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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
flip the switch
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"SO, YOU LIKE cats," Sam's voice cut into the silence in the transport vehicle, pulling Diana's attention away from the hum of the machine in her ear. She felt drained, like her will to live was sucked out of her body leaving her as a husk of someone she used to be. Her shaky hands couldn't produce the energy she didn't realize she missed.

She hoped that she wouldn't have to wear this stupid thing for long, otherwise she would be making it everyone's problem.

"Sam." Steve chided, he didn't seem too keen on making conversation with the man that attempted to kill Bucky on a rooftop. Diana avoided the royalty's gaze, she knows Bucky didn't bomb that meeting, but she doesn't think she'll be able to convince T'Challa about that.

"What?" Sam defended himself, "Dude shows up dressed like a cat and you don't wanna know more?"

"Your suit," Steve looked over his shoulder past Diana and at T'Challa, "It's Vibranium?"

There was a silence, Diana finally brought herself to look over her shoulder to look at the man, assessing his features, his dark eyes narrowed as he looked back, his dark skin wrinkling when he did this.

"The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle, passed from warrior to warrior. And now, because your friend murdered my father, I also wear the mantle of king." Diana looked back, not wanting him to see her reaction, she knows Bucky didn't do it, so do Sam and Steve, this lockup won't last long if she can convince whoever ordered this collar to get it removed, "So, I ask you, as both warrior and king: how long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?"

They began to head underground, they were getting close to their destination, they were already in Berlin. Dianas back ached and her neck was stiff. There was an itch that she couldn't reach due to how tall the collar was and it irritated her. She also knew that she probably didn't understand electricity well because she was curious as to why her hair wasn't standing on end. It didn't matter. The silence that T'Challa's words left them in made her uncomfortable.

"I had a cat once," Diana said, "She's dead though."

No one got the chance to answer that, the transport truck came to a stop and they were released. Diana leaned back when she stepped out, stretching the sore muscles of her back as the feeling went back to her legs. As she twisted around in her same position, she watched as Bucky's pod was being lifted by a forklift.

Diana figured a long time ago that she stopped holding back from her impulses due to not being able to do anything she wants ever. She didn't regret drawing a heart in the air while maintaining her eye contact with Bucky. She didn't regret pointing at him and giving him a wink right after. But when she turned to face the men she was arrested with, she thought she was maybe supposed to regret it, but she couldn't bring herself to.

The look on T'Challa's face made Diana avert her gaze from him, her face flushing. His brows were pinched together, his stare was cold and calculating with his lips turned down in a disgusted and disapproving frown. Diana hoped that after all this, she could convince T'Challa of the truth. But right now she wanted these cuffs off and this collar thrown in the trash.

A nudge in her side from an officer had her joining the men, as they walked, their cuffs were removed, even Dianas, but they still kept the collar on her. When she lifted her hand to point at the device, a shock went through her. Making her yelp as she grabbed onto Sam's arm for support. She saw stars in her vision and tears pricked her eyes. She was slowly finding her footing. A fresh wave of anger washed over her as she scanned the officers around her to see if any of them held a remote.

"Ease off her!" Sam scolded, he was looking around too, his glare seemed to make some of the officers avert their gaze.

He had a protective arm around her middle, helping her stay upright as they approached Sharon who stood next to a man with gray hair and a suit to match, two officers armed with full-body protective gear stood behind them.

"What's gonna happen to him?" Steve asked about Bucky.

"Same thing that ought to happen to you," The man answered with a quickness, his judgemental stare grazed over everyone but mainly stuck to Steve, "Psychological evaluation and extradition."

"Sharon, who is this nerd?" Diana croaked out as she slowly stood on her own two feet, her knees shaky. She still felt weak and she hated it.

"This is Everett Ross," Sharon looked at Diana with wide eyes as if to say, 'Why the fuck would you say that?' "Deputy Task Force Commander."

A lump formed in Diana's throat as she looked at the man with wide eyes, a smug expression was returned to her when she did but she never faltered. She had to stick by what she said now. He did look like a nerd anyway.

