'I'll activate cloaking functions now, then,' Fitz said, and I watched, fascinated as he brought the quinjet to life with a series of flips of switches. The floor beneath me rumbled, and the back ramp whirred as it closed, encasing us in a dark cabin, flickering with small neon lights. 'Skye, you've got the bay doors, correct?'
Loud typing noises behind me. 'Already on it. They should open in three, two —'
'Bingo,' Fitz said, gripping the throttle as the metal wall in front of us split open, revealing a dark blue sky, and London glittering below. He jerked his chin to the co-pilot seat. 'Mia, if you may. Set the coordinates for the Crucible. We should have enough fuel to get to Sokovia and back in a few hours.'
'On it,' I said, trying not to look too excited as I slipped into the cockpit. I had never flown before, not even in a normal plane. And now I was sitting in the cockpit of one of the most advanced aircrafts in the entire planet. 'You know how to fly this, right?'
'Don't insult my intelligence, please,' Fitz said, somewhat offhand as he eased the quinjet into the air. It wobbled in his grip, but the craft remained steady as he steered it into open air. 'Anything with a hard drive, I can command. Skye, how does it look?'
'Good to go,' She called back. 'Their systems will be off line for another two and half minutes. That should be enough time to slip off their radar before it comes back online.'
'Better strap in then,' Fitz said, and I reached for the straps behind me. 'Just hold on, Gemma. We're coming for you.''Are you sure you're ready for this?' Skye asked.
The copilot seat could spin around. I turned to frown at her. 'What do you mean?'
We had been flying for about two hours now — another forty-five minutes until touch down. I kept looking down at the digital map on the panel, watching as our blinking blue dot got closer and closer to the red dot in Sokovia. The quinjet shook and rattled around us as Fitz steered us through a heavy winter storm.
'It's just…' Skye pursed her lips, tapped two fingers together. She had put the laptop aside, and had taken out a tablet. From the looks of it, she'd been playing Angry Birds. 'You were just thrown off a bridge and pulled yourself out a freezing winter. I've seen your scars. It seems a lot to be asking of you, you know. We barely gave you enough time to recover.'
'It's fine,' I shrugged. To be honest, I was wide awake. The thought of resting now was unthinkable. 'I can still walk, right? I know what I'm doing.'
'Right,' Skye said, although the look she gave me said she didn't quite believe it. Like she was just humoring me. 'So what can you tell us about the Crucible?'
'It's an old fortress in the mountainside,' I said. 'Renaissance, German influence. White stone that blends in with the weather. Underground is a Cold War bunker. Security is old, analog, Seventies era. Still tough to get through, you can't hack it.' I added with a sympathetic wince to Skye's pained expression. 'It goes deep into the mountain, beyond the castle. No windows. At least five sub levels I'm aware of.'
'Aware of?'
I paused. I realized I had never told SHIELD this. I almost assumed they already knew. 'I don't remember what happened to me while I was in the Crucible.'
'Wait, you don't remember?' Fitz, who'd apparently been listening in, suddenly swiveled to give me a look of alarm. 'You have amnesia? Why didn't you say anything before? Ugh, see, I knew this was a bad idea...'
'How can you remember the Crucible if you have amnesia?' Skye spoke over Fitz worried muttering, throwing him an annoyed glance.
'It's not all gone. Its coming back to me, in bits and pieces,' I explained. I understood Fitz' concern. I wasn't entirely sure how reliable my memory was myself. 'I remember enough of the Crucible to know where they'd keep the twins. And probably your Ward and Simmons, too.'
'Well, that's good,' Skye said, kicking the back of Fitz' seat. 'See, it's going to be fine, Fitz.'
He just grumbled something under his breath, before flicking on the autopilot and swinging around so all three of us face each other. 'So what's the plan, then?'
'You brought your drones, right?' Skye asked, and at Fitz nod she continued with confidence. 'When we hit the ground, you'll be controlling them. The drones will scout ahead while Amelia leads the way. We break into the Crucible, find Ward, Simmons, and the twins, get the hell back to the quinjet, and Bob's your uncle!'
Fitz threw her a morose look. 'You make it sound so easy.'
'I'll operate in an offensive capacity,' I added, glancing at Fitz. He had a point. Skye spoke with a level of confidence that bothered me a little, like nothing could go wrong; but her plan was just vague enough to work. 'Clear the way for you two, keep you defended. I can get us in the Crucible unseen. We'll have the element of surprise.'
'I love the element of surprise,' Skye grinned. 'Call me crazy, but I think this actually going to work.'
'Failure's not an option,' I said, straightening a little. I had already failed once; the possibility of failing again terrified me. I couldn't let it happen.
Fitz snorted. 'You sound like Coulson.'
'You sound like Coulson trying to sound like Captain America,' Skye added, but her tone was good-humored.
'What do you think he'll say when we get back?' I asked, looking between the two of them. 'You guys didn't really talk about what would happen afterwards.'
'Ah,' Fitz made a face. 'We'll cross that bridge when we get there.'
