Into the Trap
What they said kept him up the rest of the night. Even after they had fallen asleep.
They were right.
Schmidt would undoubtedly send Bucky to face him.
And the ache of Steve knowing he could never and would never strike Bucky fatally sits heavy in his gut.
—————
They made it till they were right outside of the main circle of the city. They could hear the capitol citizens going about their normal life as they looked out from one of the closer abandoned apartment buildings.
“They have to know we’re here.” Dugan said, “which means we can’t stay anywhere too long.”
They all silently agreed as they ate their small rations.
—————-
They stayed on the move. It was easier now with the general population close and having to worry about rogue pods less.
Steve stayed at the front, testing their pathway before anyone else and leading them through the abandoned areas outside the barrier the capitol had set up.
They took a wide berth to the back of the city circle, camping in a house after entering a different house and traveling through the sewers and up through another, hoping to delay the capitol’s knowledge of their whereabouts.
They settled in and went over the plan.
“Howard, come in.”
The radio crackled and his voice came through, Howard here, you guys in position?
“We’re at the back of the city circle. Will 13’s reinforcements be here by tomorrow?”
Should be. They took off just under two days ago.
Dugan grumbled at that. “Should isn’t good enough. We can’t blitz an attack on the capitol with only 5 people.”
They’ll be there. Make sure you aim for later morning though.
“Will do.”
——————
After an uneventful and still stressful night of sleep. They gathered their belongings and made their way to the closest point of the barrier without being able to be spotted.
Jones mumbled something and Steve stiffened.
“What?” Morita asked.
Steve sighed, “Jones is right. It is most likely a trap.”
“One we can’t avoid?” Peggy asked, somewhat sarcastic, somewhat resigned.
“Not really.” Steve grimaced, “they’ve been only slowly pushing back at us the whole time we’ve been making our way here. Enough to make it difficult, but obviously not intent on stopping us. Therefore…”
“Snap.” Jones gritted out.
Steve frowned. “Snap.”
——————
Apparently Schmidt didn’t want it to be too easy however because less than a 100 ft. from the barrier a pod exploded. Sending spikes shooting through the air, that once made impact, would send out sharp electrical currents.
Peggy took one to the shoulder and crumpled onto the ground. Dugan was closest to her and picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder and barreling through to cover.
Morita barely missed getting hit, and managed to pull Jones to safety behind a fence.
Steve took a spike to the back and felt the spine crackling electricity through every fiber of his being. But he refused to stop, tumbling towards the wall Dugan and Peggy were hiding behind and collapsing at their feet.
“Come on, Cap.” Dugan urged, “I can’t carry both of you.”
Steve nodded, reaching with trembling fingers and ripping the spike out, gasping at the way it tore through skin and muscle.
They waited another minute for the barrage to stop.
Steve got up, muscles trembling as he leaned against the cement wall.
“Take another minute, Cap.” Morita said, slipping beside them with Jones in tow.
“We don’t have a minute,” Steve responded, huffing and limping forward a few steps. He straightened and looked back, “let’s go, we need to keep moving.” His eyes found Peggy who was standing now, but look pale and shaken, “are you alright to continue?”
He wanted to tell her to go home. To have her wait until Howard could come get her. But he knew she’d tell him to go to hell. So he didn’t.
“I’m fine.”
He nodded, “okay, let’s go.”
—————
The barrier was heavily guarded with hydra goons and their energy guns. Steve knew that getting past them secretly would be more difficult then just blasting their way through. Schmidt would know where they were within seconds. So why not surprise him by showing up early?
They went over their plan of attack and waited till mid morning.
—————
Steve threw the knife, hitting the neck of his target and dropping him to the ground.
Dugan ripped it out of the man’s throat and threw it back. Steve caught the blade of the knife between his thumb and forefinger and before he could even register another breath, flung it hard to his left, catching another guard right above his collarbone where his uniform stopped.
The guard gurgled for a moment and then fell.
Steve grimaced at the grotesque sight.
He looked up to see Peggy, Jones and Morita staring at him. And the terror was only thinly veiled.
He looked around at the pile of bodies that circled his feet and he stepped back. The grief and manic adrenaline coursing through his system.
Not grief that these evil men were dead. But grief that he’d been the one to take all their lives.
Dugan appeared and handed him one of the energy guns. “We need to keep moving. Now that we’re through, we have no idea what Schmidt will do.”
