After learning about HYDRA's plan, Steve is quick to order the crew back to the car. The destination is the Triskelion.

Jessica sits in the back with Natasha and Sitwell. He is squished between them, but since Jessica isn't bothering to control her powers, he leans heavily towards the redhead. Every now and then, Natasha pushes him towards her just to freak him out.

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks!" He hisses after a rather gruesome picture appears before their eyes.

"So why don't you try sticking a cork in it," Sam replies sarcastically.

"We're running low on time," Jessica taps her fingers nervously on the window. "Fifteen hours. Sixteen at the most."

"I know," Steve nods, clearing his throat before divulging the plan. "We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly."

"What?! Are you crazy?" Sitwell unsurprisingly exclaims, "That is a terrible, terrible idea—"

The roof above them caves in as something lands on it. A hole is punched through the back windshield, and Agent Sitwell's body is pulled through it. They watch helplessly as he's thrown into incoming traffic, and Jessica winces when his terrified screams fall silent just as the frightened horn of a semi-truck rings through the air. She doesn't have much time to react, however, as shots are being fired at them from above.

Natasha dives into Steve's lap as the leather on her seat splits from the bullets. Jessica throws herself into the woman's previous spot when the metal hand shatters her window next.

Steve puts the car in park, skidding them to a stop. The man above them falls over the hood and onto the street, but he lands expertly by digging his steel fingers into the concrete.

"The Winter Soldier," Jessica breathes, catching a full view of him now that the car has completely stopped.

She pulls the gun Natasha brought her from her waistband and takes aim, but another vehicle slams into them at full force from the back. The Winter Soldier waits patiently as they are pushed straight towards him. He flips onto the car again.

The metal arm scoops down to shatter a part of the front windshield and rips out the steering wheel. Sam curses loudly.

The soldier breaks through the window beside Jessica next, catching her arm. He latches onto her like he's about to pull her out too, but she fires her gun directly above her, which forces him to let go.

Natasha yells her name over the wind. Their attacker tears off Jessica's entire passenger door this time. He takes ahold of her shoulder and throws her from the car.

If Sam wasn't on the breaks, she probably would not have survived the landing. She rolls on the pavement into incoming traffic just as she did the first time the Winter Soldier attacked her, but this street is far busier. The incoming vehicles swerve out of the way or crash into each other to avoid her.

The Winter Soldier continues attacking the car, but she can't see it now. She groans loudly as her muscles tense in pain. A few yards away, her friends escape by skidding across the pavement on a car door.

Sam lands only feet from her. He knows better than to try to help her up, so he calls her name instead. In the distance, the Winter Soldier aims and fires his grenade launcher at Natasha and Steve.

Jessica looks up just in time. Steve throws Natasha out of the way and holds up his shield. The explosion sends him flying into a car and over the bridge. She feels herself try to scream for him, but no sound comes out.

"Jessica, come on!" Sam grunts, his hands hovering over her.

She somehow gets to her feet without letting him touch her. Her fingers clasp her gun as the newly appeared HYDRA agents open fire. She ducks behind a turned car with Sam.

"I gotta get to Steve," She grunts, not even sure if he can hear her over the blasts.

Natasha has caught the crowd's attention, so Sam has a moment to take care of Jessica. There are a few cuts and bruises from rolling on the pavement, but it's not anything she hasn't pushed through before.

"I don't see—" He suddenly notices how tightly she's holding on to her side, "Dammit!"

A shard of glass the size of his fist sticks out from her torso. She's holding it in place the best she can, but blood still finds its way around her fingers

"You need a hospital," he tells her.

She shakes her head, "I need Steve."

A new series of gunshots ring from under the bridge. Sam peeks over the car. There is only one HYDRA agent in sight now.

He orders her to stay put before running off. Jessica lays her head back against the cool metal. She tries to pretend that she doesn't hear the gunshots below while she waits for Sam.

He doesn't come back and neither does Steve. It's three against an entire squad of gunmen and the Winter Soldier, so they could use all the help they can get, but she's out of commission until someone heals her.

"Oh, my god," a voice shouts a little way down the road. "Are you dead? What's going on?"

Jessica opens her eyes at a squint. A man a little younger than her stares down at her, his expression crazed and confused.

"You need to get out of here," she tells him. "The street is not safe."

"That's a lot of blood," he notices, completely ignoring her warning. He kneels down beside her before she can protest, "I'm a surgical intern. If I can just stop the bleeding..."

"No—" she coughs, but it's too late.

He presses gently on her skin and a picture appears before their eyes. A hospital. The lobby. A patient coding.

"What the hell?!" He yells, pulling away.

But it was working.

Jessica's hand moves without her consent. She latches onto his wrist fiercely, pulling him back toward her. For the first time in years, her mind welcomes the pictures, the energy, and the life that the young man offers her.

He struggles against her. Screaming for help.

Then, silence.

She stands, pulling the shard of glass out of her skin like butter. It clatters onto the ground next to the lifeless body of the man who had tried to help her.

Her eyes blink a few times to clear the vertigo. With a fresh mind, she looks down at the man she had just killed. It doesn't register in her brain quite right... she just lost control.

"I'm so sorry," she rushes. "Please wake up. Please—"

Gunfire rains over her head again. She ducks behind the car, her hands instinctively picking up the gun that lay forgotten on the ground. By using the turned vehicle for cover, she takes quick shots at the gunmen.

