When Sparks Fly

Karli

I walk into the building, leaving the boys to either wait or tear each other apart. I'm hoping they can all calm down long enough to just sit and wait for me to get this done, but I'm not sure what I can do since John only gave me ten minutes. I walk around the building finding an open window, when I look down I see a group of people, what I'm assuming is Donya's memorial. There is also a young woman talking while holding a child, "I don't remember my mother or my father. Same goes for siblings, grandparents, cousins." The woman is very young and British, judging by her accent. This has to be Karli. I choose to stay up here, listen and watch, "what I do remember is bein' alone. Worse than bein' hungry or cold or scared. I was alone. Until Mama Donya. Like a lot of you here, Mama Donya saved me. She clothed me, fed me, loved me." At this moment Karli looks up, seeing me in the window. She stops, looking scared and worried, looking around the room, I'm sure to see if anyone I work with is in the room. She hands the child off to someone near by, "she taught me that we have to do for each other because they won't. And we know who they are. They imposed struggle and hardship on us, then labeled us as criminals for pushing back." Karli starts to walk around the group, closer to the window I'm watching from, "but the struggle is what brings us all together. People who have nothin' in common. For we are, after all, simply one world and one people. So live accordingly." At the end of her speech those in the room go about paying their respects, both to Karli and to Donya. I wait until everyone is gone before I head down to the main floor and into the room. "I saw you back there."

"I know, I saw." I slowly walk further into the "don't worry I came alone. I thought we could talk."

"Bold of you."

"I'm very sorry for your loss."

Karli shakes her head, "don't condescend to me, I'm not a child."

"Of course not," I shake my head, "but I know what it's like to lose someone."

"No you don't, not like this."

I chuckle, "please honey. I lost both of my parents when I was eighteen, never had anyone else after that. And when I thought I finally found two people to open up to, one of them jumped off a cliff to help save the world and the other..." I shake my head, "the other left me for his ex, then died six months later." I shake my head, "it doesn't have to be a war, Karli. Trust me, I've seen enough of it to know it'll be much worse."

"They started a war as soon as they kicked us out of our new homes and onto the street."

"Yeah, I have to be honest, I don't really understand why they did that myself."

"People around the world need me. Millions of them."

"And I can't speak for millions, but I understand you. I know your frustration, your helplessness."

"So you want me to stop because people are gettin' hurt, right?"

"Shouldn't you want to stop because people are getting hurt?"

"But what if I'm making the world a better place?" Karli walks over to a table and pulls herself up onto it.

"It's not a better place if you're killing people. It's just a different."

Karli smiles, "you're either brilliant or just hopelessly optimistic."

"Can't I be both?"

"No."

"Then I'd like to think I'm brilliant." Karli and I chuckle, "I have a friend, who knows more about Super Soldiers than anyone else on this planet, and he says..." I walk over to Karli and sit on the table next to her. "You're a supremacist."

"Me?"

"Yep."

"That's ridiculous, everything I do is to end supremacy. These corporations and the beasts who run them, they're the supremacists."

"Alright, so let me ask you this. You have more serum, right?"

"So?"

"Do you plan on expanding your army?" Karli doesn't answer me, "you're killing innocent people."

"They're not innocent. They're roadblocks in my journey and I'd kill them again if I had to."

"Wow," I chuckle and shake my head, "alright."

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that. You tricked me into sounding like..."

"Like what? Karli, you're a smart girl, you know what needs to be done, but you have to think about those you're killing along the way. I know what it's like to not be heard, not be seen, and it can be hard when you have a cause that needs their attention, but you have to be strategic about it."

"The people I'm fighting are trying to take people's homes. Why are you here instead of stopping them?"

"You know I've been asking myself the same thing. I'm not your enemy. I agree with your fight, just not the way you're fighting it. I get up off the table, "and I'm sure she wouldn't either," I gesture to Donya.

"What should I do?"

I look around and take a deep breath, "in a few seconds John Walker is gonna come through that door, when he does I want you to run." Karli nods, "don't make me regret this."

Before Karli can respond, John walks into the room, "Karli Morgenthau, you're under arrest."

"John, stop," I turn to John.

John puts a hand up to me, "I think we've had enough time to talk." He turns to Karli, "why don't you..." Before he can finish insulting her she punches him, sending him across the room, then running out.

I wait a few seconds before running off after her, of course I have no intension of catching her, but it's all about appearances with John. Sam and Bucky join me in chasing her. The three of us running into each other in the labyrinth of halls and passages. Bucky sighs, "I lost her."

Sam huffs trying to catch his breath, "this place is a maze."