They pulled out the clothes that they had stolen from a store outside the barricade and pulled them on over their gear.
Steve had to shift some weapons around to fit under the dark blue jacket with a thick vest and charcoal gray pants. The shiny accents made him on edge with how much they reflected light, but he bit that worry back. They’d purposefully grabbed eye-catching clothes, hoping that would throw Schmidt off since he would expect them to try to blend in or out right hide.
Peggy’s pink dress with a matching cloak made Steve laugh quietly as she tried to sort out where to put her knives. Morita and Jones both had hooded cloaks over jumpsuits. Jones’ was gold, and Morita’s was silver.
Dugan’s blood red vest made each of them grimace. But Hydra Red was a classic choice and they knew capitol citizens wouldn’t question it.
They store whatever gear no longer fits on them in an empty storefront and start meandering towards the city circle, spreading out a bit and attempting to look like they belong.
Steve has a hat on, covering his signature hair, and dark glasses covering his eyes. Peggy’s hair is pulled up into a tight bun, a style he’s never seen her wear before.
Dugan’s usual hat is missing, replaced by a scientific looking communications headband.
Steve saw guards randomly throughout the crowd, patrolling, but they kept their heads down and moved away from each one.
Closer to the center, the crowds got thicker and the guards did too. The projections on the screens on every street corner played sliced up footage of the war. Insisting that the rebels and the districts were the cause of all the terror and upheaval of the peaceful lives of the capitol citizens.
Which Steve allowed, was true. Just not in the horrific way they were explaining it.
He watched as his face, colored darker for him to look brutal and more menacing, was slapped onto the screen. A wanted for treason caption beneath his brooding face.
“When did that picture even get taken?” A quiet voice asked. Steve looked down to see Peggy at his elbow, pretending to look at the food options out on the little cart besides her.
Steve studied his face again, “think it's from a video. One of the earlier propaganda shoots.”
“You don’t look like yourself.” He raised an eyebrow behind his glasses at her and she huffed, “I’m just saying.”
“You know how the capitol likes to misconstrue everything. Why are you surprised at this?”
“Why make you seem powerful?”
That made him pause. “I don’t know.”
She shrugged, and then he watched as her eyes flashed with something. And he could almost see her picturing the pile of dead guards around him this morning. “Maybe to instill fear.”
He swallowed roughly, his voice coming out as a rasp. “Yeah, maybe.”
—————-
They make it to the main center, where the tribute’s district is, when Steve knows they’ve sprung the trap.
A deep rumbling followed by sirens that blare so loudly the entire crowd goes to their knees, clutching at their heads.
Then the citizens are up and running.
In formation.
Like they’d practiced it.
“Steve—“ he heard Dugan call out in warning.
“I know!” He snapped back, “RUN!”
They doubled back, the plaza almost empty but the guards appeared trying to circle them in.
They all came to a shuddering halt. The circle of guards complete.
“What now, Cap?” Morita whispered, knowing Steve could hear.
Steve took a deep breath. “Now, we fight.”
—————-
“Soldier?”
He snapped his head up, looking towards the leader with blank eyes.
“Your time has come.”
He stood, and guards appeared, gear and combat clothing in their hands.
He allowed them to dress him, to holster weapons to his body. They’d practiced this with him before.
The short man approached and he flinched. The man hissed at him and made a face.
But the soldier couldn’t help his reaction. The man made the soldier’s insides twist. The man made adjustments to the soldier’s arm. The one that felt unfamiliar.
Once the last weapon was in place, the leader stepped forward. “Your mission is to kill the rebel known as The Eagle. This time with no mistakes. Remove his head from his body to ensure it. Do you understand?”
“Understood.”
The leader smiled, his skin pulling tight over his skull.
The soldier’s insides felt like melting steel.
—————-
They were doing fine. Well, not fine. But so far only Dugan had been hit, and thankfully only with a stun gun. He’d hit the g round but had been up a few minutes later. They’d been able to block his body from other hits in the meantime. But that was only because each one of them was utilizing their fighter skills to the utmost.
Peggy was dodging and kicking, moving with incredible ease between the massive men she was fighting. Knives sprouted from their chests and necks and Steve was reminded just who she was. The fighter who saved his life multiple times in that arena.
Wherever Morita and Jones were, an explosion followed soon after. Guards went flying, blood and dirt and chunks of cement spraying down around them.
Dugan was roaring and barreling his way through the guards, making them retreat with just the bellow of his voice and the way he never hesitated.
