**A/N & TW** I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as I do. TW for blood and violence.

Evelyn POV

I didn't get out of bed for the rest of the day. Steve did, he had his duty, his entire personality wouldn't allow him to laze around in bed all day even if there was nothing else in the world that he would rather do. He had obligations regardless of how he resented them. While he was here, while he was Captain America, he would not skirt his duty. No matter how badly he wanted to lay with me, to learn my body like I wanted to learn his.

I was in a blissful state though there was still a part of me that I refused to acknowledge that felt like she was a betrayer. That she was the villain, that she was singlehandedly getting what she wanted by tearing them apart.

I lay between the sheets Steve's shirt pulled over my head and nothing else, the sunshine this morning has lasted only a few hours before the clouds rolled in again, rain falling harshly against the glass. The subdued daylight lit the room in a gloomy glow.

I looked around his room, attempting to learn everything I could, the aesthetic he kept the room was homey and old-fashioned. Unlike James' room, which was a mirror of my own, the standard issue Stark tech furniture, a room barely lived in, Steve had managed to personalize his space.

The bed was vintage in appearance, he'd most likely purchased it online, I was impressed. It was an old-fashioned style metal frame, something that you would have found in every apartment in every part of the city when I was a child.

When he was a child. The bedsheets were the colour of sand, a stark white duvet lay crumpled at my feet. I let my eyes scan the room, simple furniture, all vintage, and it warmed my heart, a man pushed into the future still hanging on to the past. This was another difference between the two men I knew. The Steve from my world was happily flung into the future quick to forget the world that had turned on him.

But I saw homey fabrics here, there was a hand crocheted Afghan the pattern, I recall was hard to learn but simple once you did.

Candlewick.

That was the name of the pattern, I remember sitting with Steve when his mother was ill. He ran his fingers habitually over the blanket on her bed. My heart clenched. Here in this world, he most likely did that alone. I stood from the bed and lifted the Afghan bringing it to my nose another habit of mine.

It smelled like him.

I wrapped it around me as I moved around the room, my fingers brushing the tops of his wood dressers, well used, and well-aged.

Like him.

There I spotted photos, some old photos of him and the Howling commandos my heart pinching a little. A photo of him and James before all hell broke loose their arms thrown around each other warm smiles on their faces, exuding happiness in a terrible time. There were photos of him and others too. Tony, Iron Man, the same man I saw from the footage Pepper had shown me at the cabin.

Another picture of him and a woman.

Nat.

My hand went to my mouth, silencing the anguished sound that wanted to be released. I hadn't the chance to mourn her, she had been my friend, maybe my only friend in the end, even if it had been strained between us at first. We had known of each other because of my relationship with Hydra and hers with the Red Room. We had not met under amicable circumstances, yet still after the first attacks on New York we had bonded indefinitely because of our shared trauma. She understood what it was like to be a woman under the thumb of evil men.

But now she was gone...

Both in my world and this one.

I swallowed thickly unwilling to give anymore of these thoughts any more of my time unwilling to let my heart ache more than it normally did. Unwilling to linger on the happy memories I had of her, because they now only existed in my mind. There would be no photos of the pair of us, there would be no text messages to read, there was nothing.

I sighed heavily an carried on my investigation of the room.

There were two bookshelves, one stock full of books, books of all kinds, books from our generation and books I'd never heard the name of. Books that were well worn, covers ripped, books he'd taken on mission, there were also books that looked as though they'd not yet been cracked open. I smiled when I saw books that were clearly written with a teenage girl in mind, and I couldn't help but wonder who had suggested those to the good Captain.

The second shelf was only half filled with books but there was space for more that I had no doubt he had the intention of filling. I let my fingers fall from the spines of the books trialing against the wooden shelf. There were other things on this shelf too, mementos of his journeys. There I found one of Black Widow's weapons, one of her electroshock batons. I'd seen it many times, I'd used them myself a time or two as well and I couldn't help the tightening of my throat. I moved on. There was an arrow laying across the shelf, I knew who that belonged too, and I wondered if Clint was still alive and if he was if he was with his family. I pondered reaching out but thought better than to drag him and his wife and children into my mess. There was a heavy gauntlet that had belonged to Thor, I ran my finger over the fine Asgardian metal work. Letting a small smile play on my lips, memories of the warrior filtering through my mind.

There was a stack of vintage Captain America trading cards, I couldn't help the wide grin that fell upon my lips when I saw them. My eyes scanned the shelf again falling on an old photo, well-worn and well loved.

Peggy Carter.

