Goodbyes Never Last Forever

After I agreed to help them the Captain had made quick work of hurrying us into a sleek new SUV parked just two blocks away, and from there we started on a very long road trip. At first everything was silent as Cap drove and I took that as a sign that maybe he and Agent Carter didn’t know how to brief me more about the mission, but as time dragged on I realized that they weren’t planning on bringing it back up.

Few details had been explained to me about the Captain’s friend and even fewer about how we were going to go about finding him. My gaze wondered over to passenger seat where Agent Carter sat and I remembered that tracking him down was her job. They just needed me to contain him and if that was truly all they required of me then my job would be over quickly enough and then I could go back to my boring little hobble of a town.

Wanting to get this mission over as soon as possible I quickly asked about the first thing that popped into my head, “So you said that this Bucky character has been friends with you since childhood, does that mean that it’s safe to assume that he’s been around since World War II?”

Captain America stared at me through mirror before for a second before he flicked his eyes back down to the road. “Yea,”

“He’s pretty old then.” I stated more to myself than to him.

“He is but he doesn’t look it.”

I cocked my brow at him when he didn’t going into detail. “How so?”

The Captain notched his chin a little higher as he changed lanes. “Between missions the KGB and Hydra used to put him in cryostasis.”

They froze him! My mouth fell open in my utter astonishment. I hadn’t even known that it was real much less actually practiced. Cataloging that bit of information away for another time I asked another pressing question. “So he looks like he did back in the 1940’s?”

“Not exactly.” This time it was Agent Carter who had answered. She bent forward to open the glove compartment and pulled out a file. Once she had it she turned around to hand it to me. “They didn’t train him to be an assassin, they made him into one.”

Clipped to the cover of the file was an old photo with a name scribbled on the bottom. Sargent James Buchannan Barnes. I smiled slightly at the picture as I looked it over. The first thing I noticed about him was his smile. It was lopsided and cocky, the kind of easy going confident smile that only a man could make. I looked over the rest of his face and realized that he was actually very handsome, and with that grin I could only assume that he had been quiet the ladies’ man back in his day.

Without hesitating I opened the file and what I saw inside floored me. There were formulas for some kind of super serum, blueprints of a machine that could wipe a person’s mind, and schematics for a cybernetic arm. They removed his arm! I felt my stomach turn as I continued looking through the file.

There were some documents that were written in Russian and if it hadn’t been for the translated notes that someone had scribbled down on the side of the paragraphs I would have been lost. Some of those documents were about the missions he had gone on while others were charts from all the experiments he’d been through. Each one was detailed and each one made my stomach turn. I couldn’t decide what was more disturbing, what they had done to him or what they had made him do.

Being in the military made you tough and having the ability to crush people’s bodies into soup made you even more so, but what they had done to Sargent James Barnes horrified me. At this point I didn’t know whether to be scared or sorry for him.

My hands were shaking as I closed his file and at first I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with it now that I was done reading it over but then I found myself drawn to his small military photo on the front. He was still there with that cocky smile on his face and I realized something then. I had agreed to this mission because Sam had asked me for help but now I just generally wanted to help him. After all that this guy had been through didn’t he deserve to get his old life back, to remember his childhood friend, to make his own decisions, and just live?

I don’t know how long I sat there just staring at his picture but when I finally lifted my head up and looked out the window I saw the Lincoln Memorial. Why the hell are we in Washington DC. When a hand tapped my on the shoulder I’m embarrassed to say that I jumped a little.

“You okay?” Sam asked before leaning down to look out my window.

Waving him off I took a deep breath to collect myself. “I’m fine I just didn’t realize where we were until now.”

He smiled back at me before looking back out my window. “Been a while since you’ve been here right?”

“It has.” I sighed before glancing back outside. The trees had already started to shed for the winter and the ground was covered in their colorful leaves. I could hear Agent Carter talking away on her phone but to me it was just background noise as I stared at the scenery.

When she clipped her phone shut and started directing Steve on where to go I understood that that phone call had been important. “Take a left up here and park the car. I don’t think we should be to close.”

As soon as the car was parked they both flew out of the car. Both Sam and I looked at each other before following suit. “Something wrong?” I asked before Agent Carter could pass us.

She ignored me and looked at Sam. “Where’s the Falcon?”

He hitched his thumb to the car. “In the back.”

“Put it on.” Sam didn’t hesitate and before I could ask her anything she slid her phone out of her pocket and lifted it up to her face. Whoever had called her must have been important because her back straightened automatically as if she were speaking to someone with a higher command. “Yes sir I understand and it won’t happen again, thank you sir.”

Agent Carter locked eyes with me as she shoved her phone back into her pocket. “What kind of firearm do you use?”

I frowned in confusion. “I’ve never had a need for them.”

She nodded in understanding. “Are you set then?”

“For what?”

She seemed aggravated now. “The mission.”

I felt my eyes widen in shock. We hadn’t discussed anything about it in the car so I had been under the impression that this mission was going to take place later on in the month…this week at the earliest but defiantly not this minute. “Already?”

She made a face at me before quickly masking it over with something more professional and then made her way to the open door of the SUV. “I had a friend in the CIA running facial recognition software. They hacked into every camera or satellite you can think of and by some miracle got a hit on James Barnes.”

Understanding Bucky and James Barnes were one in the same and that this was indeed a miracle I came up beside her to help move the seats in the SUV back. “Will they be after him as well?”

She shook her head. “Only three agencies know that he exists; the KGB, Hydra, and SHIELD.”

