Piece By Piece

Part 20

I stayed in the hospital bed with Bruce taking care of me for 4 weeks, with occasional trips to the gym where he had me walk slowly in the treadmill. He would work with me on a few exercises to help see where my mobility was at, but at the 3rd visit I got an earful from a guy named Sam about how I was holding the weight and I threw it at him. I suppose it wasn't the right reaction, but I told him to fuck off three times before reacting physically.

I think that the bigger problem was that with Hydra's newer modifications to me, the 20 pound weight gained enough momentum that the impact was more like a 100 pound weight, and I guess I bruised his rib really bad. I refused to apologize, and then was henceforth kept in the hospital bed.

After the 4 weeks, I tentatively boarded a small jet, the Quinjet, they called it, and sat down on one of the benches. It was a 15 hour flight to where we were going, so I just stared at my shoes. I don't know how they knew my size of shoes, but these fit great. It was like the sole had already curved and adapted to my feet. A woman with red hair sat in the pilots seat and started the engines. I had felt fine up until now, but all of a sudden I felt nauseous. I pushed the need to get off the jet way down and focused on the grooves in the floor. As the plane took off I felt my heart drop into my stomach, and I leaned down.

I pressed my chest to my thighs and held on tight until the plane was in the air, and then I observed my surroundings. There were 6 people on this jet besides me- well 5 people and a half human. There was one man with bright red skin, almost pink, with a large yellow gem in the centre of his forehead. His features were manlike, except for his skin and stone. Then there was the red headed woman with the green eyes, and a tall man with sandy blonde hair. His clean shaven face was handsome, with a sharp nose and jawline, and kind blue eyes. Standing and looking at a holographic screen-thing was another man with short cut dark brown hair, and brown eyes. His facial hair was grown out into a thick stubble, and his shoulder muscles pushed against the fabric of his t-shirt.

Lastly, there was Bruce and the man who made me angry, Bucky. He wouldn't stop looking at me, and in turn, it made me want to look at him. As the jet hit a bit of turmoil my grip on the bench tightened, forcing the metal edge to dig painfully into my palm. I tried to force my facial expressions to stay neutral and unfazed, but my heart was pounding and I could feel cold sweat bead on my forehead. Leaned back and closed my eyes, trying to calm my heart rate. Breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth.

I felt a cold hand tap my shoulder, startling me. My eyelids flew open to show Bucky holding two little pills out to me.

"Want this? It might help with the nerves. Flying makes you nervous, right?" I narrowed my eyes.

"I don't need help from you or your little pills. I'm fine, and I like flying," I lied. His big blue eyes saddened at the corners and his dark brows pinched together slightly. Something tugged at my heart but I ignored it. He dropped the pills back in the bottle and walked away to put them away, and as he did so, I leaned my head back against the side of the jet and closed my eyes. I tried to sleep, but there were flashes. People. Moments. A boy with extremely pale blonde hair running and the sound of a machine gun. A rapid fire and then almost a stinging sensation in my side. I didn't know who the boy was but something terrible happened to him.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next time I opened my eyes I was lying down on the bench with a t-shirt folded up as a pillow under my head. I swung my legs off the bunch and placed my feet on the ground and stood, resisting the urge to stretch. I walked tentatively up to the cockpit and stood, looking out the front windshield at a thick forest-no, a jungle, that covered everywhere I could see. The sun was high in the day and a thin layer of steam formed a light cloud above the trees. It was pretty. Bucky sat across from where I had been sleeping, and when I turned around to look back, his eyes were on me. I stared at him with nothing in my eyes and crossed my arms in front of my chest. His eyes turned to the floor in surrender and I turned back to the window. It was gorgeous. I was more excited about getting my memories back.

What if I had a family? Or a best friend? I assumed my name was Y/n, since everyone had accidentally called me that, but I wanted to know myself. If I had a family the first thing I was going to do is find them. What if someone missed me? Or wanted to hug me? All I wanted was for someone to hold me.

As the flight came closer to our destination I pictured my life with memories. What my parents looked like, all the night where I spent giggling with my friends, my first kiss, all the milestones I couldn't remember. Then I thought about where I came from. Hydra. My nightmarish home. I thought about killing whoever put me there. Everyone who hurt me was going to pay. The only thing Hydra gave me besides PTSD was a sense of self-preservation.

"And we're breaking through in 3, 2, 1," all of a sudden a massive city emerged in front of us and a large chunk of the jungle disappeared. The city was colourful and little tiny people could be seen from above. The centrepiece of the city however was the shining palace that looked over the whole place. Natasha steered the plane towards the ground, and after a safe descent we landed on a sunny tarmac. Three people dressed in gorgeous clothing walked out towards us, two women and a man. The first woman was older, in her 50s, with intelligent and wise eyes. The second woman was younger, late teens or early 20s, with her long dark hair in a braided bun. The man wore a long dark robe with a tribal pattern embroidered into the black silk. He wore leather sandals on his feet and shirt think curls on his head. He exchanged a few words with Steve and Bucky before turning to me, and holding out his hand.

"I am T'Challa, king of Wakanda. It is so good to meet one of Steve's friends." I cocked an eyebrow at the word 'friend' but smiled and shook his hand in return.

"I'm really grateful to you for helping me with my memory. I'm getting a bit desperate." He smiled.

"It is our pleasure to help you, miss Y/n."

I resisted the feeling of discomfort and pushed away the urge to display it. I smiled and nodded in thanks.

-time jump, about 12 hours later-

T'Challa's sister, Shuri, was the one who was going to work the machine that corrected my memories. She was funny and smart, I liked her a lot.

"I have to ask you every time we finish a memory if you want to get to the next one. Some will be easy, but most will be painful. The machine triggered the part of your brain that stored memory, and makes them surface, one by one. You have to relive all of your memories in a very short time span. It can be emotional and scary. We have all the time in the world to do this, so if you want to stop for the day we will, okay?"

I was so grateful that she was being so kind and considerate towards me, but I wanted to know. I nodded and told her I was confident I'd be okay as she attached a few wires to my head and began pressing buttons on the large control board. My world went black.