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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟕
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆

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Darkness surrounded Charlie as she continued to walk in a straight line toward nothing she could see. There was nothing around her that could help her out of the never-ending darkness. After taking another few steps through the dark world that surrounded her, a bright light appeared out of nowhere in the distance. The Barton girl sprinted as fast as she could toward the daylight, desperately wanting to escape the eerie black. After her eyes adjusted to the light, Charlie found herself back in Sokovia, looking no different from the day she left it.

Buildings collapsed. Cars destroyed. Streets deserted. Once the scene had been burned into her head for the thousandth time, Charlie walked through the abandoned roads to try to find any sign of life. But she knew she'd only come up empty. She always came up empty no matter how hard she tried to change it.

After walking down a few more stranded pathways of Sokovia, her feet became glued to the ground beneath her at the sight of a familiar head of platinum blonde hair coming into view. Her eyes stayed glued to the boy for a moment, knowing that no matter what she did the outcome would still be the same. But that didn't stop her from walking towards him.

"Pietro," Charlie whispered before the initial shock left me and she sprinted towards him without a second thought going through her head, "Pietro!"

Once she got closer, the Barton girl came to a sudden stop when she noticed the bright red stains on his shirt. Charlie forced herself to meet his piercing gaze after studying the state he was in as tears began to stream down her cheeks. Just as their gazes meet, the Maximoff boy crumbled to the ground at her feet before his lifeless blue eyes stared back at her.

"I thought you were a hero, anđeo. I thought you were going to save me," his voice met the girl's ears, causing her breathing to quicken as she continued to stare at his motionless form, "but you failed."

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Charlie's eyes flash open and she let out a gasp as she quickly sat up to find herself in an unfamiliar room. Sweat rolled down her face and tears formed in her eyes while her newest dream repeated in her head. She didn't hesitate to blink them away before anyone could see to avoid any more unwanted attention. It wasn't long after she managed to calm herself down when the archer sensed another presence in the room, making her body tense. A silent, shaky breath passed over her lips as she slowly looked up to see Tony sitting in one of the chairs on the other side of the room. Charlie kept her eyes on the Stark man while he stared back at her with concern in his eyes.

"When was the last time you actually had a good night's sleep?"

"Last night. When else would I get sleep?" the Barton girl mumbled just loud enough for him to hear as she carefully studied the brown-eyed man.

"Wanda told me you've been having nightmares and hallucinations since Sokovia," the billionaire sighed while rubbing a hand over the side of his face. The blonde girl continued to watch him as he got to his feet and made his way over to stand at the side of the bed. "I can get you help, Charlie. Someone to talk to. You need to get this off your chest."

"I don't need nor do I want a therapy session with some stranger," the young archer stated, causing an annoyed look to form on Tony's face before she let out an irritated groan, "why don't we talk about the real reason you're really here instead? I'll make this nice and simple. I'm not signing the Accords."

"You're gonna ruin your life before it even starts."

"It's too late for that," Charlie scoffed as she got to her feet while avoiding eye contact with the man like she usually did. She tried to hide her wince as she pulled on her jacket before she turned around to face the billionaire once again, still refusing to meet his gaze. "Where are Steve and Sam?"

"I'm sorry about Sokovia, Charlie," Tony whispered just loud enough to meet the Barton girl's ears. Her eyes stayed glued to the tiled floor as her blood ran cold before she found the courage to look up at the man.

"You should've trusted your team, Tony. We might've surprised you."

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Charlie let one of the doctors check her over one last time after she finished her conversation with the Stark man before she followed him out of the room. Tony led the girl through the halls of whatever building they were in as silence surrounded them. It wasn't long before the two of them entered what looked like the main room of the building and the archer's eyes landed on Steve and Sam standing in the middle of a large glass cubicle.

Once she joined them in the closed-off area, Charlie sat across from Sam while Steve stood at the head of the table. The three of them stared at one of the screens on the wall and watched an unfamiliar man interrogate Bucky Barnes. The Barton girl's eyes never felt the monitor as a sudden wave of skepticism washed over her. Before the archer had a chance to figure out her emotions, her attention was drawn to Steve when he glanced back at her.

"I shouldn't have dragged you into this," the Man Out of Time said before letting out a sigh then he turned his body to fully face Charlie, "you knew you weren't ready. I shouldn't have pressured you."

