Mazzy Stark is actually not in the bathroom.

Adrenalin coursing through her veins, Mazzy actually stands in a dimly lit hallway with her back pressed up against the wall. To her left is the entrance to the room. The one that has Bucky Barnes in it.

So far, no one has given her any trouble except for one security guard who asked her where she was going. After reminding him that her dad is the one and only Tony Stark, she told him that her dad had dropped his phone and she was sent down here to come look for it. Surprisingly, the security guard believed her. Name-dropping her dad really does always do the trick.

Now, what Mazzy wasn't expecting when she came down here was for there to be some other guy in the room she wanted to be alone with Bucky in. Well, Sam did tell her that Bucky was going to be psychologically evaluated, but Mazzy didn't expect for it to be, like, immediately.

But the guy is in the room. Mazzy can hear him, and when she peeks around the corner, she can see him. She moves to the doorway, watching carefully so she doesn't get caught. The man has glasses and brown hair. He has an accent, too, but that was expected, considering they're in another country.

"Hello, Mr. Barnes," the psychologist says. Bucky is silent and unmoving. Mazzy wants badly to hear him speak. "I've been sent by the United Nations to evaluate you. Do you mind if I sit?" Bucky doesn't answer the question, only staring up at the roof of his cell, but the psychologist sits down at the table, anyway, placing his books and papers in front of him.

The psychologist is now mainly focused on getting his things out and Mazzy assumes he'll be writing some notes, so she figures she can let her guard down a bit and lean against the doorway. She's still careful, keeping a watchful eye on the psychologist, but the adrenaline rush is beginning to fade away.

"Your first name is James?" the psychologist asks, even though he already knows the answer. Again, Bucky doesn't answer. "I'm not here to judge you. I'm just here to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James?"

Mazzy would hate being the one evaluated. She would hate being asked stupid questions like what is your name? and do you know where you are? She doesn't blame Bucky for neglecting answering them.

"I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James," the psychologist says.

Finally, Bucky looks down from the ceiling and stares at the psychologist. "My name is Bucky," he says.

The psychologist nods and writes some things in his notebook. Mazzy isn't sure what he could have gotten from my name is Bucky, but she's not psychologist, so she figures that he knows a lot more than she does in this particular field.

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

Bucky glares at the psychologist, trying his hardest to suppress his anger and stay calm. "I don't wanna talk about it," he says. Sounds fair to Mazzy. She wouldn't want to talk about it, either.

"You fear that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop?" the psychologist suggests.

What kind of question is that?

He looks at his screen and a small smile appears on his face. It gives Mazzy the creeps. "Don't worry," the psychologist says. "We only have to talk about one."

All of the sudden, the power goes out. The doorway Mazzy's standing in starts to seal shut, and she lets out a shriek, jumping to one side of the door so she doesn't get squished. When she realizes what she's done, she smacks a hand over her mouth and swings her head around to look at Bucky and the psychologist.

They're both staring at her.

The adrenaline is back. Mazzy turns her head again to see if the door has magically opened itself backup so she could get the heck out of that room, but it hasn't. She turns back around and the two men are still staring at her. The psychologist has a strange smile on his face and Bucky just looks sad and confused.

"Hello," the psychologist greets.

Mazzy can't think of anything to do other than to just try and run with the story she told the security guard. "Hi," she says awkwardly, stepping further into the room and pretending to look around. "My dad, um, dropped his phone. I'm looking for it," she explains. The psychologist raises his eyebrows and Mazzy can practically feel Bucky's eyes burning into the back of her head. "My dad's Tony Stark, by the way."

"Oh, I know, Miss Stark," the psychologist says. "But I don't see your father's phone here. Do you?"

Pretending to look around once more, Mazzy turns to look near the cell. She stops, though, only staring back at Bucky. He still looks very sad and confused, like his frozen expression is melting and he doesn't know how to stop it.

Unsure of what to do, Mazzy gives him a small wave. "Hello."

Bucky stays silent for a moment, and then his eyes get very wide, like he's just remembered something that he had long forgotten. "Star," he whispers very quietly.

Mazzy furrows her eyebrows with confusion. "Um, actually, there's a k at the end of that. Stark," she says, making sure to over-annunciate the k.

