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WHAT DOES THE
SHIELD
STANDS FOR?

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7th by 21st corner. 3rd floor. He's ready to go.

A text message hit the send option on the screen, followed by a beep and slight glow of the Kimoyo bead on the blonde's pocket. Czarina sat silent on the living room table, she pressed back the ice pack on her head as she chugs a bottle of Gatorade. Bucky may still be torn to let the Dora take custody of Zemo due to his assistance on the mission, but his daughter is most certain fulfilling the deal they had with the Dora Milaje. Zemo will be turned over before 4pm today, their eight hours is almost up.

"Were you ever offered it?"

Sam paused from typing on the laptop and turned to Zemo. "What?"

"The serum."

"No." Her uncle said right off the bat.

"If you had been, hypothetically, that is, would you have taken it?" The baron gets up from the laid down position.

"No."

"No hesitation. That’s impressive," Zemo grunted in pain. "Sam, you can’t hold out hope for Karli. No matter what you saw in her, she’s gone. And we cannot allow that she and her acolytes become yet another faction of gods amongst real people. Super Soldiers cannot be allowed to exist."

Sam can see the neutral expression on Czarina's face changing ever so slightly upon hearing the sentiment.

"Isn’t that how gods talk?" He shots back at the other man. "And if that’s how you feel, what about Bucky? Blood isn’t always the solution."

"Something’s not right about Walker." Her father walks in, visibly agitated, and heads straight to the kitchen counter.

"You don’t say."

"Well, I know a crazy when I see one. Because I am crazy." He picks up the bottle of liquor sitting nearby and pours one out to himself.

"Can’t argue with that."

"Shouldn’t have given him the shield."

"I didn’t give it." Sam defends himself, annoyed, once again.

"Well, Steve definitely didn’t." Bucky replied and took a swig from the glass. The front doors of the apartment pushed open and Walker along with Lemar march straight to the living room.

"All right. That’s it. Let’s go. I’m now ordering you to turn him over." The soldier in blue demanded with much confidence. He'll regret that later, their team won't be the one that will taking custody of Zemo today.

"Hey, slow your roll. Shield or no shield, the only thing you’re runnin’ in here is your mouth," Sam advices the other man as calm and politely as possible. "Now, I had Karli and you overstepped. He’s actually proven himself useful today. We’ll need all hands on deck for whatever’s comin’ next."

"How do you want the rest of this conversation to go, huh? Yeah," Walker chuckled softly, pure smugness coming off his tone. "Should I put down the shield? Make it fair?"

As soon as the soldier puts down the shield, a Vibranium spear flew from across the room and landed at the pillar next to him. The atmosphere around them immediately changed as Ayo and two Dora Milaje soldiers walks in.

Czarina could only drew closer to her father, who shots him a look of wonder and realization. "They were generous they even spoke to us after we freed their most wanted." She murmurs next to him.

"So you tell them where we are?"

"As I should. That's the deal isn't it?"

The older Barnes suppresses a grim look on his face and avoids the eyes of the Dora General.

"Even if he is a means to your end. Time’s up." Ayo declared in Wakandan, firm and final. "Release him to us now."

"Hi. John Walker. Captain America," Walker attempts to introduce himself, yet the women warriors could not care less of what he has to say.

"Well, let’s, uh, put down the pointy sticks and we can talk this through, huh?" He continued with a hint of mockery in his voice. Czarina can already see things going south for Walker if he continues to meddle on the business of Dora Milaje. It was a mistake of him coming here in the first place.

"Hey, John, take it easy. You might wanna fight Bucky before you tangle with Dora Milaje." It's a fair warning.

"They don’t have jurisdiction here…,"

"The Dora Milaje have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be." Ayo cuts off, her unfaltering gaze remained focus at the overconfident man.

"Okay," he chuckles, as if he finds the situation amusing. "Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot...,"

The moment John puts his hand on Ayo, chaos erupted on the quite living room. The two American soldiers got quickly engage in a combat with Ayo and her ladies. It was spur of spears against shields and pained grunts from the two unfortunate men who dare cross the Dora Milaje.

"We should do something." Sam says out of concern. Something Czarina will be glad to stay out of.

"Looking strong, John!"

"Bucky…,"

Whilst the other two walked in at the going fight, the blonde girl stayed by the distant corner of the room. Her eyes landed on Zemo, who's much like her is watching from behind, that's when she notices him taking advantage of the commotion.

"Hey!" She skipped on her feet, yelling to pay attention at the escaping man. "Hey! He's getting away!"

But everyone else on the room was preoccupied with holding their ground against their foe. Czarina made it a few feet away where Zemo was standing when she flung across the floor. Lemar's crumpled form lay next to her. "Shit!" She cursed angrily for hitting her, as soon as she reached the bathroom doors its locks click on. The girl hit and banged the frame but it was no use.

"Sukin syn!" Son of a bitch! When she turns around to see what the living room now has become, it was only the Dora Milaje who are still standing, ever so calm and spears in their hands. The other four men are scattered in different corners, defeated and weakened. Her father in particular whose metal arm lays on the floor.

