Mission Report
He was going to hell for sure. He pushed the kid away from him and ran through the field to get to Dominique. Steve was out of his sight and the opportunity was too good to ignore.
He didn’t even when he saw her hands cover in the dark blue light and moving a whole truck out of the red and blue guy’s arms.
Bucky grabbed her by the shoulder and she turned with fury eyes. But as soon as she saw him, the fight in her died.
“James,” and she jumped to his arms, giving him an amount of joy he wasn’t prepared for. He’d thought she’d be angry.
Bucky hugged her back, hiding his face on her neck, “Are you okay?” He whispered. “I was told what happened. I’m so sorry, Dom. I-“
“Stop. It wasn’t you,” she pulled away. Her face was paler and her eyes, they seemed darker. She pushed him to a cleared spot while the fight was still going. “James, What are you doing? Why are you trying to take a damn plane?”
“It’s complicated. I can’t explain right now, but we need it, Dom.”
“James, if you get caught, you won’t be pardon. You will face prison. You need to stop this,” she cupped his face, giving the contact he had needed since they were apart. He leaned into her touch, sighing. “Come with me, James,” a hand went to his metal arm, going down until she entwined their hands together. “Come back to me. We can still fix this,” she said, taking a step back and Bucky followed.
“Dominique…”
You need to-“
An explosion frightened both of them. Dom ran when she saw Wanda throwing cars at the Iron man. Cars. Whole damn cars.
“Dominique,” but he knew she wouldn’t answer. Not when Wanda was trying to hurt Tony.
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He looked back to see Dominique putting obstacles everywhere they went to held them back from going into the ship. She was controlled, the light on her fingers shone effortlessly.
His legs moved fast beside Steve but Dominique seemed to be quicker and kept pulling cars, tools, metals, anything she found, in front of them.
Steve took his hand to the earpiece, “Wanda, I can’t shake Nique.”
“On it.”
A hot fear creeped inside his skin and looked back without stopping. “What is she going to do?”
“You don’t want to know,” Steve said.
And he was about to protest, to stop running when the obstacles stopped. Steve grabbed his arm and pulled him quickly. They circled around the obstacles and were almost inside, on their way to the ship.
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“Dominique?”
She turned around, breathing heavy as the airport rebuilt itself around her. The team wasn’t on sight and she could feel the magic tempting with her mind. The more she fought it, the deeper it got and was to recognize the illusion. Don’t fight back. You never play fair. She blinked to her hands full of blood.
“Dom-”
She realized she was in the floor, a man laying in front of her with his face swollen. Blood all over it and his body. Her eyes watched in horror who he was and she pressed her hands on his chest where the blood seemed to be coming from.
“Tony,” she cried. “Oh my God.”
But there was something in his eyes that she couldn't believe it was directed to her. He moaned, and tried miserably to get her hands off him.
“Tony? It's me, Dom,” she felt a tear running down her cheek. “What happened? Why-” she swallowed a sob coming up her throat. “I would never hurt you. Why are you afraid of me?”
“Because we did that.”
She turned her head and much to her horror, saw herself walking towards them with a smile. This version of herself, the one she kept hidden away, was standing in front of her.
A hand grabbed her wrist and Dom looked back at Tony. His eyes searched for hers before he took his final breath and the light on his eyes disappeared.
No.
She checked for a pulse.
Nothing.
No.
“No!” she grabbed his body and hugged him. “No,” she sobbed. A scream cane out if her. Something so raw and inhuman. “Oh, please, no.”
She rocked back and forth with the body in her arms, and stopped when she heard her own laugh, but darker, cinicker.
Dominique put Tony on the ground, gently before stand up shaking with rage and loss.
“You,” she said.
Her other self grinned, her arms stretched, “Me.” she said. “C’mon. We always knew we would end up killing him.”
“You did this,” she said getting consumed by Tony’s death. Her left left the ground as she hesitated on pure air, her eyes turning black with no a sign of mercy in her face. “You’ll regret it.”
“Wait, Dom-”
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Bucky gazed back and his blood ran hot. He stopped moving. His eyes couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
Iron man and Dominique were fighting. Dominique was merciless. The light on her hands darker and smokier and a hatred irradiated from her as she struck Tony. But he…he wasn’t fighting. He was avoiding the strikes of lights, more like in a defensive state.
“Bucky!” Steve called.
“Why is she doing that?” Bucky’s anger could be easily pass as confusion and annoyance.
Steve looked at Tony and Dominique, a guarded expression on his face, “It’s Wanda. We need to go before it wears off. Nique won’t be happy.”
“Tell her to stop.”
“What?”
“Tell Wanda to stop.”
“When we get inside the ship, I’ll tell her.” He turned around and ran towards said destination.
Wanda got inside her head again.
Because of this fight.
Because they needed to get to that plane.
At the end, Bucky stared down at the airport as they took off, and saw how Dominique fell backwards holding her head.
A horrible thought crossed his mind. What if that was the last time he saw her? What if he didn’t hug her, kiss her again? What if he messed this up, too?
What if Dominique didn’t want to see him again?
