Out of Time

It was hard to wait. Steve was used to action, used to taking charge. Having to wait in a cell with no idea what was going on outside was unbearable. He'd paced until the dust had stirred up his asthma again. Finally he heard footsteps and Nina returned with a tray of food. She unlocked the door and entered.

"I've disabled the speakers in here," she said quietly, dropping the German accent. "We can speak freely." She set down the tray of food. Steve looked down at it suspiciously. "You can eat. I fixed it myself." She reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a SHIELD ID card. Steve inspected it for a moment before handing it back.

"How close is Strucker?" Steve asked, taking a piece of bread and biting into it. He was hungry but not like he would have been if his metabolism had been Super Soldier speed.

"Close. I'd say two days. Three tops. He plans on bringing you and the device back with him. Back in the present, there's nothing stopping him from using that device on you. He doesn't want to mess up the past any more than you do, but he doesn't care about ruining your future. It would mean the end of the Avengers."

"Can you get the serum working in my cells again?" Steve asked her.

"I can, but we need to time it just right. I know you don't like being in this state, but I can't give away my position."

"I understand. Have you heard any word about Aspen?"

"The girl you came here with?" Nina asked.

"Yes. My girlfriend and my partner. I'm not leaving without her. Even if I have to stay behind."

"A lot more is at stake right now. You can always use the device to go back now that it's going to work both ways."

"We both know Strucker won't allow that. He'll find a way to make sure we can't use it again. We need to find her now."

"All right. I'll see what I can do, but I'm limited. We're very isolated out here."

"Where are we exactly?" Steve asked.

"Outside of Munich," Nina told him. "But basically in the middle of nowhere."

"I wish I knew where she was." Steve felt frustration that he had no way of finding Aspen. She could be anywhere. "I know she was sent back but why wouldn't she have been with me?"

"Maybe there was somewhere else she was meant to be."

"What do you mean?"

"Strucker knew right where you would be somehow. He sent me to collect you. Maybe Aspen was meant to be somewhere else just like you were meant to be there. Strucker needed you to finish his device, and you need him to get back."

"I didn't give him the information to finish the second device, did I?" Steve asked, dismayed at the thought.

"No. This was something he thought up in his time here. You had no hand in that," Nina assured him. "I've been trying to slow the process down any way I can without him getting suspicious, but there's nothing I can do now. He's too close."

"You mentioned I needed to be there as in New York. Why?" Steve asked, remembering her earlier words. How had Strucker known he'd be there?

Nina sighed, and Steve thought she might be growing tired of his questions, but then she replied, "You made the choice not to intervene when you saw your past self getting beat up and more importantly you didn't tell James Barnes about his future."

"So it was some sort of a test?"

"You tell me. Look, all I really know is that we need to get home back to our own time without upsetting the past. You made the right choice even if your friend does get hurt. Too many things could have gone wrong if you'd told him."

"It could make the difference between him living and dying!"

"Look, I know you're hurting. You've been through a lot and that couldn't have been easy seeing your friend again, but we don't have time for you to get all emotional here. There's more at stake."

"What can I do?" Steve felt utterly useless in his cell.

"Nothing for now. I can handle this. If you go traipsing around the castle, Strucker will notice."

"I can't just sit here and do nothing! Not when Aspen is out there somewhere. Wait…" Steve looked around for his jacket and found it under the bed. He dragged it out and stuck a hand in the pocket, pulling out his cell phone. "Is there any way to get a signal with this thing?" he asked. "I can try to call her or send her a text."

"Well you won't get a signal down here." Nina looked thoughtful. "The tower. We get radio signals. I think you could get reception there."

"How do I get there?"

Nina bit her lip. "Promise me you won't get caught?"

"If I do, I'll deny you had anything to do with it."

"They'll know."

"Then I won't get caught," Steve promised. "I need to send her a message."

"I don't suppose you'll let me do it."

"She needs to know it's me and I need to see if she replies."

"Fine." Nina passed Steve a key. "Make sure this cell gets locked when you get back. Put the key on your tray. Hidden of course. I'll collect it tomorrow morning. Strucker should be in his lab until late, so after I leave would be a good time." She gave Steve detailed instructions for how to get to the tower. "Get back as soon as you can and don't take any detours. He has men stationed here. You can't afford to get caught."

"I won't," he assured her.

"Good." Nina turned to leave. "I need to check in with Strucker and see what progress he's made. I'm going to figure out a way to stall him if I can. We might be able to buy Aspen a few days to get here, but I'm not waiting any longer."

