The round hit Karli a little lower than centre mass, blood spitting from her abdomen as she cried out in pain. Instantly, she turned to run the other way. 

Zemo walked forwards with determination and focus written across his expression, and he fired more shots across the room. Clara went the other way, staying out of Zemo's line of fire as she caught up to Karli. 

The Flag Smasher threw herself over a metal table, sending whatever was on the surface to the floor as she tipped it over, using it as a barricade. Zemo stopped firing when he reached her, looking to the ground at a series of blue vials. 'Is this what I think it is?' 

As he picked one off the dusty floor, a smile spread across his face. 'Is that the serum?' Clara asked, taking her eyes off of Karli only for a moment as she looked down to the dozen blue vials scattered around them. 

In answer, Zemo threw the one held to the stone beneath his feet. 

'No!' Karli cried out in desperation. 

Clara looked down at the woman, a frown knitting her brow together as she saw the blood seeping through Karli's jumper. That wasn't what she wanted. Her fingers twitched at her sides, a bright purple spreading outwards as Zemo put all his focus onto destroying anyone's hopes for another Super Soldier. The sick and twisted part of her mind - the part that had been growing over the course of the last few weeks - really wanted to enjoy this. 

This wasn't right. She wanted to be the one to get to Karli first. Clara had to be the one to deal with the Flag Smasher. Otherwise was any of this really worth it? Clara frowned, thinking through what she could do. 

Maybe, if she wasn't the final cause for the woman's death, she could at least make it a little more agonising. Maybe then her face would still be the face Karli feared most as she died. Maybe then Clara could rest easy, knowing that after everything Karli had done, after all the anguish she had caused, she had paid for it all and with her final breath. 

A couple of doors opened at once as she stood above Karli, one behind her, and the other across the room, and Clara really wasn't expecting what came next. 

A whizzing reached her ears. A whizzing that sounded awfully like a vibranium shield moving closer and closer and- 

Clara fell back, her reactions to focus on anything except Karli too slow, and Captain America's shield thudded as it struck her head. A heavy nausea swam through her, and in her daze she felt something thick trickle down her temple. 

Opening her eyes, she wasn't sure when she had gotten to be on the floor and looking up at the ceiling. She blinked away a blur coating her vision, just in time to see Karli stumbling out of the room, another man aiding her once she reached him. God, she was going to kill Walker for letting Karli get away - if Bucky didn't first, that is. 

'What the hell happened?' Sam yelled as Clara felt the nausea twisting into the pull of sleep, and her eyes fell closed, her body feeling as though it was sinking into the floor as unconsciousness dragged her away. 

'I already said; Clara let Zemo out of the cuffs!' Walker retorted, and suddenly Clara felt herself being lowered onto a soft couch, a pillow under her head. 

'I bloody well did not,' she grumbled, raising a hand to probe at the tender cut. Someone slapped her hand away, and she opened her eyes to glare at Bucky. 

'Shouldn't have given him the shield,' Bucky said, passing Clara a damp cloth.

'I didn't give him the shield,' Sam reminded him. 

Clara kept her head on the pillow as she dabbed gently at her forehead, feeling a slight sting each time she did. Clara thought that whoever it was definitely shouldn't have given him the shield if he can't even tell friend from foe. Though, friend was used very loosely in this situation.

'Well, Steve definitely didn't,' Bucky commented, speaking as though Walker wasn't there. 

'All right,' Walker said, having had enough of listening to that conversation. 'That's it. I'm now ordering you to turn him over.'

'Hey, slow your roll,' Sam stepped towards him. Clara turned to her head to the side to look across the room, seeing Walker and Lemar standing side by side. 'Let's be clear; shield or no shield, the only thing you're runnin' here is your mouth. Now, I had Karli, and you overstepped. He's actually proven himself useful today,' he gestured to Zemo. 'And we're gonna need all hands on deck for whatever's comin' next.' 

'How do you want the rest of this conversation to go, Sam, huh?' Walker asked. 'Should I put down the shield? Make it fair?'

Sam scoffed as he did just that, leaning the shield up against a column. Clara then realised there was a spear sticking out of the same column, and one that definitely hadn't been there before they left. 'Holy shit,' she muttered as three women of the Dora Milaje stepped into view. 

