The Spark

“Well I haven’t missed this place” I joke as I walk into the containment unit, the door hissing and locking closed behind me. I had reluctantly gone back with the Avengers back to the Avenger’s tower, but I insisted that I stay in the containment unit for 24 hours until I was sure that being back here wouldn’t mess with my control.

“Doll, are you sure about this?” Bucky asked as he stood in front of the window, his arms folded against his chest, his blue eyes focused on me.

“I’m sure Buck Buck” I smile as I sit in front of him behind the window. ”I just want to be sure that coming back here won’t have any negative effects on my control, that’s all. And after 24 hours, I’m all yours” I wiggle my eyebrows and he chuckles. He tentatively places his flesh hand on the glass and I smile as I place my hand in the appropriate place, imagining if the glass wasn’t there, the feeling of Bucky’s warm touch.

“You know, I can do a lot more stuff now” I mention as I stare at his hand, my fingers curling slightly against the glass.

“Hmm?” Bucky answers as he also stares down at our hands, just separated by a thick pane of plastic.

I hum and with one hand I gesture over my shoulder and an ice sculpture forms, starting from the bottom and rising up to create an ice dragon, it’s immaculate detail making it look life like.

“Damn Doll” Bucky breathes out, a smile on his face.

“Mm, just wait Buck” I groan as I let my hand fall into my lap and I can feel my veins fill with happiness and love, and from Bucky’s gasp I figured it must be working. I turn around to see the ice sculpture completely covered in vines with had sprouted through the unit’s cement floor and wound themselves around the ice.

“That’s beautiful” Bucky murmurs, and I chuckle.

“And I can control my outbursts better now” My smile turns into a frown, and Bucky tuts.

“Doll, I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. It was NOT your fault” he shakes his head at me, his hair flying around at the strength of his shaking head.

“But – “

“No. Baby girl, don’t argue with me” Bucky’s blue eyes stare into mine, and I sigh.

“I- okay Bucky. I won’t argue”

“Good girl” Bucky purrs, and I flush, and Bucky chuckles in a low voice. Then as he smiles, his eyes sparkling with lust, I squeak, and flames burst up in my hands. We both stare at it, then Bucky bursts out laughing.

“Well, that’s embarrassing” I state, my cheeks flushing redder.

“Well, it’s a compliment to know that I affect you that way”

“Oh God” I stutter, and as Bucky chuckles, I lie down on my back and twisting around so my shoulder is pressed against the glass, and I play with the flames on my hands, shaping it into a sphere.

“Mm, my beautiful baby girl” Bucky’s eyes are sparkling with lust and mischief, and he bites his bottom lip as I moan, rolling my eyes.

“Bucky!”

“I’m sorry Doll, but I can’t tease you with my touch, so I’ll just have to tease you with words instead” Bucky wiggles his eyebrows at me, and that’s when the light goes out.

The lights go out and leave us in darkness, but then the safety lights in the containment unit flick on, the red light illuminating both our faces.

“Bucky” I say uncertainly, and both our heads tilt as we listen to the sound of incoming footsteps. Bucky straightens up and takes a step forward, his metal hand clenching into a fist.

We both wait for a couple of minutes, and I jump when the doors burst open and HYDRA agents file into the room, their machine guns pointed at Bucky.

“Bucky, let me out” I hiss at Bucky, and I growl when he shakes his head.

“Sorry Doll, but they can’t get in because they don’t have the code, and you can’t get out and potentially get taken”

I punch the window in anger.

“Bucky, don’t be an ass. Let me out and I can help you”

“Go on Winter Soldier, let her out, and we’ll just take her instead” The leader taunts, his gun lowering slightly, almost like he was inviting Bucky to take a hit at him.

“Bucky, don’t listen to him. Like you said, nobody can get in here, you need to leave and get the others” I say loudly, and even though he is still facing the HYDRA soldiers, he tilts his head slightly to let me know that he’s listening. And when he sighs, I know that he is going to listen to me.

