Radioactive | Bucky Barnes

THE FIRST AVENGER: CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Colonel Phillips stood at the head of the table, grim - but who wasn't? Steve, Peggy, Howard, and the Invaders surround him. "Johann Schmidt belongs in the bughouse. He thinks he's God and will blow up half the world to prove it." he stabs at a map in front of him, "Starting with the U.S.A."

"That's insane." Dugan's the first to speak.

"So's Hitler, but he's gotten pretty far with less than Schmidt has."

"But Hyrda would need millions of me, fleets of transport. They'd have to be fed, fueled." Falsworth added.

Howard shook his head, "Schmidt's working with powers beyond our capabilities. He gets across the Atlantic, he'll wipe out the entire eastern seaboard in an hour."

Steve stares at the map, eyes were drawn inevitably to New York. "Every able-bodied man we have is either here or in the Pacific." Steve said, "Our borders are wide open."

Jones looked at Colonel Phillips, "How much time have we got?"

"According to my new best friend, under twenty-four hours." Colonel Phillip answered dread-filled silence falls over the room.

"I do love a good countdown." Rhiley strained in, like it was any other day, and found a spot - more like - pushed a Scott between Howard and Steve. "Who died?" She asked when they watched her. "Where is he now?" She switched the topic quickly.

It takes Colonel Phillip a moment to answer, "Hydra's last base is here, in the Alps..." He drags his finger down, "Five hundred feet below the surface."

Morita gets closer to the map, "What are we supposed to do? It's not like we can just knock on the front door."

Everyone turned to Steve. The look on his face told everyone the answer.

"Rhiley." Peggy caught up to her after the meeting.

Rhiley, obviously, was trying to avoid a confrontation. "Peggs-" She turned, trying to hide the small droop of her shoulders by quickly rolling them back up. "Did you need something?"

"I haven't seen you since-" Peggy stopped herself, she had tried to have a conversation with the woman since the train incident but Rhiley had been locked up in her room. The only person who had been able to break in was Howard. "Are you okay?"

"Is anyone here okay?" Rhiley threw back the question, "Like, honestly, 100% okay? So, really, it's a dumb question to ask someone. Are you okay? No, no I'm not. But that's life, right? A bunch of bullshit wrapped up in more bullshit."

"I'm just worried, Rhiley." Peggy sighed, she couldn't take what Rhiley said to heart. It wasn't like she was wrong. "We all are."

"I just want to get this over with." Rhiley sighed, "Then get on with my life."

"If you're not up for this mission nobody is gonna-"

"I'm fully healed." Rhiley lied, her chest still hurt but it wasn't debilitating. Most of it was emotional pain anyways. "They need me."

"I need you." Howard barged into the conversation, "I don't want to come off as rude, but if you're feeling even slightly off I don't want you out there. Physically, and mentally, I don't care. If you're not 100% I'm not letting you go."

Rhiley pierced her lips together, "Don't worry, Howard. I learned my lesson last time."

"This isn't like last time," Peggy responded.

"You're right." Rhiley corrected herself, "Last time I lost someone I went on a rampage for a few months, almost ended up dying, and had to 'repay my betrayal' by lending a hand to the front lines." She had put quotations around the 'repay my betrayal' part. "But unlike last time what happened wasn't my fault. It's those bastards' fault and they're gonna get what they deserve."

Steve had walked up and overheard Rhiley's comment. She hadn't tried to keep it private though. "Is everyone okay?" He asked. He had wanted to ask Rhiley personally if she was okay but it looked like someone had already tried that.

"I'm not gonna risk anyone's life, okay." Rhiley confirmed, "It was just my life I was risking last time."

"You say that as your life matters less." Howard retorted.

"It doesn't matter more than anyone else in this place." Rhiley pointed at Steve, "He lost his best friend too, and yet nobody is asking if he's ready to get back out there. Hell, at least Captain America probably has a choice in his decisions."

Peggy raised an eyebrow, "What does that mean?"

"I was made to join that stupid team on the front lines or I would have been arrested for my crimes against the country."

Howard looked at his sister puzzled, "What crimes? I haven't heard-"

"It's the Government Howard, they can hide anything from anyone, even you." Rhiley cut him off before he could finish, "After what happened in France, when Project Mirage got hijacked, and I 'abandoned my post'" She put quotation marks over the last part before continuing, "They gave me the option of having me wrapped around their little fingers or get sent to jail."

"The undercover agent list," Steve remembered the conversation.

"I made a lot of people mad for what I caused in those few months I disappeared." Rhiley breathed, "If you hadn't found me when you did I wouldn't be here."

"That's cause you'd be dead." Howard snapped.

"I am sad." Rhiley finally said, looking over at Steve, "but I'm not the only one sad." She looked at the others, "I'm not doing this for myself - not for the people who forced me to be here in the first place - I'm doing this because James promised he wouldn't leave me to face this alone and I know damn well he made that promise to you too." She looked back at Steve, "Since he can't be there, then I'm going to be there. I'm not gonna let Rogers walk in there without me."

"I've said this before," Steve spoke up, "But I trust you and I trust you know what you're doing."

Rhiley looked back at Howard, "I just need you to trust me, trust that I know what I'm doing, okay? I need to do this."

Howard looked conflicted, at everything, and he had questions he wanted to ask Rhiley that he knew he didn't have time for right now. So he shoved them back, making a note to ask her about what really happened last year when she had disappeared. "I know you better than anyone in this room, Rhiley." Howard continued, shocking everyone with the next thing he said, "That's why I can't trust you."

Rhiley couldn't find the words. He had caught her completely off guard with his statement. So, instead of responding. Rhiley turned and left.

"She is my other half."