Written for Tazo, in response to his tagging me and requesting a Captain fic.


Déjà vu hardly does the moment justice, staring each other down with your wires between us like a no-man's land. You didn't expect me to let go the first time. It was clear that you had never seen anybody move as fast as you in your short life. Such a pretty child you were then, but still just a child.

Would it be any consolation to you that the wounds to my hands took months to heal and pained me for years until Doc's little shot took the pain away? Cold comfort, but x rays of my hands show notches in each of my finger bones from your wires.

Your cheekbone still pains you, doesn't it? I can see the shadow of old pain long ignored in your eyes. It mars your perfection the way your left eye wanders without your monocle. That's good. It makes you human. At least for now.

You're afraid this time. Yes, you should be. I'm faster and you're slower. You're older and I'm…older but not aged. You know this won't end well for you.

You're ready for me to drop the wires this time. You know it's coming. I hold them, savoring the old pain in my hands. It makes me feel alive – like the man you fought so many years ago.

Without you, I wouldn't have had these decades of silence.

My vocal cords never healed. You nearly killed me, but then again, I did return the favor, didn't I? It was so close and neither of us would have fulfilled the destiny that brought us here today – now.

You're ready for it, but you're not nearly fast enough this time. I'm saddened, really. I'd tell myself, and you, that it is a favor that Doc will do you, but fifty five years of being a mute have broken me of the habit of lying, even to myself. It's not a favor, but it is revenge, and if it can't be sweet for both of us, it can still be sweet for me.

Fight me more, boy. Give it everything you have. This is your end, after all. You won't have a name anymore, just a title. You and I, identified only by what we are, not who we are.

It's not so bad. It's quiet. You learn to live in the quiet.