Within the hour, the storm had recited, but a light rain kept up until close to six o'clock when it had stopped completely. Zeryn and Bucky had entertained themselves by playing some pool and darts, which kept getting interrupted by Logan constantly texting or calling Zeryn. Eventually, she just elected to ignore him for it was distracting her from the games. Bucky had won every game of pool that they played, besides one, and almost all the dart games, even though he'd get upset when the dart board would talk to him whenever he missed the point that he needed. The surround sound was a big help as Zeryn didn't hear the storm at all. She had forgotten about it until she heard her stomach starting to growl, which meant that it was time for them to eat.
"Guess it's time to eat, or think about getting something to eat." She walked over to her phone and looked at the time, "Woo! It's almost seven!"
"Really?" Bucky asked while putting the cue sticks back on the rack they were hanging from on the wall, "It doesn't seem that late."
"At least we were able to find ways to distract ourselves for several hours." She opened up the weather app on her phone and looked at the radar, "It seems like another storm will be coming in about three hours, then stop by morning. You don't mind if we sleep down here, do you?"
"Hey, there are bedrooms down here, so it doesn't bother me."
"I'm cool with it was well. Plus, I sleep better when it's cooler in my room. Now, we should probably think about getting something to eat. I'm thinking I might have to pick something up. I doubt there's any food upstairs."
"Get whatever you want. Honestly, I'm fine with anything." He walked over to the couch, then sat down on it.
Zeryn thought for a moment, then looked through her phone for places to eat in the town nearby. She spotted something that interested her, then leaned over the back of the couch and looked at him, "Want to share some soup? I think I know something that you might like."
"It's up to you. I'm not too hungry, but I should eat."
"You kind of sound like me. I mean, it's not that I don't eat because I do. I just…read a lot and that distracts me, so when I get distracted, I don't feel hungry. The professor gets upset when I don't eat."
"A young woman does need food to help keep her strong."
"I know. I just…great. Now I'm not hungry anymore." She jumped onto the couch, then sat down, "It's not against you. I can just see the professor or Scott watching me. It makes me sick to my stomach and nervous. They'll take my book and make sure that I don't leave the table until I've eaten all my food. I do have a bottle of water and some fruit sitting next to me when I read, so when I do get hungry or thirsty, I do have something there to eat. But, I don't like it when they watch me. At least they let me eat what I want to eat, that's the good thing."
"Honestly, my body's still trying to adjust to eating a lot. What we had this morning filled me up. I know it'll take awhile, but I can deal with it. But, I'm guessing living off just one meal a day is bad for you, right?"
Zeryn shrugged slightly, "I guess it would be, but if you're not hungry, then no need to force yourself to eat. You'll get adjusted soon. Steve will help you out with that." She smiled lightly.
"I think that might be what's causing part of the problem. I'm still a bit scared to meet him."
Zeryn placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "It'll be alright. I'm sure he's just as scared as you are. But, I'm very sure that will all fade away once you two see each other. Who knows, he might end up giving you a hug. That wouldn't surprise me."
Bucky sat back slightly as he looked at her. While he was excited to see Steve again, he was just as nervous.
"If you would like to rest, you can. I'm going to stay up for awhile and read. Yes, I know it's early, but you should think about getting some must deserved rest. I'm sure you need it."
"Can I just pass out here, for now?"
"If you'd like. I'm going to leave the TV on for tonight. It did help to drown out the storm, so I'm hoping it'll do the same thing again for when it hits later on."
"Will I be in your way?"
Zeryn shook her head, "No, you won't. Don't worry about me. Just get yourself some rest. We can leave here by eight in the morning and should be at the mansion around noon or a bit earlier."
"He will allow me in, right? Your professor? I mean, I'm not a mutant and it seems like just mutants are allowed in there."
"He said that you can stay with us and can come visit whenever you'd like. He knows that you're not a bad guy. He doesn't allow those kinds of mutants, or human friends of his, to enter. Plus, I'm sure you'll enjoy meeting some of the others and Cookie! Dogs are great for those who are suffering from PTSD!" She smiled, "You can play with Cookie! She loves to play catch and frisbee!"
"Your professor has a big heart, doesn't he?"
"Very big!" She smiled at him, then grabbed her book, which was laying on the floor next to the couch, "You'll like him. He's a really nice man and very smart as well."
He was glad to know that the mutants had a place to call their home, but he knew that his home would be with his long lost friend. He grabbed the blanket that was on the other side of the couch, then covered himself up. He curled up so that he wasn't in Zeryn's way before letting out a yawn.
"Rest well." She replied to him before opening up her book and beginning to read.