Czarina shares a stunned look with Bucky in silence. They could do that? She mouthed.

"He is gone. Leave it." Ayo ordered, the other Dora drops the shield to Walker and the three women leaves without any second words.

"Did you know they could do that?" Sam asks as he stands up from the floor.

Bucky picked up the synthetic arm and attaches it with an ease, it whirs back to life as he twist it back into place. "No."

Both Walker and Lemar carried an intense stare at the three of them before finally leaving the room. Sam walks in the bathroom to check closely of Zemo's escape.

"I can’t believe he pulled an El Chapo."

"I can. Come on."

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Ever since Ayo spoke to them about breaking out Zemo in jail, Czarina's head has been a mess more than it usually is. She thinks of the Wakandans. How Shuri and Queen Ramonda received it when they learned about the betrayal of their trust. Now that Zemo has escaped, it's a new kind of trouble for them.

She worries about the growing threat of Flagsmashers as well. Pursuing them really made things more chaotic. Is the US government is aware of her exploits on the past few days? Does Attorney Banner and the university knows of her whereabouts? Maybe it was all a mistake pushing her luck to go on a major mission because of a hunch. She saw a vague connection of her deceased brother to an extremist faction and jumped the gun. Now she has what she wanted to know, and it doesn't even have significant ties to Flagsmashers. So why is she still going along with this?

Enough. Her mind screamed to her. She's more than capable of taking responsibility for her actions. It was a choice to go along, she knew the stakes and still hopped country to country with her father and uncle at every given chance. She can't afford to be a dead weight now, not when they are this close.

"She said what?" Sam exclaims, sounding alarmed while on his phone. "Right. Hold on, hold on. I know, I know. Listen, pack an overnight bag and take the boys."

Czarina's attention was quick to turn on the conversation.

"What happened?"

"Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews."

The girl can swear she felt her stomach drop when she heard what Karli had done. This has been going too far and too long, and now she just made it personal.

"Okay. Go somewhere safe. Only pay cash. All right?" He reminds his sister, the man tries his best to remain settled despite the situation. Yet extreme distress spills out in his expression.

"Let me know when you get there. I know. Look, I love you. I’ll never let anything happen to you and the boys," Sam assures Sarah on the line one more time. "Okay. Bye."

The three of them halted their walk on the side of the road. "Karli wants to meet. She left a contact number," her uncle turns to them. His phone chimed in with a new text message.

"She said come alone."

Even before they spoke, two Barnes shared a mutual understanding that it's not a good choice to let Sam meet up with Karli alone. Though an foreign urge inside Czarina seem to leave an option to walk away instead. But she didn't bother to pay attention to it.

"I’m coming with you." Bucky declared with finality.

"Me too."

Her father turns to her with a very concerning look, any lightness in his expression is long gone. "No. I'm going, because it's not safe for Sam to be alone. But you don't need to go there anymore."

"Look, Rei. As much as you can help us, it's too dangerous for you to be there," Sam was quick to agree with his partner. "The air force has a base nearby, I can call up Torres so they can pick you up and stay there for a while."

"I know, understand. It's just—," You can walk away now. You have a chance. "I won't go with the two of you when you meet with her, but I'll stay nearby. Please, just incase things go south. I don't want to sit in some far away base when the Flagsmashers has the both of you surrounded."

"Please, I'll stay on the building grounds where you're meeting her."

Satisfied with the arrangement the two men nodded at her. "Okay, but stay far from any fight as much as possible. Let's go."

Karli's meeting place is by the rooftop of the North Plaza. Czarina stayed behind on the outside grounds, blended with other civilians but strapped in incase a bigger fight ensues. Her line of communication is open and ready as well so they can contact back up.

You're staying behind. This is better than risking yourself as collateral damage. She repeats to herself.

"Hey, Sam, new Cap is moving," Sharon informs them over the comms. "Looks like he’s found them, or maybe they found him."

"It’s Walker."

Connecting punches and a couple of groans can be heard from the line before Sam speaks again. "I’ll send you the location. Go!" He shouts at Bucky. "Czarina stay where you are, don't engage. Don't enter the building!"

The comms went off on a click before she could even reply. They are in a fight already, it always leads to that. As the silence gathered around her the flood of troubling thoughts hit once again. On the top of it is the idea of nine radicalized supersoldiers hellbent to achieve what they believe in. That sounds oddly familiar. No wonder Zemo has such apathy towards her. Or perhaps the idea she represents.

A lifetime ago the Soviets created her, then HYDRA got a hold of her and then it was the rogue Avengers. Each time she fought for very different beliefs, but with one thing in common: survival. Who knows which people she'll fight for the next in order to survive. That must terrify the man. But it's not like she had a choice in the first place to be a supersoldier, she was born that way. Even she hated it because how every ugly and twisted thing in her life is rooted on the serum that flows on her veins. The thing that convinced the Red Room not to rid of her and Levi. It kept them alive in the worst way possible. And now her brother is dead because of sickness caused by the attempts to upgrade their serum.

