Flicker ✦ STEVE ROGERS¹ [✓]

24 | IT ALL GOES

HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? STEVE THOUGHT TO HIMSELF. He had been there when it happened. He had seen Bucky fall to his death. But still, Steve knew the Winter Soldier was him. He looked different, he dressed different, but it was most definitely Bucky. Somehow, Steve's best friend had survived.

Steve sat next to Kato in the back of the armored truck, trying to process what he'd seen. Natasha and Sam sat across from him, and two helmeted guards sat to his right. The silence was tense and thick with confusion and disbelief. None of them could truly believe what they had seen.

"It was him," Steve said after a moment, his voice heavy as he stared at his shackled hands. "He looked right at me, like he didn't even know me."

"How's that even possible?" Sam asked, equally as confused. "It was like seventy years ago."

Steve was silent for a beat before it hit him. The clips Zola had showed them came back to him, and images of Bucky's metal arm flashed across his brain. "Zola," Steve said. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..." He trailed off, unable to finish.

Natasha shook her head, her voice full of pain and exhaustion as she spoke. "None of that's your fault, Steve."

Steve sighed, his eyes closing in sorrow. "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Suddenly he felt something land on his shoulder. Steve turned his head, seeing it was Kato. She was slumped over, her chest rising and falling faintly. Steve could tell that the cuffs they'd given her were draining her powers, and when he looked at her he could see how pale and sickly she looked. Steve knew right away: she was dying.

Sam, who had also noticed Kato's unconscious state and Natasha's bleeding shoulder, looked at the guards in anger. "We need to get a doctor here," he snapped. "We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck." Then he motioned to Kato. "And can we get those cuffs off her? C'mon, man, can't you see it's killing-"

One of the guards suddenly pulled out an electric rod, igniting it and pointing it at Sam, who recoiled from the blue electricity. But then, out of nowhere, that same guard spun the rod before jamming it into the other guard's stomach, electrocuting him. Then, the guard kicked him hard in the head, and his head slammed into the side of the wall before he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

As the three of them watched the guard in shock, the guard took off their helmet, revealing it to be none other than Agent Hill. "Ah, that thing was squeezing my brain," she said, flipping her hair out of her face. As Sam looked at her in confusion, she glanced at him, then turned to Steve and asked, "Who's this guy?"

"Sam Wilson," Sam replied. "I'm with them."

Hill raised an eyebrow. "Right."

Wordlessly, she crawled over the unconscious guard and unlocked Sam's and Natasha's cuffs. But as she turned to Steve, he shook his head, looking at Kato.

"Her first," Steve said. "These things are killing her."

Hill nodded, unlocking the cuffs. Almost immediately Kato gasped, her eyes flying open as the color and life returned to her skin. Then, her chest heaving, she looked around, and it was obvious that she was confused by what was happening.

"Steve?" she asked, frowning as she tried to catch her breath. "What the..." She turned to Agent Hill. "Hill?"

"I'll explain later," Hill said, unlocking Steve's cuffs. "For now we need to get out of here."

"And how are we getting out, exactly?" Sam asked.

Hill gestured to the floor with a grin. Then, she pulled a laser gun off of her belt and ignited it.