They call him the Winter Soldier.

Jyn finds the name in a file that is three-fourths marked out, surprised that the name managed to somehow exist through the scrub. After a week of hounding the same tech that helped her find Cassian's file, the man showed up at her room, looking skittish and decidedly uncomfortable while clinging to a laptop and a thumb drive, before she dragged him inside and out of sight. Apparently, he got in trouble for helping her out the last time, but despite that, he could not say no to the Jyn Erso.

She's never been one to abuse power, but her name meaning something is pretty helpful, if not a little irritating as well when she tries to remain anonymous.

"Is that all you could find?" she asks, her eyes locked onto the computer screen.

The tech, Bodhi, rubs his days-old scruff and admits, "That's all I could break into." So this information is above his clearance. He was forced to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s server, his own people, in order to get this to her.

Leaning back in her seat, Jyn can't help but wonder what else they're hiding and from who. Are they still trying to keep her in the dark? A fat lot that will do if she's forced to confront this assassin again. And she will. She can feel it in her gut. She needs to know who he is; she wants to know who she's up against. It isn't just a matter of her job; it's consuming her mind. Bodhi's good at what he does, but even he couldn't get everything.

"Did you…?" Bodhi clears his throat, avoiding the laptop as much as possible. It's obvious that he doesn't want to touch the thing anymore. It needs to be destroyed. "Do you need anything else?"

"No, thank you." She as good as dismissed him, which he seems thankful for as he scrambles out of the room. A brave person, she thinks, and a smart one too if he knows to be wary of this search.

The Winter Soldier.

Her eyes drift to a picture of her and Cassian from the war that she has pinned on the wall. What would he think of all this espionage? He was better at it than her. She was made to burst into situations and blow things up while he worked so well behind the scenes. She admired him for that, even if she didn't understand it. Now she's trying to do what he was known for - sneaking, hiding, keeping secrets. Cassian was so devoted to the cause. He never would've questioned S.H.I.E.L.D until presented with evidence and he would've felt betrayed after and done whatever he could to put an end to it, even if it meant damning himself.

She closes her eyes and smiles faintly. She's fine with that. Jyn has been damned for a very long time.

"Someone hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s server last week and copied some old files," Director Mothma announces offhandedly as people file out of the debriefing. Another job well done, another clap on the back. Jyn doesn't care about that. Her mind lies on bigger fish. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Jyn barely raises an eyebrow and snorts derisively. "Because I'm the tech savviest person here."

"Well," Mothma replies, "you've been known to take files before."

It was Cassian's file. Jyn tries not to react, but her hands form into fists anyways. They should never have hid it from her in the first place. What good did it do them? Why are they so bent on keeping her in the dark? She knows that this is a spy organization, but to keep secrets from their own agents seems counter-productive.

"What were the files on?" Jyn asks, curious to see what she'll be told, if anything. She knows what the files were about; she had them found after all.

"Old missions concerning an old enemy operative," Mothma says lightly. "The last known mission was dated nearly twenty years ago. I doubt they're still in commission."

Oh, that operative is definitely still in commission and thriving. Shara's healing broken ribs can attest to that. Jyn can still feel the sting in her hands and gut from when he threw her shield back at her if she thinks about it hard enough. Mothma is dismissive, like she knows without asking that Jyn is involved and is telling her to stand down. Drop the hunt. Let it go.

But Jyn can't. She never could. It's not in her nature.

She lays down and thinks about those eyes - how they managed to look so dead and alive at the same time - how familiar they felt when laid upon her. She closes her eyes and sees him jumping out the window without a care and following after him even without knowing where to land. She has to wonder about a person that has the same disregard for their own life because of a mission as her. She pictures Shara getting thrown through a door and wonders how it would feel to fight someone on her level, to not have to hold back, to not restrain herself. Would she feel alive again and not just living?

Jyn shrugs her shoulders. "Doesn't seem like that big of a deal then."

