Chapter 55
Steve flinched at the sound of bullets and he closed his eyes expecting to feel the pain of them piercing through his body any second.
But instead, a familiar voice called out to him: “I’m here, punk!”
He opened his eyes with a wide grin as he saw Bucky jumping from on top of a tank after throwing a grenade inside its cannon, at the same moment, the French resistance’s men darted from all directions while shooting at the Nazis, who retreated and fired back at them as Himmler hurried to take cover behind a car while another explosion sounded.
Sydney punched the closest soldier to her and snatched his gun. “Looks like it’s not over yet, guys.”
“For the first time I actually agree with you.” Dean grinned as he attacked another soldier.
Steve pushed a shocked Tony behind him to cover him as Bucky came closer to him and handed him his shield.
“You left this behind, Punk.” Bucky grinned at him, relief written all over his face.
“Thank you for coming, Jerk.” Steve grinned back at him while taking the shield.
“We’re all here, Captain!” Alain called out as he and Brigitte jumped from another tank.
Brigitte immediately rushed towards Sydney and ignored everything as she kissed her right in the middle of the fight, much to Sydney’s delight.
Peggy also appeared after throwing another grenade inside the second tank, exploding it to bits and throwing away many soldiers.
Bucky immediately gripped Dean’s arm. “Go.”
“What?” Dean exclaimed in surprise.
“I said: Go! Get out of here! Go back to your time. We came here to help you to do so.”
“How did you know where we are?” Tony asked in confusion.
“We have our ways.” Alain answered. “Now, go! Don’t waste what we did!”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about us. We will exchange fire for a while then we retreat without them managing to catch us. It’s not our first time. At least now we’re doing it for our future.”
They exchanged looks before Dean looked up at Alain. “Thanks, man.” Dean smiled at him sincerely. “Goodbye.”
Alain just nodded.
“I’m going with them.” Brigitte announced firmly.
They all stared at her in surprise. “Brigitte but-“ Alain started.
“It’s my decision.” She stated sternly.
He gave her an unreadable look then sent Sydney a look full of hatred before nodding and darting towards the Nazis.
“I will go with them to make sure they reach their ship safely.” Steve announced looking over at Bucky.
“Alright. Stay hidden and I will come for you after a while.” Steve nodded then rushed to help Sydney and Brigitte to the jeep.
When Tony moved to follow, Bucky grabbed his arm stopping him.
“Tony, wait.” he called out and Tony looked back at him curiously. "I just wanted to say sorry about what I said when we were pretending to fight. I didn’t meant it. I don’t really think that Steve was caught because of you. I was out of line.”
Tony looked at him surprise not expecting that. “It’s alright. We were all stressed out, then.”
Bucky looked over at Steve who was shielding Sydney and Brigitte as they kept shooting at the Nazis.
“I want you to know that I am totally okay with your future with him.” Bucky smiled and turned to look back at Tony. “I know you will take good care of him. That you will make him happy. I have a feeling that I won’t be there to see that for myself, but you’re a good man Tony and I know he will be in good hands and won’t be alone.”
Tony felt a huge smile appear on his face as he looked gratefully at Bucky. It meant everything to him to hear that from him.
“Thanks, Barnes.” He thanked him sincerely. “And don’t worry. You will be there to see for yourself.”
“Then this isn’t goodbye.” Bucky grinned at him. “See you soon, Tony.”
“Yeah, you will.” Tony nodded with a smile.
“Come on, Tony! Get in the car!” Dean called out to him from inside the car. “See you soon, Barnes!”
“Don’t get yourself killed until then.” Bucky called back to him with a grin.
“No promises, dude.”
With one last smile to Bucky, Tony rushed to get inside the jeep with Steve, Sydney and Brigitte and Dean immediately drove away.
***
The sun shined over the fields outside of Paris and made the view look glorious that made a German soldier took a deep breath with a wide smile as he strolled between the fields with his partner.
“What a beautiful morning.” He said to his colleague. “I feel gleeful every time I stroll between these fields.”
“It is the best addition to our German Empire.” His friend agreed.
“That’s right. We-“ He was cut off when something shined suddenly between some nearby trees. “What is that?”
“I saw some kind of light.” His partner said with furrowed brows. “Come on, let’s check it out.”
They walked carefully towards the area they saw the light came from. Just after they walked a few feet, the Time ship appeared in their line of view in all its glory.
“Oh God! It’s that aircraft they talked about! I thought it was just an illusion of a drunk pilot!” The soldier exclaimed in panic.
“What should we do?” his partner asked as he stared at the ship nervously, not knowing what to do.
“We need to call all our forces! Soldiers, tanks, everyone! Hurry!” he exclaimed frantically.
His partner rushed to do just that while he turned back to the ship and pulled out his gun.
“Meanwhile, I will prevent anyone from coming close to it. No matter what.” He stated firmly.
Since the robot guardian was still out of commotion because of the electromagnetic field Holdstein released before his capture, there was no way for the ship to protect itself or its approaching passengers.
***
“We’re ready.”
Sam announced to Castiel and the team while they all were standing inside the main station from which they will broadcast the frequency to all the other stations.
Castiel glanced over to Steve, who they moved with them to a small cot inside the station. From what he managed to coax out of him, Steve will hopefully wake up any minute now to announce that their husbands had left the era and on their way to the Nil Zone, then they will immediately start the broadcast.
“Any minute now.” Castiel murmured and he could feel everyone’s anticipation.
“There is just one problem.” Jane pointed out grimly.
“What is it?” Clint asked in concern.
“The machines in this station are too old to handle such high frequency.” She answered, gesturing to the mentioned machines.
“You think it will crash?” Charlie asked worried.
“Of course.” She answered. They all tensed so Sam hurried to add.
“Not immediately.” He reassured. “The frequency is too high, but the machines will be able to handle it for a while. For almost ten minutes. Fifteen tops.”
“Then?” Natasha asked, afraid to know the answer.
“Then everything will crash.” Sam sighed.
Worry itched itself on all their faces as they thought about that.
“And what can we do with something like that?” Bucky asked in confusion.
Jane pierced her lips grimly. “Wait.”
“What?” they all asked in shock.
“Yeah. Building a new station with the needed, more advanced machines, or at least upgrading the stations we already have, will need months, which means we will have to make do with the ones we have now.”
“But it will crash!” Natasha exclaimed.
“Then we will need to be accurate about this.” Sam stated firmly. “We need to start the broadcast the moment they’re in the Nil Zone. Hopefully, it will take them less than ten minutes to notice the red hole.”
“And if they don’t.” Castiel muttered miserably. “We will need to wait months to try again.”