Bucharest, Romania

Spring 2016

With a grimace of frustration, Steve kicked out the smashed windshield of the police SUV and slid inside, his foot on the gas almost before he had yanked the door shut after him.

This was very much not how this was supposed to have gone...

Though, he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that the Germans—a GSG-9 Tactical Unit, if he were to guess—that had been sent after Bucky had been so close behind them. Sharon had warned them, after all, and he had known on some level the UN wouldn't waste a second when it came to the suspect of the Vienna bombing. They couldn't afford to.

Still, he had been hoping for a little more time.

Enough time to extract Bucky and get him safely back on the Quinjet.

But what he hadn't expected? The new, very obviously Enhanced player on the field. Sleek black—and bulletproof—suit, strong, lithe and wicked fast...this new guy was dangerous and he was relentless. Against the GSG-9 unit? They'd still had a chance to make a break for it. Especially with Nadine tapping into the Germans' comms from the Quinjet.

But with this new guy gunning for Bucky?

It changed the game entirely.

"They're closing in, Rogers," Nadine's voice said in his ear. "You're running out of time. You need to get Barnes and you need to get out of that Tunnel. Two minutes max and you're going to be sealed up."

"Copy," he replied, the SUV lurching around him as he floored it after Bucky, keeping a sharp eye on the dark-suited Enhanced chasing him, "You've disengaged?"

"Yeah. I lost the helicopter. You shouldn't have to worry about it for a bit. I'm circling back now." Steve breathed a sigh of relief, both that the GSG-9 team's air support wasn't a factor for the time being and that Nadine had shaken them.

Almost as soon as he, Bucky and the mystery combatant had reached street level, the helicopter—once again levelled out after Sam's interference—had opened fire on all three of them. Only to find itself going up against the Quinjet. Almost as soon as the bullets had started flying onto the street, Nadine had disengaged the jet's stealth mode and positioned it to shield them from fire. Once Steve and Barnes had made the cover of the tunnel, she'd then proceeded to draw off the chopper, darting away before—he assumed—she'd ultimately reengaged its stealth mode and disappeared.

But that only did them any good temporarily. The Quinjet might be faster than the chopper, but the soldiers flying it had to be guessing that Nadine would be heading back toward Steve and Barnes. It only gave them a small window.

His jaw tensed as he considered their remaining options...including the ones he's wanted to avoid using if at all possible. He had been hoping they might be able to jump on the Quinjet once they had Bucky and go...even after the GSG-9s and the new Enhanced had engaged them. Nadine wouldn't even have had to land. But now that the Quinjet had engaged the chopper, revealing they had it as an asset? Now that they were in the tunnel? It was one more option no longer on the table. They were fast running out of options, really.

Steve grimaced, his jaw clenching tighter still. They didn't have a choice. "We need you down here, Ryker," he finally said, his voice firm despite the apprehension suddenly twisting in his gut.

"I know," she replied softly. "I'm already on my way." Despite himself, the corner of Steve's mouth quirked, especially as he heard the faint purr of Natasha's bike through the earpiece as Nadine gunned it. Of course she'd read the situation just as he had. Not for the first time since lifting off from Vienna he was thankful she had decided coming along was worth the risk.

His thoughts were jarred away from Nadine as his SUV lurched, this time from the force of the mystery combatant leaping onto the back. Steve grit his teeth, thinking fast. And hauled on the steering wheel.

But no amount of swerving seemed to dislodge his cat-like passenger.

"I can't shake this guy," he grit out, glancing to his mirrors, taking note not only of the mystery combatant but the fleet of police cruisers and SUVs forming a veritable wall behind him. "Sam? Nadine? Tell me one of you is close."

"Right behind you," Sam piped up even as Nadine responded: "just coming up on the tunnel now, but there's a whole city's worth of police between me and you." Steve nodded absently even as he served again, sideswiping the police SUV that had come up beside his appropriated one. The move didn't result in the outcome he'd hoped; the police SUV just pulled back instead of spinning out and his unwanted passenger just seemed to cling that much tighter.