“It’s sad that you let your little bitch order you around” The leader says again, and Bucky growls.

“Bucky” I warn, and his shoulders twitch before he relaxes.

“But your little bitch is a pretty one though. God, imagine thrusting into her tight whore cunt and just ramming into her, making her scream MY name, filling her up with MY come” The leader thrusts his hips into the air slightly as he looks over Bucky’s shoulder at me, and that’s what causes him to snap.

“Bucky no!” I scream out as he darts forward and starts to fight the soldiers, who immediately crowd around him. I start to frantically punch at the glass as I see Bucky slowly getting overcome by the soldiers, and I scream when I see one soldier stick a taser into his neck, making him fall limp. My scream was loud, and I somehow used the air to make it louder so it almost became a sonic scream when penetrated through the containment unit window and out to where the soldiers were. A few cried out in pain as they clamp their hands over their ears, while the leader yells at the rest who weren’t as affected to grab Bucky’s body.

I eventually stop screaming as I run out of air, but I leer at the soldiers when I notice that there is a crack in the window. I lock eyes with the leader as I raise my clenched fist and I ram it into the window, making the crack bigger. I can feel euphoria running through my veins when I see his face grow pale, and soon enough, the air in the containment unit starts to whirl around me, and fire flickers up my arms.

“All right guys, back it up, we have the Winter Soldier!” The leader yells out, and one soldier picks up Bucky and slings him over his shoulder.

“No!” I scream out, tears starting to fall down my cheeks as I continue to punch the window, the crack getting bigger and bigger, and the fire on my arms and hands only gets hotter when the leader stops and winks at me from over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry sweetheart, we’ll come get you next time”

I yell at them as they jog out of the room, and soon I’m alone. My yell turns into a scream, which only gets louder and shriller the longer I pace the unit. And when I feel the anger boiling my blood and making my eyes see red, I don’t try to control it. I let it flow through me, letting it fill every crevice and region of my body. And when it almost becomes unbearable, I let it go.

The walls of the containment unit are ripped apart from the force of the fiery explosion. The walls are scorched black, and there are cracks running up all the walls. I gasp, loose strands of my hair flowing around my face as the air around me increases in strength, becoming a tornado. When I look down, I see that there is a perfect clean circle around me, while the rest of the floor was burnt black. It was just like when I scorched my room, when only my bed and my bedside drawers were left untouched. They were saved because of Bucky. I froze, and the air froze with me for a brief second before it started up again, worse than before.

Bucky. Bucky Bucky Bucky. His name echoed through my head as I look around wildly. It’s like my brain wasn’t working, things were moving way to slowly, slower than normal. Everything was brighter, the white of the walls almost blinding when they peeked out from behind the scorched surface. I took a step forward, and that’s when I caught my reflection in a piece of the broken window.

I studied myself for a moment. My face was deathly pale and my eyes were glowing a bright neon blue, and bright red veins crept up my neck and over my face till they ended underneath my eyes.

I growled to myself and I dug my fingernails into my palms as I screamed in anger. I will find Bucky, no matter what it takes.

…………………………

Tony, Bruce, Clint and Steve rushed down the stairs and excited out on the floor of his and Bruce’s lab. They were all using the stairs because some sort of explosion had somehow knocked out the lift door on this floor. Tony couldn’t understand why and JARVIS wasn’t working, but he understood when he and the others burst out of the stairwell.

“Wow” Clint breathed out as they all stopped in their tracks, looking at the mess that Bruce’s lab was in. It was like a nuclear blast had gone off, everything was blackened and charred and even melted. But that wasn’t where the blast had occurred. The centre of the blast had occurred in the Hulk’s containment unit.

“Shit, Y/n and Bucky” Tony gasped as he and the others raced through the wreckage of Bruce’s lab and he groaned when he got to the door.

“Shit, shit, shit” Tony ran his hand over his face as he looked around the room, his eyes skimming over the blackened walls and the pieces of busted metal that were the walls of the containment unit. There was a circle of clean floor which is where the epicentre of the almost nuclear blast had occurred.

