A Glimpse of Fire

12

   The next day it was warm and humid, your clothes were sticking to you as you walked around the burnt out shell of the orphanage. Tony and Bucky tailing along close to you. The center court behind the building was overgrown with bushes, and roses. The cooblestone court yard could barely be seen, swing sets covered in vines and rusted out. It was hard to believe that this was the same place that your visions from Travis had shown you.
    You walked ahead toward the tree line, were the shed that Travis had taken the book to should be. You had to push new sampling out of the way but you spotted it, it looked like any other nondescript tool shed you had ever seen. Walking up you tested the door knob to find it locked, you looked over your shoulder to Bucky, he reached around you, grasping the knob tightly. With swift downward yank from his left hand the knob broke, the sound of wood splintering away was the only sound.
   You stepped in, dust covered every thing, from the shelves that held book after book to the small make shift table in the center. A cobweb hit your face as you walked toward a wall lined with books, you shuttered as you brought your hand up, pulling the thick string from your face.
    "Guess we each take a wall?" Bucky sighed, looking over to you.
    "Bet I can find something before either of you." Tony clipped, grabbing a well worn book from the shelve to his right.
    "Stark, this isn't a game." Bucky chided, grabbing his own.
    You walking along the wall, trailing your fingers lazily across the spines. Feeling and emotions slowly started to course through you, even though you told Bucky you wouldn't do this, it was apart of you, something you couldn't turn off.
     "And the boy?" A woman asked. You stopped moving suddenly, staring up ahead as the phantom voice came through your mind loud and clear. 
      "We'll chalk him up to another failure, like one and two." You recognized the voice as the scientist. "We'll have our asset take care of him."
     The words sent and shiver down your spine as your head snapped over to your fiancé. You had only heard one person in your life referred to as The Asset, and that one person was currently leaning against a wall reading a book that was barely being held together. His hair was framing his face, as he chewed lightly on his lip. Your heart rate kicked up a bit as you stared at him in disbelief.
     "What about the girl?" She asked, as you felt a tug in your chest.
     "Her too, we are scrapping the project. Words come down, cease all tests and get rid of the evidence." You walked away from the book toward your fiancé, he looked up at you as you came to him.
     "But she's perfect." Slowly faded away as your fingertips finally left the spine.
    You took a deep breath, crossing your fingers that you wouldn't find what you feared. You gave him a weak smile, as you placed your hand on his metal arm. Images, thoughts, voices hit all at once spiraling backwards in time, back past you meeting him, back farther into his time as the Winter Soldier.
     "Wake up, we have a mission." You heard, slowly sitting up from the metal cot. The room was cold as you swung your legs over the edge, mind blank. 
      "Where?" The voice sounded hollow, cold, vacant.
      "New York, an orphanage." The handler said as you stood, your movements choppy as you followed.
    You felt your own lip tremble as you pushed through his flight to New York from the cold wasteland of Siberia.
     You walked up to the brick building, gripping the metal handle you opened the door with ease finding it unlocked. Quietly and calmly you walked the halls toward the rooms where kids had slept. The mission, it was easy, your targets were two children. Except a woman was taking the both of them down hall, you pulled the gun from your hip. The boy was tall and lanky, emerald green eyes staring at you as he took a stand. The small girl looking over her shoulder at you, fear in her eyes.
     "We must protect her, Adain." The old woman stated. Flames erupted in front of your vision right as you were about to fire.
   You let go of Bucky, eyes wide, your chest heaving. He gave you puzzled look as you let go of him, taking a step back, your back hitting the shelving behind you. You shook your head at him, biting your lip.
     "Doll?" He asked, you had pried in. Even though most of the time you shared his memories with him you didn't want him to know. At least not until you knew whether or not the book was talking about him. Tears began to well up in your eyes.
     "Evidently the first test subject was failure, so they eliminated it." Tony spoke up, oblivious to the two of you. "All that's listed is it was a male, age ten, a whole slew of drugs administered."
      Eliminated, such a cold term for murdered.
     "The second one escaped on the grounds, from the sounds of it they kept..." he looked up and the tension between the two of you. He looked to Bucky's face, contorted with confusion and the sudden fear mixed with pain. "Alright, what's going on kids?"
    "They tried to kill me and Adian." You breathed, a tear slowly rolling down your cheek. Not wanting to believe the first time you had met this sweet man, your soon to be husband and the father of the child you were carrying, was when you were a child and he had been sent to kill you.
     "What?" Bucky asked, his face went lax as he looked down to his arm and then back up to you. His eyes began to widen as he realized what had happened.
     "The book, I heard them. The project was shut down, they were sending in the Asset." You told him, tears fell from your cheeks as you explained. "You are the only one I've ever met that was called the Asset. And it was you, they sent you to kill Adain and I. But he lit up the hall way before you could fire a shot."
     Bucky stood silent, having thought he knew every last action the Soldier has done. But he must of pushed that one back to far, he remembered every face he had killed. Evidently even the Soldier didn't want to remember killing innocent children. Bucky felt his fist clench, the sound of clicking from the plates  recalibrating.
     "Bucky." You breathed reaching out for him, he stepped away, and walked out. You looked over to Tony who stood awkwardly off to the side. The look of shock on his own face told you that even he wouldn't of thought Bucky would of been used that way.
     You rushed out after him, evening light enveloping you as you stepped out. Bucky stood in the courtyard, his body stiff. As you began to walk up he brought his hand up sharply, you stopped immediately. That's when you saw it out of the corner of your eye, the distorted, and twisted body of number two.