I took a deep breath, and I moved closer next to it rested a memorial card.

Margret (Peggy) Elizabeth Carter

Born April 9th, 1921, in Hamstead England

Death June 18th, 2016, Washington D.C. U.S.A.

"Compromise where you can. Where you can't. Don't."

I scoffed and turned away.

As much as I knew the man that I had just spent my morning with loved her and mourned her, I couldn't get the images out of my head about the woman I knew from all those years ago.

I was filing some paperwork for Howard after one of his daily experiments, this one had to do with the metal the army had confiscated. Vibranium.

I remember being filled with naïve hopefulness, wondering if this miracle metal could change the tide of the war, to take us home and away from all of this death. I recall thinking that as long as I could carry the hope that we could all end this war unscathed we would. Howard's lab was otherwise empty, the ever-present hum of the laboratory fans and the sounds of shuffling papers were the only sounds to keep me company. The team had gone for the day and Howard had left in a hurry, without a word on where he would be heading and if he would be back.

I heard the door to the lab swing open, the hinges in desperate need of an oiling, I wondered if Howard was back because he often strolled in and out of the lab at all hours of the day and night if an epiphany struck him.

I could hear the telltale clacking of heels on the concrete, and I turned my head towards the sound. Realizing it was not Howard but a woman. I couldn't see who was approaching through the heavy shelving that held all of the prototypes, a strange dread filled me, I didn't want to chase off any of the women that chased Howard around, I was far too busy for that.

I heard a huffing sigh as the heels came to a stop and their owner stood in the centre of the room.

"Can I help you?" I spoke knowing that there weren't too many folks who were permitted in this room. I stepped around the shelving with a heavy file folder in my hands, a file I had yet to place in its home in the cabinet only to come face to face with Peggy Carter.

I grit my teeth, pasting on a strained smile.

Her face dropped, the smile that had been plastered upon it had dropped and her garish red lip curled in a sneer, "It's you." She said like an accusation.

"Peggy." I said stiffly.

She folded her arms across her chest, "I was looking for Steve,"

"He is not here." I replied attempting and failing to stay cordial.

Her brows drew together her lips painted into a frown now her eyes narrowed on me, "Where is he?"

I wet my lips and drew in a deep breath unable to stop the anger from welling up, why did she need to see him? "I imagine he is in the barracks," I replied, a place I knew she was not permitted.

She scoffed in annoyance. "I had wanted to apologize to him."

I arched a brow, drawing the folding in closer to my chest, glad for it because I knew my fingernails would be breaking the flesh on the palms of my hands otherwise.

Her arms fell to her sides, and she took a step towards me, "Don't look at me like that."

I couldn't help the hardness in my tone squaring myself not allowing her to intimidate me. James had ensured that I would be able to take care of myself were he not here, my mind going over those instructions he'd drilled into me in his mother's apartment before he was shipped off. "Like what?" I hissed.

"Like you are better than me." She stepped closer to me again, giving me a complete once over, her eyes felt like slime over my skin, and I couldn't help the rage that passed through me.

"I am better than you Peggy." The words fell out before I could stop them.

She gasped surprised at my audacity and to be frank so was I.

"I will tell you this right now, Evelyn if not for me, your precious Steve would be nothing." She fisted her hands at her side. "He was just some scrawny kid with disillusions of grandeur."

My brows rose nearly to my hairline, and I held on to that folder so tightly my red painted nails digging into the brown cardstock. "He was something before the serum, and he always will be no matter what he looks like now. No matter what they did to him he will always be the boy I knew," my heart was beating wildly in my chest, "I loved him before he looked like that, and I will love him if it goes away too, I'm not sure you can say the same Peggy." I all but spat her name.

She continued to sneer. "You are an awful woman," she stepped closer, "and he deserves someone who will urge him towards greatness." She reached out and slapped the folder out of my hand pages went flying, littering the floor like snow. "not hold him back with sentimental memories of who he was. There is no time for sentimentality in times of war."

I swallowed back my tears but still a rogue few lined the corners of my eyes, "He was already great." My voice was quiet because I wasn't sure if I could manage them to be louder and not burst into tears. I was so offended for him that I couldn't stop them from falling over my cheeks.

"That is where you are wrong darling, because now he is magnificent, a thousand times the man he could have ever hoped to be." She sneered at me a cruel laugh falling from her lips she gave me a once over again before she stalked away her heels clacking against the concrete floor once again.

