Command • T'Challa

Pasttime

*Super short chapter, sorry for the late update!! more tomorrow night!!!*

For the first time, I believe I was seeing her for who she was.

Afraid and far more powerful than she could ever have known.

I watched in stunned silence as she forced the door open, kicking at it and pushing it with her magic. With a loud bang, she had escaped.
But she was not free. The vacant look in her eyes told me as much, as she came past me like a tempest, blowing by in a dazed fury. She was at the end of the hall before I could react, and when I did, she made me regret it.
With a flick of her wrist, she sent me flying back into the wall, the breath knocked out of my chest. I struggled to get it back, coming to my feet. All the alarms were sounded, and a crew had been dispatched to contain her, or at least try to.
and Barnes? He was free, much to my own fury. Now she was going to be lost, too. That I couldn't stand for. She had to be restored, had to be saved, before it was too late.

Maybe it was too late, maybe I could never fix her. I chased her up the stairs, as the alarms kept blaring. Why were they so incompetent? I reached my hands out towards her shoulders,

"Come back, Grace," I said softly.

"Come back."
.........

"Come back, darling." I could hear James saying, like he was a thousand miles away.
"Come back."
I turned around,but there was another man, not James, who stood before me. Something about him told me he was kind, so I didn't hurt him. He was saying something to me, too, but I ignored him.
I had to focus on finding James

I had been lost for so long that I didn't know which way to turn. I had been wandering for years, decades. I wanted to collapse and cry, but I knew I had to keep fighting, had to keep looking.

"Darling, where are going? You know I'm right here." James was saying.

I saw the street outside my house, back in Brooklyn.
James stood on the corner, looking sad. He was in uniform, and I had a ring on my finger.
"I don't know." I said, burying into tears, as he ran to me, wrapping his strong arms around me. He let me cry, just holding me.
"It'll be all right." James told me. In that moment, it didn't matter if it would or wouldn't be all right, didn't matter if we lived or died.
All that mattered was that we were together.
.......

"Grace.," I said. She had slumped against the wall now, like she was falling asleep. I could see the tears streaming down her face, something on my words must've stirred her, but she wouldn't look at me.

"Grace," I said again. She lost conciousness, and started to fall, but I caught her.
Well, I tried to. I wasn't expecting her to be as heavy as she was- it was like trying to support a 250 pound man when she was supposed to be a 130 pound woman. It must've been the serum they gave her, or whatever HYDRA changed about her. I did my best to lay her down.
"She'll never be who she once was!" Stevsnson, who was being dragged from his cell, yelled at me.
"She'll always be a ghost!"
I looked away from him, back down to her motionless form.
"She'll always be a monster, you'll see!" Stevenson screeched as the handlers put a gag on him to shut him up. He'd caused enough trouble already. No more today.

She wasn't a monster, I reminded myself. she was the same beautiful woman who had been engaged to Barnes, the same person who had been so courageous.
Stark burst in, holding the file that I had dropped on my haste to stop Grace from leaving.
"The hell why didn't Rogers recognize her?" he shouted.
"Because neither knew that the other existed, don't you understand?"
Stark folded his arms. "Barnes saw both of them nearly every day."

"Don't you understand?" I snapped. "Captain Rogers wasn't supposed to know about Barnes' relationship with Grace, all because of her skin color."
"Oh,"Stark said slowly, realization dawning on his face. This man was supposed to be my American equal, but I wasn't seeing any of his much-lauded brilliance.

"Well, shit." Stark said. I sighed.
"What does this change?" I asked.
"Everything." Stark said, scratching his head.
He cursed some more, walking around Grace's unconscious body.

"Why the hell didn't we know?" Stark exasperated.
"Perhaps because she was hiding in plain sight. Perhaps they wanted a backup plan for the Winter Soldier."

"They worked together on missions, you know that, right?" Stark said, his voice sounding strained.
"I know." I said quietly.The Winter Soldier and the Ghost in the machine. She was perfect for the uses, exactly what they needed. she and Barnes were a natural team even though they didn't know each other anymore.
Grace picked that moment to wake up and still upright so fast, I jumped back a little.
"Who did I kill-" she asked.
"No one." I said.
She covered her face with her hands.
"Oh god, that was awful." she said.
"Did you see something?" I asked.
"I can't tell you." she said.
She didn't ask about Barnes, didn't ask any more questions. She just walked back into cell and sat down.
"Won't you come with me?" I asked.
She shook her head. "It's not safe." she said.
"No HYDRA agents upstairs, kiddo." Stark said. She laughed a hollow laugh.
Stark passed her file to me, and I read it while I walked. What I found on page 9 hit me like a fist to the stomach. Grace's father, Mbondi, changed his name to Thomas Alburn upon his entry to the United States.

He had come from Wakanda. A nobleman who had served with my grandfather,Mbondi had been a close friend and confidante of my grandfather, but all of that changed when Mbondi was accused of treason, fleeing to America, where he married an American woman.
The world,for me, was getting smaller and smaller every day. Perhaps this was why Grace carried herself like a princess.

Maybe it was because she had been destined to be one.