That left a tiny seed of doubt in my stomach. Was I dooming Skye and Fitz by helping them like this? I had no doubt in my mind that something like this could get them court-martialed, or worse. Skye was already in trouble. Fitz may end up worse for willfully enabling her. And who knows where I'd end up.
A silence fell over the quinjet. My ears popped as we began our descent. The cabin was dark, and I could only catch Fitz' face by the faint light of the blinking buttons in front of us, flashing green and white.
I knew that by doing this, I'd never go back to a normal life. SHIELD may end up a permanent fixture in my life. I may never be able to go home because of this.
More reasons why we couldn't fail, I realized. No matter the consequences, it would be worth it if we saved everyone.
'Mia, can I ask you something?' Fitz asked rather suddenly, and I turned my head to him. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, bobbed his head uncertainly. 'I heard what happened when Coulson retrieved you and I — well, you said something strange to him.'
'I did?' I frowned. I couldn't recall what happened after I fell off the bridge, only waking up in the Bus. Apparently I had somehow found my way to Frink's apartment on my own, in that frantic daze that had so terrified Wanda and Pietro. I was surprised I managed to make it so far on my own like that.
'Yes, you, um,' Fitz stammered, scratched the back of his neck. He seemed to have a difficult time looking at me, although maybe he was just concentrating on the dials and gauges before him. It was pitch black outside — there was no way to tell what or where we were heading. 'You said you knew the man on the bridge. What did you mean by that, exactly? Who was he?'
'The man on the bridge,' I repeated, and I didn't have to ask to know what Fitz meant. What I had meant. I knew immediately. 'The Winter Soldier.'
'The Winter…?' Fitz breathed. Even in the dim lighting, I saw his face pale. 'No, that's impossible.'
'What?' Skye piped in from behind us. It made me jump a little. I'd forgotten she'd be listening in. 'Who's the Winter Soldier?'
'Only one of the most deadly assassins that ever existed.' Fitz said in a low tone, the kind of severity that I recognized; the same tone the twins' had, when they first told me about him. 'The Winter Soldier has been credited with dozens of assassinations — starting way back in Nineteen-Sixty-Three.'
1963? What did that have to do with… Then it hit me. I gaped at Fitz, shocked. 'What, y-you don't mean —'
'The Kennedy assassination?' Skye interrupted with a gasp. 'No way, I mean, it can't — that was fifty years ago! How could Mia
have fought him on the bridge yesterday? He'd be, well, he'd be ancient.'
Those dead eyes flashed in my mind. I'd seen his face. The Winter Soldier was not an old man.
'But he's just a myth,' Fitz argued. 'There have been no official sightings — ever. Not yesterday, and not fifty years ago. We have no actual proof he exists. Honestly, he's just a ghost story SHIELD agents tell us at the Academy to scare the newbies.'
But somehow I believed it. I could believe the Winter Soldier responsible for the JFK assassination. Nothing, not even time, could stop that man. That machine. 'It was him. He's real. He's the one who gave me this.' I pointed at the stitches on my forehead. 'I don't know what else you know about him, but I can tell you this: he works for the Chairman, the KGB, and he might be there at the Crucible.'
'But I just don't see how…' Fitz only shook his head. He still didn't believe me, unable to work past the logistics. I didn't understand them, either. But I trusted my eyes. I knew what I saw.
'Are you sure?' Skye sounded equally doubtful. 'I mean, if we do run into him, what do we do? Can we fight him?'
I let out a laugh, but it was dry, humorless. 'Fight him? You guys? I'm a super soldier, and look what happened to me. N-no way, the only thing you can do when you see him is run. J-just run as far a-a-and fast as you can.'
'And what will you do?' Fitz asked. 'Will you fight him again?'
I sighed, sank into my seat. 'I-if I have to. If it means the rest of you getting away.'
'But he'll kill you!' Skye said, sounding horrified. I glanced over my shoulder at her. Skye was leaning forward in her seat, looking downright horrified. 'Mia, you can't do that. You're just a kid, for pete's sake!'
'Not to them,' I said. 'They kidnapped me, tortured me, turned me into a weapon. As far as they're concerned, I'm fair game. And I'm all right with that.'
Skye was speechless for a moment. She sat back in her seat, blinking for a moment. Then she said, 'Well, that's a little messed up.'
I stepped into the snow — it was thick, soft, and came up to my knees.
Behind me, the quinjet hummed quietly, its engines powering down. Fitz and Skye followed me down the ramp; Fitz surrounded by seven tiny, buzzing drones, tablet in his hand as he directed them.
Around us, the mountains silhouetted dark blue against an ink-black sky. It was an unusually clear night. A half-moon glittered in the sky, turning the snow around us a dusty silver-blue. There was only a soft wind, whistling gently through the forest around us. All was still, all was quiet.
It was beautiful.
It was dangerous.
If someone were to look out from the castle windows, they might be able to spot us in the moonlight. There was no falling snow to cover our tracks. If this mission blew up, then the clear night might be used against us.
