4.1

KATHARINE SHOT UP FROM THE GROUND, gasping for air as her body rematerialized on the forest floor. She looked around frantically, trying to regain her bearings.


What happened? The last thing she remembered was the fight with Thanos and his army in the field before literally dusting away.


She heard someone groaning roughly ten feet away. She made her way to standing, stumbling over to the sign of life. She collapsed onto her knees as she realized who it was.


"Bucky!"


Katharine grabbed his shoulders and helped the man into a sitting position. As far as she could tell, there was no one else around them.


She tried her comms, fiddling with the radio frequencies as she tried to find her team.


"Five years..." she caught on the end of someone else's conversation. Katharine switched back to the channel she had skipped. "We've been gone for five years."


She repeated the phrase, helping Bucky into a standing position. She held onto his arm as he regained his balance, taking his gun with her. As soon as he was standing on his own, she handed the weapon back to him.


Katharine tapped the back of her bracelets together, grinning when she saw that the blasters Tony had designed for her were still operational.


"Hey, Cap," she heard the comms crackle to life once more. Bucky looked at her in disbelief. He'd heard the message as well. "You read me?"


There was no response.


"Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?"


Still no response.


"On your left."


Katharine took a step back as a ring of golden light formed in front of them, revealing what seemed to be Thanos's army. She looked over at Bucky, who was still staring at the portal in disbelief.


She elbowed his side slightly, allowing a smile to work itself back onto her face.


She held out her hand. "I've still got your back if you've still got mine."


The man grinned back at her, clasping their hands together. They shook once before separating, walking through the portal together. Katharine tried not to get overwhelmed at the sight of the many heroes she stood beside.


"Is that everyone?" she heard Dr. Strange ask over the comms.


"What?" replied another voice. "You wanted more?"


That seemed to answer the question because the next words she heard were: "Avengers, assemble."


With a war cry, everyone surged forward.


True to her word, she stuck by Bucky's side. They clashed with the opposing forces, taking them down with bullets and blasts of energy in a flurry.


As they fought, Katharine began to lose count of how many alien lives she had taken. She flexed her fingers and allowed another beam of energy rip through a horde of incoming aliens.


She heard nothing but the war cries of her allies and the horrifying shrieks of their enemies as several went down at once. She flipped over one of their heads, shooting straight through the middle of their cranium before landing on the other side.


Katharine flipped her head, cursing when she realized one of their claws had managed to snag on the end of her hair tie. She heard chatter over the comms as she fought but mainly focused on staying alive. Somehow, she had managed to get separated from Bucky.


Taking her dagger off her thigh and resorting to close combat, she made her way back over to where she heard the most gunfire.


She broke through the fray, holding her hands up and yelling," Don't shoot!" as Bucky spun around and nearly took off her head.


"Duck!" he yelled, pushing her head down as he fired a couple of rounds at a few aliens that were trying to sneak up on them.


"Thanks," she managed to breathe out while making her way back up to standing. "Didn't have to nearly snap my neck though."


Bucky didn't bother apologizing, giving her a look that read that he was absolutely done with her instead. They went back to fighting, Katharine using her abilities to her advantage.


"Kill yourself!" she called over the loud animalistic cries of the incoming aliens. She looked at them in satisfaction as they did as she asked, allowing for a momentary moment of confusion before actually following through with the act.


Across the field, she saw what looked to be bombs dropping down into the battlefield. On instinct, she dove to the side, tackling Bucky as pure energy struck the ground where they were just standing not even two seconds ago.


"Fuck!" she swore, scrambling for cover with her friend right next to her. She pulled him closer to the large piece of debris as another bolt of energy struck the ground not even ten feet from where they were hiding.


From their shelter, neither of them stopped shooting anything that came remotely close to where they hid.


As Katharine threw her only dagger, the bolts of energy stopped, allowing her to leave their temporary hideout and retrieve her weapon. Grateful for the short reprieve in fighting, she wiped her alien-gut-stained weapon on a dead alien's top.


She made her way back over to Bucky as they migrated over to where most of the fighting seemed to be located.


Sticking to long-range, she shot a few aliens that dared to come close but figured most of the opposing army had been taken out by the bolts of energy from two seconds ago.


And then, the fighting was over just as fast as it had started. Katharine stumbled as the alien she had been grappling with dusted away, holding her breath as to not accidentally ingest the alien's particles. She was met with Bucky, who helped her regain her balance.


The battlefield went silent, Katharine and Bucky watching the events unfold as Thanos himself dusted away.


"Mr. Stark?" she heard Peter call, watching as he stumbled into the dirt next to his fallen mentor. "Hey—Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's Peter. Hey. We won, Mr. Stark—We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir. You did it."


Katharine made her way down the embankment, coming upon the little scene. She took the sobbing boy from Pepper and let him cry into her shoulder as his hero died before them. Katharine bit her lip in an attempt to stay strong.


She turned her head as Pepper knelt on the ground next to Tony, taking deep breaths as she hugged Peter closer to her chest.


"Hey, Pep," she heard him say quietly.


"FRIDAY?"


"Life functions critical."


"Tony. Look at me," Katharine watched as Pepper put a hand to Tony's chin gently, making sure he was looking at her. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now."


Katharine felt numb as the man she considered one of her closest friends went still, his chest stopped rising and his eyes grew dull. His hand fell away from Pepper's and the whole world seemed to fall silent as they lost one of the greatest heroes to walk the Earth.


She dropped to her knee, bowing her head in respect. Next to her, Peter knelt as well, tears dripping off his chin and landing on the dirt below them. She reached out a hand to the teenager, holding on tight as they mourned for the man that had given so much.


Katharine closed her eyes. Whatever it takes, Tony had said.


Well, Tony, she couldn't help but to think bitterly. She raised her head to look upon the fallen hero once more. This is what it took.

Comment