Slowly, like a wounded animal I bent down and collected the papers working into the night to put them in the correct order again. I let the tears fall then, tears of anger and not sadness because I knew there was very little I could do. She outranked me, she could have me thrown out of this place if she wanted. She would have done so already if not for the fact she knew that Steve would not have allowed it.

Howard found me the next morning as I had finally finished. He stepped towards me and wiped the still wet mascara from my cheeks without asking me a single question merely heading to his workstation and calling me to his side to help.

I let the memory fade and I didn't stop myself when I flipped over the card and tipping the photo face down against the shelf. I was unwilling to look at her smiling face. My heart squeezed uncomfortably in my chest knowing she'd been left to her own devices here and Steve had fallen under her spell. I left the pictures and stepped away from the shelf my soul heavy. I moved to the window and looked out onto the rainy cityscape. I could almost smell the rain on the air even through the closed window. I could still see helicopters circling in the sky around the building and I could still see the large grouping of reporters below, they were a sea of black umbrellas eager to catch another shot of us together.

I stepped away from the window still wrapped in the Afghan and sat heavily on the bed the white duvet crinkling beneath me. My heart ached and not for the same reasons that it had been as of late, it was aching because I was worried for my future. The reporters below reminding me of all that had passed the day before. For so long a future that had not been something that I ever thought I would be able to have. Not for the past five years at least. Now that future was solidifying, even if it was a messy one.

I lay back on the blankets my sensitive ears could pick up movement in another part of the apartment, and I froze knowing it had to be James, he would be just getting back from his appointment with the therapist. I wondered if I should go speak with him.

The coward within me flared and I looked down to my lap, where Steve's shirt had risen and the tops of my bare thighs. It would only take a light shift for the rest of me to be bare as well. I felt a flush rise on my skin, and I stood.

I should shower and then go speak to James. I should admit to what happened whatever may come of it. My stomach pitched at the thought. As I rose from the bed, barely taken a single step when pain like I'd not experienced in so long flashed through me. Electric pain lanced through the scar on the side of my body, and I felt like I was being pulled apart from the inside out. My legs gave away and I tried to stop myself from falling grasping on the crocheted doily on Steve's dresser sending the pictures there crashing to the ground. Glass shattered around me, cutting my palms and littering my hair with shards. I fell roughly to my knees and my teeth clattered together painfully. The black and white photo of Steve and James between my palms their smiling faces staring up at me through the spiderwebbed glass.

A low guttural noise fell from my lips then and I clamped my teeth together tightly to try and combat the pain, but all that I managed was to bite down on the skin on the inside of my cheek copper blooming in my mouth.

A loud cry fell from my lips then, blood dripped to the ground and splattered the photograph, my arms began to shake the pain relentless. Again, another wave of pain crashed into the first and I started to see lights bursting behind my eyes, it was as though invisible fingers were clawing at my insides urging me to get up, to move to do anything other than to lay here on the ground crying.

A sob erupted from my lips when I stood on shaky legs, and I tried to move to where my clothes were folded on the chair on the other side of the room. I had only managed another few steps before I went crashing to the ground again this time knocking into one of the bookshelves and it rattled loudly books falling to the floor as the heavy shelves teetered. For a moment I feared it might fall on me but before I could raise my arms another even more intense wave of pain erupted within, the scar on my side felt like it was tearing open, the flesh there was painfully hot.

My ears went hollow.

I couldn't stop the scream that exploded from my lips, my ears ringing from the volume. This time I couldn't move I could only writhe in agony on the floor. The door opened, I couldn't manage to turn my head, wave after wave of pain sliced through me like a knife, it was relentless. I kept screaming my throat shredding like I had swallowed glass.

The edges of my vision peppered with black as my body threatened to pull me under, threatened to steal my pain from me in one way or another.

A voice in my ear so disjointed I couldn't make out the words, but my mind became disjointed from the pain and my mind fractured. Memories of the wound given freshly to me scored through me and I fought for my sanity. I was once again in a death dance with Thanos. This caused me to push off the arms that were trying to pull me into their grip, unwilling to let him take me. Rage coursed through me, and I kicked him away and through the doorway into the hallway.

How had Thanos arrived here?

Had he followed me through the portal?

He approached again his large hulking form towered over me. I reared back and punched with all of my might, not giving him a moment to strike me first. He shot across the room, crashing through the drywall a dark hole where he disappeared. My eyes went dark, my mind blank all of my training came back, my strength felt like it was tenfold what it had once been, time itself seemed to slow. I felt invincible. I reached into the hole and dragged my enemy from the darkness and threw him to the ground, placing my knees on either of his shoulders. He was dazed, and I didn't give him a chance to regain any of his senses before I began throw a barrage of fists into his face. Over and over, harder and harder, faster and faster for everything that he had done to me, everything he had done those I love, for everything he had done to those I so desperately missed.

