her amethyst eyes are staring up blankly at the dark sky around us, her body still. She's dead.

I feel the air leave my body as I stare at those blank eyes, those lifeless eyes. She's dead. She's dead because of me. I killed her. I didn't mean to, or maybe I did. I just saw her and attacked, I didn't think. I killed her. I murdered her. She spent her last moments gasping for air because I nearly ripped her throat out. I killed her.

I feel firm hands wrap around my neck, sending a jolt of fear through me, but I relax upon seeing that it's Liam. He's holding me tightly, pressing his head against mine.

"I killed her." I whisper.

"I know, I know, we can deal with that later. Right now we have to keep fighting. You can't just stand here, you have to move or else you'll die."

I killed her. I mean I knew I would have to kill people today, and as an Avenger, but I didn't think it would be so hard. I thought knowing someone was a bad guy would make it easy to kill. It isn't. I can't get the image of her blank stare out of my mind, it's like they're permanently branded in my memory now.

Lee leans his forehead against mine, his grip tightening on me. "Stay with me, Babe."

I nod, taking in some deep breaths to keep my head from spinning. Instead of shifting again, I pull out the gun Dad gave me from my holster, turning the safety off.

"I'm with you." I tell him, before aiming the gun, and firing at another Kree soldier, his body falling to the ground with a thud.

-

Josephine

"I still can't believe Wickham was lying," Daniel says with a shake of his head, biting into a granola bar. "What an ass."

I nod, popping a few more peanut M&M's in my mouth. "Just wait, he becomes even more of an ass."

"Is Pride and Prejudice your favorite Jane Austen novel?"

I tilt my head for side to side. "Maybe, but I love Emma as well. I'd say those two are tied."

I'm so glad Daniel is down here with me. I need someone to distract me, to keep my mind away from all the terrible things that could be happening above the surface. Having him to talk about books with is a blessing from Hanuman.

"I am really liking Pride and Prejudice, but my favorite of the books I've read so far is Frankenstein."

I gawk at him. "Not Little Women?"

"It's a solid second."

I shake my head at him, biting down on another M&M. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"The Wakandan army are taking heavy hits," I hear Zy's hologram say. He, Aunt Soroya, and Uncle Sam's holograms have been standing around the conference table on the other side of the room giving the president updates on the battle. Zy's face looks gaunt, his hands shake as he rubs his chin. "My father says they need backup in Lincoln Park."

"General Briggs, send three troops to Lincoln Park immediately."

"Yes, sir!" I hear a voice call out.

I have been staring over at them with so much focus and intent that when Daniel places his hand over mine, I flinch. My eyes dart back to him and I see pity and sadness in his gaze. His hand is warm, firm on top of mine. It's actually making me feel a bit better, but not by much.

"I'm scared." I whisper, turning my hand around to wrap around his.

Daniel sits a little closer to me, bringing our combined hands to rest in his lap. "I know. Everything will be alright, Jo. I promise."

He can't promise me that. No one can. But I appreciate him trying to make me feel better. I squeeze his hand in reply and he squeezes back. He doesn't say anything more, nor do I. We just sit there on the couch in silence, our hands pressed together, the war raging on above us.

-

Analiese

"Hold his shoulders still!" I order Livy, trying to get the staplers ready to close up the blast wound this poor Wakandan soldier has received. Livy obeys my order, pressing down hard on the man's shoulders while I begin to staple his arm wound shut. The man grits his teeth in pain, tears streaming down his face.

"Livy! Get over here now!" Shuri commands. She's been trying to heal an enhanced woman's forearm wound, but it isn't looking too good. The skin is so charred, the bone looks blackened, withered. I think her arm has to be amputated. I nod to Livy, who then goes rushing off towards her aunt.

"I need some more morphine!" Another doctor asks bursting into the room. I reach over towards the tray next to me and hold out a vile of morphine. The doctor hesitates for a second and then takes it, shock and bewilderment spreading on her face. "T-thank you."

I roll my eyes. This isn't the first nurse or doctor today to be utterly gobsmacked by my acting like a descent human being. "Be shocked at my humanity later, go focus on your patient."

The doctor nods and leaves the room, allowing me to refocus on my patient. I'm almost done with the staples, the soldier withering in pain on the operating table. I place one of my gloved hands on the side of his face, watching his eyes widen in confusion and slight fear. He must realize who I am, too.

"Take deep breaths. You're going to be fine, just focus on your breathing, okay?"

The soldier's bottom lip wobbles and he slowly nods his head. "Okay."

"I'm almost done. It's almost over." I tell him, and then I continue with the staples, trying to drown out the soldier's cries of pain.

-

Liam

I don't know how long we've been fighting. It could be minutes, could be hours. I wouldn't know. All I can think about are the Kree soldiers running around, shooting at me, shooting at others. Kree ships are shooting multi colored bullets and bombs in the sky, providing the only light on the battlefield. That's what D.C. has become; just dirt, blood, and rubble. So many buildings are gone, the sky and sun are blocked by spaceships and ash, bodies of fallen soldiers are at every turn.

Shiva help us all.