And a second wall of police vehicles was suddenly ahead, their flashing lights silhouetting Bucky as he abruptly changed directions and vaulted over a barrel barrier.

"Stay sharp," he warned, checking on his unwanted passenger a final time, "both of you. It's getting messy down here." And he sent his SUV crashing through the barrier. The truck shuddered at the impact but roared through. Around him, the police vehicles swerved and skidded, desperate to avoid crashing into each other.

And the cat-like Enhanced was still clinging to the back of his SUV.

"Sam," he called, about to ask if he was close. Only to falter as, ahead, Bucky snatched at an oncoming motorcycle, bodily wrenching it around and leaping astride it in an astonishingly agile move as its rider tumbled to the pavement. "Buck's on bike now, too," he updated tersely, hitting the gas again to close the distance between him and Bucky.

He wasn't quite sure if this was a good development or a bad one...

Likely bad, as he still hadn't shaken the Enhanced still attached to his truck.

And as the cat-like shadow that had been clinging to his SUV was suddenly darting across the roof and propelling himself toward Bucky? Definitely bad. Steve could only watch, heart in his throat, as Bucky fended off his attacker. It wasn't until he was thrown free and Bucky was steadying his bike that Steve felt like he could breathe again, only barely avoiding crashing into the tumbling Enhanced himself. And as he heard Sam confirm that he had them in sight? Steve very nearly let out a relieved breath.

They might just have a chance.

It was then that a hastily thrown charge to the roof of the tunnel detonated even as Sam flew past Steve, only barely pulling up to avoid crashing into the falling chunks of concrete. And the black-suited Enhanced used the abrupt change of speed to launch himself forward from his hold on Sam's leg, disappearing through the falling wall of rubble. But Steve barely noticed.

All he could do was react. He couldn't think, he couldn't panic, he couldn't plan. He just moved. Wrenching on the wheel and slamming on the brakes, he hauled the SUV around, leaping free from the hastily opened door a split-second before the SUV's momentum had it hurtling over the rubble to roll across the pavement like a toy bouncing along the floor.

Just in time to use his own momentum to charge into the black-suited Enhanced as he drew back to strike Bucky, wrenching himself around to heave the interloper bodily away from him and his friend.

As Steve angled himself between Bucky and the Enhanced, police vehicles roared in around them from all sides. Steve tensed, throwing out a hand in warning as Bucky straightened, taking in how their mystery adversary straightened with a predatory grace as over a dozen cars and SUVs screeched to a halt around them, hemming them in. Above, the tell-tale sound of the GSG-9 helicopter reached through the chaos as GSG-9 and Romanian SWAT forces poured out of vehicles, their weapons trained unerringly on Steve, Bucky and their mystery assailant.

It was then that a painfully familiar shape hurtled down from the sky to land with a heavy clunk on the pavement. Steve tensed as War Machine straightened, his palm repulsors trained on Bucky and the black-suited Enhanced. It was then that Steve knew.

It was over.

They were done.

And a crushing sensation of failure began to thrum painfully in his chest. But he swallowed it back. He needed to keep his head or this would only get worse. Inhaling deeply, he straightened, replacing his shield on his back and holding out his hands in compliance. Rhodes' helmet turned to him at the gesture.

"Congratulations, Cap," the Colonel said brusquely. "You're a criminal." Though he obviously didn't know Rhodes as well as Tony did, Steve knew him well enough to catch that he was severely disappointed. More than that, he hated what he had to do, but was resolved to do it anyway. It was something the soldier in Steve recognized and could respect in the Colonel.

As the GSG-9 unit converged on Bucky, Steve could only watch, helpless, as his friend was forced to the ground. No such extreme measures were taken with him and Sam, though. Sam's wings were quickly collected and both were disarmed with brutal efficiency, Steve's shield all but wrenched from its place on his back, but they weren't wrestled into submission. Not the way Bucky was.