Bucky POV

I closed the door to the apartment, therapy had been a waste of my time today, it was a waste of time every time. We had sat in tense silence for the hour after the Doc told me she thought it was a bad idea for me to begin a relationship with Evie. I didn't tell her everything either, I didn't tell her that Evie was in love with Steve too, and that if I wanted her, I had to accept them too.

My shrink was a quack, but I had no choice in the matter, not after everything that I'd done. This was all part of the government's plan to get me back to 'normal' whatever the fuck that was. I moved to the sink sticking a glass under the tap. I downed it and poured another when I heard Evie cry out.

My grip on the glass tightened, where they still in bed together. Did he make her feel better than I did? When she came, I wondered if she saw stars? I had... I clenched my teeth.

Then I heard a loud clattering, and the crashing of breaking glass jealousy burning in my veins. My heart froze with what I heard next. I heard her sob in pain a scream of anguish rather than a cry of ecstasy.

Was he hurting her?

What the fuck was going on?

I swiftly moved to the door faster that I thought was even possible for me.

What I heard inside was not the sound of love making but it was the sounds of pain, of something nefarious.

I burst through the door surprised to find that Evie was alone, her eyes dark and sightless even as she seemed to look around the room. She moved as though she were drunk something I knew impossible. Those sightless eyes turned to me, and I saw a flash of fear before they turned darker, angrier filled with hate as she came at me with a vengeance. She came at me in a run throwing me backwards through the door I'd just burst through.

I could tell she was locked in a memory, of some kind, I had seen these before, hell, I had experienced them before. I stood bracing myself as she came at me again her eyes dark and wild her face set in grim determination. I blocked her blows at first but soon her fists were a flurry that I could not keep away, she was faster than any I had ever thought possible and her fists like a raging fury landed like boulders against my flesh.

And I let her do it.

I let her hit me.

I let her pummel me.

I deserved this.

She screamed as she fought me, tears falling from her eyes streaming down her face as an otherworldly agony burned brightly an intense anger bled from her in a beautiful torment upon her features. There was nothing I could do but allow her to beat me half to death with her fists, I would not strike her back. I would never strike her back. I would do everything in my power to make sure she would never hurt again. Anything so that I never had to see this look of terrible desperation upon her features ever again. I lifted my arms to protect my face as her blows became harder and harder, faster and faster, as her fists beat into me like a torrent.

"Evelyn," I managed, dodging a knee to the groin, "stop," I panted, "it's me, it's James." God, my own name falling from my lips sounded so foreign. "Please," I said unable to stop the next fist that flew into my face knocking my head back so harshly that I saw stars. Blood erupted from my nose in a steady stream that dripped down my face to the shiny floors. I pushed her away and stood beginning to raise my my hands out to her palms up, showing her, I meant no harm. But before I could fully raise my hands, she had placed a powerful kick to my chest sending me flying backwards and through the drywall. My head clattered, my muscles protested, and pain shot through my entire body and the world tilted.

I didn't even have a fraction of a second before she was dragging me across the floor as though I was no heavier than a kitchen chair. Then she was on me again her knees pressed into my shoulders holding me to the ground a near impossibility. But I could not fight her, I could not push her away, I could not hurt her.

I accepted each blow as if I asked her to give them to me and maybe a small part of me had, that part of me that felt hopeless against the atrocities I'd committed.

Above me she was an avenging angel her hair a matted mess of dark waves with bits of drywall and broken glass clinging to the tresses. Her eyes were unfocused and filled with such intensity. I reached up more out of instinct than anything else and caught the next fist aimed from my face, her face twisted with incalculable rage as she tried unsuccessfully to pull from the grip of my metal arm. A guttural cry of rage bellowed from her lips as she again attempted to pull away.

"I won't allow you to survive this," her voice was deadly whispered in a tone I'd never heard before a tone she saved for her enemies. "If I have to give my life to save the ones, I love I will. I won't let you win, never again Thanos!"

Thanos.

"Wake up Evie," I said through gritted teeth as the metal of my arm whirred louder fighting against her strength. Still, she didn't hear me.

Unable to wrench her wrist free from my grasp she began to punch relentlessly at my face, over and over, and over with her other hand. I saw stars, black edged my vision and for a moment she paused, and her eyes lit up with fury but now also that immeasurable pain filled them again and her back arched as though she had been struck.