"I understand."

He watched Nina leave, feeling the weight of the key in his hand. He'd lost his appetite in his eagerness to try sending Aspen a message so he pocketed his phone and the key and left his cell. The corridor was less intimidating than before when he'd still had poison running through his veins. The dust in the air tickled his lungs and nearly made him cough, but he needed to stay quiet and forced the sensation down. When he reached the door at the end of the hall, he opened it slowly and headed toward a set of stairs to the left. His footsteps echoed on the metal stairs, but no one came running to investigate the sound. Though he weighed less, his balance wasn't the same as it had been with the Super Soldier Serum and he found himself taking special care to keep his feet moving lightly. A door at the top of the stairs led into another section of the castle. The carpeted halls made moving stealthily easier, and Steve quickly made his way down the hall. The wall on the right side opened up and overlooked the laboratory where he'd wandered into yesterday. Where his serum was taken from him. He saw a few men working down there, running scans on machinery that looked a little too advanced for the 40s. He carefully skirted around the open area and found his way to a narrow set of stairs at the other end of the hall.

From there the stairs climbed up and up, and his legs began to ache from the exertion. He missed his old body. He could have made the climb in a quarter of that time without wheezing by the end. A flat wooden door was set into the ceiling and he pushed it open and found himself on top of one of the castle's towers. Around him was a desolate landscape shrouded in night. He couldn't see far, but Nina had said there wasn't anything to see. Steve pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked to see if he had a signal. There was nothing so he started circling the tower trying to find a signal. Finally two bars appeared, and Steve hastily opened a new message to send to Aspen. I'm in Germany at Strucker's castle. He's working on fixing his time machine. It can only send people back in time, so future Strucker is stuck here until he fixes it. I don't know where you are, but get to Germany as quickly as you can. I don't know exactly where I am, but maybe you can track my phone signal. Please be safe.

He pressed send and waited anxiously as the message took its sweet time sending. Finally it went through. He waited for over two hours for a reply, but none came. Either Aspen had lost her phone or she wasn't somewhere where she could receive a signal. He decided to hide his phone somewhere up on the tower so that it could receive a message if Aspen replied. The castle showed signs of wear and several of the bricks in the walls were chipped and loose. He found a particularly loose brick and pried it out with his fingertips. He set his phone inside and slid the brick in, letting the edges protrude slightly. He felt like he was leaving his only link to Aspen behind, but there was no way he was receiving a message down in the dungeons he was supposed to be locked in.

He made his way back to his cell, skirting past the open room. The scientists were too wrapped up in their work to notice him. He locked himself in his cell and placed the key on the tray, hiding it within the crumbs of the bread. The broth had gone cold, but he forced himself to eat it anyway. He needed to keep up his strength. Just because he was smaller didn't mean he'd lost any of his skills. As he lay down on the cot to try to sleep, he felt a similar determination to when he'd tried so hard to join the Army rise up in him. Nothing was going to stop him from finding Aspen even if they were oceans apart. If Strucker did repair his machine before Aspen found him, Steve would stay behind. It wasn't about what time he belonged in; it was about Aspen and belonging with her. He'd never abandon her out of her time. He just wondered where she was and if she was looking for him too.

Aspen pushed the door open and entered Schmidt's study. It was austere and just the way you might imagine an office in a castle. Bookshelves lined the wall on one side from floor to ceiling and the lush, red carpeting was cushiony as she walked across it. A hardwood desk sat on the other side of the room in front of a set of wide windows. The drapes were shut tight against the night, and the room was dark save the lamp on the desk that had been left on. Instead of leaving the room immediately, Aspen looked around. The door in the wall she had just come through was invisible if you didn't know it was there. A painting of a man sat on the wall, and she realized she'd been staring through the eyeholes from the other side. There were papers on the desk, and Aspen looked down at them. They were all written in German, however, and she couldn't read them. Her fingers touched the cuff, and she wondered if she'd be able to read them if she took it off. Was it worth the risk? They knew what their mission was. She wasn't here to learn anything more.

