I was so...confused. I had a vague understanding of what was going on; of what happened to Bucky. He looked different, but I knew it was him.
I sat next to Andi in the back of the S.T.R.I.K.E. van. Natasha and Sam sat across from us and two guards in visored helmets sat on my right.
"It was him," I said, my voice heavy with pain as I stared at my hands, my wrists encased in metal cylinder manacles. "He looked right at me...like he didn't even know me."
"How is that even possible?" Sam wondered. "It was, like, seventy years ago."
I remembered the clips Zola had shown me. I remembered seeing the red star on the metal arm; Bucky's arm. "Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."
"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha attempted to reassure.
I closed my eyes in sorrow. "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."
My eyes flicked to each of my friends, but they lingered on Andi next to me. She didn't look so good. Her fiery hair had regained its glow when she got her powers back. But it was gone now; again. She looked like she was going to pass out, her eyes drifting open and closed. She wore manacles like mine, but they faintly glowed a sickly yellow, sapping her power.
"Come on, man, can we get those cuffs off her?" Sam implored. "She won't do anything. She'll die right here in the truck—"
One of the guards raised their taser rod threateningly, electricity crackling along the blade. There was a moment of tense silence.
Suddenly, the guard flipped the rod and stabbed the man next to him. The guard wailed, but it was cut off with a kick in the face by the rogue, his body falling to the floor.
Sam and I shared a look of shock. What the hell was going on?
The rogue called pulled their helmet off. "That thing was squeezing my brain."
My eyes widened at the sight of Agent Maria Hill brushing strands of hair from her face. We all looked at each other and then at Hill. Hill glanced at Sam, looking him up and down. "Who's this guy?"
"Sam Wilson. I'm with them."
Hill climbed over the unconscious body to crouch next to Natasha. She cracked open her cuffs and then Sam's. She moved to me. I gazed at Andi. Her eyes were closed. The rise of her chest was getting weaker.
"Get those things off her," I ordered.
Hill climbed over the body to sit next to Andi and carefully unlocked her manacles before placing her watch in her hand. The glowing dissipated as they fell from her wrists. Her eyes snapped open, glowing gold. She gasped.
Hill moved to me and unlocked the cuffs around my wrists and ankles.
"So how are we getting out of here?" Natasha asked in a snarky tone, rubbing her wrists.
Hill smirked and pointed to the floor of the truck. "A short cut."
After escaping through a hole Hill cut through the floor of the truck, we ran to a black van parked nearby. Hill drove us to a secluded safe house—a flood control plant. We entered through a rusted gate and walked down a dimly lit corridor, the walls damp and caked with mould. The place had obviously been abandoned long ago; the perfect place to hide out.
"What's going on?" Steve asked. "Where are you taking us?"
"You'll want to see him," Hill said.
I frowned. "Who?"
She didn't reply as she led us down the rest of the hallway in silence. We took a right turn into a massive room. The back was covered by a plastic curtain, and when Hill pulled it to reveal what was behind it, our jaws dropped.
Nick Fury lay on a hospital bed in front of us. He looked terrible, but alive.
He grinned. "About damn time."
A doctor arrived a moment later to check on him and Natasha's shoulder wound. I hadn't been able to heal it fully during the skirmish. It must've reopened itself when we were taken into custody. I wouldn't be surprised if that was what caused it. S.T.R.I.K.E. were especially rough when they captured us. I wondered what they were thinking right now about how much they'd screwed up. It amused me.
I stood next to Steve on Fury's left with my arms folded across my chest. Sam and Hill stood on his right.
Some answers would've been spectacular at that moment.
Fury grunted in pain as he rearranged himself to get comfortable. "Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache."
"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor added as he tended to Natasha.
"Let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."
"They cut you open," Natasha marvelled, looking him up and down. "Your heart stopped."
Although I wasn't exactly conscious when that part of the ordeal happened, he was in bad shape when we stumbled along to Steve's apartment, not to mention he was shot through and through there.
"Tetrodotoxin B," Fury replied. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."
Steve scowled. "Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?"
"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Hill said.
"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury added. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."
My eyes flicked to Natasha who wore a blank look. He could've trusted her. He could've trusted Steve. Or me. He trusted Hill, sure, that was obvious, being his second in command and all. But why not us? To be honest, I shouldn't be surprised that Fury hid those things. He delved into my history and dug out as much dirt as he could up for leverage without telling me. If I hadn't found out about it two years ago, I probably would never have known.
It was a S.H.I.E.L.D. thing, and it did more damage than good. HYDRA growing within it was a good example of that. And so we were taking down two dangerous organisations. Two birds with one stone.
I was going to show no mercy.
We congregated around a table with compact computers laid out in front of us. We had to devise a plan on how to bring down Project Insight. Fury, Natasha and I sat while Steve, Sam and Hill stood around us.
Fury glared at a photograph of Alexander Pierce at the head of the table. "This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement. It was a responsibility."
He tossed the photo on the table. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
"We have to stop the launch," Natasha stated.
That was obvious. A lot of people were going to die if we didn't; millions at a time.
"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore," Fury snorted as he lifted the lid of a briefcase.
I leaned forward curiously. Three computer chips were nestled in a protective foam sheet. I raised an eyebrow at Fury, and he simply glared back.
"What's that?" Sam asked, taking a step closer to have a look.
Hill turned her computer around to show the screen. "Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponised."
Diagrams of the three Helicarriers appeared on the screen. The inside of a carrier was zoomed in on.
"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Fury described.
My eyes flicked to the chips in the briefcase. Three blades, three Helicarriers; three heavily weaponised Helicarriers, mind you. Spectacular.
"One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work," Hill explained. "Because if even one of those ships remains operational..." She pursed her lips.
I leaned back into my chair. "A lot of people are going to die."
"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA," Fury added "We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left—"
"We're not salvaging anything." Steve glared at him with an expression of disgust. All eyes were on him. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this," Fury countered.
"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."
"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."
I scowled. A beautiful parasite, Zola had said. For decades HYDRA had grown within S.H.I.E.L.D. The Winter Solider had operated covertly for over fifty years, assassinating dozens of people and S.H.I.E.L.D. had no idea about it. Too many needless deaths had happened because this whole situation was noticed too late.
I glared at Fury. "How many have paid the price before you did notice?"
He opened and closed his mouth, grasping for words. He sighed and looked up at Steve standing behind me. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."
"Even if you had, would you have told me?" he growled bitterly. "Or would you have compartmentalised that, too?" He stepped to stand next to where I sat. "S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA. It all goes."
Fury was not happy about the alternative. But he didn't have a choice. No more people were going to die for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s costly mistake. Steve was right. It all had to go.
"He's right," Hill said as Fury looked to her for support.
His eyes flicked to Natasha who simply leaned back into her chair. And then they landed on Sam.
He shrugged. "Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."
His eyes finally landed on mine. "You do know that a lot of things will go public if we do this. Things that we may not want to."
I knew what he was talking about: Project Hourglass. If we did this, I was no longer a ghost. The world would know who I was. The world would know what I could do. They would know how long I'd been knocking around for; the things I'd done. Did I really want to take that risk?
But it wasn't about me. It was about the millions that could die if we didn't stop the carriers.
I rose my chin in defiance. "Many have known about me centuries." I looked up at Steve. "I can be known for a few more."
Fury sighed, and closed his eye in thought. He leaned back in his chair as he opened it. "Well. It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."
❈Author's Note: Hey, there! If you liked this chapter, please consider giving it a quick vote! Thanks for reading!