Brooklyn. She was home. No matter how short lived her stay in the city, it was where she met the people who made it feel like home. Only now home was missing quite a few people.
Now that she was on solid ground she feel slightly at ease. But the plane ride back was hellish. Not only did the multiple stops and incessant turbulence exhaust and unnerve her, but is was the constant thoughts buzzing in her head that made her shake. She couldn't help but think that she was making the wrong choice despite how everyone said she wasn't. Even Bucky told her she wasn't, but he couldn't ease her conscience, fearing it would be the last time she would see him.
"I don't know if I'm making the right choice, Buck. I'm so undeniably torn between the two," Gideon whispered in the dead of the night. Darkness had cloaked the sky, and only a few hours rested in between them and the time her plane back to the states would depart. The decision was already final, yet she couldn't help but worry.
"Gideon, you are," he assured, running a warm hand comfortingly along her shoulder as they laid in her tent. It was her last night there, and the stubborn soldier wasn't going to let his girl sleep alone on it despite her want for him to sleep for the next day of battle. "If I were you, I would go to. This isn't something you want to miss; I know you."
"I know," she sighed, "A part of me is just afraid that you won't be here when I get back."
"You worry too much," he said, pulling her closer to him, in the small cot they shared, "Of course I'll be here, or home, hopefully."
"Promise," the brunette lifted her head from his chest, wide eyes gazing into his to burn in the memory of the ocean blue shade.
"Promise," he comforted by raising a hand to her face and brushing away the stray locks of brown hair before pressing his lips to hers.
"You better James Buchanan Barnes," the doctor smiled in between the few seconds their lips were apart, but they were both pulling each other back for more. And even as the night continued, the two stayed up into the morning, talking about anything and everything like they had the nights before. It wasn't until the sun came up did they stop.
Awake before most, he walked her to her plane as Colonel Phillips awaited inside. [It was only them and Steve going to the states for a short period of time because they were the only ones Howard would disclose any details to.]
When it was just them, Gideon's feet were just about to grace the steps to the small aircraft, but Bucky spun her around once more and kissed her like it was his last day on earth.
"For good luck."
Standing inside the mock antique shop, Gideon felt every emotion she felt from the night of the Super Soldier Experiment come rushing back to her; adrenaline, excitement, uneasiness. The latter came to her in its strongest form.
"Is this how you felt," she turned to Steve as they stood on the balcony, looking over the platform.
"Yeah," the man, much taller than she was used to, nodded. "I didn't think my heart would stop pounding."
"I feel like I'm going to throw up," the woman, still as ever, spoke even though she felt her entire body thrum with anxiety.
"I'll be here," he pointed to the booth above them, his voice calm in an attempt to ease her, "Good luck, Gideon."
Hugging the man goodbye, Gideon proceeded down the stairs leading to the platform, meeting Howard in the middle.
"It's good to see you again," he greeted.
"You too, Howard. I've missed Brooklyn," the woman nodded, feeling out of place within the laboratory.
She had never been able to see things from that position. Men and women in lab coats, doctors all alike, hummed around the room while she was the test subject in nothing but a white slip. While everything raced around her, she felt at a standstill, her feet stuck in mud. She felt terrified yet enthralled all the same.
Completing this experiment would be life-changing; it would change the world, just like he had done with Steve. But she didn't want the publicity Steve had. Steve was meant for it; he was meant to inspire and fight for what was right.
The public eye though, wasn't a place for Gideon and what she was soon to become. Her place was to hide in the shadows behind the view of HYDRA, to find and thrive in their blind spot.
Particle masker, the file said when she first read it.
It took her awhile to grasp the idea of it all once she read the classified document upon arriving to Brooklyn. Everything was happening so fast around her. Within a blink, she found herself already stepping into the machine.
The experiment included the same array of tests as did Steve's; injections of the serum with vita- rays following suit. Only hers wouldn't result with those attributes of a soldier but those of a spy.
For the strongest woman I know, to seek a rightful end to the organization known as HYDRA.
Those words, scratched onto the paper in her father's messy scrawl, were memorized behind closed eyelids as she laid on the table. Her and Howard shared a knowing look before he placed the safety restraints around her and tested her vitals. It was a look in which the two doctors expressed their trust for each other. She nodded at the man before he turned to the booth above to explain.
Glancing up, Gideon could only see Steve, Colonel Phillips, and the sole senator that funded it viewing it from the booth. They were the only ones to know. For it to work, few as possible people needed to know of her until the right moment, the perfect moment at which HYDRA was at its weakest.
Howard's voice filled the room through the speaker, but Gideon didn't hear a word he said with the sound of the blood rushing in her ears. Her heart raced faster than she ever thought it could.
She hardly felt the pinch of the penicillin injection as her wide eyes watched the assistants prep the vials full of the serum.
A countdown began to echo within the lab, and Gideon felt herself take in a deep breath before the room quieted to a standstill around her. She didn't even notice when the countdown hit one, until the series of needles clamped down on her skin and the machines began to whirl around her.
Pain stemmed from each injection site, enough to make her grit her teeth, but she felt the serum pounding through each any every vein, changing every cell in its path. But it wasn't until the final machine assembled around her, encapsulating her in a chamber for the vita rays, did the pain truly set in. It erupted from her veins as the serum took its final form, and the heat from the rays felt as if it was burning her skin when it remained unharmed.
She couldn't help but scream out and immediately bite her tongue after; she didn't want the experiment to stop. She needed to finish it.
When she heard Howard yell out that the levels of the device reaching one hundred percent, relieve filled her. She felt the machine open in front of her, and when she stepped out, Gideon felt different in every sense. She felt strong, faster, and although the serum gave her advanced skills, it also paired her with an unheard ability to catch HYDRA blind-sighted.
With the few sets of eyes on her, she shared a glance with each of them as she found her footing on solid ground. Her mind then turned its gears to concentrate. It was what the files constantly stated to do upon the experiment's completion.
Holding up her hand, she sucked in a deep breath before training her eyes on it. Her mind ran with thoughts of determination. And with that, it worked.
Her hand was no longer visible, and the more she thought of it, the more the distance of the masked skin grew, continuing on to even cloak the slip she wore.
Jaws fell around her; the senator stepped away in shock, uttering, "Erskine is a damn genius."
Gideon Erskine was graced with the ability to turn herself and things she touched invisible with a mere thought.
And HYDRA sure as hell was never going to see her coming.
This was by far my favorite chapter to write so far, and I hoped you like it too!
And please vote and comment ☺️
[8/12/16]