He was trying to make peace with his past.
So was she.
James Barnes and Anastasia Morozov were similar in many ways, and possibly the only people on the planet who understood each other. Both having a past with HYDRA and experiments, being used and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"So, did you make any new friends?" Raynor asked me, I wasn't sure whether to answer truthfully or whether to lie. I didn't like the fact that I didn't really have a life to keep to myself anymore. Did I appreciate the therapy? Yes, of course, I clearly need it... but I don't appreciate the fact that I don't have a choice in the matter. Or that if I miss a session I'm immediately on a wanted list.
"Anastasia..." She trailed off, bringing me back to the room.
"Am I ever going to be deemed stable enough to fight again?" I asked, I don't know why I asked, but now I had I wanted an answer. Raynor shuffled in her seat.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because if I wanted to I could disappear and never be heard from again. I'm doing this so I won't be a criminal and be able to fight to help people. If I can't do that legally after all of this then I don't see the point of wasting my time." I told her, she sighed.
"You have a passion for protecting people, to keep them safe. I don't even know why that is, there is no history of you being treated well by... anyone really. Normally someone has that passion to protect people because people have influenced them. You have been faced with traumatic experience after traumatic experience. If you can tell me why you want to protect people then I might give you an answer." She told me, her notebook was closed. Strange. She was genuinely curious.
"I want to keep people from experiencing what I have. I dislike seeing others in pain, no one helped me, but I have the ability to help others. A handful of people have treated me well, like Steve, Tony... Natasha." I missed her the most, not that it mattered. "They're all gone, and I might not be able to replace them, but I can do my best to help where I can."
"So, you want to fight to continue their legacies?" She asked me, I didn't move. Was that what I wanted?
"Yes and no, I want to create my own. Or fix mine, rather." I answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Everything I did as Empress, all the destruction and the death..."
"It wasn't you who did that. Not many people get to use that as a reason for their actions, but it wasn't you. I thought you had made amends to those in your past, the innocents you killed." She pointed out.
"I have, with them, but not with myself yet. I haven't forgiven myself and I don't know how to do that, I have this constant fear that I will lose control. That I will hurt more people. Even if it is Empress that does that I'm going to blame myself for losing control in the first place."
"I think you're having an identity crisis, people go through this where they have versions of themselves and lose track of who they really are. For you, it's a little more literal. There's you and Empress, two sides that you have always viewed as separate, and for good reason. What do you think you have to do about that?" She asked me, I shook my head.