"We take any breach of security very seriously, even small ones," Mothma points out.

"The serum they gave me turned into a super soldier, not a super spy," Jyn replies before she turns to walk out of the room. "That was Cassian's field of expertise."

It doesn't hurt to say his name aloud as much it used to, but it still stings. She imagines him standing stock still at the edge of the room as she walks out rudely, him closing his eyes the only sign that her behavior affects him. He would berate her later for being so insubordinate, especially to someone like Director Mothma, but then he would try to hide the smile that always formed after when she half-assed apologized.

She misses even that now. There's no one to temper her here. She's a loose canon. Shara does her best, but she's not enough. Cassian could cool Jyn's heat with a single look; a simple hand on her shoulder would get her to snap her mouth shut when she was about to tear into someone. Here, now, she's convincing once obedient techs into hacking into secure servers and steal files so she can probably go on a rogue mission.

Cassian would be aghast by her behavior - or maybe he would be by her side. Because no government agency should keep dangerous secrets like this from their own people when it only hurt them. Maybe he would follow her because it was the right thing to do. It wounds her to think of what he might say to her now, but it comforts her as well. She's fighting for the future, but his ghost will always be there. One day she'll join him.

Jyn almost laughs. Judging from all the kills attached to the Winter Soldier, confirmed and unconfirmed, maybe he'll help her get there.


Shara appears a day later in Jyn's room, already lounging on the bed when Jyn walks in after a session at the gym. Some might shy away, but she's too tired to deal with anything, so she peels off her sweaty shirt and tosses it into a hamper while Shara eyes her like a cat.

"Aren't you still on medical leave?" Jyn asks as she kicks off her shoes.

"I suppose, but there's no need to stay in the med bay the entire time," Shara replies. She stretches out as far as she can, only twinging in pain once from her broken ribs. "I missed a real bed."

"I don't think that's yours."

Shara grins all sharp-like. She's made of edges. Jyn wonders how she ended up that way, but she knows better than to ask "Not the cuddling type?"

"Get frozen like a popsicle for over half a century, you learn to appreciate space and not being confined," Jyn points out dryly. This causes Shara to laugh. Most people would probably be sensitive of her situation, but she learned to use dark humor to deflect and cope at a very young age when she was weak and parentless. It throws almost everyone off, but Shara delights in it.

"Can't blame a girl for trying," Shara sighs as she appreciatively eyes the small curves of Jyn's body and the muscles the serum gave her. There's nothing dirty in it though. Jyn knows that Shara is only being playful. She's seen the other woman in action behavior, making men's mouths slobber at the mere thought of her.

For a second, she wonders what it might feel like if that intensity is turned on her, but then she's only ever felt that way towards one other person before and he's dead. Best not make it two for two. Besides, Jyn really does prefer to sleep alone. That way she doesn't have to explain the nightmares.

"Heard about the breach in security," Shara says idly.

"They really should work on their firewall protection," Jyn says in return as she rummages in her drawer for a clean pair of shorts.

"Mothma knows it was you."

There's no need for a response, so Jyn says nothing. Denying it would be futile. She'll shoulder the blame if it means keeping Bodhi's name out of this. Instead she finds some shorts and shimmies out of her leggings, throwing them to the side as well. It doesn't bother her being only in her underwear and sports bra in front of Shara, just as it doesn't cause the other woman to blink. They've both seen more than a half naked woman's body. It would've been nice if her body could've been somewhat distracting right now, like Shara's, but she's all lean muscle and little to imagine.

"Why does this mean so much to you that you're willing the jeopardize your place here?" Shara asks, sitting up on the bed and swinging her legs over the side.

"Why are they trying to keep this a secret?"

Shara huffs. "He's a ghost, Jyn, for a lot of reasons. One, because half of the espionage community doesn't even believe he existed; and two, because if he did, he should be long dead by now."

