Dear Diary,

It started out just like any other mission, this one today in Lagos, Nigeria. Though, after, things started to go crazy and I think we may, now, have an issue beyond what I can even imagine.

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After a few weeks of hearing and reading about robberies at police stations by a masked man going by the name of Crossbones, we decided to stake out the area. Oh, and, it's actually Rumlow in disguise, so, there's that.

Today in particular, Wanda was down on patrol in street clothes - stealth mode - hooked up with a radio.

"All right, what do you see?" I asked through said radio, looking down at the street from above, trying to get things started.

"Standard beat cops," she replied. "Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target."

"There's an ATM on the south corner, which means?"

"Cameras," she answered.

"Both cross streets are one-way," I added.

"So, compromised escape routes," she concluded.

"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen. He isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out. You see that Range Rover half way up the block?" I asked.

"Yeah, the red one? It's cute," she confirmed.

"It's also bulletproof," Natasha jumped in on the radio. "Which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody- probably us."

She had been stationed down in street clothes near Wanda, too. We had to have extra coverage at times like this.

"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda added.

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Nat told her.

"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Sam joined in, too. He was stationed on the roofs.

"Not to my face, no. Why?" Nat answered jokingly. "Did you hear something?"

"Eyes on target, folks," I focused everyone in like I always do. "This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. We don't wanna lose him."

"If he sees us coming, that won't be a problem," Sam answered with a scoff. "He kinda hates us."

"Sam..." I started. "See that garbage truck? Tag it."

"Give me X-Ray," he said, talking into his command system for the bird he just sent out. "That truck's loaded for max weight- and the driver's armed."

"It's a battering ram," Nat concluded.

"Go now," I said.

"What?" Wanda questioned.

"He's not hitting the police," I relayed and made my way after the truck- towards the Institute for Infectious Diseases. I beat through a few of the guards outside the place before telling everyone else what was going on. "Body armor, AR-15s. I make seven hostiles."

"I make five," Sam replied after a moment.

"Sam!" Wanda yelled across the way as I watched her throw a man into the air... with her mind. That still amazes me and I've been training with her for months now.

"Four," Sam added. "Rumlow's on the third floor," he said, approaching me with Wanda at his side.

"Wanda, just like we practiced," I called to her, going towards the building.

"What about the gas?" she pondered.

"Get it out," I ordered as she flew me up onto the third floor. I fought through a bunch of men and watched as the smog around me suddenly lifted away and out of the building, but still no sign of Rumlow.

I made my way through the building and found an empty locked sector that seemed as though he'd broken into. "Rumlow has a biological weapon," I announced to everyone over the radio.

"I'm on it," Natasha answered.

I heard an explosion soon thereafter, so I followed it to the outside of the building... where Rumlow then started shooting at me with a machine gun loaded with ballistic missiles, which, hit me until I literally fell out of the exploding building.

"Sam," I started. "He's in an AFV heading north."

"I've got four, they're splitting up," he warned us, once he caught up with them.

"I got the two on the left," Natasha decided.

"They ditched their gear," I told everyone after I found the remnants thereof on the ground in the village type area we found we had wandered into. "It's a shell game now. One of them has the payload."

Then, a bomb attached to my shield, I threw it to the air and watched it explode as everyone around me screamed. Then, I was attacked from behind.

"There you are, you son of a bitch," I heard Rumlow yell as he approached me. "I've been waiting for this!" He punched me with some sort of tech and sent me flying across the way.

"He doesn't have it," I heard Sam say regarding the man he had been following. "I'm empty."

"Get out of the way!" I heard Natasha yell through the radio. "Drop it, or I'll drop this," someone else said from her side a moment later. "Drop it!" he said again. "He'll do it!" said another. Then, a shot was fired, and then a second. "Payload secure. Thanks, Sam," she finally said.

"Don't thank me," he answered.

"I'm not thanking that thing," she replied.

"His name is Redwing," he corrected her.

"I'm still not thanking it."

"He's cute. Go ahead, pet him," Sam joked. You think they'd come help me, though, right? Jesus.

"Come on!" Rumlow yelled at me as we continue fighting through all this radio chatter. After a moment, he had me cornered and held my arms to my body. I could see into his mask and... his eyes and the surrounding skin was- "This is for dropping a building on my face," he threatened as a knife appeared out of his hand.

He went for my face and, luckily, missed. I was able to pull off one of his tech-arms though, finally. But he still kept at me. That is, until I kicked him all the way across the market.

He peeled away his mask and I took him by the lapel, shocked with what I was looking at immediately after setting eyes on his once not so hideous face.

He was scarred and burned and- I almost felt bad for him, he wasn't bad looking when I used to know him back in our so-called S.H.I.E.L.D. era.

"I think I look pretty good, all things considered," he mumbled to me as I held him there.

"Who's your buyer?" I interrogated and shook him where he kneeled before me.

"You know, he knew you," he paused, looking me straight in the face. He must have seen the wavering confusion in my eyes, seeing as everyone I really knew was either here or at the new Avengers facility in upstate New York. "Your pal, your buddy, your Bucky," he clarified.

I felt my heart skip a beat as I shook him and pulled him closer. "What did you say?" I asked angrily.

"He remembered you," he told me as I looked between his unwavering eyes. He was telling the truth. "I was there. He got all weepy about it.... 'til they put his brain back in the blender." He paused and I said nothing because I didn't know if I could even trust my own voice right now. "He wanted you to know something. He said to me... 'please tell Rogers, when you gotta go, you gotta go.' And you're coming with me-"

With that, he clicked a button and began to explode, and I nearly did go with him, but, lucky for me, Wanda was there to protect me from the blow.

I watched as she flew him up into the air. He exploded and the building nearby went with him and bursted into flames.

"Oh my..." I whispered to myself as I watched everything turn to nothing. "Sam, we need Fire and Rescue on the south side of the building," I informed him. "We gotta get up there."

—————

We lost a lot of people in that fire, I'll admit that... not to mention that I'm completely at fault and there's no avoiding it.

Hell, if I would have just killed him right away instead of getting caught up in that fantasy Rumlow had painted about Bucky, maybe none of that would have happened.

Maybe no innocent people would have had to die.

~ S. Rogers