“Wait, did Y/n do this?” Steve asked in bewilderment as everyone filed into the room, everyone ogling the burns and wreckage.

“She ripped open my containment unit” Bruce murmurs to himself as he steps over one of the pieces of metal that used to be the wall of the Big Guy’s containment unit.

“Um, guys, I’ve got footprints!” Clint called out from Bruce’s lab, and everyone hurries out to see what Clint found.

“Well, how did we miss that?” Tony said as he walked closer to Clint and saw a trail of burns and sooty footprints that lead through Bruce’s lab and out through a hole that was obviously punched through.

“Come on sweetcheeks, please tell me you left a note or something!” Tony growled to himself as he looks around, and everyone else catches on, searching the room for anything.

“Hey, where’s Barnes? Didn’t he come straight here with her when we arrived?” Natasha wonders out loud as she looks through a pile of paper work then moving it out of the way.

“Hey guys! Found a note!” Clint hollers as he reads a piece of paper, his nose flaring slightly in anger as he read.

“Well? We’re waiting Hawkface, what does it say?” Tony snaps, and Clint hands it to him.

“Those HYDRA bastards stole my Bucky. Bucky Bucky Bucky, God, it hurts. I don’t feel normal. I don’t know who will read this but I just managed to turn back my fire which I can barely control. God I want my Bucky back. Those bastards are going to pay” Tony read out quietly. Everyone had gone quiet, and when Bruce started to shake, his eyes flashing green, Natasha quickly pulled him away into the hallway and calmed him down, her own face neutral.

“We need to find her” Steve said loudly, his eyes fierce as he looked around at the sullen group. “And we need to find Bucky”

“And it’s certain, if we find one we’ll find the other” Sam said, and Steve nodded.

“Clint, Natasha, you still have some contacts and favours I’m sure, you need to use all of them” Steve instructed, Natasha leaving just as she entered with Bruce who was looking significantly more calm.

“Wanda, Vision, Pietro, since you have a connection with Y/n, could you try and track her, pick up her mind, that kind of thing?” Steve asked them, and Wanda nodded before she took Vision’s hand and guided him and her brother out of the lab.

“Thor, Loki, could you go to Asgard and ask Heimdall if he can see her or Bucky” Thor nodded and pulled his brother out with him, whose eyes were murderous and his lips were pressed together in a thin line.

“Now, Tony, I need you to pull yourself together” Steve instructed as he gently tugged Y/n’s note out of Tony’s grasp and places it on a nearby table. He places his hands on Tony’s shoulders and shakes him firmly when he doesn’t respond.

“Tony!”

“She’s my kid now Steve. I just can’t seem to keep her safe” Tony whispers and Steve’s hands tighten on his shoulders.

“Tony, she’s legally my kid too! But we have to keep ourselves together and focus so that we can find her. Do you understand me” Steve said firmly, and Tony slowly looked up and locked gazes with Steve before he nodded, pulling away from Steve and turning to Bruce.

“Alright Doc, we need to use thermal imaging and scan the whole city, wait, the whole country. Actually, scrap that, scan the whole damn world” Tony says loudly as he walks out of Bruce’s ruined office and across the hall and into his own lab.

“He’s going to be ruined if we can’t find her” Bruce said quietly. “And you’re going to be ruined if you can’t find Bucky”.

Steve turns to Bruce with a sullen look on his face and fire in his eyes. He shakes his head as he looks at Bruce.

“I’m ruined if I lose either of them but losing both” Steve trail off. “But that’s why we are going to find them, so no one has to go through that pain”

“Of course Cap, of course”

………………………….

I growled as I followed the HYDRA agents from afar, my hands clenching as I kept myself invisible, but that was almost second nature now. I’ve been following them for three days now, finding that I didn’t feel the need to sleep or eat or drink, so I made the best of it by tracking my Bucky. The feeling of the world being too slow and too bright was still there but I had gotten use to it, using sunglasses and a cap to dim the brightness.

