Joana

Alarms blared overhead. Lights flickered as the three sprinted down the halls towards Sub-level 5, east wing. That's where Sharon said Bucky would be, so that's where they were going. They arrive at the chamber where Bucky was being held. Soldiers lay on the ground, out cold. The cage in which they had been keeping Bucky was broken open from the inside. 

Joana's heart dropped to her stomach. 

"Oh, God, no." 

"Help me. Help," a man said form the floor. Steve walked over and picked him off the ground, pushing him against the wall. 

"Who are you? What do you want?" Steve asked as Sam and Joana wearily walked around the room

"To see an empire fall." 

Joana saw Bucky out of the corner of her eye, but she knew, as soon as she saw him, that it wasn't Bucky. He jumped towards Sam, who had his back turned. 

"Sam!" Joana yelled. Sam barely managed to duck out of the way of Bucky's metal arm before it hit him across the face. Sam crawled across the ground and away from Bucky as he pulled his arm from the wall. Joana rushed at Bucky, but he caught her by the throat and threw her across the room into the wall. Joana's head cracked against the back of the wall. 

"Joana!" 

Joana hit the ground with a thud, her head spinning, her eyes fuzzing and unseeing. She tried to shake away the numbness in her fingers and toes and bring her vision back, but, by the time she did, Sam and the man were both gone and Bucky had Steve backed against an elevator. Struggling to stand, Joana watched Bucky push Steve down the elevator shaft and turn to run away. 

Finally on her feet, Joana staggered over to the elevator shaft and looked down. She could barely see Steve at the bottom. 

"You good?" She asked him. 

"Yeah. You?" 

"Yeah." 

"You need to stop him. Don't let him leave." 

"Got it." 

Joana turned away from the elevator, shaking away the double vision. She made her way through the halls of the base, her head pounding and a buzzing in her ears, but she didn't let it stop her. Bucky needed her, now more than ever. She couldn't let him escape, not like this. 

Running towards all the commotion, she caught sight of Natasha and Sharon, getting ready to charge Bucky. She ran towards them. 

"Three against one," Sharon said, "We should be able to take him." 

Joana and Natasha both scoffed and the three of them charged. 

Sharon attacked first with a knee to Bucky's chest. She got one punch in before Bucky flipped her over and into a table. Joana grabbed his wrist as he raised it to punch the already groaning Sharon. He turned around, trying to back hand her, but Joana knew his moves all to well to allow that to happen. She grabbed his other wrist as he tried. 

"It's me, James," she said through grit teeth. "It's your Partner." 

Bucky glowered at her, but there was a flicker of almost something in his eyes. 

He tore his wrists from her and the two engaged in what seemed like synchronized fighting, as if they had practicing these same moves their entire lives. Neither could land a proper punch on the other. Natasha, seeing an opportunity as he was distracted. Then Bucky was dealing with both Joana and Natasha, though neither had true intent of hurting him, while his intent was to kill. He finally got a clear hit on Joana, right on the bullet scar on her stomach. She groaned in pain and he saw a weakness in her knee where Pierce had broken her leg with a crowbar all those many years ago. Joana fell to the ground with a cry just as Natasha stood, wiping blood from her mouth. 

Bucky socked Joana across the face and her head snapped to the side, her brain exploding in massive pain. Blood and spit spewed from her mouth. She fell to the side onto her hands, her head spinning, ears ringing. She couldn't hear Natasha and Bucky fighting. She couldn't see him slamming her into a desk, wrapping his hand around her throat. 

"You could at least remember me," Natasha managed from under the weight of his hand. Joana fell to her elbows as the man in black (though he was no longer in his suit) came into the picture. Blood dripped from her mouth. She could feel her brain pulsing. If she knew anything, she knew she had a concussion. A bad one. 

'Don't let him get away' Joana heard Steve saying in her head. She coughed once, the ringing in her ears slowing to a stop. Natasha was by her side in a second, arms around her. 

"I have to get to him," Joana moaned, her mouth and jaw aching, her head pounding, her leg stabbing. Natasha helped her stand. 

"You can't, Joana," Natasha said, looking up at the dark skinned man who had been fighting Bucky only seconds before. "He's gone. Let me get you help." 

Joana pushed herself away from Natasha. 

"No. I have to find him." 

Joana stumbled away from Natasha, not sure she could even see straight, let alone walk. She managed to get herself out of the building to the the outside world, where the sea of people evacuating the building was starting to dwindle. 

"Joana!" She heard to her right. She turned towards the voice to see Sam jogging towards her. "Did you catch him?" 

Joana shook her head, ignoring the stabbing pain. 

"No, " she croaked. "He got away from me, but Steve's probably gone after him." 

As if one cue, a loud thudoosh! echoed towards them. The two looked at each other and knew immediately that it was Steve that caused that sound. They jogged towards the sound to find Steve and an unconscious Bucky bobbing up and down in the water. Sam and Joana bent down to help pull Bucky out of the water, glancing up to make sure no one was watching. 

