Fleur, I'm gonna need you.

Two years after my encounter with Brock Rumlow, I received a message on my newly-bought phone.  I recognized the number, it was him.  The seemingly smart decision would be to ignore the deal Rumlow and I made, but I was paranoid that he'd send someone to hunt me down.  A man like him would have to have connections.

I texted back:

What do you want?

Your help.

I found myself at Central Park two days later.  I was not Sarah Callaughan today because Rumlow already knew who I was.  His face had healed somewhat, but the skin was still raw and raised.  He wore dark sunglasses and a baseball cap, looking almost ordinary.  On the other hand, I was a petite fourteen year-old.  My pale face was dotted with red pimples, which I tried to cover with concealer.  Perks of living with Trish were that I learned about fashion.  It was amazing to have the ability to choose anything I wanted to wear, not the dull and sweat-ridden uniforms of Hydra.  The only rule of Crimson Night was that I had to wear something red, a status symbol.  Today I wore red plaid jeans and a cream braided sweater with a black coat and black heeled boots.  My hair, which never stretched past my shoulders, was up in a French braid.  I carried my knife from the Hydra base, only I had carved the Crimson Night crest on its hilt.  It made me feel safer.

"Hello Elissa," Rumlow said to me 

"Hello.  You look well, all things considered."

Rumlow laughed, "I guess I don't look too bad."  He lifted his sunglasses, and I could make out more of his deformed face, that swelled eye.  But, my more pressing thought was finding out what he wanted.  We walked towards a black van, with its back windows blocked out.  When the back door was opened upon our arrival, I willingly went inside.  Two other men were already there, but their faces were covered with ski masks so I could only see their eyes.  They nodded at Rumlow, but stared at me.  "Who is she?" asked one man.

"She's good, Joseph.  She's gonna help us." Rumlow explained.

I could feel him scowling at me from behind his mask.  He muttered, "I don't like outsiders,"

There's a word I could not escape.  Everywhere I went since I escaped Hydra, I was told that I'd be an outsider.  The only time I felt excluded from a group was in Hydra- their beliefs did not match up with mine.  Or Ollie's.  Oliver and I were both outsiders at Hydra.  But, at Crimson Night part of me truly believed that I belonged.  As I've said before, Crimson Night became my family.  Anyway, when Joseph decided to use that derogatory word, anger quickly grew inside of me.  The word was so unfair because I wasn't an outsider!  

 "Fuck you!" I said sharply.

Joseph stepped toward me and questioned, "What did you say?  What did you say, bitch?"

"Rumlow asked me to help him!" I snapped, pulling out my knife out of my pocket for the hell of it.  Trying to look intimidating, I waved the blade around like a madman.  I said, "I've known him longer than you; if anyone's the outsider, it's-"

Rumlow shoved me away from Joseph, saying, "Both of you, calm the hell down!"

Silence overcame the van.

"Elissa's a girl of rage," Rumlow declared finally.  He sat down on one of the van's chairs and asked, "Now, can we get through this without murdering each other?"  I did not understand Brock Rumlow's motive behind his plan, and why he wanted all of a sudden to do it now.  I presumed that he had been stewing and plotting his retribution against Captain America and his posse for mutilating his (Rumlow's) face, and perhaps now he had enough back up.  The plan was to steal a bio-weapon, a deadly virus, from Lagos, Nigeria.  Then that would attract the attention of Captain America, and Rumlow could end his life for the whole world to see; a suicide bombing.  I was not to take part in that plan, Rumlow claimed he was being kind by letting me stay behind because Crimson Night would be furious if I chose to leave at random.  "When you kill yourself will any people be around?  Any innocent people?" I questioned Rumlow.

He answered, "I'll make sure no innocent people get hurt or killed.  How the hell would killing people benefit me these days?"

And I believed him.

God, how he fucking lied.