"Miss Stark, I'd like to continue my evaluation. If you could just step off to the side..." the psychologist says.

"Плачущая девушка," Bucky murmurs in a very quiet voice.

Mazzy looks at Bucky. "Um, I don't know what that means."

"Miss Stark," the psychologist says for a second time.

"Sorry," Mazzy replies, backing off until she is leaning up against the wall. Bucky is still staring at her, though, and she doesn't know why. It must have to do with how she's connected to him. She just doesn't know how to ask, and she also doesn't know if he even knows how they're connected, because he looks pretty confused.

The psychologist isn't any help in Mazzy's plan, either. He's just in the way, continuing on with his evaluation even in the dim, red-flashing lighting. "Why don't we discuss your home?" he suggests. Bucky won't look at him. He won't look away from Mazzy with that wide-eyed look he has on. "Not Romania. Certainly not Brooklyn, no."

The psychologist reaches into his bag, pulling out a red notebook with a black star on it. It looks so incredibly familiar to Mazzy that it makes her stomach hurt. She doesn't know where she's seen it. Maybe online or in a history book somewhere?

"James," the psychologist says, making Bucky finally look away from Mazzy to glance at him. "I mean, your real home."

Bucky looks broken, and that makes Mazzy's stomach hurt even more.

With his book and flashlight in his hand, the psychologist stands up, walking closer to the containment cell. "Желание ," he reads from the book.

"No," Bucky whispers, his head leaning back against the headrest.

"What are you doing?" Mazzy asks, receiving no reply.

"Ржавый."

"Stop," Bucky pleads, his hands clenching themselves into fists. .

"Печь."

Mazzy's heart starts to beat faster and her hands begin to slightly shake. Bucky looks like he's in pain, suddenly fighting against his restraints. "Stop it! What are you saying?!" Mazzy shouts at the psychologist. He doesn't listen to her.

"Stop," Bucky says more strongly this time, his anger growing.

No matter how strange and horrified Mazzy is feeling, she rushes towards the psychologist, trying to snatch the book out of his hands. "Stop it!" she screams. He only shoves her to the ground and continues on reading.

"Рассвет."

As quickly as she fell, Mazzy gets herself back up off of the floor. She looks all over the cointainment cell, searching for a way to open it up so that Bucky can stop whatever the supposed psychologist is doing, but there isn't any clear button or anything that she can press to let him out.

Bucky lets out a loud, panicked, and pained scream that tears through Mazzy's body, filling her with an odd feeling of overwhelming dread for what is to come within the next few seconds. Her body feels numb and her head feels foggy. Her wide eyes begin to water.

"Stop it!" she screams at the psychologist once again.

Bucky— or maybe the Winter Soldier, Mazzy can't tell the difference right now— breaks free from the chair and starts slamming his metal fist against the glass.

"Семнадцать! Девять!"

As Mazzy watches Bucky try to break out of his containment cell, she doesn't understand what she is feeling. She has never felt this way before, she doesn't think. Not even when she thought she was going to be crushed to death by the Hulk or when she was fighting Ultron's murder bots in Sokovia. She feels like her brain his floating outside of her body and she can't seem to catch it before it starts floating away.

"Доброкачественный! Возвращение на родину! Один!"

The glass begins to break at the force of Bucky's hits, so close to letting him out. So close to saving both himself and его звезда. His Star.

"Грузовой!"

Just as the final word is said, the Soldier breaks through the glass, knocking the door to the cell straight off and sending it flying back against the wall. He kneels on the floor outside of the containment cell and Mazzy stands still by the wall.

The man walks around the cell until he's in front of the Soldier, who stands before him with an empty look in his eyes.

"Солдат?" he says quietly. Soldier?

"Яготов отвечать," the Soldier replies. Ready to comply.

✮

Mazzy stands alone in a hallway, waiting for Steve and Sam to turn the corner and see her. She waits patiently, as still as a statue and as calm as can be, aside from the tears streaming down her cheeks, until she hears two pairs of footsteps coming her way. She starts to breathe fast and heavy, making herself look panicked.

When Steve and Sam come around the corner, she steps out in front of them. "Steve! Sam! The Soldier! He escaped and the psychologist needs help! You have to help him!" she shouts in a panicked voice.

