Chapter Twenty-Seven - Mixed Reception

Clara snuck in through the front door, following a familiar face. She had seen him on the street, walking out of a side street and towards the beige and brown stone building. 

'Thought you could get rid of me that easily?' Bucky swung around, striking out towards the sound of the voice. Clara ducked down, having fully expected that reaction. 

'Jesus! Clara, what the hell?' He cursed her as she became significantly less invisible. 'How did you find us?'

'It wasn't difficult,' she shrugged. 'There's a tracker in my bag - which you stole, technically, by the way.'

'We just forgot to give it to S.H.I.E.L.D., actually.'

'Pot-ay-to, pot-ah-to,' she shrugged.

'Err, not-'

Clara held up a hand, interrupting Bucky. 'Anyway, don't try turning me away. I've already told you that I'm not going home until we find Karli.'

Bucky pursed his lips, not appearing completely happy to see her again, but not looking all that disappointed, either. He was probably fed up with being stuck with Zemo. 'Come on.' He led her to a vintage-looking elevator, and pulled the scissor gate aside. Clara stepped in first, Bucky following. 'You gonna tell me what that was about yesterday?'

'Err, no. I don't think so,' she told him, shaking her head with her lips downward turned. Bucky pressed one of the buttons on the wall of the elevator, then standing with his arms folded. Clara looked up at him, seeing the usual frown he wore. 'You gonna tell me who's idea it was to send me back to New York?' 

Without much hesitation at all, Bucky answered. 'Sam's.'

Clara snorted. 'Wow, remind me to never tell you a secret.'

Bucky turned to her, an eyebrow raised. 

'Oh. Right,' she nodded. 'In that case, remind me not to tell you any more.' 

The elevator stopped at the highest floor, Bucky moving the scissor gate aside once again, and they both stepped out. There was only one other door on this floor, and Bucky pushed it open. 'Look who I found.'

Clara stepped out from behind him.

'What are you doing here?' Sam asked, appearing just as shocked to see her as he was relieved.

'Oh, you know, just thought I'd make the rounds, apologise to everyone I've almost killed in plane crashes,' Clara smiled sheepishly.

'You doing okay?' He asked, taking a seat on a tall stool next to the kitchen island. 

Clara tipped her head side-to-side. 'As good as I'm gonna be for a while,' she admitted, then she reluctantly added to the statement. 'Thanks for taking me back.'

'We weren't left with many options,' he told her. 'What was all that about, anyway?'

Just as Clara was about to reply, Zemo stepped from a bathroom. Dressed in a blue robe, he wiped at his forehead with a white towel. 'Oh, great; he's still here.'

'Well, this is my house,' he told her. 

Bucky walked past Clara, heading further into the room. 'We'll talk about that later,' he told Sam and Clara. 'The Wakandans are here. They want Zemo. I bought us some more time.'

'Were you followed?' Sam asked him. 

'No.'

'How can you be so sure?' Zemo pressed. 

'Cause I know when I'm being followed,' Bucky assured him.

'It was sweet of you to defend me, at least.' As Zemo spoke, Bucky took his phone out of his pocket and began scrolling on his news app, Clara looking over his shoulder at it. He moved away, giving her a look, and Clara held her hands up in mock-defence. 

'Hey, you shut it. No one's defending you,' Sam sneered. 'You killed Nagel.'

'Do we really have to litigate what may or may not have happened?' Zemo tried waving him off. 

Sam blanched at that. 'There's nothing to litigate! You straight shot the man!'

'Sam,' Bucky stopped him. 

'What?'

'Karli bombed a GRC supply depot.' Clara span to face where he now stood, wondering why that had made the news after so many hadn't. Maybe they realised half of the Flag Smasher's following came from them thinking they had done nothing to harm anyone. 

'What?' Sam looked over too. 'What's the damage?' 

'Eleven injured, three dead,' Bucky read, Clara's frustration rising. 'They have a list of demands and are promising more attacks if those demands aren't met in full.'

'She's getting worse,' Zemo observed. 'I have the will to complete this mission. Do the three of you?' 

'Karli's just a kid, Zemo,' Sam reminded him. 

'So is she,' the man tipped his head towards Clara. 'Then she made our jet drop thirty-thousand feet out of the air and hardly had to lift a finger to do so.' Clara grimaced, realising that almost definitely had made matters worse between her and Zemo. 'You're seeing something in her that isn't there. You're clouded by it.'

'She's a supremacist,' he continued. 'The very concept of a Super Soldier will always trouble people. It was that warped aspiration that led to Nazis, to Ultron, to the Avengers.'

'Hey, those are our friend you're talking about,' Sam warned him.

'The Avengers, not the Nazis,' Bucky clarified, earning a stifled laugh from Clara, but a puzzled look from the other two. 

'So, Karli is radicalised,' Sam agreed. 'But there has to be a peaceful way to stop her.'

Clara lent her forearms onto the kitchen island. She wasn't looking for a peaceful way to stop the Flag Smashers, she was looking for any way that would end with Karli Morgenthau paying for what she had done. 

'The desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideals. Anyone with that serum is inherently on that path,' Zemo said. 'She will not stop. She will escalate until you kill her.' 

The concept of agreeing with Zemo was a worrying one, and a part of Clara knew that what she wanted was wrong, but she also knew he was right. Karli bombing another supplies depot proved that. 

'Maybe you're wrong, Zemo.' Clara stood back up, facing Bucky as he countered. 'The serum never corrupted Steve.' 

'Touché,' Zemo pointed at him. 'But there never has been another Steve Rogers, has there?' 

'Well, maybe we should give him to the Wakandans right now,' Bucky suggested. 

'And give up your tour guide?' 

'Yes.'

Clara didn't voice her agreement with Zemo, she wasn't entirely sure Sam and Bucky wouldn't try sending her away again. She was sailing on rough waters with them, and she didn't want to pull a risky manoeuvre just to be sent overboard. 

'From my understanding, Donya is like a pillar of the community, right?' Sam began speaking his train of thought aloud. 'So, when I was a kid, my TT passed away-'

'Your "TT"?' Bucky asked, walking across the room to drop down onto the couch. 

'Yeah, my TT.'

'Who is your TT?' Bucky frowned. 

'Fine. When I was a kid, my aunt passed away,' he tried again. 'And the entire neighbourhood got together for a ceremony. It was like a week long.'

'And you think they're doing the same thing for Donya?' Clara asked, watching Zemo rummage through a cupboard. Sam shrugged, thinking it was the only idea they had to find Karli.  

'Worth a shot,' Bucky agreed. 

'Your "TT" would be proud of you,' Zemo told Sam, reaching into a metal container and pulling a wrapped sweet from inside. 

'Turkish delight,' he wiggled one between his fingers before tossing it to Sam. 'Irresistible.'

Zemo then tried to do the same for Clara, but watched as it struck a lilac barrier and subsequently fell to the floor. 'I must admit, it's a huge relief be able to use them again now everyone here knows,' Clara said in relation to her abilities, walking over to sit on the couch beside Bucky as she addressed Zemo. 'Just a shame you might try to kill me because of them.' 

'I have told you before, Clara-'

'I know, I know, too big of an asset,' she waved him off. 'And like I said before, they're really not the comforting words you think they are.' 

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