For Makenzie, whom I love more than life itself. 3

When the rounds come screaming overhead, promising death in shrill tones, Steve doesn't even hesitate to grab whoever's closest—it's Charlie, this time—and hurl them both down into the ditch on the side of the road. Despite Steve's quick movements, the close proximity of the blast still knocks out his hearing for several terrifying seconds. Even once it returns Steve spends a few disoriented moments in panic, because all he can hear is gibberish.

A moment later, he realizes that the gibberish is just Charlie swearing violently in what Steve assumes is Gaelic, so at least he hasn't sustained any brain damage.

Gunfire and more mortar rounds sound from above them. Steve grasps blindly for his gun, shaking his head to try and get rid of the incessant ringing in his ears, and struggles to his knees. Sameer, the Chief, and Diana are all still out there, and Steve prays they were able to get out of the way before the rounds hit the road.

Charlie swears again. Thankfully it's in English this time.

"Well, this wasn't supposed t'have happened at all!" the marksman shouts, rolling to his knees. "Just dumb luck, eh? Think the others r'alright?"

"They've got Diana with them," Steve says in answer, and immediately the tension that had been evident in Charlie's expression eases slightly. They trust Diana more than anyone else in the whole army. If anyone can keep the rest of their team safe, it's her.

The village they'd been travelling through on their way to their next assignment had been occupied by allies, and blindly Steve's team had assumed that would allow them safe passage. They should have known better. The germans always find a way to attack where they're least wanted.

Finally, finally the allies posted in nearby buildings begin to return fire. From the safety of the ditch Steve can't quite tell where the enemy is coming from, so he sucks in a deep breath and takes a risk, poking his head out into open air. He watches for as long as he dares, getting a bead on the opening the Germans are pouring in from, before diving back down into safety.

Relaying Charlie the information and joining the defenders in returning fire is muscle memory at this point. This isn't their mission, but Steve won't sit by and let an outpost get overrun just because that isn't his job.

Charlie shoots this time. Steve knows there'll be consequences for it. Charlie sees every man that he kills in his dreams, and they chase him in his mind unceasingly and rip him to pieces every time he closes his eyes. Right now Charlie's hands are steady and his eyes are sharp, but he'll fall to pieces tonight just as he always does (assuming they even survive that long). Steve hopes his teammate will be able to hold out long enough to drive the Germans back.

"Tank!" someone suddenly screams out. This time Steve is the one to swear, diving back down to safety—and just in time, too, because the moment he does the massive explosion tears through the ranks. A house behind them explodes, sending shards of rock and brick whistling through the air. Steve gasps as the tiny shrapnel cuts into his skin, leaving streaks of blood behind. A body flies past them as well. The unfortunate man's shoulders are too broad for it to be Diana or Sameer, and the skin color is too light for it to be the Chief. Steve feels a stab of relief before he realizes what he's doing, and then he's almost sick with guilt.

"Steve. Steve!" Charlie cries, jolting Steve from his stupor, and when the spy glances up he sees that Charlie is smiling. The expression is so out of place that Steve blinks at him in flat incomprehension for a second, and then he's scrambling to peer out of the ditch and see what his friend is pointing at.

The tank, an A7V, german-crafted, is trundling forward. Steve fails to see what's so good about this until Charlie outright laughs, lowering his gun.

"Ah, they're gonna get it now. I'm glad it's not me, the poor lads," Charlie crows, and he doesn't sound sorry at all. Steve still doesn't understand, but before he can ask for clarification, a blur of red, blue, and black shoots past them.

Diana.

She hits the tank at top speed, and the metal plates fold like napkins. Metal screeches in protest, but Diana doesn't even slow down. She tosses the crumpled steel aside and draws her sword.

Steve doesn't blame the Germans at all for running, but of course, Diana isn't going to stand for that. She goes tearing after them, and Steve knows they've won, for now.

He climbs out of the ditch, offering a hand to Charlie, who takes it. They clamber out of their pocket of safety, but once they emerge, there's no one left to fight. Diana is hot on the heels of the retreating attackers, and the Germans are too busy sprinting away to even think about continuing their attack.

At his side, Charlie sighs and lowers his rifle.

"So much for being discreet," he mutters thickly, and Steve laughs.

The haze of otherworldly awe that always settles over soldiers whenever Diana takes to the field is fading. Now that the majority of the men have oogled over Steve's teammate for a bit reality crashes back in, and Steve jolts when he hears the shouts of alarm behind him.

One of the homes that the allied forces had been using to house their men is on fire, a victim of the single shot the tank had gotten off before Diana turned it into scrap metal. Men are still in there, and some of them are trapped—it's a four-story building, too. Sparks are beginning to fly, and men are assembling to catch anyone who dares to make the jump to safety.

Then, as Steve watches, a small head pokes out of a fourth-story window. Steve almost doesn't see him in time, but then the fez falls, landing in the dust and getting crumpled beneath heavy boots.

Steve drops his gun and runs.

"Sameer!" He has to bellow to be heard above the crackling flames and shouting men. "Sameer, what are you doing?"