"He's not dead and you know it," Jyn counters heatedly. She waves a hand at her. "Were your ribs broken by a ghost in spy folklore or a dead man?"

The impassive expression on Shara's face doesn't change. She's a spy and good at what she does - hiding, keeping secrets, not reacting. It occurs to Jyn that the other woman reminds her of Cassian and feels a spark of distrust. Had they been paired together because of Shara's skillset - because she might make Jyn think of Cassian and feel subconsciously placated? Shara is her closest friend these days, but was even that a ploy to coerce Jyn into cooperating with them?

It shouldn't hurt, but it does. Like that time when she thought that Cassian was involved with someone else.

"It was him," Jyn says quietly. "The Winter Soldier - I know it was him."

It's that unchanging look, the way Shara looks at her and doesn't blink, doesn't try to do something to change Jyn's mind, that lets her know that Shara is in agreement with her. It's a reply in of itself. Jyn has never been as good at reading people as someone like Cassian or Shara, but she knows how to read situations. That's part of being a good soldier, of staying alive. And for Shara, being a spy means that secrets are like currency to her, but she doesn't like it when they're kept from her by their own people.

"He's like me, isn't he?"

Shara sighs. "I don't know."

Jyn can't help it; she barks out a laugh. "He threw you through a wall , Shara. He jumped out of a twelve story window. He caught my shield . What normal human being is capable of things like that?" She's still affronted by the memory of the assassin catching her shield and throwing it back at her hard enough to make her skid backwards, like it was nothing. She thinks of the metal-on-metal sound, that familiar ping. Was his hand made of vibranium?

"But you know he's real," Jyn says. "You know he's alive."

"Yes."

"And you know Mothma is trying to keep me in the dark about it." Jyn folds her arms across her chest. Shara is the interrogator, but Jyn is the relentless one. She's a dog chasing a car. She's the fighter. It's been that way since she was born, weak and wiggling, everyone so ready to give up on her. "Why?"

"Probably because you're going to get yourself killed," Shara bites back, jumping to her feet. It's one of the first times that Jyn has seen Shara get angry. She hides her emotions so well normally, but it must've irritated her to have Jyn ignore all her little tricks and ploys to distract and derail. "You're an incredible asset that she doesn't want to lose, but you're also reckless and looking for a fight - except this isn't some regular brawl. The Winter Soldier is a mystery, but he's most definitely a murderer and he will kill you."

Jyn scoffs. Does everyone here have so little respect for her? Do they think her just a gimmick or maybe a relic of the war? Something to display like a trophy, only use for show like the shows they'd made her do before she had been allowed into combat? Maybe they thought she was washed up. She was from another time, not this new age with weapons beyond her wildest dreams and technology that was once science fiction to her.

Shara takes a breath and puts a hand on Jyn's shoulder. "I know you don't trust me all the time, but please, listen to me for once." It sounds like something Cassian said to her not longer after she'd been injected with the super soldier serum. Why? Is any of this real? "Yes, the Winter Soldier is real, alive, and very much active right now. I don't know how or why, but he is." She pauses, as if torn between whether to continue or not. "Another thing? You might be searching for him, but he's hunting you too and that's dangerous."

Maybe he felt the same answering call in her gaze as she saw in his. For the first time since she'd been pulled out of the ice, she didn't feel alone, but even more so, she didn't feel completely unknown. She didn't feel out of time, but right in the moment the second they faced off. Ever since then, this search for him through technology, the countless hours spent reviewing the little footage at the senator's speech that they had of him, she kept hearing that call resounding in her, demanding her to come and find him.

It's such a simple human want: to be known. She feels like she's been fighting for it her whole life yet is only given brief moments of it here and there to tempt her.

"Good," Jyn says, turning away to pick up a shirt and pull it over her head. "Maybe he can do the work for me."

Because the crash is inevitable. Their meeting again is inevitable. This time, she doesn't try to hide the excitement. It's far too late for that. It's in her bones.