William Rogers never went back to Brooklyn.

He knew he had missed his chance when the girl had snatched the ticket and money. But in all honesty, William felt too ashamed to return home or even think about leaving his crew, his team behind. After what he had done. Theo never failed to mention it, or at least, the glares were always aimed at William who was by now almost healed.

Jack Hoare was now the leader of their group, he was even officially given the Captain status. It was no surprise actually, but it was still odd. William was always ready for Michael to suddenly appear, take a calculated step in front of them, slide his thoughtful eyes over the soldiers and give out commands. Saluting Hoare felt as thought new chapter had begun where they were heading into the unknown with much more hesitance than they did before.

Michael Carter had once said to him that only the dead have seen the end of war, William didn't really know what he had meant, and he might have started to understand that sentence a little better.

Like predicted, things were changing. William had grown quite a bit, marching through the woods, carrying heavy gear and helping wounded, it did that to people. He was also going back to his old ways, stealing. He wasn't proud of it, but more than he'd liked, he found his stomach growl- no, roar in hunger. And he also started finding help in moonshine. He also seemed to gain some sort of advantage in dark, he was often quiet and silent and it did not go unnoticed by others.

He soon became the person who secured the perimeter, scouted the area or snuck around the enemy lines. In those moments his heartbeat slowed down and his head cleared of all gruesome images, and those were the moments he learned that wind spoke and carried hints and sounds, that even trees whispered and bled into the earth just to be reborn again. He became a muted spy, blending into German lines easily with his fair complexion just so he could plant a gas bomb and make them rot from the very core of their nests.

There were rumours of HYDRA making themselves known and Hoare was in many stressful meetings, they were told to keep an eye out for the logos and instead of eliminating the threat, take hostages or report immediately. But it wasn't just ordinary soldiers they were fighting.

The very first time William had come face to face with one was in the early morning hours when the sun was starting to rise and they had been sneaking upon Nazi camp. He had scouted their surroundings three times before they had started to close in on the germans. In the mists of it all, William had found himself face to face with a man and a beast, or a mixture of them. His legs nearly buckled when the beast-man opened his mouth, it's teeth the one's of a wolf as it roared at the boy. Its face didn't resemble any animal William had ever known, it was as though it was supposed to be a wolfs head but had gotten stuck in a humans face, dark fur had covered the skin of the beast, long and thick like one of the boars. And William did not only felt disgusted and sick but also deep-rooted fear. Images of the beast running across the backyard of Rosas house, going to tear down their doors and killing the innocent ran across his mind as he stared up at the beast-man. The first beast-man William had seen had been killed by a bullet to his head by horrified John.

Ever since then, there had been a couple more of them seen. They seemed to be chained but released only upon the arrival of Americans. And they didn't only kill those who fought against Nazis, beast-men killed everything that moved. They were uncontrollable and bloodthirsty. And just like that, Nazis had gained upper hand in the ongoing war. The soldiers were forced into silence about beast-men, the government did not want any civilians to know about them.

"Move faster, will ya? Fire Borne." Theo muttered as they moved carefully among the underbrush. Williams footsteps were silent as he flinched every time Theo seemed to step on a twig or brush against dry tree bark. William didn't answer, knowing it wouldn't do any good to anyone. Theo had been cold ever since the day Michael Carter died. And as much as the boy wanted to be angry, all he felt was remorse.

Fire Borne was a humiliating name some soldiers knew William by, some legend had been going around that the boy lived through a bomb and fire, yet no one mentioned Michael who was the shield between scorching hot fire and William.

"Are you even listening?" Theo was agitated again, Will halted, eyes wide as he scanned the surroundings. In front of them was a dirt road and deep truck prints, on the left was a small hill and if you paid enough attention you could see that there was a gigantic metal door. It seemed modernized and William immediately laid down, waving Theo to get down beside him. Germans were sly and, as much as William hated to admit, they were smart, so there had to be something that would monitor the front of their base. "What the hell do- fuck." the older man cursed, dropping his body down as a tall, armoured German truck came to a view. Both soldiers pushed themselves as low to the ground as possible, staying unmoving in fear of being spotted.