Steve was numb. He barely even felt surprise when the black-suited Enhanced removed his helmet to reveal his identity as the Wakandan prince, T'Challa. At least, until he saw the grim conviction in the Wakandan prince's eyes as he looked coldly to Bucky.

It was then that it became clear to Steve; as far as the Wakandan was concerned, this wasn't over. Prince T'Challa intended to kill Bucky. He knew that look in the other man's eyes. Steve's jaw tightened and he levelly met T'Challa's gaze as the prince looked back to him. Not if he had anything to do with it...

Even as a handful of GAG-9 soldiers made to take Steve into custody, Steve didn't back down from the prince's intent scrutiny. He needed to understand that Steve was going to keep fighting to protect Bucky even as—

It was then that a feminine voice sounded in Steve's ear.

And at once Steve was tensing in alarm, panic flooding through his veins like adrenaline.

"I'm incoming, guys: I need a status update." Steve could feel the blood leaving his face. Behind him he could hear Sam swearing sharply under his breath. "Wilson? Rogers? Please respond. What am I riding into?"

They'd forgotten about Nadine.

"Abort, Ryker. Fall back!" Though he said it quietly to keep from drawing too much attention, there was no mistaking the urgency in Steve's voice. But she hadn't heard him, something Steve realized with panic as her voice seemed to ring through his head as it came through the earpiece. Steve spun, nearly knocking over the soldier who'd been in the process of tugging his arms behind his back.

"Repeat? I didn't copy. Steve?" But it was too late and with a revving growl, a compact black bike flew through from the thick, lingering wall of dust and debris, landing with a jarring screech as Nadine caught sight of the police car barricade and the rubble blocking the tunnel. The brakes squealed uselessly as Nadine tried to wrench the bike around in a last-ditch effort to find a way out. Every face had snapped around at the sound of her approach and the German soldiers in her path dove and leapt out of the way as she wrenched the bike around, the rear tire smoking against the pavement. The revving screams of the bike mingled with panicked shouts and bellowed orders as guns were snapping up to fix on Nadine. Even from where he lay still pinned to the ground, Bucky jerked around, struggling to see what was happening.

"Hold your fire!"

"Stand down!" Steve and Sam yelled out over each other as the first few shots rang out. The police vehicles and the pavement took the brunt of the gunfire, not that Nadine's bike was spared. As she slid the bike around in a neat turn to make her escape, one of the shots blew out her rear tire as another two blasted through her engine, one just barely missing Nadine. The metallic scream of the bike lurching out from beneath her drowned out her cry as the bike skidded across the pavement with a shower of sparks. As the two Avenger's voices joined the shouts of the soldiers, it thankfully caused enough confusion to pause the hail of bullets.

But wasn't enough to stop what unfolded in its entirety. Even as Steve and Sam's voices mingled with the gunfire and shouts of the German soldiers and the bike shuddered to a halt, slamming into the police car next to Steve and Bucky with a sickening crunch, Nadine was already moving.

Before the gunfire had even died down, she had leapt from the bike in a blur of pale grey and rolled into a low crouch not twelve feet away from Steve, sidearms flashing into her hand and locked on their targets the instant she realized the suddenly silent gun barrels were fixed solely on her. As the panicked commotion continued to fill the air, there was no mistaking the sheer force of will it took for Nadine to keep herself from opening fire. There was also no mistaking the look of pure panic in her wide grey eyes as they darted about, looking desperately for a way out.

Just as there was no mistaking the way she visibly tensed, her alarm and dismay painfully clear, as her eyes settled on Bucky where he lay, pinned beneath a pair of GAG-9 soldiers. Especially when Bucky looked to her too, his surprise just as clear as hers.

Steve had never seen her look so shaken, not in a situation like this. Not when Nina's safety wasn't involved. It was unsettling.

"Stand down, Ryker!" Rhodes' voice projected above the others, causing them all to quiet at the unmistakably commanding tone. But it still felt like there was too much noise, especially as Sam added his voice to War Machine's.