"We need to get out of the open," Joana whispered. "Find some place secluded and safe." 

"Already on it," Steve grumbled. 

Joana watched the sky as an helicopter flew past. Steve  stood opposite her, watching the sky as she did. 

"Hey, Cap!" Sam said from the room where Bucky was being kept. Steve turned and walked towards Sam. Joana stayed back. She wanted to go to Bucky now that he was awake, but she feared who he might be. She wanted to go, but something kept her rooted where she was. She didn't fear being out in the open. She didn't fear the helicopter seeing her because she wasn't as well known as Steve or Bucky or Sam. She was unknown. She was a ghost. 

She watched the clouds float through the sky. She had passed through Germany on her way to Romania two years ago with Bucky, but it was dark and she couldn't see anything. It smelled the same, though, like iron and yeast. 

She had had two years of sun and wind and air since she escaped HYDRA, yet she never got used to it. She loved the rain the most. It didn't rain much when she was in Romania, but when it did, she cherished it. 

She wished that she could be free. Yes, she was no longer tied to a chair or locked in a room or forced into situations where there were no good choices, but she was still in hiding. She couldn't go dancing like they used to in the 40s. She couldn't go try In-and-Out or McDonalds. She couldn't get a proper job or get some new clothes or walk out in public without leading someone back to Bucky somehow. 

Joana sighed and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. Her brain still pulsed and she still felt nauseous, but the Advil that Sam with him helped her migraine majorly as well as her aching leg and face. Would she ever catch a break? 

"Is Joana here?" She heard from the other room. Joana turned around towards the room where Bucky was. She saw Steve look back at her and they met gazes. He seemed to ask her if she was okay with being near Bucky. Something told her she wasn't. Something told her that it was all she wanted to do. 

She took slow steps towards the room, crossing her arms. She saw Bucky standing, no longer trapped by the metal arm. Steve nodded his head towards Sam, telling him it was their time to leave. Joana stopped in the doorway, unable to step through. Bucky stood before her, tall and dirty and strong. 

"Is it you?" She asked, her voice breaking. She coughed and brushed her hair behind her ears. Water was in Bucky's blue eyes and then she knew, she knew it was him. It wasn't the Winter Soldier, it wasn't James "Bucky?" Barnes. This was Bucky, Sergeant James Barnes of the 107th, Steve Roger's best friend, her boyfriend. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Joana raced to close the distance between them, throwing herself into his arms, almost knocking him over. 

"Joana. Joana," he breathed, kissing her head. "Joana." 

"Do you remember?" She asked, tears rolling slowly down her cheeks. She felt him nod. 

"I remember everything." 

Her eyes snapped open at that and she wriggled out of her arms.   

"Everything?" 

Her heart thudded against her ribs. Everything meant he remembered the way she pounded Aleksi's head into the ground long after he was dead. Everything meant he remembered how to shot Doctor Salazar through the head without thinking twice about it. Everything meant he remembered all the people she had killed, all the times she had broken, all the things she had done to keep him. Remembering everything meant he remembered everything she was trying to forget. 

"Everything," he replied, but there was no hatred in his voice, no anger, no fear. "Joana, I could never hate you for what you did. You did what you had to do to survive." 

"To keep you alive," she countered, almost defensively, crossing her arms. He stepped forward, putting her hands on her shoulders. 

"I know," he pulled her back towards his chest. "Just hold me, Joana."

She didn't need to be told twice.

But there were things that were more important than a long coming reunion, things that needed to be taken care of first. And the very first thing on that list was to get Steve's shield and Sam's wings (and maybe some guns). 

Joana and Bucky were crammed in the back seat of a buggy, Sam sitting in the passenger seat. Steve was outside the car talking to Sharon. Joana played with her fingers, her nerves flying out of control. The car was too small. She didn't like small places. 

"Could you move your seat up?" Bucky asked Sam, finally breaking the tension. 

"No," Sam replied, firm. Joana covered her mouth and looked out of the window to hide her smile and near laughter. She felt Bucky's glare on the back of her head. 

The three turned their attention back to Sharon and Steve. Joana's mouth fell open as Steve dipped his head and kissed Sharon straight on the mouth. She missed something big somewhere along the way. When they broke apart, Steve turned back to look at them. Sam and Bucky were smiling, and Joana's mouth was still agape, though a smile played at her lips. Steve moved the supplies their needed from the back of Sharon's care into the back of theirs. When he sat back in his seat, all three of them leaned towards him with mischievous grins. 

"Shut up," Steve grumbled, the tips of his cheeks bright red. 

"Where to next, Steve?" Joana asked. Saying his name still felt new, still felt foreign, but it felt right. 

"The Airport." 

Joana had never been to a public airport before and, after what happened at this airport, she wasn't sure she ever wanted to go back. To be fair, what happened at this airport, she wasn't sure she would get the chance to go back. 