I think I am in Germany, I don’t really know, my mind has just been focused on following Bucky. Now I was jogging after the truck that the HYDRA agents had loaded Bucky into. After 10 minutes of jogging after the truck, I wasn’t even out of breath, and when they went down a driveway to a seemingly abandoned warehouse, I grinned. I reinforced my invisibility because as well as keeping me invisible, it hid my thermal signature, which means that thermal imaging couldn’t see me.

I growled in my head when the truck stops and one of the soldiers hoists a bound Bucky out of the back of the truck and shoves him onto his knees, everyone pointing their guns at him as he breathes heavily, making no other movement apart from breathing. After the leader of the soldiers whispers to one of his soldiers, he gestures to Bucky and three guards walk up to him and yank him to his feet, escorting him into the building.

Bucky, Bucky, my Bucky. His name repeated in my head as I anxiously looked from side to side, my powered up brain making me almost obsessive. Need to save Bucky need to bring Bucky home, I can’t lose Bucky, I will kill, I will kill everyone and anyone in my way.

I walk forward, letting myself become visible but keeping up a thick shield of air around me. I grinned manically as I felt flames rush up my arms and as I heard the guards yelling at me and each other.

I continue up the driveway, only pausing when I hear the deep barks of the guard dogs being released from their handlers and they race towards me. I lock eyes with them and I growl, my teeth bared as I let my eyes burn with power, knowing that they were a bright blue. The dogs whimpered and slunk away and I continued to walk towards the warehouse.

“You know who I’m here for!” I roar as I send a truck flying into the guards that guard the door with a flick of my wrist. They both get crushed and the other guards start to shoot me, but the air shield around me catches the bullet. I don’t even notice when one bullet gets past my shield and lodges in my thigh, the adrenaline coursing through my body.

I send balls of fire at the other guards and they all go down. I blast open the doors and HYDRA agents run for cover. I can barely hear the yells and shouts over the beating of my own heart, my gaze flicking around the room for a particular dark-haired soldier. I mutter his name to myself over and over as I absent-mindedly flick away bullets and send fireballs and icicles at everyone who threatens me.

“James!” I call out, walking forward as my powers grow stronger and stronger in my distress.

“Doll?” I hear a faint voice call out from near the back of the warehouse. I start to jog forward and I glance up and realise that the roof of the warehouse was splitting in half, withdrawing into the walls and revealing the sky which was littered with storm clouds, that were getting stronger the more agitated I got.

I ran forward, my eyes taking in the helicopter that was starting to rev up, it’s rotors starting to spin But what made me falter was the sight of Bucky, his hands bound behind his back and the barrel of a gun that was nestled against the side of his head.

“Bucky” I breathe out, the mini whirlwind that had started to form around me died down at the sight of him.

“Doll” he smiles tenderly but then winces when the gun shoves into his skin. The leader of the squad that had taken Bucky in the first place was the one that was holding the gun, and he sneered at me. I growled and the whirlwind picked up again.

“Barnes, calm down your guard dog or I will order everyone to shoot at her head until we break through her shield” the leader hisses, and Bucky sighs, his muscles tense as he caught my eye.

“Doll, it’s alright. I’m okay” Bucky says in a calm voice, and in my powered up state, I believe him. As he smiles gently at me, I relax and the whirlwind dies down.
“There we go” Bucky coos, and I let out a breath. Then I tense when I hear a whisper from one soldier to another and I growl.

“Bucky” I say in a low voice, my head whipping back and forth as my ears pick up whispers and heartbeats, making me feel oversensitive and fidgety my flames pulsing with power.

“Shh sweetheart, it’s alright. It’s alright” Bucky tries to say calmly, and in my moment of my distress he is shoved into the helicopter, and he yells out when the leader of the soldiers gestures with a hand and they send bullets at me. It takes me a couple of seconds and bullets to my body before I raise my air shield and my powers flare up again.

