A/N: This one is a little shorter, but hey, I updated it earlier than usual, so I suppose that kinda makes up for it :)

Big thanks to: shadowednight1, Veggie's Onna, TMNTGirl, Regin, NESSAANCALIME6913, Lara Barnes, Dracula'sBowGirl, Bucky-Ruined-My-Life, wicca7002, jjowens301 and gotenxbulla for following/favouriting. Nice to see I have people who are still interested in this series :) Thanks, guys.

Unfortunately, I can't access all my reviews at the moment (some kind of Fanfiction issue, I suspect), so I'll have to respond to them at another time. Thank you for your support, though :)

2 - Not Exactly Captain America

Oddly enough, I spent more time with Agatha after that. At first it was just because we kept running into each other, but after a while we exchanged contact details and addresses, and started arranging to meet each other. I never got that 'job', but I still secretly kept researching about the Infinity Stones whenever I had the chance. As far as Agatha knew, James was away in the military, and wouldn't be back for many years.

For two years, up until 1939, I lived in Brooklyn. My days were spent either with Agatha, in the library, or just moping at home missing my friends. After a few months of boredom I started to learn German and Italian, just to try to fill my day. Two years later and I was fluent in German (it was surprisingly similar to Russian) and was getting there with Italian.

I didn't even want to think about how James was reacting to what he probably thought was my death. No one could have predicted I'd be thrown back in time again. As I'd been promised by Mariana, the Time Stone's presence around my neck kept my body in the same state, so I didn't age as I should have done.

It was in 1939 that I ran into one Steve Rogers for the first time. Rather predictably, he was in a back alley. Being beaten up. Even though I didn't know this version of Steve, and he had no idea who I would become in his future, I couldn't just walk past without doing something. So I calmly strolled up to them both, laying my feet on the ground with heavier footfalls than normal so my heels made loud noises on the stone. The guy beating up Steve, who was neither over nor underwhelming, paused with his fist raised in the air, and then looked at me. He grinned, showing he was missing one of his bottom teeth.

"Well, 'ello, darlin'. Come to join the party?"

"Yes," I said simply. "Though probably not for the reason you are expecting."

"Wha'd'ya-"

I drew back my arm and threw a punch at his face, causing him to yelp and dodge it, but only just. His surprise meant it was all too easy to use my other hand to grab hold of his throat and shove him against the wall. My grip was unrelenting as he tried to forcefully pry my fingers from his neck. "You are not to go anywhere near this man again, do you understand? I am letting you off easy this time, but I make no such promises if I see you again. Am I clear?"

The guy spat on the floor by my feet. "You can go to hell," he snarled.

Keeping my calm expression firmly in place, I yanked the dagger strapped to my leg from its sheathe and pressed it against his throat, using just enough force to break the skin and tell him I meant business. "Am. I. Clear?" I hissed. The guy had become extremely pale, and he nodded jerkily, forcing me to remove the knife before his own actions caused it to cut too deeply into his skin. "Good," I said, stepping back and letting go of my hold on him. He sucked in a large lungful of breath. "Now get out of here." He scrambled away without a word. I turned around and saw Steve was breathing heavily and leaning against the wall, but was staring at me with wide eyes that were simultaneously fearful and awed. "You okay?" I asked as curtly as possible, wanting to maintain the image I'd just created.

"Yeah, uh... Yeah. Thanks," he stuttered, wiping his dirt-covered hands on his clothes. "But you, uh... You know you didn't have to do that, right? I had-"

"What?" I asked, unable to resist teasing him. "You had him on the ropes?" I chuckled. "Oh, I've no doubt." I gave him a wink and a mock-salute, before spinning on my heel and walking away from him without another word. I didn't make it far before I was addressed by an agonisingly familiar voice.

"That was a dangerous thing you just did."

I slowly turned my head to see James Buchanan Barnes, clean-shaven and with short, fluffy hair, leaning against a wall with his arms over his chest. The charming smirk I'd come to expect was noticeably absent. "I don't care if it was dangerous - it needed to be done," I replied shortly, wanting to find my chance to get the hell out of there. It was too painful being in the presence of the man I loved, but who didn't know me yet. When I dragged up the courage to look into his eyes, I saw none of the pain and none of the torment. They were serious in that moment, but I could see the innocence and playfulness waiting to be let out. These were the eyes of a stranger. And that made it even worse.

"You could have been hurt," he said softly.

I shook my head. "No, I couldn't have been. He was just your average guy, and I've been specially trained in several different combat types. Trust me, I was always gonna be fine."

He stared at me for a long time, before finally cracking a grin. He held out a hand. "James Barnes," he said, and I hesitantly shook his hand. "But call me Bucky - everyone else does."

"Evelyn Moore," I replied slowly.

"Well, Miss Moore, allow me to be the first to thank you for saving that punk's ass," he said cheerfully, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Steve, who was finally walking towards us.