She met the rest of the team in the parking garage. There was a man named Clint Barton. He did arrows. They called him Hawkeye. Then there was Wanda Maximoff. She was weird, but in a good way. They called her the Scarlet Witch. And last of them was the Ant Man, a dumb name if you asked her. She liked Scott Lang better. There wasn't a lot of time for introductions, but they all needed to know who they were fighting beside. 

Having been explained the entire situation in the car, Joana knew that Steve was right. Maybe she was biased, but after meeting Wanda and understanding what the Accords would have meant to her, she knew she was on the right side. She just wished Natasha understood too. 

Joana was supposed to stay out of the bulk of the fighting, due to her concussion and weak leg, but there was no way all these people around her were going to fight and she wasn't going to be a part of it. 

She and Steve ran towards the chopper together. Bucky and Sam were doing their part together. Wanda and Clint on the other side of the airport. Lang was right where he needed to be. Before they reached the chopper, two men in suits of metal armor, Iron Man (or Tony Stark) and the War Machine (or James Rhodes) as Steve said they were called, blew it to pieces. They landed on the ground as Natasha came walking over. Their helmets disappeared into their suits. Technology was weird. 

"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport," Stark said sarcastically. "Don't you think that's weird." 

"So weird," his friend responded. 

"Here me out, Tony, that doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this," Steve said, trying to convince his opponent that fighting was not necessary. 

The man in the black suit, King of Wakanda, T'Challa, leaped over a truck and joined their three opponents. Joana's hand clenched around her gun, trying to keep her gaze away from Natasha. 

"Captain," T'challa said, his accent thick. 

"Your Highness," Steve replied. 

"Anyways," Stark said, pulling the attention back to himself. "Ross gave me 36 hours to turn you in. That was 24 hours ago. How about helping a brother out?" 

"You're after the wrong guy." 

"Your judgement is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday." 

Joana's jaw clenched and she looked over to Natasha finally. She knew why it happened the way it did. Why wouldn't she say anything? Why didn't she stand up for him? 

"And there are five more super soldiers just like them. I can't let the Doctor find them first, Tony, I can't." 

"Steve...," Natasha finally said, lifting her eyes from the ground to see Joana's hard gaze. "...Joana, you know what's about to happen. Do you really want to punch your way out of this?" 

Steve stayed silent. So did Joana. 

"Alright, I've run out of patience. Underoos!" 

Out from behind them, a red suit swung out of the blue, attached something to Steve's shield and pulling it out of his hands, wrapping Steve's hands in the same goo. Joana lifted her gun towards the spider looking thing. She really hated spiders. 

"Nice job, kid," Stark said. Kid? What kind of person brings a kid to a fight? 

"Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit... Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's-It's perfect. Thank you." By the sound of his voice, the kid couldn't have been older than 15 or 16. He was too young to be here, too young to see this kind of violence. 

"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation," Stark said, a hint of a groan in his voice. 

"Okay," the kid said. "Cap...Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man." 

Joana's hand clenched around the gun. She really didn't like spiders. 

"You've been busy," Steve said with a hint of amusement as the banter continued. 

"And you've been a complete idiot." Stark's voice changed the tone of the conversation gravely. "Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. Bringing in this..." he waved his hand towards Joana absentmindedly, "Stranger. I'm trying to keep...I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart." 

"You did that when you signed." 

Joana's mouth ran dry. The time was coming, she could feel it in their bones. 

"Alright, We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. Now. Because it's us. Or a squad of J-SOC guys... with no compunction about being impolite," Stark said, begging, pleading. It was then that she realized that Stark didn't want to fight. He wasn't here to fight. He was here to keep his family together. And so was Natasha. "Come on." 

"We found it," Sam said through their ear pieces. "The Quinjet's in hanger five, north runway." 

Steve lifted his bound hands in the air and an arrow flew the sky and cut through it. 

"Alright, Lang," Steve said. 

"Hey, guys, something-"

Lang grew from his ant form to his normal form, taking the shield from Spider-Man and throwing it back to cap. 

"I believe this is yours, Captain," he said, standing between Steve and Joana. 

"Oh, great. Alright, there's two on the parking deck. One of them's Maximoff, I'm gonna grab her. Rhodey, you want to take Cap?" Stark asked, now in defensive more. 

"Got two in the terminal, Wilson and Barnes," Rhodes replied. 

"Barnes is mine!" T'Challa exclaimed and ran forward, but Joana stepped forward to intercept him. 

The fighting had begun. 

***

Finally finished this chapter. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I needed to get it out of the way. There might only be one chapter left after this, I don't know guys. We're nearing the end of the line until May...

ALSO DID YALL SEE THE TRAILER FOR INFINITY WAR IM SHOOK IM SO SHOOK

So that's pretty much it. I'll try to finish the next chapter this weekend. 

I also have another idea for a story after I finish this one about a War Photographer from the 40s who also happens to be an Inhuman? Something like that. She's french and it's a Steve love story. I guess. Yeah that's a thing. I'll talk more about it later. 

I really need to do homework .

Mele Kalikimaka, 

authorsbane