“Bucky!” I cry out, fighting against the soldiers that rush at me, burning them to a crisp as the helicopter lifts into the air, Bucky’s worried face peering out the window as he struggles against his bonds.

“BUCKY!” I scream out as the helicopter flies into the sky and away from me, so when my anger and sadness and fear builds up inside of me, I let it. And when it reaches it’s highest point, I release it in the form of fire, almost like a nuclear bomb, levelling and burning everything to ash.

…………………….

“Tony! Steve! You guys need to see this!”

Steve and Tony rush over to Bruce who was sitting in front of a bank of computers, a look of disbelief on his face as he gestures to the computers in front of him.

“In an empty part of Germany was an explosion the size of a small nuclear bomb which reduced an entire warehouse and the surrounding two square kilometres to ash”

“Y/n” Steve realizes and Bruce nods.

“One of Tony’s computers managed to track down a camera that caught some footage before the warehouse blew up” Bruce said as he taps a few buttons on his keyboard and recorded footage starts to play. For the first couple of seconds nothing was happening, then a truck drives down the driveway. It stops when it gets near the warehouse and Steve growls when he sees Bucky get hauled out of the truck and all the guards pointed their guns at him.

“And if you look right here” Bruce points to a spot on the screen about twenty steps from the Bucky and the guards. “That shimmer is Y/n”

Tony and Steve both look closer and they both see the shimmer right when Bucky is being dragged away from the truck and towards the warehouse. About twenty seconds after Bucky disappears, Y/n sheds her invisibility shield and flames emerge on her arms. Then, as they watch, Tony inhales sharply as the guards set the dogs on her, and then he grunted in confusion when the dogs whine and back away from her.

Now, they were expecting her to throw fireballs or icicles at the men that were guarding the door, but they weren’t expecting her to send a truck flying at the them with a flick of her wrist.

There was no sound on the footage but JARVIS had translated the silent words into subtitles that were projected on the bottom of the screen.

“You know who I’m here for!”

Everyone’s hearts broke at the words, and they kept watching as Y/n doesn’t flinch when she get’s hit in the thigh by a stray bullet.

Then the door bursts open and she disappears into the building. A minute or two goes by, then the roof of the building splits down the middle and disappears into the walls, revealing a helicopter, and Tony, Bruce and Steve could see a lot of people standing in front of it, one being Bucky, one being Y/n, and the rest are HYDRA agents with their guns pointed at both of them. Steve’s hand tightens on the back of Bruce’s chair, making the plastic crackle.

Y/n was looking stressed, her head whipping back and forth. Bucky’s lips were moving but he was too far away and angled away for JARVIS to read his lips.

Then, when Y/n was distracted, Bucky was shoved into the helicopter and the soldiers all shot at Y/n. Tony gasps when it takes a couple of seconds for Y/n to bring up her shield again and she gets shot at least five times. Y/n doesn’t seem to notice as she fights through the hoard of soldiers, trying to get to the helicopter that was rapidly rising into the air. And as is flew away, out of the camera angle, Y/n froze, and all hell broke loose, fire flowing over everything, turning it into ash. The wave of fire rushed towards the camera and when it hit the camera, the feed went static.

“Fuck” Steve said quietly, and Toy was so disheartened that he didn’t even say ‘language’ like he normally would any other time Steve swore.

“When was this, Bruce?” he asked Bruce, his hand tightening on Bruce’s shoulder.

“Twenty minutes ago.” Bruce replies as he checked the time stamp on the video.

