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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧: 𝐀 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞

EXACT LOCATION: Unknown

Washington D.C, United States of America

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Trickery didn't know how long she had been knocked out. But judging by the fact that her entire body was restained by ropes and bound to a chair, she would say it had been too long.

She awoke with a pounding headache, most likely caused by the weird angle her neck had been bent while she was unconscious. Her dry mouth ached for some water and she had to forcibly swallow the thick saliva that filled her orifice. She groaned as she lifted her head up, eyes squinting as she examined the room.

The room itself held little appeal, with nothing warranting any extra attention or praise. Even against the dark night sky, she could see the crumbling walls that were nothing more than a ghostly silhouette of some previous existence. The said previously white walls, or what Trickery thought must have been white, now had dulled to a musty cream color. The grey carpet floor was tainted with dust and various stains, and Trickery assumed it must also have been rough to the touch.

There were no photographs or furniture to hint at any prior inhabitance. The room was completely void of anything that would have made it seem homely. Instead, it was empty and lacking that lived-in warmth. Even the windows were boarded up, barring her from seeing what the outside world held. But the boards were cracked and splintery, enough that she could tell it was recent. The only light source into the room was the small gaps made between the slats of wood, and even then the light it provided was minuscule at best.

To hazard a guess, Trickery thought that she must be in an abandoned building. And that made her slightly nervous because nothing good has ever gone down in abandoned buildings.

But alas, here she was.

After a few minutes of aimlessly staring around the room, Trickery was grateful when her mind reverted back to its full consciousness. Grateful because it alerted her to the stranger standing just outside the room. Her senses had returned to full potential and those microscopic details that any other person could never hear, she heard.

She could hear the man's heartbeat from where he was standing. She could hear the metal chinking caused by the small movements of his mechanical arm. She could feel the neural oscillations emitting from his brain. And all of those small details meant that she could pinpoint his exact location in the hallway.

And that was how she knew he was walking into the room.

The second that the man had turned on the lights in the room, Trickery let her eyes flash vibrantly silver as she narrowed in on his mind. She tossed up the idea of killing him straight away but decided against it. Instead, she wanted to know what the hell he was thinking when he decided to abduct her and hold her hostage.

But first, she had to get a little revenge.

Trickery barely glanced at the man before she sent a hurricane of explosive pain his way. Pain that overcame his entire body, making him writhe in pure agony. With a guttural scream, the man fell to his knees, grasping at his head that took the brunt of the pain.

Every muscle in his body throbbed, causing his breath to catch in his throat as he couldn't bring himself to think of anything other than the pain. It felt like every single nerve in his body was on fire, searing to the point of no return. Inflicting unforgiving agony across every possible part of his body.

But despite the pain, his body moved of its own accord. The scream pushing past his lips, involuntary. The spasming of his hands, unintentional. The tears threatening to spill, uncontrolled. He was left rendered a prisoner in his own body, with nothing to do but endure the torture.

That feeling of being seared alive, that electricity that Trickery had experienced earlier, that was what the man was feeling now. A feeling that she knew all too well.

"Stop!" The man managed to scream. "I need you to listen to me!"

But Trickery didn't want to.

The rush of power, the sickening shudder of joy she got from watching him writhe in pain that she caused overwhelmed her. This power she controlled at her fingertips. A power nobody else in the entire world possessed. It was like a drug and she was addicted to the high.

Something sinister in her had been triggered, a part of her that was angry at the world for the pain it caused her. Pain inflicted by various men that had gone unpunished. And standing right in front of her was a man who was going to hurt her. A man that had abducted her and restrained her to a chair.

But this time his actions wouldn't go unpunished. She wouldn't let it.

"Allie!"

And there it was, that word again.

Upon hearing that word, the anger drained from her system and her eyes reverted back to their usual chestnut coloring. She stood frozen, unflinchingly, at the man who had uttered the same word that she had only heard a few hours ago by none other than Captain America.

And just as last time, the word awoke a part of Trickery. It awoke the internal debate waging in her head about how a word that she knew to be foreign, could seem so familiar to her. A word that everyone seemed to know except her.

The man gasped in relief as the pain coursing through his body came to a halt. He finally felt his lungs expand, taking in some much-needed air as his mind cleared. But he knew he had no time to waste so he hastily pushed himself back up to his feet and held his arms up in surrender.

"Allie." The man repeated cautiously, meeting Trickery's hardened gaze with his own.