I recognized the names. Bucky’s file had mentioned Hydra but that was about it. The KGB had been a well-known agency for the Soviet Union but they had collapsed back in 1991 and as far as I knew had never recovered. SHIELD on the other hand I knew fairly well. During my time in the military SHIELD agents had visited me often and asked me to join them on quite a few occasions. If I hadn’t already become friends with Sam and Riley I would have gone with them.

“So you just got this friend of yours to look him up and what? They didn’t ask any questions.”

“They did so I told them that he was embezzling money from my father’s company and that we had found evidence that he was trying to leave the country. They flagged the photo I gave them and he got pushed right up to the top of the list.” She smiled then. A quick cunning smile that told me that she was proud of the move she had made.

We both lifted up the floor where the seats had been to reveal a small armory. “So who was that on the phone?”

“My boss telling me not to use CIA intelligence for personal affairs.”

I let out a dry laugh then. “Really? He just gave you a slap on the wrist and that’s it?”

Carter pulled off her coat and sweatshirt then strapped into a bulletproof vest. “Well I’m kind of like a trophy wife to them.”

Noticing a small navy knife I picked it and looked it over. “How so?” I asked as I strapped the knife onto my upper thigh.

She slipped back into her clothes and grabbed a few other essentials. “I used to work for SHIELD.”

Holding a newfound respect for the agent I gave her a nod then handed her some ammo that she in turn placed in her coat pocket. After she was finished arming herself we closed up the armory and pulled the seats back.

I was about to get out of the car when I felt her hand on my elbow. She didn’t speak until I was looking back at her. “What are your powers exactly?”

That’s classified information. The words were right there, on the tip of my tongue. They had been drilled into me until my answer had become automatic. Now I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from saying that and remind myself that I wasn’t in the military anymore. “Telekinesis.”

She nodded slightly, “I gathered that much but what about that thing you had me in? It felt like I was in a bubble until started getting smaller.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “I suppose it’s still a form of telekinesis but I’m not really sure. To tell you the truth once I found out that I could use it both as a shield and as a weapon I didn’t really care.”

“Is there a limit?” She had asked the question pleasantly enough but still my body stiffened. I did have a limit but frankly I didn’t know this woman and giving away that kind of information could be hazardous.

Thankfully I didn’t have to come up with some bogus answer because not even a second later the Captain was poking his head around the door. “You ladies ready?”

“We’re locked and loaded.” Agent Carter emphasized by pushing her coat to the side and displaying one of the guns strapped onto her thigh.

“Yeah,” I agreed and slipped out of the car.

He gave a curt nod. “You said that your friend found him with a surveillance cam on the corner of New Hampshire Ave and 24th street?”

“He was heading east.” She informed.

“That’s three streets down from where we are now.” Sam cut in. Automatically my eyes were drawn to the humongous backpack that he had strapped on.

Something snapped and all of a sudden I was back in the military. The continuous noise of explosions and gunfire left my ears constantly ringing. Dust stuck to my face like a second skin. My uniform and body armor were weighing me down so much so that the stich in my side was throbbing painfully. I reached down to try and easy the pain but felt something wet. Pulling my hand away I looked down to see the deep rusty color of blood. I’d been shot.

“Amora,” I felt hands on my shoulder shaking me gently. My breathing was labored and sweat was beading down my forehead. Panic was setting in and I knew that I needed to calm down. Looking up I slowly began to focus on the dark face that was quietly calling my name. His smooth brown eyes were what grounded me, they were so warm and friendly that I couldn’t help but relax.

I gave my head a quick shake and wiped the sweat off of my brow. “Sorry,” I muttered embarrassedly to them and kept my eyes locked on the ground.

“Do you need a second?” Sam asked slowly rubbed my shoulders in a brotherly manner.

“No,” I stepped out of his reach and looked up at the team. “Sorry where were we?”

“Positions.” Agent Carter answered a little softer than usual.

Steve quickly gave the run down again. “I’ll go down to 1st street and run alongside it, Sam’s going to cut across and take 26th. Carter I want you on 25th and Thorn you’ve got 24th to 22nd. If you spot him I want to know immediately and absolutely nobody engages him.”

“Why the weapons then?” I curiously asked.

Agent Carter quickly answered. “It’s in case we come across any Hydra agents.”

“Hydra?” I asked. “You said something about them before and they were briefly mentioned in James’ file but who are the exactly?”

Sam tightened the straps of his backpack and pulled a pair of goggles out of his pocket. “It’s too long of a story to get into right now so here’s a quick rundown. Hydra wants their solider back really badly so they’re not going to go easy on you just because you’re a girl. Their agents are highly skilled and ruthless add that together with their weapons and it’s downright scary.”

“Awesome.” I groaned before getting my head back in the game. “Okay so what was he last seen wearing?”

“A jacket and a baseball cap. He has some light facial hair now but he’ll most likely keep his head down and his left arm concealed.”

“What are we using for communication?” I ran my hand through my hair to fluff it out a bit more then zipped up my jacket.

Agent Carter turned back to the car and reached into one of the pockets. She tossed me a flip phone that was similar to hers. “If you see him press one, that’ll give you a direct line to Steve. Make the call under a minute then ditch the phone. If Hydra’s out there I don’t want them picking up on anything. Follow him but again don’t engage him. The last thing we want to do is spook him.”

I shoved the phone into my pocket then asked a question that I had been dreading. “If he runs?”

Steve looked over at the Agent before they both nodded their heads in agreement. “Capture him.”