[ 1945 ]

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Steve took the lead in his own plan, as it would be expected. The rest of the squadron and armed forces of the division waited for the perfect time to strike, hidden between the mountains of the Alpes were the last Hydra base was in. Everyone had the same thought in mind; if this went well, Hydra would be erased off the map forever.

While Jones, Falsworth and Dugan were told to strike from the front, (Y/N), Dernier and Morita planned entering the base from the side. She gripped tightly onto her own weapon as she propped it in the air to be prepared against approaching Hydra soldiers that surely were coming their way. An explosion rigged by Morita blew up the blocking door in front of them, allowing the trio and the squadron of soldiers behind them to enter the base without difficulty.

"We're in! Assault team, go!" Morita yelled through his communication device.

Once Colonel Phillips and his team were informed, her squad advanced with weapons in the air. They fired at the upcoming Hydra soldiers with their respective advanced weapons, doing their best to shoot them before they had the chance to fire. (Y/N) tried hard to maintain her anger in control as she fired at each upcoming soldier, the resentment of them taking the life of her friend still being a fresh wound.

She and her respective squadron kept marching through base, wiping all soldiers in their radius. She was only able to catch a short glimpse of Steve as he rushed through the ends of the never-ending hallways. More gunshots and blasts were heard in the distance, the blue mist dispersing in the air as an indication that someone had been hit by Hydra's weapons. She pretended it didn't affect her and cause a rising fear of becoming their weapon's victim, but she kept running forward with her gun in the air.

Her team separated into smaller groups as they walked out of the main base and entered some sort of hangar, where several modes of transportation were displayed all over. It was hard concentrating on her surroundings when everyone around her was either shooting at each other or rigging explosives. (Y/N) saw Morita fighting off two remaining soldiers from his side, but didn't notice the fleet marching up from his opposite side. She shot at the closest ones in her range of fire as she ran in that direction, but the gunshots alerted Morita in time to pull another grenade and throw it at the ones that were left.

(Y/N) stopped in her steps when she saw the grenade at the soldier's feet, turning around to avoid getting struck by debris or flying pieces of metal, but she had no way of covering her ears. The loud sound of the explosion made her jump, and she turned back around to see Morita already bolting in the other direction without as much looking fazed at the grenade.

She was about to turn back and run toward the closest place she could help, but then she heard the loud squeak of wheels against the ground. Her eyes squinted in confusion when she recognized Colonel Phillips on the wheel of an unfamiliar vehicle with the Hydra symbol in the front, and Peggy sat in the backseat of it.

"Nice ride," she commented, despite the situation.

"Are you getting in or what?" Colonel Phillips responded in his usual raspy tone.

(Y/N) climbed over the car and sat on the backseat with Peggy. The colonel turned back to check if she was sat down properly before he pressed on the pedal. She had no clue why they were inside this car to begin with, and when she was about to question what was their plan, she saw the familiar red, white and blue suit running at full speed, chasing after the enormous plane driving through the track.

He stopped in the middle of the hangar and seemed to drop his arms in disappointment. In that exact moment, Colonel Phillips hit the brakes and stopped the car right beside Steve.

"Get in," Colonel Phillips ordered.

Steve didn't say anything before he climbed into the last remaining seat, squeezing his way in. Colonel Phillips didn't even make sure he was safely sat down before he pressed on the pedal and the car sped through the surface.

The Valkyrie was gaining more speed, which created distance between them, and (Y/N) could see from her seat how the doors of the hangar started opening in slow motion. The Colonel pressed an unknown red button near the steering wheel and that changed the car's motor and gained ten times more speed than it already had.

Steve stood up from his seat and moved to the edge of the car with the shield in hand, turning back to the colonel. "Keep it steady!"

"Wait!" Peggy called out, standing up from her own seat.

She grabbed a hold of Steve's shoulder and brought him down to her level. In an act of confidence, she pressed her red lips against his, catching him completely off guard. Peggy pulled away as quick as her past actions, smiling at the way she left Steve completely speechless.

"Go get him."

Steve was still too dumbfounded to say anything, only redirecting his gaze to Colonel Phillips as if he was prepared for some type of remark. That, and he saw the teasing look behind (Y/N)'s eyes and he wanted to avoid her inevitable comment.

"I'm not kissing you!"

Steve placed the shield on his back as the car got in level with the plane. A few inches from them were the plane's fast moving propellers, and the way Steve avoided being struck was by laying on his stomach with his shield taking the hit. The car advanced inches further in the same speed, which caused another propeller to damage the furthest side of the vehicle.

As the plane passed through the open doors of the hangar and the vehicle followed not that far behind into the cold, Steve took the opportunity to jump. He grabbed a hold of the landing gear and secured a firm grip on it, as the plane started gaining altitude. Colonel Phillips took this as a sign to swerve the wheel to the side in a way to stop the speeding vehicle.