"What about our lawyer?" Steve asked as if Diana didn't just insult the man.

"Lawyer." Ross scoffed, his focus back on Steve now, "That's funny. See their weapons are placed in lockup. Oh, we'll write you a receipt."

"I better not look out the window and see anybody flying around in that," Sam warned, making Diana snort as she glanced at him. She understood the sentiment, she didn't want anyone playing around with her chitauri spear. They had even emptied her pockets of all her favorite rocks.

In fact, when they took her suit, they only left her in what she could only call a gray wife-beater tank and jeans. They managed to get a hold of her converse but seemingly "lost" her clothes, which pissed her off.

They were led down a covered skywalk, the glass windows allowing in the natural lighting. Enough for Diana to watch Natasha begin her approach to them.

"You'll be provided with an office instead of a cell." Ross explained to them, "Now, do me a favor, stay in it?"

"I don't intend on going anywhere," T'Challa answered. Diana gave the man a nervous side-eye. She knew why. She really didn't want T'Challa near him until Bucky was able to defend himself properly.

"For the record, this is what making things worse looks like," Natasha spoke up from next to Steve who was in front of Diana. The redhead spared the blonde a disappointed glance but Diana didn't miss the glare at the collar on her neck.

"He's alive." Steve shrugged.

They were silent until they entered a room full of monitors. In the center of the room were glass offices with conference tables inside. Diana looked around at all the monitors until one with a particular view stopped her. It was across the room and she knew that she wasn't going to be allowed to be near it but it was enough from where she was. Bucky's stoic face was almost hidden by the way his hair fell on his face. His jacket was now gone, revealing the long sleeve that was pushed up to his elbows, revealing the contrast in his arms. Diana had to look away before she got zapped for staring at the monitor too long. She didn't want anyone thinking that she was planning on bolting to find him. She didn't even know what floor he was on.

"No. Romania was not Accords-sanctioned. And, Colonel Rhodes is supervising cleanup." Tony's voice cut through Diana's thoughts as she narrowed her focus onto the way he glared at her.

"Try not to break anything while we fix this," Natasha muttered to them as she walked off to join Tony who was clearly on the phone with the Secretary of State.

"Consequences? You bet there'll be consequences." Tony continued with his conversation, he glared at Steve this time when he said this, "Obviously you can quote me on that 'cause I just said it. Anything else? Thank you, sir."

Tony hung up with that. Diana raised her eyebrows after, watching the way that Tony stared at the collar on her neck. It seemed that most of the team weren't fans of her new piece of jewelry gifted by the government. Tony seemed almost ashamed of it. She wondered if he was going to do anything to get it removed for her.

"Consequences?" Steve repeated.

"Secretary Ross wants you three prosecuted." Tony explained, he shrugged as he did as he began to walk off, "Had to give him something."

"I'm not getting that shield back, am I?" Steve asked, humor in his tone.

"Technically, it's the government's property," Natasha called over her shoulder as she stayed with Tony, "Wings and spear, too."

"That's cold." Sam frowned. Diana scoffed in annoyance at the loss of her spear.

"Warmer than jail." Tony never lost his humor.

"Well I didn't get my alien spear from the government so this is just mean!" Diana's croaky voice called after the two as she walked over to the conference room that had the best view of Bucky. She didn't wait for a response, she knew she wouldn't like it.

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WHATEVER STEVE AND Tony discussed, it had a terrible damper on Steve's already bad mood. He was never the one to let it show, but Diana had known the old man long enough to know that there was only one cause of his cold stares and the ticking of his clenched jaw. He couldn't even greet Sam and Diana properly. She knew that he feared that if he tried, it wouldn't be genuine and would just look like he was yelling at them. Steve Rogers was the only man that Diana knew who could be the most polite even when he was livid.

In other circumstances, she would be cackling. But she couldn't keep her eyes off the monitor that showed Bucky. She had been keeping a light conversation with Sam so the two of them weren't bored. But she couldn't stop herself from sparing longer-than-usual glances at the monitor. She had no sound due to the glass wall but it was fine. No one was talking to Bucky yet.