“She can’t have gotten too far on foot. Though, in her state, who knows what she can do. Ready the plane, we’re going to Germany”

Chapter 25 (I am so sorry everyone!! I never realised that a whole chapter was missing!! I can't believe it took me like three years to work that out *facepalm*)

Y/n chased after Bucky for three weeks. She would get so close to catching up with Bucky but every time she got close, he was snatched away at the last second. And the Avengers would always be three steps behind her. The first time she caught up with Bucky in Germany, Tony, Steve and the rest of the team were two hours behind her. Four days later when she tracked Bucky down in the outskirts of Austria, she destroyed an abandoned warehouse with ice, the blast even freezing a couple of cows in a nearby field. Then she caught up with him in Hungary, only to get shot twice in the arm and her fire burned everything in sight. HYDRA even took Bucky through Romania and she had only just entered the building that Bucky was being kept when they brought the building down on top of her. The team were surprised that the surrounding area was untouched, only charred footprints indicating that Y/n was ever there. It was only when Y/n tracked him down in Russia did she catch up to him, with the Avengers close behind her.

………………………..

“Alpha team, she is still on your trail”

The voice echoed over the radio in the truck that Bucky was being transported in. The HYDRA soldiers that kidnapped him from Y/n thought he was unconscious after the multiple beatings they gave him for breathing, for existing. But no, he was awake, pretending to be unconscious for a better part of an hour.

Bucky had lost count of the days that he had been in that truck. It always changed, first it was a truck, then a helicopter that left his Doll behind in a ball of flames. Then it was a mixture of pain and numbness, switching from plane to truck, back and forth.

“Don’t worry, Beta team, she hasn’t caught up to us yet” The lead soldier, the one that had lead the team that captured Bucky in the Avenger Tower, had revealed his name to be Brock Rumlow.

“Be cautious Alpha team, her powers have grown ever since she’s started chasing you. Chasing after him”

Bucky knew that they were talking about him. And he was amazed that Y/n had kept up with them for so long. She was always so close but then he got snatched away, her scream following him, echoing in his ears.
“Y/n” he whispered, and Brock’s head whips around to glare at him.

“Ah, the asset is awake and listening to our conversations. Wonderful” he says sarcastically, and he stands up in the truck, his hand raised to deliver a punch to Bucky’s face when the whole truck jolts. It dips to the side and sends Brock flying against the side. He snarls and the truck jolts again.

“What the fuck is going is going on?” he yells as he bangs on the partition that separates the containment end of the truck and the driver’s end. The screen rolls down and through the gap Bucky could see that the road that the truck was on was undulating like waves, making hills and dips and then being reformed in seconds.

“What the fuck?” Brock hisses and he dials the radio.

“Beta team, what the hell is that?”

“I told you, Alpha team” the voice is calm, if not a little smug. “ the girl’s powers have developed since you’ve kept her from him.”

“Damn it!” Brock yells, scanning the thermal scanners of the surrounding area around the truck.

“Where the hell is she?”

The road suddenly flattened out and a shimmer appeared in the middle of the road, the air slipping off to reveal a figure, a figure with glowing blue eyes. Her lips pulled back into a snarl and she whipped her hand up, her fingers curled in towards her palm and the truck stopped like it hit a wall at full speed. The front of the truck crumbled like a tin can and the back of the truck lifted up off the ground. Everyone jolted forward except for Bucky who was strapped into his seat. He could hear the screeches of the tires of the rest of the trucks in the convoy around him. He could hear the footsteps of the soldiers, the slamming of truck doors and the cocking of guns.

“I have been chasing you for weeks” a familiar voice calls out, anger and fury twisting together in her tone.

“And you know what I want!” she screams out, and Bucky heard the rattle of bullets leave the gun barrel, and then the screams of the soldiers and bodies hitting the ground.

“Where is he! I will kill you all if you don’t give him to me!” The truck shudders around Bucky, and Brock sneers at him as he kicks open the back doors and jumps out, walking towards the source of her voice.

“Well well, Sweetheart, you finally caught up with us” Brock calls out, and if Bucky craned his head forward far enough he could see Y/n clearly, and then Brock walks into his view.

“Stay away from her, you asshole!” Bucky screams out, and he hears Brock chuckle and Y/n growl.

“Bucky?” her voice is loud, yet tentative, hopeful.

“Why follow us for a useless bit of shit like him?” he hears Brock scoff.

