SUNFLOWER [bucky barnes ]

"It's for the greater good of humanity," they told her. "Do this, and we can restore freedom and order in the world. Can you do that for me, soldier?"

Dahlia's hands trembled, fear and confusion warring with the ingrained instinct to obey. She gave a single, sharp nod.

They smiled. Then came the restraints.

"Oh, and your little friend?" one of them sneered. "He's gone."

The last thing Dahlia remembered was the grief of losing someone she didn't even remember-before the world went white.

-

All Catherine Carter ever wanted was to help people. She became a nurse-steady hands, gentle heart-stitching up soldiers, holding the hands of the dying, smiling through exhaustion when one more patient got to go home.

To Bucky Barnes, she was his Sunflower-steady and bright even in the darkest corners of war. He loved her like a lifeline, kissed her tears away, laughed at her terrible jokes, and held her until dawn. He promised he'd marry her when they made it home.

But neither of them ever did.

Catherine Carter died the day HYDRA found her. What crawled out of their experiments wasn't Catherine anymore-it was Dahlia, a weapon with a past she couldn't remember and a heart that wouldn't stop aching for something she couldn't name.

Bucky never forgot her, not completely. No matter how many times HYDRA shattered and rewired him, somewhere in the fog there was always the ghost of a woman with sunflower eyes-someone who must have loved him once before it was ripped away again.

Decades later, when the brainwashing fades and the world begins to heal, fate gives them one last chance to find each other again. But the past never stays buried-and love might not be enough to save them this time.