Sameer waves at him frantically. His mouth is moving, but Steve can't make out his words through all the noise. Charlie swears as he comes up next to him.

"What's the lad trying to say?" Charlie asks. "Just jump already, we'll catch you!" He lifts his hands in an attempt to mime the suggestion. Sameer sees it, but he shakes his head. He disappears back into the building, and returns a moment later, dropping a small object out the window that spirals as it makes it's way to the ground.

A feather.

"The Chief is up there, too," Steve realizes. "He's probably unconscious or something if he hasn't stuck his head out yet, and Sameer isn't strong enough to carry him."

Smoke is starting to pour out of the window Sameer is waving at them from, and Steve winces when he sees their friend double over, hands clasped to his mouth as his whole body shakes from coughs.

He makes a split-second decision without thinking about it, because if he thinks about it he'll freeze up in terror.

"I'm going in," he tells Charlie. "Stay here." He runs for the entrance, but footsteps sound behind him, and Charlie smacks his arm as they run.

"Idiot, you think I'd leave you t'do this alone? Not a chance," Charlie mutters. Someone tries to stop them as they power through the crowd, but they don't even spare him a second glance, weaving around him and racing into the burning building.

Steve is going to classify this as just about the stupidest thing he's ever done, which is saying something, but at least he's running into a burning building for a good cause.

They still have a mission to complete this week, after all, and they can't do that if half of their team goes up in smoke.

The instant they step inside the building a wave of heat and smoke crashes over them. Steve coughs almost immediately, squinting through the haze wildly in search of the staircase. Fortunately, it's concrete and not completely destroyed, but there's still a sea of flames between them, so Steve grits his teeth and runs for it.

Fire licks at his heels and skin. Burning hot embers are everywhere, and for once in his life he's grateful for the heavy-duty army boots that he's forced to wear—they protect his feet from the worst of the heat and allow him to make the dangerous trek up the first set of stairs.

The second floor is no better than the first. Charlie takes the lead this time, picking the safest path through the wreckage. About halfway across, the floor beneath Steve's friend's feet caves in. Charlie cries out, and Steve dives for him as he drops, frantically grasping for Charlie's flailing hands.

He catches him—barely. Charlie yelps in horror when he looks down to see a literal swamp of fire beneath him, and the flames are growing higher and higher. Steve groans as he pulls his teammate to safety, muscles straining, and even once Charlie's back on semi-solid ground it takes all of Steve's willpower not to just collapse right there.

The fire is still coming. They exchange a half-determined and half-terrified stare before bolting for the second staircase, ducking beneath a crumbling beam as they do.

The third floor is blaze-free, but the smoke is thick, and clings to them like some sort of dark spirit. They waste no time in making their way up to the fourth floor, and it is there that they find their missing companions.

Sameer looks so relieved that he could cry. He nearly launches himself at Steve when they clamber up the staircase, barely restraining himself in time.

"My friends, I am so happy to see you!" he cries out. "The Chief is hurt, I can't—I couldn't—"

"It's alright, Sameer," Steve reassures him quickly, kneeling next to the Chief's sprawled form. There's a large cut on his head, but other than that their friend seems fine. "We'll have to carry him, and we can't waste any time." He kneels to grab the Chief under the arms. Charlie and Sameer grab the legs, and the three of them carefully maneuver their unconscious friend down the first staircase—only to find that the third floor has caught on fire as well.

"Looking back, this was a pretty bad idea," Steve mutters to himself, "but what else would we have done?"

The building is creaking around them ominously, and none of them have a single clue how they're going to get out of this alive. Not even running for a window is an option anymore, so in desperation Steve begins to turn.

"Back to the fourth floor!" he yells, tugging the Chief's body with him—

And completely fails to notice the beam that suddenly falls, hitting him right in the back of his head. Steve drops his half of the Chief as his vision swims, and he staggers unsteadily. Sameer and Charlie shout to him in panic as he sways dangerously close to the edge of their safe platform.

Steve coughs, and spits blood from his mouth—he'd bitten his lip on the impact.

"Steve? Steve!" Charlie is shouting, but his voice sounds distant and tinny, and ow, Steve's pretty sure he has a concussion now because his limbs are not obeying his commands. He tries to rise back to his full height, but the world tips and lists lawlessly, and he almost falls again.

This is bad. This is really bad. The heat and the smoke combined is stifling, and they're all fighting for every breath they take, sucking in thick smoke along with the little oxygen that's survived this long.

A hand hits his back, and suddenly Sameer is in front of him, waving a hand frantically in his face. Steve's eyes try to track the movement, but they're slow and jerky, and Sameer's face falls. Steve grabs at his hand.

"Leave me," he hisses out. "Leave me, take Chief, and go."

Sameer shakes his head, the stubborn idiot, so Steve squeezes his arm to try and make him understand.

"I can't. Move," he grits out, but again Sameer shakes his head.

"We aren't… anywhere… so that… the Chief and...you," he says, but Steve only catches half of what he says because the floor beneath them begins to crumple right as he speaks.

They're doomed if they stay. Steve pushes at Sameer weakly.

"Go," he growls. "Go, get out of here!"