“I have grown more powerful since we’ve last met, I can do more things now” Y/n hisses, and Brock lets out a choke, and then there’s a bang against the side of the truck.

“Bucky?” Y/n calls out, her footsteps walking closer to the back of the truck. She peers around the door of the truck, her eyes glowing neon blue in the light.

“Bucky?” she chokes out, tears falling down her cheeks as her eyes focus on him.

“Doll. Oh, my beautiful Doll” Bucky coos, keeping eye contact with her as he struggled against his restraints. She lets out a sob, her neon blue eyes fading back to her normal colour of Y/e/c, tears dripping down her neck.

“Please, Y/n, Doll, don’t cry. Baby, you’ve found me, it’s alright” Bucky chokes back his own tears, watching her as she climbs into the truck and crawls into his lap, her arms wrapping around his neck and she buries her face in his shirt.

“I found you. I found you but I took so long I’m so sorry” she gasps, tears staining his shirt.

“It’s my fault, I couldn’t keep up when they kept stealing you away”

“Oh, Doll it’s not your fault, I promise” Bucky strains against the shackles that chain him to the bench, and Y/n growls when she sees it. Her fingers trail down his arm to the shackles around his wrist, and with one swift movement she cracks it open, and she cracks open all the other restraints, letting them fall to the floor.

“Doll, how?” he says in bewilderment, and she looks almost sheepish as she shrugs.

“I don’t know. My – my anger had made me stronger. I’ve been going mental ever since they took you. It’s been – raging – inside my head, your name, your face” she taps a finger to the side of her head before clenching her hands into fists, avoiding Bucky’s gaze.

“I killed so many, Bucky” she gasps, her eyes wide and unfocused.

“I want to go home, Bucky. Please take me home” she begs, her hands running over his chest and up his neck, her fingers curling against his skin under his jaw.

“Of course, Sweetheart, I’ll take you home”

“Stay with me, Buck Buck?” she pleads, whimpering slightly as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her closer to him, pulling her into his embrace.

“I won’t leave you, Sweetheart, never again”

…………………….

Steve and the rest of the team tracked them down two hours later, their plane landing on the flat land that surrounded the abandoned convoy. Steve led the way, his helmet covering his head and his shield held up in front of him. He cautiously checked the closest trucks which shielded the rest of the convoy from his view. But when he got past them, he gasped at the sight.

Bodies were spread out over the ground in front of the convoy, bullet casings and guns littering the ground near the bodies. There were different types of injuries. It looked like some of the soldiers had turned their guns on each other, while other looked like they were strangled. Others were wrinkled and shrivelled like the water had been sucked out of their body.

“Any heat signatures, Sam?” Steve called into his com.

“Only three, Cap. Two in that truck next to you, and one on the other side of it. Heads up, we’re coming in now”

Steve glances behind him as Sam, Natasha and Clint walk out of the plane, clad in their signature suits and wary expressions on their faces.

Steve warily crept around the truck and frowned at what he saw. The leader of the soldiers that kidnapped Bucky, Brock Rumlow, was pinned to the side of the truck with four large icicles. One in each thigh and one in each shoulder, the icicles passing through his body, through muscles and bone, securing him so he couldn’t move. He was unconscious, his head lolled onto his shoulder, his breathing shallow as the blood from the make shift stakes dribbled down his body.

“Sam, you know the man that kidnapped Bucky that FRIDAY recognised as Brock Rumlow?”

“Yeah, why?” Sam answered in his coms, walking towards Steve with curiosity in his eyes.

“Well, I got him here, pinned to the side of this truck” Steve waves Sam over, walking closer to Rumlow as Sam jogged over to him, his mouth opening in surprise.

“Wow” he tilted his head as he stepped closer to him, his hand coming out to point at each of the four icicles in turn.

“Icicles that don’t melt, pinning the man that stole Bucky from the Tower? That can only be Y/n” Sam smiles. “So she caught up with them. Now it’s just a matter of where they are now”

“Steve?” the voice is quiet and came from the inside of the truck. Steve’s head jerks up, his eyes brightening as he recognises the voice.