But Aspen was curious, and she wasn't content to just leave the room. She released the cuff and stared hard at the papers. The German words didn't make any more sense than they had before, but as she carefully shuffled through them, she found something she could at least understand. It was a file depicting a woman and a young girl and boy. The two children looked to be twins, perhaps eight. The three of them smiled at the camera. Down below it showed a very different picture. They were ragged and dirty and standing inside some sort of fenced compound. Someone had taken a red pen and crossed out the picture. Aspen saw names, but the one that stood out was Erskine. This was Doctor Erskine's family. She'd heard Schmidt telling Reinhardt that Erskine's family was dead, but somehow seeing their photos took Aspen's breath away. She snapped the cuff back onto her wrist suddenly not wanting to read any of these documents. She brushed them back into a pile and headed toward the door. Voices beyond stopped her in her tracks. Someone was coming.

Aspen looked around frantically, her eyes settling on the heavy drapes. It was a cliché place to hide, but she had seconds. She bolted across the room, the thick carpeting muffling her footsteps. She slid behind the drapes just as someone entered the room. She heard someone thumbing through papers and then silence as if they'd found what they were looking for. Instead she heard the papers slam back down on the desk with a curse.

"Brodbeck!" the voice shouted. "Come here!"

Aspen didn't dare move as more footsteps came toward the room. "Yes, Herr Schmidt?" the voice of Brodbeck answered right outside the door.

"I thought the maids were given strict orders not to touch my office."

"Yes, Herr Schmidt. They were."

"Then why has my desk been rearranged and dusted?"

Aspen let out a silent sigh of relief. She hadn't left anything amiss.

"I don't know. We gave strict orders. I'll speak to Frau Furhmann at once," Brodbeck said. "She can question the maids."

Aspen's relief was cut short by his words. She needed to get out of this office and back down where she belonged. She might not have been the one cleaning in Schmidt's office, but she suspected snooping was considered a worse crime. She didn't dare try the passage again, so she would have to take the door. She thought about the windows for a crazy second, but with no gear, she could hardly hope to scale down a castle wall.

"I am not to be disturbed the rest of the night," Schmidt ordered. "Find the girl and deal with her."

"Of course Herr Schmidt." Aspen heard retreating footfalls and then the door shut behind them. She pushed out of the draperies and opened the door. She saw the receding forms of Schmidt and Brodbeck. When they were out of sight she shut the door quietly behind her and tiptoed along the corridor until she reached the stairs. She could see Brodbeck heading toward the kitchens and she scurried down the stairs and into the room she had been cleaning before. Sitting on the table in the center of the room was her duster. Aspen approached it like it was a cobra waiting to strike. Someone knew she was sneaking around the castle where she ought not be, but who?

"Was it not made clear that you were to leave Herr Schmidt's study?" Frau Furhmann said to the maids as they lined up downstairs. Aspen stood silently next to Peggy trying to look innocent. "One of you was up there recently. You dusted his desk and rearranged his possessions."

The other girls remained silent, and Aspen could see the fear clearly written on their faces. What would happen to the girl who was guilty of this? Aspen knew better than to think she wouldn't be punished.

"I will find out," Frau Furhmann snapped. "It will be better for you if you speak up now. Hold your tongue and the consequences will not be pleasant."

A girl standing next to Aspen was trembling, guilt written all over her face. As soon as Frau Furhmann set eyes on her, the girl started sobbing. "It was me Frau Furhmann! I'm so sorry! I was in my room, ill, when you gave the instructions not to go into the study. By the time I heard, I'd already dusted the desk. I didn't take anything, I swear!" The girl was shaking uncontrollably, and it took a great test of will for Aspen not to comfort her. Frau Furhmann looked unimpressed.

"The master was very upset," she said. The girl sobbed harder. "You will come with me. The rest of you go to bed. You are not to leave your rooms under any circumstances tonight."

She hauled the sobbing girl with her. As soon as the door shut behind her, the other girls started whispering in frantic German. Peggy and Aspen exchanged a look before retreating to their room.

"That was horrible," Aspen said. "What do you think will happen to that poor girl?"

"I'm not sure. Doctor Erskine has to be our first priority but if we succeed, we can try to save her. Maybe Frau Furhmann will scold her and that will be the end of it." They both knew that wasn't likely, but it was impossible to say what would happen to the poor girl for such a simple error.

"I understand."

"We can't risk the mission. More is at stake if that serum gets in Red Skull's hands."

"You're right."

"Try to get some sleep. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find where they're keeping Doctor Erskine." Peggy turned out the light, and she and Aspen lay down on the small, creaky bed. Aspen thought she'd never fall asleep in the cold, unfamiliar room, but with Peggy next to her, she felt completely safe. She was fast asleep when the screams started from deep inside the castle.