Steve's eyes are wide with both confusion and concern. "What are you doing down here?" he asks her quickly.

"The psychologist needs help, Steve! In there," Mazzy says again, pointing around the corner.

The psychologist, Steve and Sam have already figured out, is the whole reason the Soldier is here in the first place. He's the one who framed Bucky. Steve is sure that the psychologist doesn't need any help, but maybe Mazzy doesn't understand that. Maybe she's just worried about someone being hurt. Maybe that's why she's crying, too.

"He needs help," Mazzy says again.

"Stay here," Steve tells her before he and Sam rush past her, towards the room where Bucky was previously being evaluated.

Mazzy doesn't stay there, though. She follows silently behind them as they walk through the dark hallways filled with downed soldiers.

"Help me," a weak and quiet voice says.

Steve instantly goes towards it, seeing the fake psychologist lying on the ground. "Get up," he commands, grabbing the man by the collar and tugging him up to his feet. He slams him against the wall. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"To see an empire fall."

Sam steps towards the room and Mazzy let's out a yell. "Сейчас!" Now!

When Sam steps into the room, the Soldier instantly throws a fist at his head. Sam is able to dodge it, and he's even able to hold up a bit of a fight for a good few seconds before the Soldier sends him flying towards the containment cell. Sam slams up against it and lies unconscious on the floor.

Immediately, Steve swings at the Soldier. They fight their way through rooms and hallways, the Soldier keeping the upperhand while Steve is pretty much only being beat up. What's distracting him is that Mazzy is following a few steps behind the Soldier, completely unharmed. What is she doing and why isn't the Soldier hurting her?

And then he realizes. It makes him feel sick.

The Soldier's metal fist breaks through an elevator at the end of the hall, and he shoves Steve through it before turning around and going off after the other soldiers and Avengers in the building. Mazzy follows him up a flight of stairs and into the cafeteria, where he starts taking down several security guards.

She stays off to the side a watches the fight carefully, ready to step in if the Soldier needs her to.

To her left, she hears a voice. "Mazzy." The voice is stern and she knows it very well. It's her father's voice. She turns to look at him. "Come here," he tells her.

Mazzy does.

"Stay behind me," Tony says, leading her to stand behind him as he starts pressing some buttons on his watch.

When the watch turns itself into the glove of his Iron Man suit, he aims his palm at the Soldier. Before he can send a blast at the Winter Soldier and disorient him, Mazzy grabs his arm and twists it far backward, letting out a loud scream. She pulls and pulls as Tony yells at her to stop. She's crying, still, and Tony doesn't understand why she's doing what she is doing.

"What are you doing? Stop it!" Tony scolds, attempting to pry her fingers from his wrist. He groans in pain as she twists his arm around his back, still shouting at her to stop.

And the next thing Tony knows, he is being lifted to his feet by the collar of his shirt. The Winter Soldier has a gun in his hand, taken from one of the security guards, and he pulls the trigger in Tony's face. No bullet comes out. A blank.

Thank God.

Tony takes the gun and bashes it against the side of the Soldier's head.

Mazzy swipes the gun from her dad's hands and hits him in the side of the head with it, and that is the exact moment Tony realizes that he isn't looking at his daughter anymore. His heart sinks into his stomach. He grabs Mazzy's wrists, looking into her red, teary eyes, and says her name. "Mazzy. Mazzy, hey. Snap out of it, sweetheart," he says, even though he knows it doesn't work like that.

Quickly, the Soldier recovers and tears Tony away from Mazzy. The Soldier punches Tony's stomach so hard that it sends him flying back into a table across the room.

Sharon and Natasha run up to him next, working together to try and take him down without killing him, but their plan goes to ruins when Mazzy occupies herself with stopping Sharon. While Mazzy keeps Sharon busy, the Soldier fights Nat, and soon T'Challa joins in, too.

But none of them are able to take him down. He chokes out Natasha and tosses T'Challa off to the side as Mazzy shoves Sharon back against the wall. When the Soldier starts heading up a flight of stairs, Mazzy is quick to follow.

When T'Challa follows and fights, she waits for any command the Soldier might give.