 My job was to aid Rumlow in stealing some of the gear needed for his plan in Nigeria.  The rest was sold to him by weapon suppliers, but we needed key materials only provided in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.  We would take supplies from S.H.I.E.L.D., in one of their storage vaults.  A few short days later, I hopped in the van and we set out.  To be honest, I was getting second thoughts.  The only lessons I received on viruses were that they could be extremely deadly.  What if the virus wasn't contained, what if something happened and it begins to spread?  Too much blood had been spilled on my hands, I didn't want to be one of the reasons for human extinction.  Besides, I could ditch Rumlow as I had already gotten my needed information out of him.  If he was going to kill himself then he wouldn't be able to send someone to hunt me down!  Ready to run, I started towards the back door, but two of Rumlow's men quickly aimed their guns at my chest.  I flashed my knife.

"Fleur."

I turned to see Rumlow.  He had his gun beside him, and was clad in heavy bullet-proof armour.  In his mangled hand he held a phone.  Gesturing, Rumlow said, "Come here,"  Reluctantly, I came.  On the screen of the phone there was a picture of a little girl.  It was gut-wrenching- she looked so scared, so helpless.  Tears streamed onto her pink T-shirt, she clutched a stuffed puppy.  I recognized one of Rumlow's men, I think it was Joseph, a dark shadow looming over her.  He held that damned torture stick, the same one Rumlow used on me!  In her mousy face I saw flashes of myself, it was like looking into my innocent self at Hydra.  Her eyes were so wide with fear, her face was white with terror and blotchy red from crying.  What the hell was wrong with Rumlow?  I wondered why on Earth would he do this- she did nothing to him!  Finally, I whispered, "Who is she?"

"A family member of one of your associates." replied Rumlow teasingly, "What was his name... Matt?" 

"You fucking asshole!" I hissed, aiming my weapon at his throat.  His men dragged me to the floor, pressing me down with the butts of their guns.  Rumlow stood up, telling me, "Joseph has strict instructions to kill Matt's little sister, unless..."

I thrashed under the grip of his men and asked, "Unless what?"

"If you follow through with this bargain, then she will get returned home safely.  We'll even give her a sedative so she won't remember the incident.  No one will know."

And here is why I had to follow through with the deal:  I could not watch Rumlow kill an innocent child; not even if the safety of the rest of the world was at stake.  Matt was always kind to me, I couldn't let his sister die.  How I hated Rumlow at that moment, if looks could kill he'd be six feet under.    

We arrived in a forest.  Further beyond I saw flickers of light, indicating that the building was perhaps a kilometre away.  Rumlow handed me a mask, it covered everything except my eyes.  I was already prepared by dressing in all black, the only things red were my scarlet-painted nails.  And I wore gloves over them.  On a strap around my thigh I carried my precious knife.  The van was well concealed in the thicket, two men, Rumlow, and I walked towards the light until Rumlow halted us at a puny pile of leaves.  "What're we doing here?" I quizzed, almost mockingly.  I was still fuming.  "This is no time to build leaf piles, Rumlow." 

"Shut up," was the response.

Underneath the pile of leaves was a silver trap door.  The former Hydra soldier grinned and instructed, "This is where you come in, Elissa.  Time to crawl through some vents.  You tell us when we reach the building."

How did he know that I had learned to climb through vents.  Unless-

"It was blatantly obvious to me after your escape that you and your friend had little secret meetings somehow," Rumlow said, interrupting my thoughts. 

The vent sent back flashbacks to my time at Hydra.  The same fear of darkness overcame me, the walls were cramped and crowded.  Yet, it was familiar and peaceful.  This time I was crawling underneath the Earth, but I could tell when we reached the building from the slits in the vent becoming more frequent.  I used my hands as a guide since it was pitch black.  One of Rumlow's men was impatient, constantly muttering and kicking my foot to ask when the hell we would reach the building.  Then, I heard something.

A thud hit the back of my heel.  "Sh," I warned.

Almost whining, a voice asked, "Are we at the building?"

"Sh, sh... shut your mouth!" I lashed.

The noise occurred again, the soft one-two, one-two of footsteps.  They were heavy, loud enough that I could hear under layers of dirt and metal.  I sat up straighter, finding that I could now kneel in this area.  Next, I grabbed my phone from my pocket and knife from its holder.  Using the phone as a flashlight, I picked apart the screws on the vent's slotted ceiling.  Light seeped in from newly-found area.  "I found it," I whispered proudly.