But it was like she couldn't understand them, her fight or flight instincts warring with her training to the exclusion of all other thought as Nadine was confronted with the realization that she was trapped. Her gaze had yet to still long enough to focus on any one thing or person, still searching desperately for an avenue of escape, a way out of the standoff.

But there was no easy way out, not without bodies hitting the ground. And Steve could see that realization surfacing despondently in her eyes. Knowing what he had to do, Steve stepped forward, fully aware of the guns swivelling his way at the move. But he ignored it, holding out a placating hand toward her.

"Stand down, Nadine." It was his faintly imploring voice that finally got through to her, those normally guarded eyes latching fearfully on his. His heart clenched at the flicker of dread he saw there.

And then the mask slipped into place, her face going blank and her eyes unreadable as rationality returned and her long-ingrained training took over. Straightening slowly, she held her sidearms flat to her palms, hands raised and fingers splayed in a universal signal of capitulation. But it made little difference to the soldiers.

Three of them surged forward, one aggressively yanking the gun from her right hand even as his companion eased the other from her left. The abrupt motion was enough to set off Nadine's defensive reflexes, already perilously on edge.

In a move almost too fast to see, Nadine struck out instinctively, hands grabbing the overly forceful soldier and knocking him flat with a deft twist and kick, just barely restraining herself from turning on the other, her hand closing around his gun and beginning to yank it away from where it had been jerking up to aim at her. Even as shouts began ringing out again and the soldiers' aim on her re-intensified, she was already shoving the barrel away from her grasp, sucking in a frustrated, shaking breath.

And in a series of moves that echoed what he'd witnessed mere moments before, Nadine was wrestled to the ground much as Bucky had been.

Steve's jaw clenched tighter, his chest physically aching as he looked between Nadine and Bucky even as the soldiers next to him restrained his hands; a symbolic gesture more than anything. He knew without even trying the zipties would be much too easy to snap. At this point, though? It was all he could do. Their only option right now was to cooperate.

Things were just going from bad to worse...only to freeze at the wide-eyed, nearly bewildered way Bucky was staring at Nadine. There was recognition there...recognition and disbelief and a flicker of dismay that precisely echoed what Steve felt in that moment.

"Where's the Quinjet," Rhodes demanded firmly as he stepped toward Steve, his tone not brooking any argument even if there was a reluctant thread to it. Sighing, Steve looked to the Colonel before turning to Nadine. The GSG-9 soldiers were pulling her back to her feet, her hands restrained securely behind her back. His suit whirring faintly, Rhodes turned too. Nadine stared impassively back.

After a moment Rhodes sighed. And with a curt gesture, beckoned Nadine forward.

Mercifully, the Quinjet was recovered quickly and without incident, Sam, Steve and Nadine's effects collected and the three of them plus Bucky whisked back to the GSG-9 team's operations base then on to a military plane to Germany and the JCTTF headquarters. But it wore on Steve's nerves to be kept as carefully separate from Nadine and Sam almost from the instant they'd been loaded into different police vans in Bucharest until they were led off the plane and all herded into the same German police van once they'd landed in Berlin. Not that he had any idea what to say to her...

This was his fault...he had pushed her to come along, and now that this had all gone sideways?

It was all Steve could do to restrain himself, his hands fisting tightly as he watched the soldiers load Bucky into the back of a waiting armoured truck. Steve honestly felt ill to catch a glimpse of the heavily reinforced containment cell they were confining him within. Even locked up behind thick, unbreakable glass and physically immobilized by heavy restraints, he had at least five guns trained on him at all times. And for all that her features remained carefully controlled, Steve caught a glimpse of the same dismay he saw mirrored in Nadine's eyes as she was loaded into the van next to Sam. Once again dressed in her civilian clothes as he and Sam were—her pale grey uniform having been stowed away with her rifle, Steve's gear and Sam's wings—he got the sense she was nearly as stunned by the lengths the JCTTF were going to to confine Bucky as he was. Not that anyone else would be able to tell as much to look at her.