As T'Challa holds his arm, the Soldier looks at Mazzy. "Не боритесь с ним. Подписывайтесь на меня," he says to her. Don't fight him. Follow me.

Mazzy nods, and when T'Challa shoves the Soldier down the stairwell, she jumps down after him.

By the time T'Challa gets to the same place, the two are gone. Staying out of sight, they make their way up to the roof. On the roof is a helicopter, and the Soldier gets right into the pilot seat. Mazzy doesn't hesitate to climb over him and sit herself down in the passenger seat. As the Soldier messes with the controls, Mazzy watches out the window. Steve is running up the stairs, coming right for them.

"Он здесь, Солдат," Mazzy warns. He's here, Soldier.

The Soldier lifts the helicopter off of the platform, but Steve grabs onto it. As the helicopter pulls and pulls to try and get away, Steve uses all of his strength to keep it at the building. So the Soldier changes the direction of his steering and rams right into the side of the building. Helicopter blades slice through the air and Steve dodges all of them as he goes rolling onto the pavement. The Soldier's fist breaks through the glass of the window and he grabs Steve by the throat.

Tears streaming down her cheeks, Mazzy watches, unmoving, as the Soldier chokes Steve. The helicopter begins to tip, closer and closer to the edge with every passing second, until all three of them go plunging into the water below.

✮

Mazzy wakes up in someone's arms. Her clothes are soaking wet and she isn't sure why. As her eyes flutter open, she squirms in the person's arms. They're walking— she can tell by the slight bounces of every step— and she doesn't want to go anywhere.

Feeling her squirming, the person immediately lets her down to her feet. Mazzy shoves her wet hair out of her face and sees that it is Steve who was carrying her. He's talking to her, now, but she's not listening. She's taking in her surroundings, wondering why she's in a warehouse and where her dad is.

Steve puts his hands on her arms, grabbing her attention and grounding her. "Hey. You're okay. You're safe," he reassures her.

"Why are we here?" Mazzy asks, her eyes getting all watery again. She feels incredibly overwhelmed, and she's pretty sure she just had the worst nightmare she's ever had in her entire life. And it all felt so real.

"It's a lot to explain right now," Steve tells her. He isn't sure what to say. He wants to tell her the truth, but he doesn't want to scare her. She's already overwhelmed enough and he doesn't have a lot of time to explain right now. He doesn't even know if she remembers any of it or not. "But everyone is okay. They're just not here right now."

"I don't feel good," Mazzy murmurs, rubbing her eyes. She doesn't feel necessarily bad, like if she had a headache or a stomachache or something. Just wrong. Like something is off.

Before Steve gets the chance to say anything else or provide any sort of comfort, Sam's voice echoes down the hall. "Hey, Cap!" he yells. Steve looks over at Sam and he nods.

He's awake.

Steve rushes over to Sam, and Mazzy, desperate not to be left alone, follows closely by his side. The whole abandoned warehouse building is giving her the heebie-jeebies. Everything is dirty and it all smells very musty. She's scared that if she's left alone, she'll be possessed by a ghost or something.

When she turns the corner with Steve, though, she is shocked by what she sees. The Winter Soldier, or Bucky Barnes, perhaps, is sitting with his metal arm stuck in a press. He groans in pain, sitting himself up.

Mazzy stands slightly behind Steve. The Soldier was in her nightmare. He was scary in it, and part of her is scared that it wasn't a nightmare. That he's really right there and he'll do to her what he did to Nat or her dad.

Sam glances at Mazzy, and then at Steve. "Should she be here for this?"

"We can't exactly take her back to Tony right now," Steve answers.

"Why?" Mazzy asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

"It's a long story," Sam tells her.

Bucky lets out a tired sigh, his eyes on the ground. They all turn their attention back to him, and he looks up at Steve. "Steve," he murmurs.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asks him.

"Your mom's name was Sarah," Bucky says. A small smile finds its way onto his face and he chuckles softly. "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

Steve smiles, now, too, though it's small. He remembers that laugh. "Can't read that in a museum."

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asks, raising his eyebrows.

"What did I do?" Bucky asks.

"Enough," Steve answers.

"What does that mean?" Mazzy asks.

