I STRUGGLED TO understand. "You know Steve?"

The woman nodded, but her lips curled in something that looked like a distasteful grimace. "Yeah, stars, stripes, and everything that comes with him."

"He never said anything about you," I said plainly, though he probably never had any time to talk about something other than running from the men trying to lock up his best friend.

She clicked her tongue, her eyes drifting to the ceiling. "Let's just say it's been awhile since we talked. Whatever," she shook her head, "I'll tell you all the messy details that you want to know when we get in the car."

I blinked. "That car? I've got a—"

Cara nodded. "I know they're keeping tabs on you. I know you've got a guy out front waiting for you like a personal chauffeur." She rolled her eyes as if to say, duh. "That's why I met you in the bathroom. Come on, we've got to get on the road."

Dumbfounded, my jaw slackened as I tried to process everything this stranger was telling me. "But...I have a hotel room. A fucking expensive one," I scoffed. "I've got all my stuff there."

Cara narrowed her eyes for a second, but then shrugged. "Okay, we'll just make a quick stop over there and pick it up. That's more of a detour than I'd want to take, but I guess it'll be fine."

"Hold on," I held out a hand, scrutinizing her. "Where are we going? And how do I know you're who you say you are?"

She sighed, putting her hands on her hips. It was obvious that she'd thought this process of convincing me to come with her would be much easier. "I've known Sam and Steve for the past six years. I helped rescue your Buckaroo from a Hydra knock-off group called Skull," she met my eyes, "and now I'm seeing that it didn't do much for him, considering he's been captured again."

I crossed my arms to keep myself from throwing my hands up in the air, "Hey, it's not my fault!" Yes it is yes it is yes it is yes it is—

"I never said it was," Cara reassured me. "I'm just saying that Bucky deserves a rest from all of this, but it seems like he'll never get it." She inhaled. "Come on. We're losing time."

"Where are we going? You never answered me."

She smirked, flashing a wink at me. "Where do you think we're going? We're gonna get Steve out of the CIA's slimy hands, we're gonna find Sam, and then we're gonna go on the road trip of our lives to find out where the hell Bucky landed this time."

She jabbed a thumb towards the small window in the bathroom that would lead into the dark night. "You coming?"

————————————————————

He wasn't dreaming, not really.

The images in his mind, flashing across the horizon of his brain like a movie scene, the numbness that came with it, the voice, the pain, oh, the pain...

They weren't dreams. They were memories. That much he knew.

Some of them consisted of the same words, echoing, agonizing, inside his head. He could hear his own screams of protest, bouncing off the walls of his muddled brain. But the worst part?

He didn't even know what he looked like. He couldn't remember. The only memories that he recognized were the ones that caused the most pain.

Good morning, Soldier.

Numbness spread over his whole body, terminating any control he had over himself, reducing it to nothing.

I hope you're not too startled by my voice. This is a new serum, after all.

Pools of blood, hundreds dead, flashed before his eyes, the dark substance staining the same pair of black boots, dyeing them crimson.

You see, Soldier, now you won't have to ask for instructions. You'll already know them. I'll be the one giving them to you.

He could hear himself(or what he thought was his voice), a weak version of a human's voice, pleading, "Stop," with the speaker, who didn't care to listen, and continued talking, breaking him, molding him into a shape that he didn't recognize.

Relax, Soldier. I'm not going to hurt you. Unless you require discipline, that is. As your superior, I am mentally linked to you. Fascinating, isn't it? How clever our new leaders are.

His mind was dark except for the glint of black metal in the left corner of his vision. Then he realized: the metal belonged to him, connecting to his stump of a shoulder, thick, white scars covering his skin.

We'll get started soon enough. For now, we need you to respond to my prompts. We need to see if the serum is successful.

Destruction. It was the only thing in his mind, the only thing that kept showing up. It was endless, the raging fires that roared behind him as he retreated into the hands of faceless evils.

What is your name, Soldier? Tell me. Your name, what is it?

Faces swam into his view, faces screwed up in pain, others in shock, but all had the unmistakable mask of fear etched on their features. Fear caused by him.

Oh, don't be difficult, please. It'll go by much easier if I don't have to discipline you just yet. Your name, Soldier.

The names belonging to his victims began to ring out in his mind, an ominous sea of death that swallowed his every bit of consciousness, taking over everything and allowing him to only listen to the shouts and screams that were orchestrated by him. This was the wrath of the Winter Soldier. The ghost story.

Ah, you prefer your nickname? Yes, you are a ghost story. Well done.

