Command • T'Challa

Monster

The darkness chased through her brain like a tracer bullet.

She had to wake up from this nightmare, from this living hell.

And so, here, in this prison of her mind and her physical surroundings, Grace Louise Alburn remembered.

No, no, no, she had to stand up, had to shake it off- had to forget.

"I'm Grace Alburn, 22 years old, Washington D.C. Native. I was born on June 17th, 1993. My parents are Shailene Alburn and-"

She couldn't remember her father's name. Dammit, why couldn't she remember? His face- she remembered his face, remembered him yelling at her. That was inconsistent with her other memories, which she still could recall so clearly. She remembered how it hurt when she'd smacked her shin against the metal  roofing on the mid-level of the SHIELD building, how loud the sirens had been when the alarms had gone off when she'd smashed the window-

 it was like a scene from a movie, every last detail as clear as if it had happened moments ago. It played over and over again in her mind, flawlessly.

Every fiber of her being was screaming to her that something was horribly wrong, and that the files she'd seen had been right. The life she'd known, so tame, so simple, not that hard, really, was a lie. This was the second time she'd faced this, but it was still too much to take in. Slow, heaving sobs overtook her, as her mind was slowly being liberated of the traps, illusions, and hallucinatory facades that had been so expertly put up- were now beginning to crumble.

HYDRA had done its work well, that was for certain, but now, in her apparent old age and connection with Barnes, it had overwhelmed her utterly. The files said it had been 24 years since she and Barnes were last in contact- though both were insensible and didn't recognize one another, or so the report had claimed.

Grace knew that the report was wrong- someone in HYDRA had falsified it to keep the Soldier program going. There had been a snag  24 years ago, in a cold desolate place. On that day, the old Russian witch had come back to make good on her threats.

Now, Grace put her head in her hands, and screamed in agony, clenching her fists- Grace had to escape- had to go far away before anyone else got hurt, but above all, she had to go back. Go back to the place where the old Russian witch was, and tear the place to the ground.
 

Barely remaining in control of her consciousness, she felt she had to set it aside for now. Something had to be done about the evil man with the red book, the evil man with the shifting, soulless eyes, and James, who had seemingly vanished. Where was he now? Was he in control of himself? Was he conscious? Was he hurting anyone?

"T'Challa, you have to let me out." she said.

..............................

Grace POV:

The metal door opened, and T'Challa was standing in the doorway.

"We have to act quickly," he said. "Barnes has escaped and Captain Rogers seems to be helping him again, and so are many of the other Avengers." T'Challa informed me.

Great, just great. Civil-fricking-war amongst the Avengers. I could tell by his tone that Tony was probably not that happy about all of this now. I knew that tensions between him and Steve had pretty much reached the boiling point, and that it could only go downhill from here.
 As to whose side I was on, I was on the side of putting this whole stupid mess aside, getting James back, helping T'Challa out since he'd been somewhat understanding and close to sane throughout all of this dumb drama, and then, I honestly didn't know.