Her eyes avoid the area next to her. Now that the bridge is clear, she runs over to Sam.

"What happened?" Sam questions, noticing her right away. "How—?"

She interrupts him, "Where are Steve and Natasha?"

"A block east of us," he answers.

She notices he's found the Falcon pack that had been ejected from their destroyed car. He stands on the ledge of the bridge preparing to jump.

"Can I get a ride?"

He looks at her skeptically, "Can you?"

Jessica nods. If she wasn't just fully healed, she would not have trusted herself to touch anyone for the time being. After a moment of concentration, he has her wrap her arms around his neck before taking off. Considering she's flown with the Hulk, flying with Sam is far easier than she expects.

They soar above the action. Jessica can't look at the street below without screaming, so she waits until they're only a few yards above the ground before she drops into a somersault.

The Winter Soldier and Steve are fighting a few feet from her. She raises her gun, preparing to shoot when Steve hits him in the face with his shield. The soldier rolls onto the other end of the street. His mask falls off in the process.

Steve freezes. His eyes stare at the unmasked man, "Bucky?"

Jessica can't help but falter too. This is her moment, while they're both standing still, to take him out. Still, she lowers the gun for a split second just as the Winter Soldier meets her eyes.

"Who the hell is Bucky?"

He aims his pistol over Steve's shoulder. Before he can pull the trigger, Sam appears out of the sky and kicks him to the ground.

Jessica doesn't have time to notice Natasha. She shoots a grenade at Bucky, but he uses the smoke for an escape. Even though he's gone, Steve still runs to Jessica with his shield raised.

"He was after me," she whispers, confusion littering her face. She clasps his hands, trying to steady herself.

He holds onto her tightly, nodding, "I know."

Their heads turn at the sound of sirens circulating around them. The street quickly becomes filled with the unmarked cars that are typically used by SHIELD.

"Drop the shield, Cap! On your knees! Get down!" Rumlow bellows, pointing his gun at them as soon as he gets out of the car.

Steve lets go of Jessica to put his hands up while also taking an unsuspecting step in front of her. They grab his wrists and shove him away from her before forcefully kicking the back of his legs to make him kneel.

"Hey—"

A total of twelve guns are aimed at her before she can even finish the word. She raises her own gun in the air, understanding immediately who she's dealing with.

SHIELD is long dead. This is HYDRA.

"Put it down, Torres," Rumlow threatens, "or I will put a bullet in his head right here."

She tosses the weapon towards the guards as he points his gun at Steve. He's looking at the road where Bucky was in shock.

She puts her hands up towards the sky again and magnetic cuffs are suddenly thrown onto her wrists. No one has to touch her to put them on, which makes her think they were created just for her.

A different STRIKE officer takes Rumlow's place while he loads Natasha and Sam into a van. The man fiddles with the trigger as he rests the tip of his gun against Steve's head.

"Hey, back off. He's unarmed," she snaps.

"So was the man on the bridge," the STRIKE officer smirks. "We are not so different."

Jessica can't help it. She launches forward despite the guns pointed at her. A soldier reacts defensively by hitting her in the head with the butt of his gun. She falls onto the pavement unconscious.

"Enough! Put the gun down. Not here. Not here!" Rumlow suddenly hisses. They all look up at the news station helicopter that hovers in the sky.

When Jessica comes to, she finds herself locked into a high-level security bench inside a transport van. Natasha and Sam are across from her and Steve is at her side.

"It was him," Steve mutters, not noticing that she's awake. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago," Sam reminds him.

"Zola." He explains, "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha tells him, though she sounds like she is about to pass out.

After a moment, he mumbles, "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Jessica isn't in the mood for talking, or even listening for that matter. Her mind is too busy replaying the events of the bridge to hear them.

Sam, on the other hand, hasn't been able to take his eyes off of Natasha's shoulder. She was shot during the fight. He looks at the guards sitting beside them, "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

One of the guards unleashes their taser rod. Sam jumps back slightly as he's threatened with it, but they use it on the other guard instead.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," Maria Hill groans after pulling off her helmet. "Who's this guy?"

Sam introduces himself to her as she frees them. He rushes to attend to Natasha's wound, but there's not much that he can do without proper medical supplies.

Similar to Jessica and Fury's grand escape, Hill uses a laser pen to cut a hole through the van floor. She has a new vehicle at the ready less than a block away.

No one talks on the way to wherever they're going. Steve and Jessica sit with their shoulders touching, but neither one of them want to get into what happened. The simple contact provides enough comfort to last the ride at the very least, especially since all Jessica has to think about is him.

She's never been as scared as she was when Steve was out of her sight downtown. She knows he is capable of taking care of himself, but not being able to fight alongside him nearly killed her. Anything could have happened during their time apart. That thought alone scares her more than she can comprehend.

When they reach the underground facility, Steve and Sam offer their assistance to Natasha. Jessica trails behind them.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint," Maria calls down the hallway.

"Maybe two," Sam corrects her.

A man they assume to be a doctor runs towards them down the dimly lit tunnel, "Let me take her."

Maria shakes her head, "She'll want to see him first."

All eyes turn in question at her statement as they hurry down the corridor. She leads them through a series of doors to a sad attempt at a hospital room.

Nick Fury, alive and well, sits at the center of the room on a bed. He lifts his head when he sees them, "About damn time."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chapter 16 - The Kill List

Completed on 07-08-21 at 11:06 am

Question: If you could have one super power, what would it be?

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Mae