The pain didn't stop. But for a few precious seconds, it lessened, and all he could see was green. A forest.

Just a few more things, Soldier. Who is Elda Reid?

And then one face, the face of a woman who used to be innocent, a pure heart that transformed into the strongest heart he'd seen in his life overnight. A woman that he'd known, but now could hardly pull her name to his lips.

Elda.

Yes, Soldier. Who is she to you?

It was all gone in a second, faster than the blink of an eye. A moving mass of black and an orange syringe flashed in his vision and the ground came up to meet him, looking like a soft landing but providing anything but. And the woman that he used to know, she was gone.

She is no one.

Very good, Soldier. She is no one to you.

He felt as if he were floating, as if he should be numb to all the pain that he caused. But this wasn't like an easy night of sleeping. The images were real, not a figment of his imagination, and he wasn't waking up soon to chase away his demons.

After all, he wasn't dreaming, not really.

————————————————————

I couldn't believe I was doing this. If I wasn't already, I was definitely going to hell after this. "Okay," I agreed, wiping my face again. "Okay, I'm in."

"Hell yeah!" Cara cracked a genuine smile this time, all jokes and sarcastic personality aside. "Out the window we go," she said, pointing to the small window that peered out into the night sky. She hauled herself up on the ledge, easily unlocking and opening the window to push herself out onto the ground outside. She turned around and curled her fingers, gesturing for me to follow.

This is insane, I told myself. You're gonna get in real trouble this time if you're caught. What the fuck is going on?

But the voice in my head was silenced as I reached for Cara's hand, pushing myself up and out of the window, landing on the soft grass with a light grunt. "What now?" I asked. "I don't know if you know, but this is the first time I'm sneaking away from the authorities." Well, the first time I was doing it with said authorities right at the front door of the building.

Cara gave me a knowing once-over. "Yeah, I know. Sam made it clear that you don't do this sort of thing."

My stomach dropped at the sound of Sam's name. "Sam?" I said softly, trying to contain the whirlwind of emotions I felt swirling in my gut. "You talked to Sam?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but only for a little bit. A lot has changed since Steve called me and asked me to come find you."

I paused. "He...asked you to come find me?"

"Uh-huh. That's kind of what I'm doing here. And by the way, you were a bitch to find—"

"Hey!"

"I'm just saying, you moved around way too much, it was so hard to track you."

My eyes widened. "You tracked me?"

Cara rolled her eyes. "Oh, god. This is gonna be more difficult than I thought."

I had to admit, I wasn't usually like this. So...shocked. But it didn't make any sense to me that Steve would call an old friend just so she could come find me, and for what? To find Bucky? I had no chance of doing such a thing. They were better off doing it by themselves and then telling me when it was over so I could reunite with Bucky. I used to be so cocksure when I set off that day that he was taken, but now I knew the truth. I would just be in their way.

Tugging me along behind her, we sneaked around the side of the building to the alley behind, where an old pickup truck was parked—

"Is that my truck?"

Cara nodded. "Yeah. I nipped it from the motel you were staying at, changed the plates, and now it's all good to go."

"You stole my truck?" I froze in my tracks.

She peered back at me and shrugged. "What? I was gonna bring it back to you anyway. That's what I'm doing right now."

"You stole my truck?" I walked forward cautiously, inspecting every inch that I could see, checking for a dent, a scratch, the chipping of paint on the side of it.

My new—what was she? My friend? Ally? She got in on the driver's side and cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, are you gonna keep repeating yourself or are we gonna get on the road?"

"You...stole my truck."

"You do know you're saying the same thing, right? Like, the simulation isn't glitching, is it?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?"

"Never mind." She started the car, the engine growling to life. "Come on. It's almost eleven, your CIA agent is gonna be looking for you soon."

I felt a snag of guilt at the thought of leaving Agent Wretton behind, but I steeled myself. He worked for the CIA, the people who were responsible for my brother's death and who were currently working to find my beloved so they could keep him in a cage. I had to find him before they did. I had to. There was no other way.

"Where to?" I swallowed nervously, cracking an anxious smile at Cara in the dark.

She smiled. "That's the spirit."

||

not quite as long as the last chapter, but i still really like this one! this is like, pre-written two weeks ahead, lmao. but yeah. i hope you guys enjoyed this one, i gave a little insight into bucky's current situation!! and guess who's talking to him? ;)

i didn't realize how fun it would be to write the dynamic between cara and elda, they're so totally married and i love them.

see you next week for the next chapter, on august 5! oof, one month left of summer, people.

july 29, 2019