The wheels squealed against the ground due to this, and the vehicle was successfully turning around as the edge of the road was laying ahead. Just as the car came to a complete turn, it halted as the back wheels dangled over the edge of the cliff. (Y/N) turned her head at the direction of the flying plane, a knot forming in her stomach in Steve's sake. She just hoped everything worked as planned.

Peggy stood up from her seat to stare at the plane as well, but her head turned to the side when she felt (Y/N)'s gaze on her. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," (Y/N) smiled.

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(Y/N) and the others made it back to the main Hydra base, in search of the aircraft center command. It was the only way for them to know the Valkyrie's trajectory was and where was it located in actual time. The rest of their troops were either treating their wounds or arresting the last of the Hydra soldiers. Once they found the center command, Morita took charge of the controls and stayed alert for some sort of signal.

All (Y/N) could do was tap her foot anxiously against the hard floor, having both Peggy and Colonel Phillips on her sides. Both stayed silent too, and she pretended not to notice the worried glances they were sending her way.

"Come in," (Y/N) immediately snapped her head in the direction of the familiar voice coming from the radio. "This is Captain Rogers. Do you read me?"

Morita leaned in to answer. "Captain Rogers, what is your — "

(Y/N) didn't know what possessed her to approach where Morita was seating in with only two steps, leaning forward to grab onto the speaker. Morita saw the worried expression on her face and stood up from the chair to allow (Y/N) to sit down instead. Her senses were on red alert, and the knot on her stomach tightened.

"Steve, it's me," she responded with panic laced on her voice. "Are you all right?"

"(Y/N), Schmidt's dead!"

"And the plane?"

There was a beat of silence on the other line. "That's a little bit tougher to explain."

"Give me your coordinates," she replied. "I'll find you a safe landing site."

"There's not gonna be a safe landing," Steve responded. "But I can try and force it down."

Behind her, Colonel Phillips tapped both Peggy and Morita on the shoulders and signaled them to follow after him. Peggy already feared the worse, her eyes trailing over to her friend on the chair. She was about to lean forward and tap her on the shoulder, but the colonel stopped her.

"I'll connect Howard, he'll know what to do," her tone grew desperate by each second.

"There's not enough time," Steve opposed to the idea. "This thing's moving too fast and it's heading for New York."

"I got to put her in the water."

(Y/N) could feel the knot tightening to the point where her stomach hurt as if something was actually squeezing it. She blinked several times to avoid the tears from staining her face, and did her best to control the crack in her voice.

"Don't do this, please," she shook her head even if he couldn't see her. She was pleading at this point, doing everything in her power to save him. "We still have time. We still can work this out."

"Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere," he explained, he spoke with all the calmness in the world that it worried her. "If I wait any longer, a lot of people are gonna die."

"(Y/N), this is my choice," he said in a much softer tone, as if he finally understood the toll this might have on her. "You're just gonna find a way to live with it."

(Y/N) recognized the words, since they were her very own from a couple of months ago. Steve was no stranger to mirror her words, especially in the worst timings, and this was no exception. The wound Bucky's death was still fresh, and the fact that his was probably minutes away from happening added salt to that injury. She wasn't strong enough to bear this, hell, who can? She placed a hand over her mouth to muffle her sniffle into the speaker, but what she hadn't noticed is that she had left Steve in silence.

"(Y/N)?" he called out with a hint of fear.

"I'm here."

"I heard there's a Dodgers game coming up."

She let out an emotional laugh, brushing the falling tears away. "Yes, I heard. This Saturday."

"Do you think we can still buy tickets?"

"Maybe."

"I'd be nice to go," he told her. "When was the last time we've been to a Dodgers game?"

"Since 1941."

"I remember," there was a slight shakiness in his voice. "Buy two tickets, close enough so we can distinguish the players' faces."

"You got it."

"I'm afraid that I won't make it on time."

"You will," she reassured. "I'll make sure of it."

"If I'm not there on time, don't forget to buy a bag of peanuts for me."

(Y/N) teared up again. "Yeah, your favorite."

"And after that we could — "

His sentence was cut off by radio static and (Y/N) felt like her entire world had stopped spinning on its axis. She pressed on a button in the speaker, raising the volume so she could hear the other line more loudly.

"Steve?" she called, already fearing the worst.

There was nothing more than static, and (Y/N) braced herself to call his name again, hoping for some unrealistic miracle. "Steve?"

"Steve?"

Her worst nightmare was confirmed when she didn't hear anything from the other line. This time, she didn't try to muffle the sob that escaped her lips as she buried her head in her hands. She couldn't get rid of the mental image of Steve being alone inside of that plane with no chance of survival, scared out of his mind.

Sure, a part of her should be relieved that thousands of lives were saved, but at the same time, that cost the lives of the two most important people in her world. How was she allowed to keep living? To keep breathing and growing old in this world when that was taken away from their hands?

i feel so bad for her :( she lost both of her 'brothers' in such a short period of time.
but because of this, more howard content in coming lol ;) stay tuned.

-see you soon, bex