Stevie ran out of bullets for his gun, so he's shifted into a rhino and is stabbing Kree soldiers with his horn. The sight of my boyfriend as a rhinoceros isn't that weird to me, and for a split second I wonder if that's what's actually weird. He and I have a good system going: I disarm soldiers and he takes them out. This system has been working, but it could fail at any moment, and then we could both die. I'm doing pretty well for someone who has never fought someone before, whose had a week of training, and that's probably because I'm not really fighting. I'm just throwing people around and taking their weapons. What if I fail to disarm them? What if I'm not fast enough? It could mean the end of me, of Stevie, of the soldiers fighting by my side. When I think of someone I love, or anyone really, dying because of me, I actually consider killing the Kree soldiers. The thought, the temptation has crossed my mind several times. More times than I'd like to admit.

But having self set rules, a code, boundaries, doesn't mean you can have them whenever you feel like it. Having them means you stick to them. I believe that all life is sacred, even the lives of my enemies. I won't kill them. I won't do it.

Bucky has now made his way over to us, shooting at any flash of blue he sees. A Kree soldier actually manages to knock the gun out of his hand with a glowing green stick, but Bucky is prepared for anything. He ducks away from the soldier's next swing and punches at his stomach, making the soldier double over. Bucky then slams his elbow onto the soldier's arm, then into his face. The glowing stick is dropped, and the soldier along with it once Bucky kicks at his chest, the glowing stick now in his hand. He flips it once in his hand before slashing it across the soldier's throat, his eyes narrowed in focus. I'm about to warn him of another Kree soldier creeping up behind him, but without even turning his head, Bucky somersaults out of the way of the blast sent his way, throwing the glowing stick at the sneaking soldier, landing right in the center of her forehead.

I stare at him in awe for a moment. Sometimes I forget that my foster father is a nearly century and a half old assassin. I'm used to seeing Bucky Barnes the loving, considerate, dependable father and husband. This person fighting, who just took out two soldiers like it was nothing, isn't him. The man I'm staring at is the Winter Soldier.

He notices me staring at him, and his gaze softens. He grabs onto a knife from his pants and throws it at a Kree soldier without glancing their way, without breaking his stride towards me.

"You alright, Lee?"

I nod, trying to focus on more important things. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. This is all just...a lot."

The man who has been through three wars now, nods gravely. "I know."

I can't believe I ever wanted to go to war while in the F.E.P. I remember wanting to make the governments of the world pay for what they did to us, go to war with them if that's what it took for them to give us the freedom we deserved. But now that I'm actually in a war...I am so glad we were able to avoid it all those months ago. War is worse than all the horror movies I've ever seen, worse than any nightmare, any dark thought or concept that's ever crossed my mind.

A loud explosion goes off suddenly, and I feel my body tense up, my eyes scanning the hazy battlefield, the death surrounding me, to find the source of the blast. Bucky is doing the same, and after a few seconds, we learn the source from Thor in the coms:

"It's the White House and Capital building! They're under heavy fire!"

-

Sam

Soroya, Zy, and I run to the window to see the destruction for ourselves. What Thor says is true, the White House is under heavy fire from the Kree ships above. Fighter jets and Wakandan ships are trying their best to take them down, but these Kree ships have shield so strong, armor so thick, we're having a hard time taking them down. We're screwed if we can't figure out a way how.

"Thor, can you take them down?" I ask.

"Trying my best here."

"Are you okay, Mister President?" Soroya turns her head and asks the hologram.

He nods firmly. "We're fine."

Soroya opens her mouth again, but quickly closes it, turning back towards the window. She probably wanted to ask how her niece is, but though better of it. The president would probably give her a hard time for it. The bastard.

"Parliment is being targeted and so is my palace." The King of England says, looking a bit alarmed, but trying to cover it up by making his voice indifferent.

"So is Zhongnanhai and the Great Hall of the People."

It makes sense. Kieran said that the Kree's objective is to take over Earth, and they plan to do so by taking down the government buildings of the three cities. Once they're done they'll take over more cities, topple more government buildings, kill world leaders. They'll destroy Earth and when that's done they'll take the enhanced and Soroya, and with them, seal the fate of the rest of the universe.

"I need troops sent to defend the White House and Capital building now!" I order into the coms. "One or two troops need to stay on the ground and fight off any soldiers trying to infiltrate the buildings, but I need more people in the skies. We need to find a way to destroy those ships."

"Thor, any progress with that?" Soroya asks.

"There is a week spot in their armor, right underneath the cockpit. The pilots need to attack there and that will cause the ships to explode."

"Okoye, you and the Doras get in some ships and do as Thor instructed." Zy instructs, looking a little uncomfortable calling her by only her first name. It's the same look he has when he calls Soroya 'director' instead of 'aunt' during our meetings. But sometimes the situation calls for professionalism, and i'd say war is one of those times.

"We're on it!"

"I really hope Jade and Naomi were successful with the Skrulls," Zy mutters to me, nervously rubbing his chin, his other arm crossed over his chest. "We may be holding them off, but for how long?"

He's right. In this fight it isn't a question of when will we win, but how long will we be able to keep the Kree at bay. We can't beat them alone. We need help. We haven't heard from Jade, Naomi, or the others since they left. We don't know if they were successful, if they even found the Skrulls, if they're alright. We're left to wonder and wait. That's how it's been for this whole battle for Zy, Soroya, and I: standing here, forced to wonder if we'd make a difference down there, wait to hear news for the better and worse.

"They'll come through." I assure Zy, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

I hope that's true.