'Release him to us now,' one ordered, Walker turning on the spot to face her. 

'Hi. John Walker. Captain America.' He glanced around the room, expecting at least one of the women to show some kind of a reaction. When they didn't - all of them standing stoic and waiting for what they had asked for, Walker continued. 'Well, let's, uh, put down the pointy sticks and we can talk this through, right?' 

'Hey, John, take it easy,' Sam warned. 'You might wanna fight Bucky before you tangle with the Dora Milaje.' 

'The Dora Milaje don't have jurisdiction here, so-'

The woman in front of Walker took a step closer as she spoke. 'The Dora Milaje have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be.' 

'Okay,' Walker said, lifting a hand to pat the woman on her shoulder. 'Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot.'

Just as soon as Walker's hand came into contact with the Wakandan woman's shoulder, she lifted her spear, twirling it in her grip before striking the man in three well-aimed locations.

Clara's jaw dropped ever so slightly as she watched. Saying she was awestruck would be an understatement. Clara thought a big reason for finding the movements so unfathomably skilful may have been due to the concussion she had suffered, but even so, it was still damn well amazing. 

Lemar joined the fight, trying to defend his partner, while Sam, Bucky and Zemo stayed put. 'We should do something,' Sam told Bucky.

'Looking strong, John,' Bucky called out. 

Clara raised a hand, still lying on the couch but now propped up on her elbows. 'I don't think he meant taunting him.'

'Fine,' Bucky grumbled, reaching out for a spear certain to strike Walker on its downward arc. 'Ayo,' he started as the woman turned to him. She tried pulling the spear from his metal grip, and when it didn't budge, she tried a more complex manoeuvre. 'Ayo, let's talk about this!'

Evidently, she didn't want to talk, and the women continued by snatching the spear from Bucky. Clara watched as Sam joined the fight too, gripping onto another's spear as it was destined for Lemar. The woman span around, trying to strike Sam in the same way Ayo had hit Walker moments before. 

Sam reacted quickly, blocking each of the strikes, but a fourth caught him on the arm, and flung him away. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zemo back away into the bathroom and a small chuckle left her lips as she lay her head back down. It still felt as though she was swimming against a strong current, and there was an ache in her head that was only worsening thanks to the noise of the fight. 

It didn't take too long for the din of the battle to die out, each man overwhelmed by the Dora Milaje, and Clara peeked her eyes open when she heard a strangely familiar sounding thud. 

Bucky's metal arm was now lying on the floor, Bucky staring down at it with shock plastered on his face. 'He's gone,' Ayo said as she pulled open the bathroom doors. She then turned to the woman holding Walker's shield. 'Leave it.' 

As Bucky bent down to pick up his disembodied arm, the shield dropped to the floor. 'Did you know they could do that?' Sam asked as the Dora Milaje left the apartment. 

'No,' Bucky confessed, reattaching the arm before rotating it at the shoulder in a wide arc, Clara guessing that was for recalibration purposes or something of the like. 

'Has Walker left yet?' Clara asked them, not being able to see the man. 

'Yeah, he's gone,' Sam told her as he looked over to the bathroom, and the grate that had been misplaced. 'I can't believe he pulled an El Chapo.'

Clara slowly sat up, doing her best to ignore the dizziness. 'Did he seriously say I let Zemo go?' 

'Did you?' Sam asked.

'Really, Sam?' She scowled. 

'Just checking,' he raised his hands in defence. 

'Clara was with me most of the time, she wouldn't have been able to go and uncuff Zemo before getting to where they were,' Bucky recounted, sitting beside Clara. 'You good?' 

'No,' she groaned, leaning up against the back of the couch. 'Did we get anything out of that fight? At all? Or did I get a concussion for zero reason?' 

'No, you pretty much did,' Bucky told her. 

'Did Zemo tell you he destroyed the rest of the serum?'

'Yeah, he did,' Sam nodded, sitting on the coffee table opposite her. 'I was so close to talking Karli down,' he sighed. 

Clara opted to bite her tongue, knowing now wasn't the time nor the place for her to voice her disagreements - especially if they believe in the slightest that she had freed Zemo. 

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