It might be only a matter of time before hers comes back. The world plays a cruel joke of her life time and time again.

She was pulled back from the deep thinking when a trail of hurried footsteps sounded from the exit of the building. All the members of Flagsmashers are on a panic run to escape.

"Oh shit!" Czarina stood from the mini stairwell she's leaning against. "They are on the gates! Left wing, I can see three of them."

"Stay where you at, Rei," Sam warns her in a dead serious tone by the comms. "There's too many of them. One of them just took down Lemar. These people are out to kill."

Czarina opened her mouth to answer yet no words came out of it. Hoskins was just killed inside, that's why they are fleeing. Hoskins, partner and brother in arms to Walker. Fuck. The whole thing just went south worse than any of them can imagine. Just as the girl was about to walk back in to meet her partners, the glass window in the distance from where she stands shattered and a man in blue came bursting out.

Walker landed right at the minivan down the window, shield in hand and a rage in his eyes that brought chills on Czarina's spine. Their gaze met for a quick moment before he turned his attention back at what he's chasing after. He may have only looked at her briefly yet she knew exactly what his stare meant. Stay out of it.

Her mind race for a better judgement call in such a short period, but the natural instincts of a soldier in Czarina flipped in no time. Without missing a beat she charged towards the chaos. The only thing in her mind being the blank and empty eyes of John Walker when he saw the Flagsmasher boy in the black jacket.

"Walker! Stop!" She screamed. Her call fell deaf to his ears. He needs to stopped, for himself and the rest.

With batons in hands, Czarina parkoured herself against a parked car to gain a jump towards the man. She wrapped both her legs around his upper torso and brought a baton shock on his neck. It phased him a bit but it wasn't enough, he grabbed the girl by the shoulder and tossed her frontwards with a heavy strength. Czarina landed a few feet from him.

"John, stop. You're gonna kill someone!"

"Get out of my way, Barnes!" He shouted and angled the shield against her, she caughts it in time but her grip was weak. Walker pulls it back and engages Czarina into a hand to hand combat with a shield, he can maneuver it with such ease and intensity. Shit. What have you done? It was only then she realized Walker must have taken the serum by now.

"If he gets away, I'm killing you too." The man snatches away the shield between the two of them and flung it forward, not at Czarina's but on the direction where the lone Flagsmasher member is headed. It ricochets back on his arm, he then hits back the girl on the side twice. She blocks the third with a single baton and jabs the other one on Walker's chest.

The shield once again gets in between them, this time Walker has the better hold of it. Czarina lets it push against her and brings the two batons at the same time on the sides of his neck. Hot white electricity flowing through it. What she failed to notice was the weapon concealed under the shield, it was seconds away from being fired when the girl heard its clang against the metal. In short, it was too late.

With the final attempt to save herself, she grabbed his wrist and pushed it down towards the cave of the shield. Her mind feels like beating against its own skull, disassociating and so focused at the same time.

And then two shots rang. The blue and silver metal bloomed with crimson, darker than the shade of the red circles decorating its sides.

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The first time Czarina died she was fourteen, in the real years, summer of 1992. Some idiot girl from her sparring class decided it was fun to test the rumors of her being an immortal. They push her head first from the second floor window of the academy building. Cracked her skull open and broke all her ribs, she was breathing again five minutes later. After two days all she had were pink scars and cuts instead of huge stitches.

Maybe the immortal girl was real after all. She didn't felt invincible though, the discovery only made her feel hollow to her core. She can't die. No matter how much they hurt her, her body will only snap back in shape. Back again to be tormented and abused.

The last time Czarina died felt only six months ago. She dissolved into dust in her mother's arms, the woman cradled her in a hopeless comfort just like how she did the first time she held the girl as a newborn. It was the most frightening death she experienced yet she never felt that safe before. She could only wish it could be like that again this time.

The colors and sounds spread all over her, after what felt like an eternity in the void she can finally make sense of what's going on around her. Czarina laid flat against the warm asphalt ground, eyes open and unresponsive against the low sun of the afternoon. She can't feel anything from above waist and down. Her breaths are shallow and slow as if all the air has escaped her lungs.

Bucky screamed for his daughter and scooped up her limp form on his arms, Sam called for a bus to the hospital over the comms. Neither of the two cared for the culprit who fled the scene with a bloodied shield.

It was all ringing and distorted on the girl's ears. Her father's frightened voice, the civilians shouting for help, the ambulance sirens and the medical team barking commands as she is wheeled in the operating room.

As Czarina starts to lose consciousness, the hollowness she felt the first she drew her last breath lingers inside her once again.

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  ASHA'S NOTES !

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Two more TFATWS episodes to cover and we are close to the end! I feel like I got my writing mojo back (for now) since I finished writing this chap in a span of a day. And I'm halfway on the second chapter as well.

This is a bit of cliffhanger but just hang in there the next chapters will be juiciest ones, I have planned a lot of things and I can't for y'all to see it!! Please, feel free to interact with this book. Don't be shy to comment and talk to me!