|Second in the Timeline Series|
For everyone else it's been seventy years since Sergeant James Barnes of the 107th was killed in action, for Clara it's been 2 seconds. Somehow she manages to pick up the pieces of her broken heart, stick them all tog...
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Clara couldn't get his words out of her head as they hauled him in the car. 'Because of you! Your little time travel incident! They'll strike you off the list a few million at a time!'
"Here's the plan." Steve said, ignoring Sitwell's complaining from the back seat, "We'll go to the triskelion and access project insight with Clara, she still technically works there. If we run into any complications, we'll use Sitwell's DNA to bypass the systems."
"Wait, what?!" Sitwell objected but before he could complain any further, a metal arm smashed through the window and dragged him out by the collar. At least it gave Clara some more room.
Before anyone could react, the man who dragged Sitwell out, pulled out a gun and fired two shots through the roof. One narrowly missed Clara, chafing her ear. A drop of blood dripped onto her hand as she struggled to unplug her seatbelt. Nat wriggled from the back to the front to clambour over Steve to avoid the shots.
"Why did you put on your seatbelt?!" Nat shouted back to Clara.
"Safety!" She responded, finally releasing the belt.
"Well look what good it did!"
Sam braked sharply and the man on the roof was thrown forward. Clara wished she'd left her belt on as she was propelled forward too. Had it not been for Sam and Steve who grabbed her, she would have gone through the windshield. The man with the metal arm skidded a few meters down the road before he stood up, unaffected. He stared at them through the windshield. Clara remembered him. The Winter Soldier. She thought she'd escaped him. She thought she had left him behind when he left her for dead.
2010- Brooklyn
It had been years since Clara had been home. No one had bought her family home, which had been for sale since her parents had died. But no one wanted to buy a murder site. All those repressed memories of police tape and bloodstains threatened to come rushing back as she kicked down the front door and entered the all too familiar hall way. Most of her possessions had been moved out when she left for S.H.I.E.L.D academy but a few old school photos of her's still remained on the wall. She didn't dare turning on any of the lights, god knows how many of them would still be working, but she remembered her childhood home like the back of her hand and easily navigated the stairs in the thick darkness.
The silence overwhelmed her. It reminded her of when she would wake from a nightmare as a young girl and run screaming into her parents room to make sure they were still alive in the perfect stillness of the house. How ironic it seemed now her parents were dead and gone.
She opened the creaking door, half off its hinges, and let herself into her dad's office. Most of it, the computer, a stack of CDs, had been stolen but the vital information she needed would still be in there, she knew it.
Most of the desk draws were stuck but came away easy enough with a sharp tug. And there it was, hidden at the back behind some old records, the USB. She shuffled her backpack off her shoulders and dumped it on the floor. Clara took out her S.H.I.E.L.D issued laptop and got to work decrypting the USB. She knew the way her father worked so decoding it was a walk in the park. All the HYDRA files that her dad had uncovered were all still there. No wonder HYDRA had to take him out, there were hundreds of files on here. Most of them were generic and hardly encrypted at all. But one of them, The Winter Soldier file, was heavily guarded.
"What are you hiding?" She whispered to herself.
Before she could finish decrypting the file, a creaking made her jump. The stairs. There was someone on the stairs. If someone was on the stairs, there would be no getting past them. The only option would be to escape through a window. The top of the stairs were right next to the office door. She'd have to get out this way.
The window in the office was long but very thin. Standing on the desk, she could just reach the window. The footsteps were now at the top of the stairs. Whoever it was was wearing heavy boots which gave them away. Clara was a small girl who would just about fit through that window. They wouldn't.
She packed up her stuff and chucked her backpack out the window. Whoever those footsteps belonged to froze at hearing the muffled thump. Clara had to move, and fast. She hopped off the desk to give her the momentum she needed to swing her leg around and straddle the window. The office door was swung open. They were wearing all black except for a shiny, silver sleeve. The man's masked eyes fixed on Clara as she slid out of the window and fell to the floor, landing painfully on her side. She scrambled to her feet. The man would be halfway down the stairs by now. She clutched her backpack, putting her arms through the straps as she ran.
A shot was fired and Clara ducked, getting low to the ground, looking around to find somewhere to shelter. A bullet grazed her ankle and she was thrown to the ground. Cursing, she abandoned her backpack. The USB was safely in her pocket.
The man was much quicker than she was and quickly took her off guard with a swift punch to the head. She once again fell to the ground. Using this to her advantage she pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed it into the man's shin. While he was distracted, she took off running again, only to have him grab her by the collar and pull her back in.
His sleeve wasn't that at all, it was his actual arm. And it was made entirely of metal! It made a fist and slammed into her face making her vision go blurry. The pressure building up in her skull made it impossible to swing an effective punch. It was easily caught. Her arm was twisted behind her as she was pinned into the ground.
"Where is it?" The man said, a dangerous seduction in his voice. Clara's eyes darted to the backpack long enough to make him suspicious. Her groaning made him release his grip on her. She lay on the ground in pretend agony long enough to make him walk away from her. His guard was down and Clara took her opportunity to escape. She ran. The man made no attempt to follow her. He simply drew a gun and shot her.
Clara gasped as she felt the bullet tear through her flesh. A dark patch of blood flooded through her t-shirt. It had hit her straight in the chest. She coughed and sputtered while the man walked away.
Her vision had all but failed her. All she could do was stare straight ahead. Her shock forbade her from moving. How he had got to her, she could never know, but Phil was now before her, carrying her to a S.H.I.E.L.D vehicle just before she blacked out.
Hey everyone! How'd you like the little flashback? Comment what you think, If you liked it, give it a vote!
