Recommended Song: The Winter Soldier (Henry Jackman) 

My ears were no longer ringing, rather everything was too silent. My heart was pounding hard against my chest, but I couldn't hear it. Something touched my cheek, wiping away moisture, but I barely felt it. Everything inside me was just suddenly numb.

And then the pain hit again, and it was worse.

The fire under my skin burnt more fiercely than ever and I was desperately need to pull off the bracelets. My breath was coming out in short gasps as my throat tightened, not allowing any oxygen to pass through.

My stomach squirmed. I needed to vomit. But I couldn't breathe. It was a battle between my stomach and lungs. Tears were streaming down my face, but I could barely feel them. My vision was still blurry, I knew my eyes were already orange. The edges of my vision began to turn dark.

The side of my face hit something hard, but soft at the same time. Something touched my shoulder and someone rolled me on to my back. My lungs tightened further. My stomach flipped over itself multiple times, vomit rising up in my constricted throat.

There was faint yelling. My head was pounding. My fire was burning me inside, it was heating my skin. I needed to break free from the bracelets. Something rolled me onto my side. I heard a voice, either outside or in my mind. I couldn't tell what it was saying. There were flashes of memories. They were flashing by so quickly I couldn't see what they were. My brain felt like it was splitting in half, like I was becoming two different people. It felt like my current body was dying and I was changing into something else. Someone else.

Then suddenly it all stopped again.

My lungs loosened and I quickly sat up a little as my stomach emptied its contents. Someone pulled the bracelets off my arms I could feel my fire leaping across my skin. My vision was blurry, but I could see everything in tiny details through the orange haze. It made me feel alive. I was standing before I even thought about it, my flames leaping high in the air.

"Emily." Said a voice from nearby and I looked sharply to my left. "Are you with us?"

I immediately recognised the person as Tony, who's tone was wary as he slowly walked towards me. I looked away from him, my enhanced senses picking up the sounds of footsteps in the tree line. I clenched my hands and looked through the trees, picking up several heat signatures hidden behind the bushes and trunks. Suddenly, there was a sharp bang and I threw up my hands in front of me, creating a massive shield around everyone without even thinking. Something bounced off the fiery shield and I threw out another hand, catching the hand grenade before it could hit the ground. I closed my hand in a fist and crushed it in fire, dropping the bent metal onto the ground. Another grenade was fired from the tree line, but I yet again caught it outside the shield, crushing it.

"Emily?" Asked a voice cautiously and I looked over my shoulder, keeping my hands raised as fire from my palms burst out and strengthened the shield. Tony was standing in the front, already dressed in his red and gold suit, just without the helmet. Steve not standing too far behind him with his shield grasped in his hand. The others remained behind them, shock and fear written all over their faces.

"They have completely surrounded us." I told them all in a voice that I barely recognised. The cloudiness in my head increased and I struggled to keep control of my actions. A voice in my head was whispering for me to drop my hands, urging me to let the shield down. It sounded slightly like Strucker's voice, but I'm not sure if my brain was just tricking me to make it sound that way.

"I say we come up with a plan pretty quickly." Nat said, watching me carefully as I turned back around to face the forest. "I'm not sure how much longer she can hold that up."

There was more movement in the trees and two more hand grenades were thrown at my moment of distraction, breaking through the shield and creating two holes at the very top. I moved my hand slightly and began to patch up the first hole with more fire.

"Let the shield down and we will fight them." Thor spoke in an angry voice, his hammer swinging at his side, the sound reaching my ears, though I didn't turn back around.

"No." Replied Tony almost instantly. "Don't let it down Emily. We need a plan first." There was a thud on the ground in front of my shield and my eyes darted down just in time to see it explode. I gritted my teeth and dug my bare feet into the ground, holding my ground as my shield shuddered slightly. I continued to try and patch up the holes in the shield, my power wavering slightly.

"Are you okay Emily?" Nat asked and I gave her a curt nod. I raised my hand to fix the hole in the top of the shield, my breaths coming out in small pants, sweat dripping down my face from the heat of the fire. I saw something out of the corner of my eye and another hand grenade exploded over the top of my shield, raining debris through the hole in the top of the shield. Several of the avengers ducked out of the way and I struggled to draw the shield back together. My fire was wavering and my feet were beginning to slip in the soil.

Suddenly, green light barreled past me and broke straight though my barrier, leaving no damage. It captured another grenade before it could explode and threw it back to a different part of the forest where there were probably more HYDRA agents. I looked over my shoulder, slightly surprised, and saw Loki standing next to me with his palms holding green light. I gave him a curt nod and he gave me a small dip of his head before a shower of bullets began to penetrate my shield. I locked my knees and strengthened my shield, despite the feeling of my energy fading. I looked back over to the tree line and saw HYDRA agents beginning to pour out of the tree line. Someone swore from behind us, probably Tony, and Steve didn't even bother to correct him. Wanda appeared on the other side of me and held out her hands, adding her own power to my slowly failing shield.

"You need to get away from here." She told me loudly over the sound of the guns and yelling of HYDRA. "It is too dangerous for you here. Loki can teleport you away somewhere where is it safer."

"No." I said simply, my strong voice becoming strained. "I am not going anywhere."

"Emily.." Steve interrupted, stepping forward. "They will take you again."

"I can fight them." I took a deep breath to steady my voice. I looked over at Wanda when I saw her stumble slightly out of the corner of my eye, but as soon as I looked away, my concentration broke. Several bullets that were raining down on us broke through one of my parts of the shield and hurtled towards me before I could even register what was happening. Loki darted in front of me, his back to the bullets, and covered us both in a shield.