But Steve knew her. He could tell. Just as he'd been able to tell how flustered and unsettled she'd been back at her Workshop after they'd both given into the impulse for their fleeting—yet still distracting...and undoubtedly reckless—kiss; he was almost certain he'd seen his own longing for more despite knowing it shouldn't have happened at all mirrored in her eyes. Or how she had surprised herself by revealing herself as The Ghost to Sharon. Or how she was both furious and frustrated with herself that she'd allowed herself to be caught at all.

And judging by the concerned look Sam had fixed her with? Sam could tell too. Either that, or he suspected.

The door to the van was pulled shut with a resounding thunk once the Soldiers had confirmed T'Challa was settled in the passenger's seat next to the driver, just ahead of Steve.

It was only as the van started to move that he turned, glancing over his shoulder. "You're both okay?" he asked softly. It was meant for both Sam and Nadine, but unable to help himself, his gaze didn't move past Nadine. God, in that moment he wanted nothing more than to reach out to her, the caging separating them be damned... Mutely she nodded, her pale eyes stark and unreadable, contrasting sharply against her navy shirt and the dark chocolate leather of her jacket. To her left, Sam murmured out a similar acknowledgement, finally forcing Steve to spare his friend a glance. Sam's expression was grave as he met Steve's eye. He wanted to say something, say something more, something reassuring to both of them, but the words caught in his throat. His jaw tensing with uncertainty, he nodded without thinking at the response, settling back into his seat.

Only for Nadine's soft, emotionless voice to break the silence. Ahead of Steve, T'Challa's head tilted minutely.

"Whatever happens to me, please promise you'll keep her safe." Steve twisted again, looking to Nadine with a faint frown. There was no need to ask who she meant.

"Nothing is going to happen to you, Nadine," he said firmly. She shook her head slowly, her eyes slowly betraying her certainty to the contrary even though her face was still effectively blank. She didn't believe it any more than he did.

"No. I'm done, Steve. Even if your friend doesn't say anything, as soon as they take a good look at my rifle, at my slugs, they're going to know. Even if they don't, don't forget Ultron leaked that 'Nadine Ryker' is The Ghost. I wasn't able to undo that completely. It's only a matter of time. As soon as they realize who I am, they'll make me disappear either into a box or a hole." Her gaze grew almost painfully intent on him.

"I need to know she'll be safe."

"Nina's safe where she is," Steve automatically countered. "She's got Vision and the Maximoffs at the Compound and they'd never let anything happen to her. The Twins adore her...especially Pietro." Steve smiled wryly at the way her nose wrinkled with half-hearted exasperation before he sobered. "Not to mention Stark has grown rather fond of her, himself. He'll protect her as best he can. You won't have to worry about her." He attempted a small, confident smile, then. It almost worked. "We'll figure a way out of this." She smiled wanly at his attempt to reassure her.

"There is no clean way out of this, Steve." She looked over at him, taking in his determined expression. As always, she felt like she could see far more than he wanted her to. "And this isn't your fault. I chose to come along against my own better judgment. This is all on me." He sighed heavily. Trust her to try and shoulder the blame at least in part. She knew him too well.

But this time, it truly was his fault.

"And I'm the one who urged you to look past your better judgment," he countered softly. The corner of her mouth twitched in the shadow of the fondly exasperated smile he had grown to adore. But she didn't argue. And he couldn't tell if it was because she agreed, or that she knew he wasn't likely to change his mind.

Probably the latter, knowing her.

"There's got to be a way—" Sam started then, but his voice failed as she met his eye. A chill went up Steve's spine as her pale gaze turned to him next. He hadn't seen that expression—cool, detached and impassive, her eyes keen, unreadable and unmistakably dangerous—since The Ghost had been active. And he knew with sickening certainty what was likely to happen:

The JCTTF wasn't going to be able to hold her for long... Nadine was expecting to disappear.

For good.

One way or another.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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