And as she gazed into the man's cobalt eyes, Trickery felt déjà vu hit her like a truck. Just seeing the man's eyes made something in her click. Her mind sang "You know this! You have seen this before!" But she had no memory to prove the voice right. Nothing to prove that it wasn't just her own mind playing tricks on her. Nothing other than the overwhelming ache of familiarity.

But as she gazed at the man, there was nothing else that brought forward that same feeling. The dirty, brown hair that extended down past his ears and rested lightly on his shoulders wasn't familiar. Neither was his muscular body or the metal hand that peeped out from under his leather jacket.

"My name is James Barnes, or Bucky." The man started, breaking Trickery from her thoughts "And I am just trying to help you here, so I need you to listen to what I have to say. Then you can decide for yourself what you want to do, alright?"

Once again Trickery was forced to toss up what to do. She could kill him, right here, right now. Without a second thought, she could toss his body into the Potomac River and then go about with the rest of her day.

Or she could stay and listen, and potentially figure out why this man seemed so familiar to her. Figure out why the hell everyone was calling her Allie.

So she stayed silent and the man, Bucky, took that as his sign to continue.

"I was held captive by HYDRA for 70 years and I was turned into this monster, the Winter Soldier. I killed people, so many people. I slaughtered whoever they wanted me to." Bucky explained as he removed his jacket.

Trickery was confused at first, wondering why he suddenly decided to start stripping in front of her. But when he turned and revealed the blood-red star that was etched into the shoulder of his titanium arm, she nearly let out a gasp. That same star was engraved on her uniform, a sign of the allegiance between the Soviets and HYDRA. A star that very few other people had emblazoned on their bodies.

"A couple of months ago, I was sent on this mission where I saw Captain America. I saw Steve again. And before I knew it, HYDRA had fallen. Thankfully, I managed to get out and stay hidden. But then my memories started to come back. They came back slowly and it took me a while to remember who Bucky was. But I did." He continued, shrugging back on his jacket.

"And Bucky knew you. I knew you." He said, sending Trickery's mind spinning.

"Look, I know you have no reason to trust what I say at all. But HYDRA has fallen so you have no place to go back to. What's left of S.H.I.E.L.D and the U.S government is hunting us down everywhere we go. Commander Baumman was the last—"

"Mikael."  Trickery finally spoke up, cutting Bucky off.

"— Mikael was one of the last HYDRA operatives left and you would be extremely lucky to find him somewhere that isn't underground hiding." Bucky corrected.

But Trickery refused to believe that Mikael would leave her behind. Not after everything that he has done for her. She wouldn't believe it. "Mikael would come for me."

"Maybe he would. But would he risk getting captured or killed to find you?" Bucky questioned, looking at her with sympathy pooling in his blue eyes.

Trickery was sure Mikael wouldn't leave her behind. He even said that they were family. But if HYDRA had fallen like Bucky said, maybe Mikael couldn't save her. There obviously had to be something that was stopping him from finding her. There was no other explanation.

So she ignored his question, choosing to keep her thoughts to her self.

"What do you mean, what's left of S.H.I.E.L.D?" Trickery asked.

"During my mission, Natalia Romanoff exposed what HYDRA had been doing, their efforts to assert global domination. And since HYDRA had been functioning inside of S.H.I.E.LD, both of the organizations fell once it was all made public." Bucky answered, pretending he didn't notice her attempt of changing the topic.

"Natalia Romanoff..." She tested the words on her lips, wondering why the words sounded familiar. "I think I have heard of her before."

"Her alias is Black Widow, that's probably why." He explained.

"No, that's not it." She said, shaking her head. "I feel like I know her."

Noticing the look of confusion on her face, Bucky took a step forward and bent down in front of her. "It's ok, you probably won't remember much yet. It took me a few weeks before my memories slowly began to come back."

But it was too late to stop her now. Everything that Trickery knew was starting to unravel. Everything that she believed to be true was falling apart. The entire essence of her being was pulled into question.

It was all too much. All of these new revelations was too much for her to handle.

Tricker was once a living stalagmite. A stalagmite made from drips of knowledge given to her from Mikael, allowing her to rise from the ground and form a glorious sharp-tipped icicle. Made from the strongest of ice and chilled to the core, just as HYDRA wanted.

But then came Bucky as strong as a summer's wind, forcing her cold shell to slowly dissipate. Seizing her razor-sharp edge and making it too disappear. That knowledge she once held dear, slowly washing away and becoming nothing more than just a murky puddle of lies.

And she could do nothing but sit and wait until she was thawed out. All because of the man standing in front of her that had sent her mind spiraling into a catastrophe.

