AMERICA'S POV

In the distance, I can clearly see Steve and Sam running for their lives, yelling at each other the entire time. I'm gone for ten minutes and this happens. Shaking my head, I arrive next to them within seconds.

"On your left. What's up, boys?" I tease, winking. Steve shakes his head, but at least he's smiling. Until he sees me holding my side with one hand. Then the smile disappears.

"Did you get shot again?"

"No! I'm not that irresponsible. Rumlow was mean to me, Steve, he kicked me in the side," I whine playfully.

"I'll have to take care of him later, then."

"You better."

"Could you two stop flirting for two seconds?!?" Sam asks, exasperated. He ducks to dodge anyone bullet. "Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?"

"If they're shooting at you, they're bad." Sam nods and flies off, leaving the two of us.

"Great advice," I mutter, narrowly dodging bullets with him.

"Thanks. I try."

"Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about!"

"You okay?" Steve asks. I bite my lip and pray that he is.

"I'm not dead yet," Sam replies, which does actually make me feel better.

I turn to Steve. "We have to get inside to shut it down." It's our lives versus the lives of billions. He understands what I'm trying to say.

"Go. I'll catch up."

I kick up the speed and arrive at the doors of the Hellicarrier. Two Hydra agents meet me at the entrance, menacingly holding up large guns. Ugh. I don't want to get shot again. Hand to hand is where I really shine. I sweep the first's legs out from beneath him while grabbing the other's arm and twisting the gun out of his grasp. This makes it very easy to hit the one on the ground with the butt of the gun, effectively knocking him out. But as soon as I take down the other one, I see more coming.

"Steve, where are you?" I hiss, ducking under a punch. I can handle myself against a few agents, but they just keep coming and my side hurts too much for it to be good news.

"Eight minutes, Evans," Hill's harried voice reminds.

"I know! I'm working on it! Where's Steve?" I can't get hysterical, not now. I take all of my emotions out on the next opponent. It's the only way to survive. Staying still gets you killed. "Steve, get your patriotic you-know-what over here now!"

A familiar shield flies through the air and hits the final agent in the head, knocking him backward.

"Took you long enough," I mutter. I press my hand to my side for a few seconds, hoping to stem the blood I know is starting to leak through my bandages. Steve grabs the shield from the ground and glances at me, concern in his blue eyes.

"You okay?" He knows I'm not, and I nod along anyway. What else is there to say? There's no getting out now.

After disabling two of the Hellicarriers, we need to get to the final one, but it's a little difficult to focus properly with the bullets practically pouring out of the sky. "Sam, we could use a lift down here!" I scream as I duck behind Steve's shield.

"Let me know when you two are ready!"

I glance at Steve from behind the shield. "You're good at dramatics. You ready? Because I'm not big on trust and this is a crazy trust exercise."

"America-"

"Now, Sam!" I pull Steve off of the edge right as they launch a missile. There are a few terrifying seconds of free-falling, then Sam swoops down and catches us, dropping down onto the final Hellicarrier. If that ever happens again, I might die of fear. It's awful.

"Thanks," I say shakily. Sam nods.

"You know, Rogers, you're a lot heavier than you look," Sam comments.

"I had a big breakfast," Steve replies conversationally. Out of what seems like nowhere, the Winter Soldier appears and pushes him off of the edge.

"Steve!" He throws a punch at me next. I try to distract him so Sam can go get Steve, but he somehow immediately sees through my plan, shoves me sideways, and heads after Sam. I groan as my body hits the ground, but I immediately get up. To my immense relief, Steve walks towards me. He survived. "Where's Sam?"

"He'll be fine, he had a parachute. But his suit is disabled. It's just the two of us now."

"Oh. Right. We've got this." I wish I sounded more sure. We head to the landing bridge, careful not to be loud. But we are not alone.

The Winter Soldier stares across the bridge at us, his dark blue eyes cold and unforgiving. He makes no move, and neither do we. Not yet.

"People are gonna die, Buck. I can't let that happen," Steve says slowly, begging with his old friend one last time. The soldier does and says nothing. "Please, don't make me do this."

He's not going to back down. I know this because I have memories of people pleading for forgiveness, and I never gave in. It rarely ever crossed my mind to disobey orders. "Steve," I whisper softly, keeping my eyes on the soldier.

He speaks by barely moving his lips, and he doesn't look at me, either. "Get the chip. Bring up the system. I'll distract him."

He launches the shield at the soldier, which I take as my cue to speed around the two men and get to the controls. Despite being injured, I'm still fast and stealthy. As I type my way into the system, he grabs my head and knocks it into the wall. Dizziness instantly overwhelms me, but I pull myself up to finish the job. That's what I'm supposed to do. That's what heroes do. Maybe if this works, I can finally start thinking of myself as one.

The two fall through the floor. I groan, snatch a chip, and jump down, rolling as I land to not break any more of myself. As soon as I'm down there, a new bullet pierces my shoulder. A scream escapes my lips and the soldier knocks the chip from my hands. Steve runs to grab it, but he gets hit in the head with his own shield.

My eyes widen as Steve falls over, unconscious. I want to freak out, but I can't. It's just me now. I speed over and grab the chip, tucking it away in my pocket. The soldier walks towards me menacingly, flicking his knife through his fingers. And I, of course, lost all of my weapons on the second Helicarrier. Of course I did.

I hold out for a few minutes, but my dominant arm is bleeding freely. I kick him in the face but get a leg stab in return, which hampers my speed, my greatest asset. With a new bullet wound, a new stab wound, and a possible concussion in addition to the old wound, it's no problem at all for the soldier to knock me to the ground. I dodge his next punch by rolling sideways, which puts me dangerously close to the edge of the Helicarrier.

"James, it's me!" I say desperately, trying to meet his eyes, to get him to recognize me. "It's America!"

"Shut up!"

"James, this isn't you. I'm your friend," I whisper, eyes filling with tears. I don't know if it's from emotion or the pain. Everything is blurring together. Is this what I was like as the Night Wind? Ruthless to a fault, not able to recognize anyone around me? "Please stop, I can help you."

"You're my mission," he growls, holding a knife over my body. I have no way to overpower him at this point. He's much bigger than me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Steve stagger up and begin to creep over.

"This isn't you. We can figure this out together. I can help you, you just have to let me."

For a fleeting moment, his eyes soften.

The Helicarrier tilts suddenly, rolling him off of me, but it also throws me into a hole of broken glass. Steve's eyes widen in fear.

"AMERICA!" Forgetting completely about the chip or the soldier, he lunges for me in desperation, but misses my hand by inches. Panic rises in my throat as I fall.

"STEVE!"

"AMERICA!"

Everything flashes in my mind as I plummet toward the water. It takes seconds, but it feels like years.

I am America Evans, Valeria Maximoff.

I'm going to die.

Black consumes the edges of my vision.

Hey, hope you all liked my cliffhanger. Happy almost Thanksgiving!