It wasn't too much longer before Bucky was out cold and into dreamland. But, his mind and memories began to mess with his head again. It began with him coming home from the war and going to the place where him and Steve lived together. He walked inside, but didn't see his friend anywhere around. What he had found inside were broken windows and writing on one of the walls in Russian. Someone had kidnapped Steve. He quickly rushed out only to find that the scenery around him had changed. He was back in Germany at the warehouse where his unit was taken to after they had been captured. Across the way he saw Steve staring at him. It was as if they'd switched places. Steve was now the one with the metal arm…was now the assassin. His mission? To kill Bucky and his unit, the 107th. Bucky didn't want to kill his friend, but, at this point, he had no choice for Steve not only began throwing knives at him, wounding Bucky's leg, but started to shoot at him. He had to defend himself somehow, so he grabbed his hand gun and fired it, hitting Steve in the head, killing him on the spot. Bucky dare not move as he couldn't believe that he had just killed his best friend. He began to shake as a figure moved into the shadows. It pointed a gun at Bucky, then fired. The bullet missed, but it trigged something behind him…something that would set the warehouse on fire. Bucky had to escape as the flames began to engulf the building. He tried to get up, but he couldn't. His leg was too badly wounded. He saw the flames take Steve before making its way towards him. He tried with all his might to move. He couldn't. He yelled at the top of his lungs as he became engulfed in the flames.
Bucky woke with a start as his heart felt like it was about to fly out of his chest and he caught himself rambling the same numbers as he had the previous night. He had no idea what those numbers were. He had accidentally woken up Zeryn, who had fallen asleep while reading her book, when he kicked her leg.
Zeryn groaned slightly as she opened up her eyes, "What time is it?" She questioned before sitting up and seeing Bucky staring down at his hands with a few tears rolling down his cheeks. She leaned over, "Hey what's wrong? Nightmare?"
Bucky nodded slightly as he whipped his tears away, but they kept falling.
Zeryn hugged him tightly, "Guess your PTSD is worse than we thought. What happened?"
Bucky wasn't even sure where to start. He was still in shock from the nightmare. The last thing he'd wish for is for what happened to him to happen to Steve. He couldn't even bring himself to speak. All he could manage to say was, "They took him…and hurt him."
Zeryn assumed he was talking about Steve and HYDRA because she wasn't sure who else he would be talking about, "What did they do?"
"They turned him into me. He tried to kill me. I killed him." He couldn't believe he was saying that, he just couldn't. It was only a dream…a nightmare, but it just seemed all to real. He hated it and it was making him sick to his stomach.
"It's ok. Steve's fine, I promise." Zeryn said as she tried to comfort him, "It was just a nightmare. Things will get better, trust me. You're not alone. I've suffered these as well. They will go. It will take time, but they will go, I promise."
He didn't feel that these dreams would ever go away. They just kept coming and coming. It felt like it would be an eternity before they'd vanish from his head. He knew that the only way to keep them away was to not sleep, but he was aware that he couldn't stay awake for twenty-four hours a day. His body needed the sleep…needed the rest. He just hoped that she was right and they would vanish forever. He rested his forehead on her shoulder as more tears fell. He could feel himself starting to get tired again. He didn't want to go back to sleep because he was afraid of the dreams coming back again. But, he felt comfort in Zeryn's arms. He was safe and he knew that he could always wake himself back up and he wouldn't be anywhere near or around HYDRA. No, he'd be here, safe and sound. He allowed his brain to take him back into dreamland…back to sleep.
Zeryn held onto him for a little while as she listened to the music. She could hear the storm starting to come again, but it was mostly being drowned out by the music. She knew that Bucky was suffering, even in his sleep, and she was hoping that being back with Steve would ease the pain, but she knew what would ease his pain, fighting and destroying HYDRA. She still had that pain within her and she wouldn't be completely at ease until she killed the mutant that had caused her so much pain and suffering. She understood his pain, but she wasn't going to allow him to go off on his own to take them down. He would need help. But, right now was not the time to be thinking about such things. She couldn't let those thoughts be passed onto him and bring him dreams that he didn't need anymore. After awhile, she laid him back down, then laid her book on the floor. She laid back down, then closed her eyes. She allowed the music to put her to sleep as the storm raged outside completely unaware of the pain and suffering that was going on within.
Bucky woke the next morning before Zeryn did. He decided to explore the mansion a bit to see what he could find. On the second level, he was able to find all the bedrooms and bathrooms that Zeryn had been telling him about and he even found a huge library. Everything seemed a bit boring to him until he had come to Zeryn's old bedroom. He walked in to see photographs and journals, mainly spiral notebooks, scattered all over the floor. It looked like a tornado had hit her room.
Her room was large and mostly full of bookcases, which were mostly cleared. There was a twin sized bed against the far wall next to a window and a desk. To his left was a doorway that lead to her closet. On the right hand wall was a display case with all her school related awards in it, but it appeared that some were missing.