"I'm sure he would have been perfectly fine without me," I said evenly, finding amusement in the fact that Steve's expression changed so quickly from impassive to shocked to impassive again as he registered what I'd just said. "Now, if you two young men will excuse me, I have somewhere to be." I turned and left before they could ask me to stay, practically fleeing from the scene. I had barely kept my emotions in check, and as soon I was out of sight I leaned heavily against a wall, breathing deeply in and out in order to stop myself from breaking down. I dropped my head, my eyes falling on the Time Stone around my neck. "Damn this thing to Oblivion," I hissed, clutching the necklace tightly. The silver casing groaned under the pressure of my grip, but I knew that nothing could destroy the Stone itself. Not fully, anyway. I wondered whether it would have been better if that shot had just killed me, rather than forced the Time Stone to take me somewhere else. While the Stone was around my neck I was basically immortal, but I'd still have to wait almost eighty years before I saw James again. And I didn't think I was strong enough to do that.

Seeing Bucky made that painful ache in my heart fresh all over again, and I knew that I couldn't risk staying here. And with that decision in mind, I packed my things, said a hasty goodbye to Agatha (which made me feel bad, but she let me go despite her tears), and left Brooklyn.

Two weeks later I found myself standing outside Camp Edwards, a military training facility established less than a year before. I knew it would become rather prominent in future, and so it was amusing that I had stumbled upon the base by chance. I had headed in a random direction from Brooklyn, and now I was in Barnstaple County, Massachusetts.

I was back in my Hydra outfit - the one I'd been wearing when I first arrived in 1937 - with a pistol strapped to my thigh, two daggers sitting at my waist, my throwing knives hidden all over my body, and a pair of Browning M1918 BARs crisscrossed over my back. I still had my brunette wig pinned securely in place. I scaled the outer fence of the army base easily, marching through the centre of the base with all the confidence of a lion amongst sheep. At first, the men in the base only stared at me as I walked past, but then I had a group of about a dozen running towards me, all carrying standard bayonet rifles.

I was surrounded in seconds, and while I willingly went with them to their leader, as soon as they tried to take my weapons from me, my hostility went up three levels. The first guy I sent sprawling fifteen feet away. The others didn't like that, of course, but they mostly kept their distance. A few tried to edge closer, but a single dark glare from made them scuttle back. Not exactly a brave bunch.

A single man entered a tent, while the others ordered me to stop and kept their guns trained on me.

Out of the tent stepped a familiar man. "Well, this is a small world," I stated wryly, smirking at him.

He stared at me for a long time, before his eyes fell on the rather distinctive necklace around my neck. "Lower your weapons, men," he instructed. "There's no danger here." They did so, glancing back at me several times as they walked away. The man scowled at me. "What in God's name are you doing here?"

I shrugged. "Honestly, my coming here was a coincidence. I left Brooklyn, wandered for a bit, then suddenly there's an army base in front of me. How was I to resist?"

"You know, without official clearance, you're technically trespassing. You could be locked up for this. You should be locked up for this."

I scoffed. "I'd like to see you try." I eyed him, narrowing my eyes at his familiar face. "What's your name?" I asked slowly, eyeing the patches on his clothes that labelled him to be high in the ranks, the iconic bird-shaped pin gleaming against the dull green of his jacket.

"Colonel Chester Phillips," he said curtly. "And yourself?"

"I have many names," I muttered, trying to push past my shock that this was Steve's Colonel from the war. Damn. I might as well have been throwing myself at people I knew (at least by name) these days. What were the chances of that?! "The one I'm currently going for is Evelyn Moore."

"And what is your real name?"

"That's classified," I said with a smirk, which quickly dropped. "Seriously. I don't think I can tell anybody that."

"Why not?"

I sighed, shaking my head. "It's complicated, and, quite frankly, it makes me sound insane. Just humour me."

Colonel Phillips stared at me with pursed lips, before letting out a breath and reluctantly nodding. "So, what purpose do you have for entering here?"

I shrugged. "Well, I have no idea what to do with myself and, since I'm here, I might as well make use of my skills. Could you use another trainer or something?"

Phillips looked at me like I'd grown another head. "I really don't think-"

"If you make a single comment about the fact I'm a woman, I will hit you so hard your head will be knocked into yesterday," I growled. "I am perfectly happy to show you what I can do, but I won't have you dismissing me just because I have a pair of breasts."

I found it funny that the Colonel remained so impassive, when most people in this time would either ogle or blush at my bluntness. "Very well," he said. "We'll see what you can do. How's your strength?"

I chuckled, grinning. "Well, I'm not exactly Captain America, but as we both know I'm stronger than your average soldier."

"Good," he said sharply, apparently choosing to ignore my off-handed comment about Captain America (which I was glad of, because that was a slip I was mentally punching myself for). "And you'll have a chance to prove it later. I'll get a few soldiers of varying abilities ready to fight. But be warned; they'll be under strict instruction not to go easy on you."

I chuckled. "Colonel, I'd be insulted if they did."