↱VICTORIA↲

To be fair, she probably shouldn't have dropped the fresh-out-of-the-box man, but he was over 200.5 pounds. She had a right.

She was sure it was a joke, though, just Bucky's post freeze rambling. Helena couldn't be alive. She had looked at all the bodies, saw the bullet wounds... But now that she thought about it, she hadn't really looked at the 6th tank. That didn't mean Helena was alive, it couldn't. The 6th Soldier had to be dead, or else they were all in some deep shit. She was in some deep shit.

"Victoria, what the hell-"

"I just found out the person - I happened to love, if you really wanted to know the down dirty details - is alive, after I thought them dead. Gone. Forever. No more happy endings in my fairytale." Her eyes glimmered, narrowed in anger as her jaw clenched. Her patterns were irregular, her body language going out of control. "I did my mourning. I cried my tears, Steve, plenty of them. How did you feel when you found out Bucky was alive? Or me?" She physically retaliated, body stiff as she turned to glare at the Captain. Bucky got himself up, looking wearily between the two. Steve and Victoria had never argued, not really, but when the two wholly stubborn people got to it, it was practically a fight to the death.

Steve seemed to reel back, blue eyes shifting from surprise, to disgust, and finally, to defeat. The steel in the blond man's back seemed to melt, as he gently sighed and looked around at everyone. They stopped on Victoria, and remained on her. "What are we supposed to do, Vic? You know how long it took us to find Bucky, how much turmoil I went through? It consumes you, trying to find a ghost who doesn't want to be found." Steve's eyes flickered to Bucky, who looked away. "I don't want that for you, Victoria. I don't."

Victoria's resolve didn't go anywhere.

"We have to go after her, Steve. You know how many people she could hurt, kill, maim? My affection didn't stop her from being what she was. What she could possibly be. This is bigger than me, badder than me."

The captain smiled, a bittersweet sight to behold.

"Right, Vic, because this doesn't have a damn thing to do with you."

   ↱JAMES↲

In all honesty, despite the fact that he was practically a turkey fresh out the freezer, he saw Victoria move faster than anyone else did. He didn't know whether it was because he'd worked with her so long, or if he was just somehow functioning better than the others at the moment. Everyone seemed tired as all hell, that's for sure.

The Archangel had always been undoubtedly quick - which probably explained why Steve barely got a chance to defend himself as Victoria drove her foot into his stomach. Bucky loved Steve to death, sure, but he was not getting in between that.

Even T'Challa held Jacqueline dormant, after the shorter woman had stepped forward. By now, Sam had come barreling through the door, only to freeze in the doorway as Steve brutally slammed into the wall next to him. The Falcon mouthed "What the hell," before slowly backing away.

Victoria stalked over to Steve, who was playing possum. Bucky was smart enough to not take sides and not warn her. As her smaller hands reached for his shirt, to presumably throw him around (which would've been amusing, but painful, depending on which role you were playing in the situation) Steve harshly gripped her forearm, and slammed her into the wall he had slammed into. Sam raised a closed fist to his mouth, which was open in shock.

Victoria recovered quickly, tackling him like a football player. The two landed on one of the metal tables, wheeling them away and into another wall. T'Challa stared on, expression forlorn as he watched the two rough it out (whilst mercilessly destroying Wakandan property)

"Shouldn't we do something?" Jacqueline whispered. Bucky shook his head. "It's best to let this play out. I hope you got some money, Your Highness." T'Challa sniffed, eyebrows furrowing as Steve drove Victoria's head through the drywall. White dust and pieces fell to the floor around them. Even Bucky flinched, yet kept an eye open as Victoria grabbed Steve by the neck; slammed him against the wall, and used him to pull her head out of the hole.

Bucky would've been having a heart attack, had he known they weren't fighting in rage. Victoria wasn't used to using brute strength, and Steve didn't like throwing body parts around. Watching with somewhat of a lack of interest, Bucky picked up a pen from the table and began the long, yet satisfying process of calculation.

The Archangel back - winged the Captain to the floor. Based on that, the man could presume that Steve would... Oh, that was unexpected. The blond grabbed the woman by her leg, swinging her overhead and smashing her against the hard floor. Bucky grimaced, watching as the two (both covered in white dust, blood, and bruises) heaved in labored breaths on the ground. Victoria lay unmoving, on the floor, the only indication of her being alive the faint string of profanities that never seemed to cease escaping her drywall coated lips. Steve, wheezing like he was having an asthma attack, pulled himself next to her, and rested a hand on her stomach.

"Is this supposed to be poetic?" Jack wondered out loud.

"Not as much as poetic as fucking stupid!" Bucky replied, voice rising to a yell at the end of the sentence. Victoria coughed in response, and the Soldier swore he heard a "fuck you" buried somewhere in the depths of it. Goddamn, I love her. Bucky calmly asked T'Challa to see if any nurses were available, only to be interrupted by Victoria's weak voice.

"We have to find her, and I don't care if it kills me."

Bucky, the oddly apathetic one of the situation, was now less apathetic. He had a hard time feeling, once in a while, but this... This was new. This aching, nagging voice in his head that incessantly told him that Victoria would get herself killed doing this. But he couldn't stop her, nothing could, and that was a part of the reason he happened to love her. Slowly looking around the room, he frowned at the decimated state of his former resting place.

"I am beginning to wonder if I should contact my therapists, Mr. Barnes," T'Challa said aloud, to which Bucky gave a wry look.

"They'd probably end up killing the therapist, Your Highness, so that's a nay for that vote."

A/N
this chapter was in RUINS but my favorite part was basically Bucky watching his friends nearly kill each other and just being like "okay kids when you get done venting I'll be in the kitchen waiting to PUNCH YOU"

alright, on a more serious note.. This begins the ultimate plot of the story. From hereon now, Jacqueline and T'Challa WILL be the main focus, as promised. I had to introduce a topic, which Bucky and Victoria happened to deliver. Yes, Victoria is bisexual/confused, which we'll deal with through out the book. I can definitely promise you steamy gayness in the following chapters.