Third in the Timeline series |
After being told she was the infamous Agent 4, that every S.H.I.E.L.D agent thought was a rumour, Clara decides to get back in the field. Her old boss, and presumed dead, Phil Coulson guides her as she reunites with ol...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Clara blinked away the tears that threatened to fall, and wiped the rest away with the back of her hand. She couldn't just sit around moping, she had to do something.
Clara had to get back inside.
Her knees stung from where she had fallen on them in the biting snow and stung even more now she had scrambled to her feet and was running to find the nearest entrance.
Clara had no idea what she was doing. The plan in her head was only half formed but one thing was clear. She was going to find Bucky and Steve and everything was somehow going to be okay again.
It wasn't long before she found another metal door embedded in the rock face. The only problem, the door was shut and firmly locked.
There was a blank control panel to the right of it which looked like it hadn't been used since the 70s. Clara tapped it but it remained blank. So she tapped it again. Nothing.
She placed both her hands either side of it and felt around for any buttons, levers, plugs anything that could help her get inside. Nothing.
In her frustration she could only think of one thing. Hastily, she drew her gun and fired two shots at the partition between the two metal doors. It left a small hole and a scratch in the metal but it was just enough for Clara to fit her hands into.
With all her might she pulled at the doors, forcing them to part just enough for her to slip through. She pushed and pulled and twisted, leaning her entire body weight against the door but nothing happened.
Her feet slipped in the snow and she slumped forward against the door. She knelt down, balling her hands into fists and punching the door in anger.
The clang of her fist colliding with the metal echoed around her long after she had given up trying.
She sat slumped against the cold metal, her cheeks wet with tears of frustration. She had thought of every possible plan but nothing had worked.
Clara had only ever been in the field alone once and she had almost died. In every one of her successful missions she had always had Phil there with her. She just wasn't good enough to succeed alone. She needed Steve and most of all she needed Bucky.
That thought was enough to make her want to try again. She knew better than anyone that she was most likely going to fail but trying stopped her mind from wandering.
Slowly, taking a deep breath, Clara stood up. Facing the door, gun raised, she let out another shot. And another. And another. Again and again, watching the scrapes and dents they left behind in the metal.
Clara kept on pulling the trigger, fuled by rage, until there was nothing left in the gun.
The small hole she had made the first time around was now slightly bigger and a new plan was forming in her head.
Clara fished a hand into her pocket and retrieved the black box. She had thought it was been lost in the struggle to get out but here it was. Her first stroke of luck.
She pressed the button, watching as the line shot out and attached itself to one of the doors. Clara ran to the control panel and fastened the box to it. She pressed the button to retract the line and ducked for cover as it flew back to box, tearing the door off its hinges.
Clara grinned as she ran through and into a icy cold corridor.
Everything looked dull and bleak, each doorway leading off the corridor looking the same. She had no idea where she was going or where Steve and Bucky would be now anyway. Perhaps the best thing to do was to head back to the quinjet?
Clara ran down the corridor in a frenzy of panic, throwing doors open at random and peering in, just case she found them.
Her breaths came out short and shallow. Everything flashed by too quickly. Her brain didn't have time to register what she was doing; her body was acting instinctively. She didn't think, she just did and she didn't stop.
Until a cold, bone chilling voice called out to her.
Clara had just entered another room when he stopped her. He was in the doorway, she couldn't get out.
"I was wondering when I'd get the pleasure of meeting you, Miss Lewis." He said mockingly. Zemo. He had ruined everything and he wasn't stopping now.
"Haven't you done enough?" Clara asked, squaring up to him, "You've destroyed them, why come after me?"
"I was hoping you'd find your way here. Do you believe in destiny, Miss Lewis?" He asked cruelly, taking a few steps forward, forcing Clara further into the room. "Because I do. I believe that things have a way of working themselves out in the end. Which is why I knew what I was doing would work."
He walked forward again forcing Clara into the middle of the room. He flicked the lights on which illuminated the cold room with a single fluorescent light bulb. Clara could just make out what kind of room they were in. A lab.
Zemo was walking around her, in a sweeping circle, cutting her off from the exit. Clara never once took her eyes off him. She followed him around the room until he stopped.
"I wanted you to see this. I wanted to see what would happen." He said once he had stopped talking. He was looking straight in front of him, past Clara. She turned around and came face to face and tall, metal chamber. She recognised it. How could she forget?
"Do you know what this is?" He asked wickedly. "I can tell you do. I bet you didn't know the Soviets got their hands on Howard's blue prints and built their own time machine though, did you?"
Clara spun back around to look at him, her eyebrows raised quizzically. What was he up to?
"Oh!" He laughed, "You don't understand. My apologies, I should have explained better. You see," He began, stalking towards her, "The Soviets never managed to get it to work. They'd done everything Howard Stark scribbled down on his blueprints but it never worked. My theory," He said as he stopped.
He was standing right next to Clara, too close for her comfort. She took a few cautious steps back and he smirked.
"My theory is that it takes a memory, a relic, if you please, to get it to spark to life." He walked forward again forcing Clara to step back again.
Her heel collided with the metal of the chamber. She was trapped. The door of it had been left open. It gaped wide open like it was threatening to swallow her up. Zemo stood in front of her and laughed guttorally.
"I wonder what it would do? What could possibly get it to work?" He contemplated, peering down at her threateningly. "I know, you."
With a strong push, he sent Clara toppling backwards. The thing started to spark and wir as Zemo turned on the electricity supply.
Clara didn't know how much of what he had said was true or if it was only meant to scare her but what was happening now was far too real. She recognised that sound and the flash of blinding light that announced the world she knew was slipping out of her grip.
Soon she would be who knows when. She was being taken further away from her Bucky.
