It's Been A Long Long Time

Chapter 27

-Flashback-
Berlin, Germany
1998

The Winter Soldier fired off another round from his machine gun into the air, warning the civilians to not interfere. One of the hostages began crawling towards the fire alarm, and winter nodded to his counterpart as single shot rang out, the man dropped to the ground dead. The Marksman said something in russian into her comms as they both split up, both with their own missions.

Marksman made her way down the winding hallway, pulling out her computer and easily getting past the laboratory's firewalls. A large metal vault door loomed infront of her, the only thing standing between her and her mission. She quickly typed some lines of code into the small device she had in her bag and the doors red lights blipped to green. Opening dramatically, a cloud of fog rolled from behind the door at the drastic temperature change. Marksmen walked inside and extracted the target, storing it safley in her satchel. 4 shots into the 4 security cameras in the room gave her anonymity as she left.

Winter met her at the planned spot on the roof, the large blood splatter on him informing her that his mission had been successful. After radioing for pickup, she stepped forward and wiped the drops of blood off of his forehead. Winter cringed at the contact at first, but immediately relaxed. He knew he could trust Marksmen completely, despite both of them knowing they would kill the other in a heartbeat if necessary.

She looked into his dead eyes with a slight hint of sentiment, something flickering in his eyes as well. Something like a faint memory flitted around the edges of her mind.

No. Emotions equal weakness.

She shook her head, trying to push the weakness out of her head. Winter's eyes flickered past her before he shoved her to the ground, a stream of gunfire barely missing her. One of the guards advanced towards the two, his gun drawn.

Winter took a small device from his amo belt and rolled it in the path of the guard. A small scream followed by an explosion announced another target neutralized. Just then, a small helicopter appeared overhead, dangling a rope ladder from it's open door for the two assassins to board.

Marksma- Lily grabbed the rope and began to climb towards the cabin following closely behind Winter who was just a few rungs ahead. Her sharp eyes caught a frayed rope hanging from one of the wooden bars that winter was about to step on, "зима, твоя нога!" - winter, your foot!

He looked back at her quizzically, stepping on the rung anyways and losing his balance.

"BUCKY!!" Lily screamed out of instinct as she grabbed his arm as he flew past her, bracing herself against the ropes. She swung him towards the ladder hanging below her, their eyes met for a brief second both wondering why she had said that word and what it might mean.

On the way back to the base, Marksman and Winter both maintained their usual stoic silence. No one spoke unless necessary, why should they?

This time was different however. Winte- Bucky, couldn't stop himself from casting glances to his counterpart. He could tell that she was struggling with her own mind as well. Fragments of conversations kept coming back to his mind, all mixed up and tangled in a gaint knot. All he knew for certain, was that Marksmen had a history with him before Hydra. The confusing part for the soldier was that there was no "before Hydra".

Hydra had been around since the beginning of time, and he along with it. All that mattered was the current mission, and efficiency. Why then did he feel drawn to....Lily? Was her name Lily? She looked like a Lily.

He replayed that moment on the rope ladder in his head again, the slip, fall, and looking up at Marks- Lily's scared eyes. He also remembered falling, a man's scream of "Bucky" and then..silence. No. That's not what had happened. Not in this lifetime.