"Are you going to let me go now?" Trickery inquired after a few moments, taking a deep breath in as to try and calm her racing heart.

"Oh, yeah." Bucky mumbled, quickly slipping his knife out of his pocket and cutting through the ropes restraining Trickery. "Almost forgot about that."

Once the rope was cut off of Trickery, she swiftly got up to her feet, rubbing at her wrists to try and rid them of the red marks. Her joints slightly ached in pain but she paid no mind. Instead, she turned her gaze up to Bucky who was sliding his knife back into his pockets.

"So what now?" Trickery asked, staring up at Bucky who stood a few inches taller than her.

"I'm driving down to Baltimore and getting on a flight to Europe tomorrow. And I would like you to come." Bucky offered.

Trickery knew that his offer was genuine, she could tell by the look in his eyes, and that confused the hell out of her. Why would a man that she had only known for 5 minutes want to travel across the world with her? Yes, she knew that they 'knew each other', but what good was that if she couldn't even remember him?

"Why?"

"To remember who you were. To help me remember who I was." He answered simply before he pulled out a manilla folder from his jacket and offered it to her. "I also have your file from HYDRA."

"So you are bribing me?" Trickery commented, cocking a brow at him.

"No, I was going to give it to you anyway." Bucky chuckled which strangely made Trickery's heart falter for a second.

Ignoring her malfunctioning organ, Trickery took ahold of her file and held it in her hands for a few seconds. As much as her interest was piqued by what information the folder held, she also dreaded opening it just as much, if not more. If what Bucky was saying about his past was true, if it was that violent and monstrous, she didn't want to find out that hers was the same.

She didn't want to find out that she was a monster too.

And to add to the growing dilemmas she was facing, she probably had two seconds to decide if she was going to fly halfway across the world with a man she just met. Was she willing to put everything on risk for traveling with someone that could help her, someone that she could eventually rely on, someone that might understand what she was going through?

Or would she rather stay alone in a city that she doesn't know where multiple federal agencies are searching for her?

"When do we leave?" She sighed, glancing back up at Bucky who held a small smile on his lips.

"Now." He answered, handing Trickery's backpack back to her. "By the way, where did you get that necklace?"

"What neckl—"  Trickery asked as she shrugged her backpack on, but she quickly cut herself off when she saw the silver amulet that laid on her neck.

The amulet that was of a wolf with his teeth bared, snarling at his prey. His body then extended, being held down by silver chains. Foreign looking runes were etched into the body of the wolf, runes that did not seem of this world. But the detail in the necklace was astounding. It was truly beautiful.

And yet Trickery couldn't remember where it had come from.

Well, that was until she grasped the cold metal between her fingers.

Upon touching the amulet, she felt her mind being whisked away to a place she didn't know. At first, she saw white for a moment, not quite comprehending what is going on. Then her vision cleared and she was back in her all too familiar cell at HYDRA. She sat leaning against the dirty concrete wall of her cell, loosely pulling against the cold chains that bound her tired body against it.

She remembered the nightmares, the hallucinations she went through. She remembered thinking she was drowning in a pool of blood. She remembered sitting in paralyzing fear as she waited for the next hallucination to start.

But then, out of nowhere, Loki appeared wearing his unusual green ensemble. His dark hair shone under the faint light, contrasting heavily against his fair, ivory skin. She remembered him coming and asking if she wanted to escape with him, if she wanted to take over the world. She remembered them talking about everything before he gave her the amulet, promising that it would reappear when she freed herself from HYDRA.

But as quickly as she was pulled into the memory, she was pulled out of it.

Trickery blinked and her memory faded away, leaving her back in the abandoned building with Bucky looking at her expectantly.

"Allie?" Bucky questioned, frowning at her far away look.

"Yeah?" She responded, pulling herself from her thoughts.

"The necklace, where did you get it?" He asked again.

She wanted to say 'Loki' but she knew she couldn't. Because if those posters she saw on the way to Samuel Wilson's house were true, then Loki really did 'commit those treacherous acts' that he said he would.

And like Bucky would believe her anyway. She even found it hard to believe.

"I can't remember." She answered, averting her gaze back down to the amulet. Noticing her hesitance, Bucky nodded before leading her out of the building.

With steps almost in unison, the pair walked out of the room and hurried down the plain wooden staircase. Thankfully, the building only had a few floors so they didn't have to descend many stairs. Once they hit the bottom floor, Trickery followed Bucky down the short hallway and towards the door which had been forcibly pried open by Bucky presumably.

Walking outside of the building, Trickery noticed the black pick up truck sitting on the curb, glimmering under the dark moon.