She looked down at me her brows knitting together blood began to drip from between her lips and she waivered, she stopped attempting to pull her arm from my grip and she grasped at her side.

More blood.

An insurmountable amount of blood began to soak through her t-shirt, and I froze, I'd not touched her, and she was bleeding...

She was bleeding so much.

Too much...

The red fluid slid down her leg pooling on the floor.

Her eyes cleared and she blinked at me. "James?" her voice was soft, filled with fear and confusion looking down at the blood from her hand that clung at her side. "He did it again..."

My heart stuck in my throat as I frantically pulled myself closer to her and lifted the hem of her t-shirt to find that the scar that trailed all down the side of her body had begun to split. Dark thick blood spilled too quickly from the wound. My eyes drew suddenly back up to hers, my mouth gone dry.

"Save me..." she whispered her voice filled with so much fear. Moments before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed onto me choking out a soft sob.

"What the hell just happened?"

The sound of movement behind me made me turn my body arching it over hers to protect her from any and all threat. My eyes met with the wide blue eyes of Captain America, in the seconds that they looked between me and Evie he went from concern to absolute rage.

"What the fuck did you do?"

Steve POV

I wasn't sure what I was seeing, I wasn't sure if this was some sort of nightmare, but my guts sickened as I looked upon the two of them. Bucky's face was black and blue, there was broken furniture, walls were destroyed and there was blood, so much blood.

"What the fuck did you do?" I imagined the worse, that he had done this because we had been together.

His slate eyes were as wide with fear as they could go, beings that they were swelling shut. My eyes flashed to Evelyn, blood pouring from her side, down her chin her knuckles split and bruising.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!!!" I bellowed, my throat splitting because of the volume.

Bucky pulled her so close I could see tears of guilt in his eyes, "I swear it wasn't me, I swear it Steve, I don't know what happened. It was like she was in a trance, she called me Thanos." My fists clenched at the name, but Bucky continued before I could ask anything else. "I heard a noise, I- I thought it was the two of you..." he broke off, "But then she was sobbing, and she screamed. God, Steve, she screamed like she was being murdered and when I went in your room to see what was going on she attacked me before I could even ask her what was happening. We fought and then her scar i-it just split open. I don't know what happened Steve, I swear..."

"We don't have time to go over this now," I said moving closer standing over him, "Let me take her."

For a moment I wasn't sure that he would let her go but, he must have realized how it would look if it was him, how it would go against his parole, I sighed, "I'll take care of her Buck."

He swallowed thickly, "I know you will."

I took her to Strange. I barely remember driving us there. When I pulled up to the doors and parked half hazard pulling her from the back seat Strange was oddly enough waiting for us. He hastily let me through the doors before he opened a portal ushering me through urgently. Surprised to find myself in a hospital room he urged me to set her down on the bed just as the door slammed open a female voice speaking angrily, "Stephen, how many times to I have to tell you not to page me anymore," her voice trailed off as she saw me then when she saw Evelyn, she slammed the door closed. She locked it before she moved forward her stethoscope coming off her neck immediately sliding gloves onto her hands, "What happened?"

"I don't know." I said, "It seems like she was having a vision, she attacked one of us then her scar just spit."

"Split?" my eyes flashed to Strange whose brows had risen, "How could it split it was completely healed."

"How long ago was the initial wound?" the woman spoke.

"Five years." Strange and I said at the same time.

I narrowed my eyes looking at him.

"Enough questions Christine," Strange's eyes flicked to the woman his voice hard, "If you don't stop the bleeding she will die."

My heart stumbled in my chest, and I stepped forward only to be pushed back by Strange, "There is nothing you can do Captain."

Christine swallowed thickly a tray table beside her filed with used gauze and tools it didn't recognize. Strange assisted her, There was so much blood, and I didn't understand all of the lingo they used. I very much felt like a fish out of water. All I could do was stand back and watch and promise Evelyn that if something happened to her and she didn't come out of this that I would tear off the arms of the person who did this. To any of the people that had an inkling of what this was and kept it to themselves.

Mordo POV

I couldn't help but feel like I had already won the battle, even if we'd barely just begun. I was right, and Stephen Strange knew it. I watched him usher in Evelyn and Captain America into the sanctum, and if the trail of blood left behind them was any indication of what had happened, I knew I was right. The problem now was how to carry out the rest of my plan.

A wide grin spread over my face.

I would have what I wanted in my grasp sooner than later.