He wanted to scream, to punch something. When they were clear, he turned to start the fight he had wanted to unleash at the airport. But one look at his friend, and he couldn’t. Not right now.
Steve was tensed. His hands wrapped the wheel tightly, his knuckles white. His eyes hiding so much sadness, Bucky didn’t know where it was coming from.
He just fought his team.
He told Wanda to get inside Dominique’s head.
He just fought Tony.
Tony.
It’s like watching two different puzzles that somehow fit together.
“You okay?” Bucky sat on the copilot seat.
“Uh?” He blinked shaking his head a bit. “Yes. Everything is okay.”
Oh, Steve.
But he wouldn’t push. God knew he would get upset if someone forced him to talk. So he stayed silent. And waited. For a second, Bucky thought he heard him say something.
“What was that?”
“He’s never going to forgive me,” he muttered, his voice quiet. “For Wanda.”
And yet again, he’s talking about Tony. Steve seemed lost. Bucky wondered if he was thinking about him.
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Tony stared at her, noticing just how distracted she was. Whatever vision Wanda put on her head, it left her worst than the last time it happened. To his observation through the years of Dominique, she didn’t get distracted easy. So it concerned him a little bit.
“Kid?”
She blinked once, twice, and looked at him, her eyes became clearer, “What is it?”
He shrugged and leaned on the side of his sit, pretending to see outside the window, “Nothing. Just checking.”
“Checking? Checking what, my sanity?”
“Should I?”
She wasn’t really angry. At least, not with him. Well, maybe a little at him still for bringing Peter to a fight he wasn’t supposed to be part of, though he already felt guilty enough about that. So her anger towards him wasn’t as much as what he felt.
“He left us,” Dominique said through her teeth.
Tony only nodded, validating her anger towards their old leader. And it sucked to refer to him as such. But he’d expected this even after telling her about his conversation with Sam.
“He left me,” she whispered and Tony wasn’t sure if he was meant to hear that one.
“We’ll find him,” he said. “And see what the hell is all this and bring him home. His friend, too.”
Dominique snored, “Can’t wait to tell him what he did wrong.”
“Oh, he’ll love that.”
“Sir, I apologize for the interruption,” Friday said on the speakers. “I found what you ask.”
Tony looked at his clock, the location beeping in red. He eyed Dominique with a mischievous smile. “Want to be my backup?”
Dominique grinned and rolled her eyes, “Do you even have to ask?” She said. “I’m right behind you.
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Everything went to shit.
A part of him thought it was going to be okay. How couldn’t he think that when Tony got there and Steve’s face was lifted in hope? How calm the Captain had been when the hamlet opened and Tony was asking to let them help?
Bucky saw a light in Steve, and maybe, just maybe, this would end up with a happy ending.
Until Zemo showed that video.
Bucky watched in horror. No. No. No. he didn’t remember. He didn’t. But it was him. His own hand around Tony’s mother’s neck.
Bucky killed his parents and somehow, that didn’t seem like the worst part. The worst part was that Steve knew about it and didn’t tell Tony.
The anger, the betrayal, the surprise on the rich man was noticeable. It got out of control fast. Punches and the repulsers were deadly. No second guesses. No pulling back anything. All in.
Tony fought both soldiers.
“He’s my friend, Tony.”
“I was your friend, too.”
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Ever. Even as his hands fought and avoided Tony’s mean strikes, he was afraid. This is Tony. Dom’s Tony. The man who was like a father to Dom. The mean she adored. The man who took care of her when no one did.
And Bucky killed his parents, and was beating the hell out of him.
He was fighting Tony.
And he couldn’t stop. Tony might kill Steve, or him.
One shot, one explosion. His metal arm was gone. He blinked, not believing this moment. He was on the floor in seconds and it was difficult to breath.
The rest of this day would always haunt him. Time slowed down and he was aware of everything as Steve raised his shield over the Iron man, hitting the armor over and over again, then the helmet. The sound of metal against metal echoed through the bunker. The helmet broke and Steve raised his shield, and before anything happened, a dark light stroke him in the chest, sending him off Tony.
The shield on the ground.
Dominique watched the scene in horror. Bucky bleeding without his metal arm. Steve about to do something incorrigible. Tony unable to move with the armor bent and broken.
She gazed down at Bucky, searching for the smallest sign that he wasn’t him. That this was a product of the Winter Soldier. Instead she found the sorrow in his eyes. And her features changed immediately. It was so quick. There was no hesitation. There was no care in her look, no importance, no affection, no fondness. Nothing.
Bucky had became nothing to her.
No.
Please, no.
I’m sorry, Dom.
The silence, he recalled, was unbearable. They were all frozen for a moment, asking themselves how they got to that point.
Her body defensively changed in position to strike again. Her eyes glued to Steve, turning dark, the bright of her stormy eyes completely gone.
Tony shook his head once, tired, hurt, and Dominique put her hands down.
Steve stood up, not glancing back and helped Bucky to his feet. He took a step, tilted his head towards her, perhaps expecting a punch on the face or something worst but Dominique didn’t spare them a look.
“Go,” her voice stoned cold. “Before I kill you.”
And Bucky knew it.
She was talking to the both of them.