After making sure no one was in sight, we quickly climbed out of the vent.  The halls of this vault were grey and white, with wide open windows which looked to the outside.  There was a railing on the side with the windows.  It looked more like a community centre than a S.H.I.E.L.D. building.  The whining man out of Rumlow's two opened a security fob and punched something into the keyboard.  "No one will know we're here for fifteen minutes." he said.

"Unless we act stupid, Elissa," interrupted Rumlow.  "The storage vault is in the West Hall.  Let's not waste time."

Brock Rumlow knew his way around the building.  We darted through the long and empty hallways until he halted us at a large stainless steel door.  Hacking opened the door and revealed a room resembling an armoury.  Rumlow smiled and said, "Let's grab what we need.  You too, Fleur."

"What the hell could I want from this dump?" I asked.

"You'll see,"

I followed his gaze to a basket on one shelf.  The letter 'F' was printed on a piece of tape attached to one side.  When I peered inside I saw a series of files, all names beginning with the letter 'F.'  Then, I saw my name:  Fleur, Elissa.

Gingerly, I pulled out the file.

Name:  Elissa Fleur

Status:  Alive

Connected to Hydra and the Winter Soldier.  

And on the right-hand corner was a picture, obviously from some security camera when I was in New York City on my own and had no need to wear my disguise.  "What the fuck is this?" I questioned Rumlow.

He replied, "I have no idea how they found out you were alive.  But, they had people looking for you.  Until it all fell apart, that is, now I don't know what they're gonna do about you."

"I'm taking this,"

"Do what you want."

The three men grabbed special forms of gas grenades and heavy body armour.  I took nothing but that file.  It was nostalgia, reminding me of when I found Oliver and I's files at Hydra.  The same pitting feeling overcame me, but this time I didn't pass out.  Why was S.H.I.E.L.D. looking for me?  I understood that they were supposedly a safe organization, but I could never trust them with my life.  I could never tell them my story.  They were connected to Hydra, and Hydra was connected to the one person I didn't want to see.  Right then I vowed that I would do everything in my power to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. from finding me.

Luckily no one spotted us on the way out.  I wondered where the hell everyone was, but Rumlow told me no guards patrolled this building since it was where the Avengers lived.  And the Avengers were probably upstairs, thinking no threat could penetrate their building.  Then, I asked who the Avengers were.  He said they were pompus idiots who followed no international law and did whatever they thought was best for the world.  I said they sounded like douche bags, and Rumlow laughed.  

He and his men were kind enough to drop me off in Central Park, so I just walked back to the apartment.  "Don't worry, Elissa," Rumlow called after me, "Matt's sister will be returned safe and sound."

"Can you not kill anyone when you go through with your plan?" I responded.

"You have my word, Fleur.  Goodbye." he said.

"Goodbye,"  It was a strange feeling to know that it was the last time I would ever see him.  After what he did I shouldn't have missed him, but I did.  

When I arrived at the apartment, Trish was not there.  I sat on the couch and stared into the fireplace, with its flaming red embers.  Slowly, the file fell into the fire in little ripped up pieces.  They quickly turned to black ash, each piece unreadable and untraceable.  That's how I would escape, by destroying everything that the world knew about me.  No one would know I existed.  "What're you burning?" Trish asked, entering the room.

"Nothing,"

A few days later I happened to be watching the TV.  All of a sudden, there was breaking news:  A bombing had happened in Nigeria- Brock Rumlow, or Crossbones as he now called himself. was dead.  Many others in a building had died too.  No, I thought, no no no!  How could he?  He gave me his word!  The death toll was high, but there were no definite answers about exactly how many perished.  Apparently one of the Avengers, Wanda Maximoff, tried to stop the bombing by lifting the explosion in the air with her telekenisis, but I didn't care.  All I cared about was that people died.  And it was my fault.

"Rumlow, you fucking asshole!" I screamed to the empty room.