"I just don't understand how you could be in a shock collar and cuffs and still manage to find yourself flirting with Bucky," Sam commented as he observed the way Diana watched the screen.

Diana felt her face burn as she looked over at her friend who was sitting in the chair next to her.

"Did you see how piercing his eyes were?" She asked lightly, side-eyeing Steve to make sure he wouldn't react negatively to her words, "Something about that blue takes me home."

Sam chuckled softly and nudged her arm. She smiled back and leaned back in her seat. Sharon had finally returned to them. Diana beamed a smile at the fellow blonde. Despite the circumstances, she felt this was the win scenario. There was no truly bad legal situation she couldn't argue herself out of, especially when Bucky proves his innocence.

"The receipt's for your gear." Sharon spoke up as she slid two pieces of paper onto the table. Sam passed the one meant for Diana to her.

Diana skimmed over it, smirking at the fact that they counted 86 rocks she had been carrying with her. When she found the spear listed, she relaxed a bit. She leaned back in her seat and looked at Sharon to see she had an amused look on her face. Diana assumed she had seen the 86 rocks that Diana had been carrying.

"Bird costume?" Sam exclaimed after looking up from his receipt, Diana failed at hiding the snort, resulting in a sharp glare, "Come on."

"I didn't write it." Sharon gave Sam an exasperated look before turning back to see Steve glaring at the glass wall, watching the same monitor that Diana couldn't remove her own gaze from. In her peripheral, Diana watched Sharon subtly tap a button in the machine on the table.

The image of Bucky was pulled up on the monitor in the room, they also now had audio. Diana gave Sharon a grateful look but didn't verbally express it, she had plausible deniability if the room was bugged.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions." The evaluator spoke, his accent was familiar, and Diana had a sneaking suspicion since the girl who lives across the half from her had the same one, "Do you know where you are, James? I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

Diana wasn't the only one who was suspicious, she spared a glance at Steve whose eyes were narrowed in a dissecting stare. Something wasn't right about this guy.

"Why would the Task Force release this photo to begin with?" He asked, looking back at Sharon.

"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" The woman shrugged.

"Right. It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding," Steve started, it made Diana begin to see the bigger picture as she looked up at the monitor again, the cameras angle showed both the doctor and bucky, Bucky didn't seem too keen on talking to him, Diana hoped the man didn't get too much out of the soldier, "Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier."

"You're saying someone framed him to find him," Sharon suggested. Diana slowly stood up as she glanced at Steve, he could see that she was catching on.

"Steve, we looked for the guy for two years and found nothing,' Sam argued.

"Do you bomb UN meetings in your free time, Sam?" Diana asked, looking over at him as best as she could with the collar restricting how far down she could look. Sam seemed to catch on after that.

"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him. It guarantees that we would..." Sharon faltered with her words, pausing to look over at the monitor. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion and it seemed that everyone in the room was on the same page.

"Yeah." Steve frowned, turning back to watch the monitor. That man wasn't supposed to be there, and Diana couldn't do anything about it yet. She couldn't even prove it yet beyond her gut feeling.

"Tell me, Bucky." The Doctor went on, "You've seen a great deal, haven't you?"

If he was going to patronize Bucky like this, he wasn't going to get very far with whatever information he wanted.

"I don't want to talk about it." Bucky's stern voice was a contrast to how he spoke to Steve and Diana in the apartment. It was dark, more gravely. It was a warning that the doctor should maybe shut up.

"You fear that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop. Don't worry." a sick feeling entered Diana's stomach as her mind connected dots that she wondered were really there, "We only have to talk about one."

What if he wasn't worried about patronizing Bucky, because he was only a HYDRA agent after the soldier that resided in the metal armed man in the pod. Seconds after the realization hit her, the power went out. The emergency generator kicked in to give power to the red flashing lights that were scattered through the building so people could see. In the dim light, Diana looked to Steve who was looking at Sharon. The woman seemed to be debating something internally before she approached Diana and tapped something on the collar.