And Steve.
Steve felt every muscle, every instinct on high alert as he fought. His fists did most of the damage, keeping himself in close quarters with the guards so they couldn’t shoot him, but he could pummel them. And when he stepped too far away, he used whatever he could fit in his grasp as a projectile. Knives, vehicle doors, shoes, carts, anything not fixed to the ground.
They were cutting a good swatch through, but the siren started again, and Steve felt dread as more guards started to appear behind the wines they were already fighting.
He took one second to pull up the radio, “Howard! Where are the ships!?”
Four minutes out. Stay where you are—“
The radio cut out and Steve heard rumbling. But not from the direction he wanted the jets to arrive.
From behind.
He looked up to see Capitol jets rolling overhead.
He knocked the next guard down, tumbling him into the two behind him and stepping back. He looked up to see the bay doors opening, and his adrenaline spiked, surely they wouldn’t drop bombs on their own guards would they?
Then he looked around. He was by no means full of himself, but he knew the district’s best chance of survival was right here in this plaza.
If they all died, either Schmidt or Stane would rule and nothing would change.
And that was unacceptable.
So he grabbed a gun off the fallen guard in front of him and began charging through the mess. When he finally reached Morita, the closest to him, he took down the three guards that he was fending off with mini bursts of heat and told him the plan. “Get to the neighborhoods. Don’t look back.”
Morita began to protest, but Steve bellowed, “GO!” He took one more second before heading off, dropping behind overturned vehicles and disappearing.
He ran to Jones next, the man also began to protest, but Steve assured him the rest would follow, and he was gone.
Steve heard the whistle of the first bomb dropping. He frantically sprinted to Dugan, told him the plan and began hauling Dugan towards Peggy.
“Cap, she’ll be so—“
“I know!” He snapped, “but I can’t lose her again. And they’ll—“
His words got cut off as the first bomb made impact. Obliterating the north side of the center square and filling the air with bloody mist, dust, and screams.
Steve felt the heat sear at his face and body. He clambered further away, hauling a dazed Dugan towards the closest cover he could find.
The second hit the south side, blocking them on two sides. More screams from the incoming guards and heat that made Steve’s lungs feel filled with smoke.
He was still hauling Dugan when a flash of pink caught his eyes. Panic filled him as he set Dugan down and raced over, scraping his knees on the jagged ground as he found Peggy’s unconscious form hidden by dust and debris.
He carefully rolled her to her back and saw her dress had burns in places and blood in others. But without a more thorough check, he couldn’t know what was injured. So he lifted her carefully and hauled her back to Dugan who was starting to stand.
“Take her!” He urged, holding out Peggy’s form to Dugan, the whistle of the third bomb getting louder.
“Cap, you—“
“I’ll be fine.” He insisted. “I have to make it to Schmidt before he uses this chance to escape. The reinforcements are on their way. Wait til you see them, then come join me.”
“But—“
“Dugan, so help me—“ he snarled, “get her safe!”
The third impact was thankfully further away. Just jostling the ground under their feet. But that meant the fourth plane flying towards them would hit right where they were standing. They were out of time.
A hand clasped Steve’s shoulder as he turned to go. “Steve.” He turned and Dugan’s face was serious, “you come home to us. Bring Barnes.”
Steve’s heart went calm at the instruction. “I will.”
He started sprinting, heading in the direction he knew the presidential estate was in. He was only a few hundred feet away when he heard it.
“Steve!” His heart skipped a beat as her voice reached his ears, “Steve, you get back here!” He turned and saw a pink form wriggling on Dugan’s shoulders. “Dugan, you let me go this instant!!” Peggy was shouting and her voice was desperate, “Steve, come back!” Then he heard her sob, “Steve, please! You promised! Come back!”
But her voice was getting more distant as Dugan was running in the opposite direction.
He dragged himself forward, ignoring the magnetic force of her call that he could still hear echoing off the now empty high rises.
—————-
Steve made it to the long flat marble entrance to the estate. He looked up, ripping the burnt shreds of his capitol clothes off, and revealing his uniform underneath.
It was eerily quiet and he knew they knew he was there.
He could hear the rumble of the jets behind him, and he hoped against hope that some of them were from 13.
He took one step forward and a figure appeared from behind the large gate, blocking his entrance.
Steve’s heart died in his chest. His throat dry and desperate.
“Bucky.”
——————