"I'm fine, Steve, really," the Barton girl responded, trying to hold back all the emotions that were trying to break free, "it was my choice to come back into this anyway. I could've said no."

Charlie's eyes stayed on Captain America as he studied her before she soon realized he didn't believe her lies. After another long moment of being under his gaze, Steve sent her one last look and turned his attention back to the screen. The Barton girl's attention stayed on the man's back for a second longer before she found herself looking over at Sam, who continued to stare at her with concern in his eyes.

"Why was he so protective of me?" Charlie questioned in an attempt to get everyone's attention away from how she was feeling before Steve glanced back at her once again, "Bucky was acting as if my safety was the only thing that mattered."

"It's his instincts, I guess," Captain America responded then paused for a moment as if he was trying to remember something, "the Bucky I knew had a constant need to protect someone, it was usually me."

"So he thought I couldn't handle myself?"

"He saw something in you that was worth protecting."

Charlie just stared at Steve as she took in his words before her gaze turned away from the Man out of Time and back to the monitor. As she watched the Winter Soldier be questioned by some guy, she noticed the defeated look on Bucky's face while he sat in a glass box with metal cuffs on various parts of his body.

"The receipt for your gear," Sharon Carter said after she entered the room then handed Sam a slip of paper.

"'Bird costume'? Come on," the Wilson man scoffed before looking up at the blonde woman as she walked through the room and stopped at the table just behind Steve.

Charlie tuned out the rest of their conversation and went back to watching the screens to try to read Bucky and the interrogator's lips like Clint taught her. A moment passed of everyone viewing the screen before the silence was broken thanks to Sharon pressing one of the buttons on the table. As soon as the interrogator's voice filled the room, Steve looked back at her in surprise before sending her a small nod then he turned his attention back to the screen.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James?" the interrogator said to Bucky while the latter proceeded to stare at the man with a blank expression on his face, "I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

Charlie's skepticism soon returned as she listened to what seemed like forced and awkward questions coming from someone who was supposed to be a highly-trained interrogator. Another moment passed of the man asking Bucky questions before Steve let out an annoyed sigh and turned his attention back to the three of us at the table.

"Why would the task force release this photo to begin with?" the Man Out of Time asked Sharon before they all looked down at the pictures on the table that were taken at the scene.

"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?"

"It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding," Charlie muttered without thinking as she studied the image in her hands. When she felt the unwanted attention back on her, the Barton girl looked up to find the three of them waiting for her to continue. "Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier."

"You're saying someone framed him to find him?" Sharon asked her as she quirked an eyebrow at the younger girl.

"I'm just saying we used a similar tactic one time when I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.," the archer explain while she read the casualty report before letting out a shaky breath and looking back up to the three of them, "just without getting innocent people involved."

"We looked for the guy for two years and found nothing," Sam told her, causing Charlie to send him a pointed look before she opened her mouth to respond, only for Steve to beat her to the punch.

"We didn't attack the UN. That turns a lot of heads."

"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him. It guarantees that we would," Sharon said while the Barton girl's attention fell back on the screen where the interrogation continued.

"Maybe that's what he wanted," Charlie stated, causing all eyes to light up in realization before they followed her actions and look back at the monitor.

"Tell me, Bucky. You've seen a great deal, haven't you?" the interrogator questioned the Winter Soldier after writing something down in his notebook.

"I don't wanna talk about it," the Barnes man responded while he stared down at the man sitting on the other side of the glass.

"You fear that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop," the brunette man continued against Bucky's wishes before his attention turned to his tablet. Silence was the only thing that came from the monitor for a good moment or two as the interrogator read something off his screen. After his fingers tapped a button, the man's full attention returned to the Winter Soldier. "Don't worry. We only have to talk about one."

Before any of them could comprehend what the interrogator meant by that, all the lights in the building shut off and they were left in eerie darkness. A million different thoughts began to race through Charlie's head before she looked up at Steve just in time to see him turn his attention to Sharon. The Carter woman stared back at him with a hint of worry in her eyes then a silent sigh passed over her lips.

"Sub-level five. East Wing," she told the three of them, causing Charlie to sprint out of the room after Steve and Sam and towards Bucky's last known location.

The Barton girl just hoped they weren't too late to stop the Winter Soldier before he did something he'd regret.

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