The hum of electricity died in her ears, leaving a slight ringing in its place.

"Sub-level 5, east wing," Sharon muttered.

"I'm gonna tackle you to make this realistic," Diana muttered, the blonde only gave a slight nod before Diana used her whole body to knock the woman down before dashing off.

She didn't glance back at Sharon out of fear that it would look suspicious if she did. With the collar deactivated, it was like Diana had touched the mind stone all over again. Energy coursed through her veins, only this time she channeled it to make her go faster properly instead of allowing it to send her flying into a wall. A laugh escaped her throat despite her circumstances. To feel like she was whole again put a sense of joy in her that she hadn't ever felt before.

They approached the level and wing, a trail of bodies led to a barren room with an empty pod in it, the slumped figure of the doctor on the ground in front of the broken pod made Diana only even more suspicious.

"Help me." The Doctor called out weakly, "Help."

Steve ran towards the man, though by his body language, it wasn't because he cared for the man.

"Get up." Steve commanded, picking the man up easily and shoving him against the wall out of Diana's view, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Diana couldn't hear the man's answer but when Sam entered the room before her, she called out to him when Bucky appeared at his side and grabbed Sam by the jaw. Bucky threw the man over his shoulder, sending him towards a support beam in the pod. The impact knocked Sam out cold.

She sent a blast light enough to knock him over, grabbing the Winter Soldiers' attention. He spun around to glare at Diana and she felt her body stop cold in its tracks. She had earlier wondered why she didn't feel fear around Bucky despite everything. It was because he was a completely different person than the one she was looking at now. The murderous glare he held on her now made his eyes look darker than the dim flights usual effect.

Diana had to snap out of it. And she did. She grabbed a pencil that was haphazardly strewn on the floor earlier and she turned it into a pipe. Maybe if she hit Bucky in the head hard enough, he'll remember.

She charged at the Winter Soldier, her pipe raised to swing at him. She didn't want to energize the pipe out of fear of killing him. When he caught the pipe, she regretted her decision to hold back on him immediately because soon after, his metal hand found its way around her neck, shattering the collar as he threw Diana to the side as well.

She wished she could fly or had super strength like he an Steve did, because she only remembers the feeling of flying.

And she remembers Sam waking her up with his phone's flashlight in her eyes, making her blink and groan in response.

"Come on we gotta get out of here, the doctor is getting away." Sam spoke as he helped Diana up.

Without the collar on her neck, Diana was finally able to itch the scratch, and she was able to recover from that humiliating toss faster. The two were running now, Diana ignored the way she felt a crimson liquid drip down her neck to her collar bone and how her back slightly ached from being thrown into a concrete wall. Why was it always a concrete wall? Why not a padded one?

Considering most of the people who worked in the building didn't know how to handle an activated sleeper agent who was juiced up on super soldier serum and had a metal arm, a lot of people were evacuating. So was Sam and Diana, though they truly were only hunting down the man that had activated him. He had to answer for some things.

A jacket on the ground had caught Sam's attention before it caught Dianas. She only got a good look at it when he picked it up. Diana recognized it to be the jacket that the doctor wore in the interrogation room. He was in the wind, Diana didn't even get a good look at his face. She just had to hope that Steve, wherever he was, had better luck with the soldier.

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3.4K words.

damn, I'm really on the grind these days. Who am I???

this is very out of character and I'm probably gonna shut down soon and be non verbal for three days so I'm going to write as many chapters as I can so it's easier to recover.

we'll see if it works lol.

anyways !! another diana and bucky fight!!! can you believe they're love interests???? it's just wonderful, I love the "not really enemies to lovers" trope bc they don't wanna fight!! people just keep using his code words without his consent!!! bad zemo :(

the airport party is coming soon and i can't wait for y'all to see what i have planned and i can't wait for Diana to meet Peter and Scott because it's literally gonna be pure comedy gold

until the next update! love you all!!
-greta