No, no don't think about that. Focus on what you have to do, I told myself, as I turned to watch the quinjet slip back into camouflage mode. Up close, I could make out the mirror-like surface of the ship, tilting my head back and forth to see where the air bent around its form. From afar, though, it would appear utterly invisible.
'Looks like someone's home,' Skye whispered, even though there was no one around us. She jerked her chin up at the castle, more than half a mile up the mountain. Golden light flickered from its windows. In the freezing cold, it looked almost welcoming. 'Should we knock?'
'We're not going up there,' I told her, before making my way east, down the other side of the mountain, away from the castle. 'I know another way in. One where they won't see us coming.'
Skye and Fitz followed me without a word, seven drones buzzing ahead, weaving through columns of black trees. The woods were entirely silent. The snow muffled everything; the forest, our footsteps, even my own breathing.
Today was November 11th. Three weeks ago, I woke up in these same woods, no idea where I was or how I got here.
Twenty-two days. Twenty-two days I've been on the run, fighting for my life, just trying to get home. And now I was back, right where it all started.
Funny how things worked out, right?
It was about a twenty minute trek through the snowy woods. I could've gone faster, but the snow and the agents in my wake slowed me down. We moved single-file, leaving only a single trail in the snow, to hide our numbers. I didn't know if anyone was out here tonight. I didn't want to risk it.
The door appeared out of the side of a hill. Like a bunker entrance, it was meshed into the landscape, impossible to see from above. I came to a stop about twenty feet away, crouching behind a tree. The crunch of footsteps as Skye and Fitz fell in behind me. I studied the door for a moment, the area around us.
'This is the same door I escaped through last time,' I told them. I could see the flaking green paint, even from here. There was a security camera embedded under the cement overhang.
'Wouldn't that mean it'd have more security?' Fitz raised an eyebrow.
'Security to keep anything from getting out again,' I replied, taking out my Night-Night pistol, I took aim. 'Not to stop us from getting in.'
And with that, I fired. The security camera went out in a burst of metal and sparks, and I leapt out of cover towards the door. Above the handle was a keypad. Before anyone could ask, I punched in a code — the same numbers I'd seen the Winter Soldier use in my memory. Hopefully, it still worked.
'Are you sure —' Skye started, but was interrupted by the hollow clank of the door unlocking. She pressed her lips together. 'Oh. Never mind.'
Tucking the pistol away, I pulled off my shield, held it before me as I reached for the handle. If memory served true, then there was nothing on the other side of the door. But I had to be safe. Taking a deep breath, I gripped the handle before yanking it down, and snapping the door inward.
It swung, banging against the wall inside. It echoed down the long concrete hall, doors lined on either side. Dim yellow lights flickered.
It was completely empty.
My breath came out in a tiny rush. I lowered the shield a fraction of a degree. Nothing.
'Awesome,' Skye stepped forward, brushing against my shoulder as she ducked inside the bunker, Fitz behind her. The drones whirled around them like tiny body guards. But I stayed behind, staring down the long hall, blood pounding in my ears.
The Crucible. Something I'd only seen in my nightmares. Now it was before me, all too real.
A boy and a girl, huddled in a corner. Pale, shaking. Cold yellow light in the center, me standing underneath, illuminated.
A voice in my ear. 'Attack.'
I obeyed.
'Mia?' Skye called, jolting me out of my reverie. Brow knit in concern, she stepped forward, rested a hand on my shoulder. Perhaps she noticed my hesitation, because she asked, 'Hey, are you ready for this?'
The images vanished as soon as they appeared. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I had a feeling being back here was only going to trigger more memories.
I checked myself one last time. Shield up, helmet on, pistol locked and loaded. I gave Skye a quick nod, putting on a brave face. 'As I'll ever be.'
Skye smiled back encouragingly and as I stepped in, I jerked my left arm up, past the door. Fitz let out a yelp when the shield snapped off the camera hiding in the corner.
Had it been any other day, I would've laughed at his reaction. But being here had killed any humor I had left. I just kept striding forward, not slowing down for them to collect themselves. 'Whatever happens, stay behind me, okay? There's no one here but we've got no cover, so we have to be fast.'
No sooner had I said that did a Crucible guard come walking around the corner.
Two pairs of eyes following me across the room. The girl pressed her hand against the glass wall.
Next to me, a coffee cup exploded. Ceramic shrapnel went everywhere. Its owner, a scientist at his computer, yelped and fell out of his chair. The rest went into a frenzy. She shouldn't be able to use her powers beyond her cell. They have
miscalculated somehow.
A piece of the cup cut my cheek. I raised my hand and it drew back with blood. I looked up at the girl. Our gazes me. Her eyes flared red.
He was only a patrol guard, operating alone. I saw him before he saw us. Without thinking, I swung my arm, letting go of the shield.
The guard saw us, raised his gun. The shield zigzagged across the narrow hallway. He didn't get a chance to fire before the silver disk caught him under his chin, sent him flying back.
The shield rebounded off the far wall. It was like a giant, deadly Frisbee — for a second, I was terrified I'd lose control of it. I had to dive to catch it before it slipped past and possibly maimed the agents behind me.
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