Williams heartbeat slowed, his blue eyes following three trucks that stopped in front of the door, all vehicles were full of people. He tensed when he saw two dogs hopping out of the trucks, two soldiers holding them on tight leashes as the dogs stretched their legs. He could tense Theos breath hitch beside him as the older man tried to back away. William curled his fingers around Theos wrist, making him freeze and glare at Will fiercely. “There are dogs, they'll notice us if we don't leave now.” he said while William was still keeping an eye on the threat. “They won't notice a thing if we stay still, just don't move.”

Theo was about to answer heatedly but the large doors opened, revealing a group of people who did not even resemble ordinary German soldiers. Theo's eyes widened as he crept closer to William inch by inch, trying to get a better look at the people.

They were wearing white coats as if they were the men of medicine, behind them were black-clothed guards whose shoulders had a patch of red, the symbol that seemed to be getting more and more popular. Williams breath hitched and his stomach churned as he forced himself to take deep and quiet breaths.

They had found it and all by accident. The home base. Theo who had realised it as well, cursed under his breath. They opened the back of the trucks, making William shrink back a little as the soldiers got closer. His chest felt tighter as they started roughly shoving out soldiers who looked as if they hadn't seen a cup of water for days. They were bleeding, stripped naked and shaking of fatigue as they were ordered into a line, the German barked at the soldier who stumbled into the mud, his legs shaking as he was pulled up and thrown at the end.

Without much of a thought, the nazi standing closest to the broken soldiers grabbed his gun, aimed at the man begging on the ground, and he pulled the trigger.

The shot that rang out made the dogs alert as they looked towards the corpse. “if you have nein obedience, you will die. You don't look, don't ask, don't eat before you are told to do so. One word and you are tot. Verstanden?" He said with a heavy accent as he stood before the line of nine, the corpse being dragged away by an emotionless soldier. A chorus of yes sir's rang out as they seemed to huddle closer to each other.

Rage bulbed in William's chest as he bit down on his lip, his ha a going to the rifle that was currency underneath him but he was stopped by a low dangerous voice of Theo was nearly pressed against the younger boy. “Don't even think about it, there's only two of us and if we don't go back and report this location now, who else will? All you would manage right now is get both of us killed." The accusation made Will grit his teeth as he watched the American and British soldiers with sadness in his eyes. “Calm down, we will come back, and when we do, we will rip those devils apart.” his voice was filled with determination and pure anger.

William just nodded, but his shoulders went rigid as one face particularly stood out, the one of Pierre Maximoff, the man who had, maybe without even realizing it, made him calmer a long, long time ago. As they were shackled in a line, ordered to head inside William felt even more helpless and sick. He couldn't imagine what was going through their heads, but he was going to save them, no matter what.

What made it worse was the realisation that all this time they had taken hostages to experiment on, and all those experiments were from the Allied Powers, the side fighting against the Germans, Romanians, Bulgarians and many more who sided with Axis Powers.

Another thought that suddenly came to him made him almost dizzy and nauseous. What if Steve had fallen into the victim of those heartless people? What if Steve was right there, behind those metal doors, praying for someone to help?

They laid there side by side, unmoving as they silently waited for the air to clear.

Some of miles from their location, in an average camp where soldiers were buzzing around, having just won over small troops of germans, sat Steve Rogers, holding his journal and letting the pencil fly over the paper. He looked stronger than ever, healthier then anyone from his past would have guessed. And for some time now, Steve had been a lot more muscular.

“Sir, the mail arrived.” a young soldier who seemed to get nervous under his warm gaze piped out, holding out an envelope. Steve stood up, towering over the other man as he accepted the envelope with a frown, thanking the man who scurried off.

It was from Mrs Davis and he felt uneasy, had something happened with his little brother? What made Steve want to curse was the date that was on top of the letter, it had been sent out months ago. What if Will had gotten sick and...

No, Steve couldn't think like that.

He gently opened it, almost fearful of what he could find. His blue orbs slid over the elegant handwriting, every sentence hitting him harder and harder. When he reached the end, he really did curse quietly.

William Everett Rogers has been declared missing.

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Well, we only have like a couple of chapters to go if even that 🤷‍♀️