Sameer leans closer, right next to Steve's ear. "Not a chance," his teammate says fiercely, and Steve's heart sinks. His friends are far too loyal, far too brave, and they'd never abandon one of their own. It's going to get them killed.

They huddle on the concrete staircase in silence for a few agonizing moments, and Steve is starting to feel his consciousness slipping away. The room falls in flames around them, and dimly Steve realizes that this is a much dumber way to go out than he thought he would.

The world is beginning to flicker. Sameer presses closer into his side comfortingly, almost cuddling into him, and half-deliriously Steve appreciates the contact, leaning his head back and watching as the sparks spiral past, stinging his skin.

He watches through slitted eyes as the ceiling is completely torn away. The sight should fill him with awe, or fear, but he blinks up at it mutely for a few long moments, unable to comprehend it in his concussed state.

She descends like an angel, throwing aside burning debris like it's nothing. Sparks flutter past her, and Steve's breath, constricted as it is, hitches.

Diana is ethereal, a goddess from another world, and with the fire swirling around her and sparks drifting past, she's more glorious than anything else he could even imagine.

She lands beside them, and tries to speak to him, but Steve doesn't comprehend it—he's having a hard time comprehending anything at the moment. Charlie has to answer her, screaming over the burning building, and Diana looks back at him in concern before he face shifts into something determined. She pulls Steve up and slings him onto her back, like he's a little kid (a fact that Steve would ordinarily be mortified by but at this point he's too out of it to care and clings to her desperately). She stoops and pulls the Chief into her arms next, hefting him as if he weighs little more than the feathers he likes to wear in memory of his homeland.

She barks something to Charlie and Sameer, who grab ahold of her body as tightly as they can—it's near impossible for them to actually hurt her like that, they'd found out earlier—and then Diana jumps.

They fly into the air, and despite his incoherency the motion still makes Steve's stomach roll, because suddenly they're soaring high enough to be hit by low-flying planes and even though Diana is beneath him, that's terrifying. Sameer and Charlie are screaming as Diana reaches the peak of her jump, and far, far below them, the burning building crumples to the ground.

Then, they're descending, and Diana is picking up speed.

She's carrying four people, and can't control her descent as well with the extra weight—but even then she somehow manages to cushion them as they hit the earth, flinging Sameer and Charlie sideways to get rid of the dangerous momentum and curling her own body around both Steve and the Chief.

They hit the ground, and it creates an actual shockwave. Steve's already dimming vision flickers, and he must lose consciousness for a few minutes because when he wakes up Diana is standing over him, eyes wide in concern.

"Steve, are you alright?" she asks, and Steve coughs painfully, wincing at the painful jolt that runs through his body. His lungs ache, his head hurts, and his limbs still aren't obeying him right, but at least he can sit up this time.

"I… I will be," he says hoarsely, and then flinches in terror, because what happened to the rest of his team?

"Diana," he groans out, "where are Charlie and the others?"

Diana grins, and points. Steve follows her gesture and snorts when he sees that all three of their teammates are in one piece. The Chief is awake, finally, but Charlie and Sameer are basically crushing him and are showing absolutely zero signs of moving. The Chief doesn't seem bothered by this—there's a long-suffering expression on his face that speaks of endless patience and tolerance. Steve exhales hard in relief, and coughs again. Diana shifts closer, peering at him in concern.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asks, placing both hands on his shoulders. "We will rest for a few days before we continue to allow you four to recover regardless, but—"

"It's just a concussion," Steve tells her, and his body leans toward her almost on it's own. She smells like metal and smoke, and it shouldn't work for her but it does, and it's a little weird but Steve can't bring himself to care.

He tries to stand, and that's a mistake, because he falls—Diana is there to catch him, and picks him up bridal style.

"Diana," he moans, because now that they aren't in a life-or-death situation for her to pick him up like that is embarrassing… also, Charlie wolf-whistles somewhere in the background, but Diana ignores his squirming.

"You need rest," she says, and there's a hint of amusement in her tone. She's enjoying his suffering. He says as much accusingly, and she laughs again.

"Perhaps I am," she says. "But you do need rest, Steve. You're falling asleep even as you speak to me, did you even realize it?"

Steve… hadn't realized it, but now that she's pointed it out he can feel his eyelids drooping. Diana starts to walk, and Steve hates to admit it, but the back-and-forth motion is soothing, and only makes him want to submit to the pull of unconsciousness more.

But—he can't sleep yet. The base was just attacked, what if someone needs him, what if something goes wrong? What if the Germans return—?

"You're alright, Steve. Sleep. I will wake you if you are needed," Diana reassures, reading his mind as usual. Steve lets his body go limp in her arms (arms that he watched crush a tank earlier, and that should scare him but it doesn't).

"Promise?" he asks, and she smiles again.

"I promise," she replies. There's a thousand things that could be going wrong in this moment, and Steve can't help but worry—

But he's in Diana's arms, and she's promised to wake him if needed. He's not going to get any safer than he is with her around, anyway, and he knows she'll keep watch over the rest of her team as well.

He lets his eyes close.

He knows Diana will protect him while he rests.