She really, really hates being out of the loop. She really, super duper hates it, and it isn't fair for them not to explain all of this to her. She doesn't know what Bucky did and she doesn't know why she doesn't know. Wasn't she there? She was at that facility with everyone else. Did she get knocked out, and that's when her dream happened? Or was the dream real? The dream can't be real. It doesn't make any sense. If it was real, Mazzy wouldn't have been helping him. She would be helping her dad. But she was helping the Soldier, in her dream.

At the sound of Mazzy's voice, Bucky's attention is turned to her once again. He gets that depressing look on his face again. "Star," he breathes out, just like he had when he was in that containment cell.

This time, Mazzy only hesitantly corrects him. "There's a k at the end," she practically whispers. "It's not like the band."

"You remember her?" Steve asks.

"I don't know. Kind of," Bucky murmurs.

Really, though, the more he looks at her, the more he remembers. And he can't seem to tear his eyes away. He remembers never wanting her to go, but also being horrified of her staying. She was light, but it wasn't fair to keep her in the darkness just so he could see.

"What are you talking about?" Mazzy asks.

How could he remember her? She only just met him. Unless this is the answer she's been looking for. Maybe that's the secret. Did she have a run-in with the Winter Soldier when she was little? Maybe she wasn't sick, but she was injured by the Soldier, and her dad had to give her the special medicine to keep her alive. Maybe that's the answer.

No one answers Mazzy's question. They're all too afraid to.

Bucky tears his eyes from Mazzy to look at Steve. "She was in the room," he says. But it sounds more like a question than a statement.

"Yeah," Steve says with a solemn nod.

"Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything Hydra put inside us is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words."

Us?

"Careful what you're saying," Sam says. He nods his end in the direction of Mazzy. "She knows less than you think she does." He knows very well that Tony doesn't want her to know anything, but part of him also feels like that ship has sailed. He doesn't want to be the one to tell her, though.

Mazzy steps out from behind Steve, her frustration growing alongside her confusion. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" she says. She's always hated it when people do that. "Tell me what you're talking about. I know everyone's been hiding something from me my whole entire life, and you need to tell me. It's me. I deserve to know!"

Steve sighs, looking at the ground. He doesn't know what the best decision is. Mazzy is part of this. She knows more than she's ever known before and it will be just about impossible to keep all of this from her, even after she gets back to her dad. If she goes back to her dad right now, she'll be treated like a machine, no matter what Tony thinks he can do to stop it. Maybe the best option really is to just tell her.

Mazzy looks at Bucky again, and he's frowning so deeply that she thinks she can feel it weighing down her heart in her chest.

"Everything feels wrong. I feel like I know you, and you're acting like you know me even though you don't, and the star on that doctor's book looked so familiar and it made me feel like I was floating outside of myself, and Dad doesn't want me to know anything about you, and I heard Steve and Nat talking before, and they acted like we're connected, and that doesn't even make sense because I don't actually know you," Mazzy rants, her heart beating faster than normal. She feels like crying again. "It doesn't make sense! You don't know me!"

"I do know you," Bucky tells her weakly.

Mazzy turns to look at Steve, a desperate look on her face. "Steve, I don't understand," she tells him.

Torn up, Steve looks at the pain and exasperation on her face. She just wants answers. She wants to know who she is, and she can't even remember things about her own past. It isn't fair to her. No matter how hard Tony has tried to protect her, she was always going to find out.

"Bucky," Steve says, looking away from Mazzy's watery eyes and over to Bucky's, "you wanna tell her?"

Mazzy looks at Bucky. Bucky's broken, sympathetic expression makes her stomach churn with anxiety. Is she going to regret this?

"What happened to me," Bucky whispers very quietly, his eyes lifting from the floor to meet Mazzy's, "happened to you, too."

And suddenly, all of the things Mazzy has been trying to remember all this time come flooding back to her. They've been waiting there for her, at the tips of her fingers, just waiting for someone to say the words that would help her reach them. But she remembers now— the sweat, the blood, and the tears— and she wishes she were never born to begin with.

💫⭐️💫⭐️

Sorry if the action scenes are bad, I suck at writing them 🙏 anyway next chapter will be a lot of mazzy lore