“Buck?” He calls out as he jogs around to the back of the truck and looks into the back of the truck to see Bucky sitting on the bench that was bolted to the wall, Y/n cradled in his lap, her face buried in his chest. Bucky gives Steve a small smile and his grip on Y/n tightens.

“Hey, Steve. Took you long enough”

Steve barks out a laugh, running a hand over his jaw before he taps the com in his ear.

“Team, we found them. Both of them”

There are yells of excitement that echo over the coms, and Steve can’t hold back a grin as he climbs into the truck and helps Bucky stand up, Y/n still cradled in his arms. She stirs in his arms, a muffled whine coming out from her throat. She clings tighter to Bucky, curling around him as much as she physically can.

“She fell asleep after 10 minutes of being in my arms. It seemed like she hasn’t slept for days”

Steve frowned, his eyes flicking to Sam before looking back at Bucky.

“We’ve been following her for weeks as she followed you. From what we saw when we caught up with her a couple of times, she hasn’t slept at all”

“At all?” Bucky exclaims, his eyes wide as he looks down at Y/n’s face. “That can’t be right. How was she able to come after me with no sleep?”

“Bruce had a theory. He suggested that since she had control over the elements, that she has been drawing energy from the earth itself. She had been using her powers continually ever since you were taken, and now that she has stopped using her ability, she’s having an energy crash.”

“Bucky” Y/n groaned, squirming in his arms as her face twisted into a grimace.

“Bucky, no, please don’t take him again” she whimpered, squirming so hard that Bucky had to put her down on the floor of the truck so he wouldn’t drop her.

“Doll, Y/n, wake up, it’s just a dream” Bucky begged as he cuddled Y/n to his chest, pinning her against him so she couldn’t flail about.

“Don’t take him, God take me instead, please take me instead” Y/n cried out, her eyes flicking open but unseeing, her y/e/c iris’s glowing bright blue as the earth around the truck shuddered.

“Steve, what’s happening?” Natasha called out and she and Clint raced around the back of the truck, their eyes wide as they see Bucky holding a flailing Y/n in his arms, her eyes glowing.

“It’s Y/n. She’s having a nightmare and her powers are reacting because of it” Sam dropped to his knees next to Bucky and grabbed Y/n’s face in his hands, looking into her eyes as her pupils dilated and constricted rapidly.

“Bucky, you need to calm her down” Sam looked up at Bucky, who scowled at him.

“I’m trying!”

“No, you aren’t. In nightmares, everything is real, and it’s scary. People on the outside can’t help you but they can influence you. They can help you find the way out. So you need to talk to her, convince her that the exit is right in front of her.” Sam said forcefully.

Bucky took a deep breath and propped Y/n up so she was cradled in his lap, his mouth right next to her ear.

“Y/n, you need to listen to me. I am safe. I’m here with you, holding you in my arms, keeping you safe. Baby, you need to believe me, need to hear me. Do you remember our first date? I took you to an arcade floor in the tower, and you were so excited. When we ran out of tokens, you got us two photobooth vouchers, and we took pictures and we both had a copy. You were beautiful, and I kept those photos in my own journal. Kept them right by my bed so I would always have you near me. And you are with me now. You found me, and saved me. Doll, you need wake up!”

Y/n gasped as she jerked up in Bucky’s arms, her fingers digging into his arms as she looked around wildly, her eyes finally focusing on Bucky’s face.

“Bucky?” she exclaims, her hands frantically running over his face and neck. “Oh God, Bucky you’re okay!”

“Yeah, I am sweetheart, I’m safe, you’re safe, we’re all safe” Bucky cupped her cheek and leant his forehead against hers, breathing heavily.

“Ah, Bucky” she breathes out, nuzzling back against Bucky’s neck.

“Come on, Doll, I’m taking you home”

“Home’s only home if you’re there with me” she murmurs, and Bucky chuckles.

“Well good thing I’m coming with you then”