He went over to her closet, making sure not to step on anything, then looked inside. Her closet was really long and he noticed that half of her clothes were missing. He noticed a dresser at the end of the closet with a bookcase across from it. He figured that she might have taken some, or most, of her things with her, but he didn't understand why her room was a mess.
He went over to one of the pictures and picked it up. It was of Zeryn and another girl, who appeared to be African American and Mexican. They were in marching band uniforms, only the one Zeryn was wearing was a bit different from the one the other girl was wearing. Zeryn's hair was much longer, at least half way down her back. He turned the picture over to see a date, the other girl's name and more writing that said; 'Sophomore Year. First year as drum major!' He walked over to another picture and picked it up. It was of her and six guys, who looked to be several years older than her. He flipped it over and read the back. She was with a band called RAMMSTEIN and each of the guys names were written on it along with the date the photo was taken. He looked at a few more pictures and noticed that in all of them she looked really happy. He didn't understand how such a horrible thing could have happened to someone like her. He turned his head when he heard someone coming into the room. He saw her standing in the doorway.
"What…the heck?" She picked up one of the journals and flipped through it. She was lucky that she always numbered the bottom of the pages, so she was able to tell which pages were missing. It was obvious someone had gone through her stuff and…she had a feeling she knew who it was. She shook her head as she dropped the notebook to the floor, "Of course."
She noticed a long bin sticking out from underneath her bed with the lid off of it. She went over to it and saw that a lot of the pictures were missing. They were either laying on the floor or were gone. She kneeled down next to it and looked through the pictures of people she didn't know. She was able to find one picture of the person she knew was responsible for this mess. She took it out of the bin and looked at it.
It was of her and her 'boyfriend'. They were both dressed really nice and he was holding a trumpet and she was holding a trombone. They were both holding up gold metals that they'd won in a music contest. He was taller than her, close to six foot, and had short brown hair. He looked like the kind of guy who enjoyed showing off his 'money' by the kinds of clothes and jewelry that he wore. She, on the other hand, kept her Gothic style by sporting a black victorian styled dress with Gothic jewelry and fishnet gloves.
She turned to the cabinet and saw that the metal was missing. In fact, a few of her music related awards were missing. All the remained were her other academic awards. She looked at the picture, then threw it to the side, "He'll do anything to not forget me and to figure out who Remy is. He'll do anything to ruin my life."
"You have told him that you don't remember anything, right? So, I'm not understanding why he keeps coming back here."
"Because it's obvious that he doesn't want to forget me and make me remember everything. I can't. I really can't. No matter how hard I try, I just can't." She picked up another picture of herself and one of her other band friends. She turned the picture over and looked at the name and date on the back, "I'll never remember. My brain just can't process it. But, I'm not mad about it. I mean, I realize I had a great life, but I believe fate wanted this for me. If I didn't lose my memory, then I would have never met the professor, the other mutants, Clint, Steve, or you." She looked at him, "And, I'm happy with what I have and with who I have in my life. Even though there are a few things from my past that I'd like to remember, I'm just glad to have these people in my life."
"He should just move on. It's kind of obvious that you're not going to be coming back any time soon. No offense, but he needs to grow up and get a new life."
"You can say whatever you'd like about him, I really don't care." She stood up, then looked around her room, "But, I do agree with you. Coming in here and ripping pages out of my journals, obviously about him, and taking picture of us, besides that one, says that he's not ready to give up. He's going to keep it up till the end. I pity him, though." She looked at him, "He's just going to live a boring life and will end up dying alone."
She headed over to the door, "Well, let's get cleaned up and be on our way. It should be less than two hours to get there. No rests stops. We're going to straight there!" She turned back to him, "And, if you want, you can take one of those pictures. I don't care."
Bucky looked down at the ones that were in his hands. He was aware that she didn't really look like that anymore, but he couldn't help himself. It made him happy to know that she was always a happy person and still was. He found just a picture of her and took that one. Now, he'll have something to look at whenever he felt upset. Her smile just made him feel better. It would remind him that there was someone else out there kind of like him and, even far away, that person could still make him feel better whenever he needed it. He walked over to her and followed her back to the basement, so they could get ready for their journey to the X Mansion.
Within less than an hour, they were out the door and on their way to the mansion. Zeryn decided to stop to get something to eat along the way because she was aware that the professor would find out that she didn't eat and would give her a stern talking to…as if she didn't get enough of those anyway. Bucky decided to eat as well, since his stomach had been driving him crazy since they started their journey. He was hoping that it would hold him over until they got to the mansion. Zeryn had decided to take some backroads to the mansion and that gave Bucky the opportunity to have a look around at the lovely scenery around them. Almost three hours later, they were rolling up to a large mansion that had two circular towers on the sides, looked to be made of brick and was three stories. It looked like it was meant to be in Europe. Bucky had tightened his grip on her slightly. He was a bit nervous to meet these mutants and their leader, Professor X.