"Emily." He whispered, looking down at me from where my face was almost touching his chest. "We can't fight them, they are too strong. We are outnumbered."

"We are stronger than we think." I shook my head, the tiniest bit of emotion leaking into my almost monotone voice. I stepped away from him, walking straight through my shield. The Avengers yelled out to me, trying to get me to stop, but I ignored them.

The nagging in my head urged me to keep going, so I pushed on through the fire shield, letting Loki and Wanda hold it up around the Avengers. I created my own around myself without even thinking about it, and the bullets bounced off harmlessly as I walked steadily towards the middle of the Barton's backyard, which looked more like a battle field now. I stopped and slowly turned around in a circle as I watched all of the HYDRA agents slowly stalking towards me, guns raised as they continued to fire. All of their faces were hidden by strong black masks, but I could see in their movements that some of them were afraid of me. I smirked and took in a deep breath, summoning up every emotion I had and creating a large ball of flame. I threw my hands outwards and slowly spun around again, immediately turning all of the agents within a five metre radius of me to ash on the burnt ground. The amount of bullets being fired dropped dramatically and Loki and Wanda dropped the shield around the Avengers, letting them run towards the new wave of HYDRA agents, which was significantly less than the first wave.

"That was incredibly stupid." A voice spoke from above me, and I looked up slightly to see Tony flying in his red and gold suit, killing agents with some sort of light coming out of his palm.

"You're welcome." I replied, ducking as an agent threw another hand grenade at me, which Wanda trapped in a ball of her power and destroyed before it could explode on me. I gave her a curt nod and sent fire barreling towards the responsible agent, who was soon a pile of ash.

I looked around again and saw that the number of HYDRA agents were continuing to drop off rapidly. There was a third wave arriving now, but it was only about twenty agents, and they were all dead within two minutes. All of the avengers were busy and thankfully none of them seemed to be injured too badly, Nat had a small graze on her chin and Thor had a cut on his arm, but that was it. We seemed to be actually winning.

Well, we thought we were going good.

That was until Bucky appeared, stalking out of the tree line with HYDRA agents behind him.

He was dressed in a leather top, with the left sleeve torn off to expose his shining silver arm that had a red star on the shoulder. He had a small utility belt around his waist and tough black leather pants over the top of sturdy looking boots. In his right hand he had a big gun and loaded it as we approached. I heard Steve let out a tired breath from nearby and I readied my stance, drawing up more fire as he continuing to stalk towards us. He first aimed the gun at Nat, who's back was turned, and Steve responded with fast reflexes, throwing his shield to the side and deflecting all of the bullets Bucky fired. Nat spun around and her eyes widened as she spotted Bucky, but she quickly recovered, aiming her gun and firing rapidly at him. He just held up his metal arm and all of the bullets bounced off.

The HYDRA agents behind him spread out, but most of them were only holding daggers, causing them to be killed in the first couple of seconds from the guns Nat had, Clint's arrows or my fire. I watched them crumble into ash, the breeze stirring up their remains and I watched them blow away. Suddenly Steve yelled out to me.

"Emily! Incoming!" I looked over my shoulder sharply just in time to see Bucky throw him to the side as Steve tried to block him from me. Steve managed to break his fall with his shield, but couldn't stop Bucky as he picked me up by my throat with his metal hand. It was freezing against my skin and I heated up my whole body, trying to burn him before foolishly realizing I couldn't since his hand was metal. I kicked out at him, only for my bare feet to hit the solid bulletproof vest. I instead punched him square in the jaw, leaving a burn mark. He clenched his jaw, throwing me roughly onto the ground, causing everything to turn back for a couple of seconds.

It must have changed something in me because when I could see again, the orange from my eyes was gone and my fire had completely disappeared from my skin. Something picked me up from the ground and I struggled in the grip, kicking and thrashing as I tried to summon up my fire. All I got was a sudden wave of exhaustion that hit me like a bus and caused me to suddenly become lightheaded. I felt cool metal against my skin and I looked over my shoulder to see that it was Bucky with his hands around my neck as he walked me away from the battle field.

"Bucky." I gasped for air, trying to pry his fingers away from my throat, but without much luck. "Please, it's me."

He didn't say anything and kept marched forward to the tree line where I could begin to see numerous HYDRA agents watching, big black vans parked everywhere. I struggled harder in Bucky's grip, trying to kick the back of his knees as he walked.

"Bucky." I begged, my stomach churning from the lack of oxygen I was taking in.

"Замолчи." He growled, tightening his grasp on my neck. My brain immediately translated what he said. "Shut up."

"Let her go!" Yelled a voice and Bucky suddenly stopped, both of us looking up to see Tony in the air, his hand held out, ready to fire at Bucky. I tried desperately again to pry his fingers away, but he only tightened his grip until I wasn't able to breathe in any oxygen.

Suddenly, as my vision slowly began to fade, I saw something green hit Bucky, causing him to stumble backward and drop me to the ground. Loki immediately teleported over to me as my head hit the ground quite hard, causing me to see starts. I gasped for air and slowly sat up with his help, But before he could grab me to teleport me away, there was a whooshing sound through the air and a blade plunged itself into his chest, causing him to fall backwards. I tried to yell out his name but my throat felt like it had collapsed on itself. Something snatched me up against and I lashed out, only to have a cloth pressed against my mouth and nose. It was sweet smelling, but was blocking my own source of air and in a couple of seconds, everything had disappeared into black.