"Is this yours?" She asked.

"Yes, I stole it to drive back to Washington and find you." Bucky answered, shaking his head slightly.

Trickery nodded and approached the car, ready to fling open the door and slide into the passenger seat. But she was beaten to the punch by Bucky, who waltzed up to her side and opened the door for her nonchalantly.

"After you." He said causing Trickery to furrow her brows in confusion.

"Thank you." She replied, tearing her gaze from Bucky as she took her seat inside the car.

Whilst Trickery swiftly pulled on her seatbelt, Bucky hurried around to the driver's seat and pushed the car into gear. Within a few seconds, the two were pulling away from the curb and speeding down the dark road, heading towards Baltimore.

"How did you find me?" Trickery inquired, glancing over at Bucky who had his eyes trained on the road ahead.

"I needed to find a way to stay off the radar so that I could go into hiding. So I went to an old HYDRA base and stole some of their stuff to monitor the movements of remaining HYDRA groups and the parts of S.H.I.E.L.D that went underground." Bucky explained.

"And that's how you saw me?"

"Your name seemed familiar but I couldn't seem to place it. It was like the memory was at the tip of my tongue. But for some reason, I just couldn't remember." He continued, glancing over at Trickery. "It wasn't until that night that it came back to me, well parts of it. So I stole the car, went back to Washington and drove around until I found you."

"That doesn't sound like the smartest plan." She chided.

"It wasn't but it worked." Bucky grinned. "Oh, and be careful with your arm. The stitches are still fresh so you don't want to rupture them."

"What did you do to my arm?" Trickery growled, rolling up the sleeve of her now soiled top. Immediately she spotted the large, jagged cut that ran up the inside of her forearm. Dried blood coated the wound, making it slightly hard to see the black thread that sutured the wound closed.

"HYDRA had implanted a tracker into your arm so I cut it out. It was how I tracked you to that alley." He responded rather casually considering he just cut open Trickery's arm.

"Right, thanks for that." She said snarkily, glaring into the side of Bucky's head.

"No worries." He answered, ignoring her obvious glares. "So why are you here in Washington?"

"I was on a mission to find Samuel Wilson and extract details regarding Steve Rogers and S.H.I.E.L.D. We had followed him for the entire day, listening in to his conversations with Steve and hacked into his computer. We gathered everything we could but there was no valuable information." She explained.

"So I was sent in to extract the information in the way I knew how. And I nearly got it all but then Steve showed up. We fought until he—" She tried to continue but she found the words stuck in her throat, unwilling to push past her lips.

All she had to say was 'until he recognized me', but she wasn't even sure if that was true. Steve knew Allie, the old Trickery, whoever she was. He knew a version of her that she didn't even know existed. A version that she no longer was. So he didn't really recognize her, not truly at least.

"He recognized you?" Bucky piped up, but Trickery found herself unable to agree.

"We fought and I managed to get away. But I had nowhere to go. So I stole some clothes and slept in an alleyway until I got yelled at by some lady. Then you found me." Trickery continued, turning her gaze back to the window which Bucky took as a sign to shut up.

She watched as the car roared along the lone country road, relishing in the scenery that flew on by. The radio sounded softly in the background, playing music that was somewhat strange to Trickery. She gazed up to the sky which was overhung with blankets of dark clouds and bright, twinkling stars.

As she marveled at the picturesque midnight sky, she couldn't help but wonder if Loki was up there in his little kingdom. If he was still alive and well. She wondered what had happened to him, what he had done with his life since he last saw her. And she also wondered what else the galaxy held out there, what other little secrets it harbored.

Wondering what other little secrets the world was keeping from her.

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Hey everyone!!!!

Sorry about that awkward ending but I got a little stuck on how to end the chapter!

So I'm just going to give you guys a little disclaimer about how the rest of this book will (probably) be finished. In 2 weeks, I will be returning back to school and I will probably find it hard to stick to my usual weekly updates (which rarely happens anyway ik). I am trying to get ahead with chapters that way I will at least have a few pre-written that I can upload if I am really struggling. But if that doesn't happen, chapters may take a few weeks to come out which is a bummer. I will try really hard to stay on top of it, but as you guys know, school has to come first.

So I just want you guys to bear with me and hopefully try not to forget about this story!

aNYWAY... Onto the questions!!

1. What did you think of this chapter?

2. What do you want to see happen next?

3. What subjects are you doing at school?

4. Who is your favorite character from a book/tv/movie series?

Until next time my loves!

- Grace xx