After dipping into an Internet cafe several blocks up and over from the coffee cafe she had left behind, Evaline moved through the city with printed out directions in her pocket like it was the early 2000s all over again. Distantly, she thought about Tony and how his ears must be ringing, even far away, at the fact that any member of his team was using less than an Apple iPhone as far as tech was concerned.
With the latitude and longitude coordinates she had been sent at the top of the paper, Evaline had memorized the directions after looking through them once, but wanted to keep the paper with her in case it came in use later. Some part of her old self kicked in as she transversed downtown Manhattan, surprised that she was on her way to a clandestine meeting somewhere considering how many people still surrounded her. She felt like she realistically should be going to a warehouse in the middle of the countryside, especially with how secretive the Mystery Man had remained, but she also wasn't surprised that he had set up some sort of headquarters close to her at the Tower.
Eventually, she came up to the street, which seemed to empty out as soon as she turned onto it, causing all of her heckles to rise. The latitude and longitude had spurted out a single address: 753 62nd St. As she looked at the building addresses, or those that had them, two buildings right next to each other went from 751 to 755 - which meant, naturally, that the Mystery Man's hiding hole was in the dark alleyway in between the buildings.
Checking both ways before entering the alleyway like she was expecting traffic to be heading toward her, she took a deep breath and stepped into the shadows. She saw that there was no time for her to do reconnaissance or anything of the sort; obviously, the Mystery Man had known that she would come when beckoned, as two of his goons were waiting for her by the only door in the alley, looking as if they were bouncers more than anything else. However, Evaline's trained eyes caught the outlines of massive pieces of artillery underneath their leather jackets, which were unnecessary in the thick heat of the city.
Gesturing to her own outfit, Evaline said, "Sorry, didn't get the matching outfit memo."
The two guys looked at each other, both simply raising their eyebrows and communicating something unknown to Evaline. Just as she was about to open her mouth to ask them where the Mystery Man and Luke were, another voice spoke from behind her, setting her on high alert as she whipped around.
All she could see was the Mystery Man's glinting grin before he asked, "Miss me?"
And then one of the goons shoved a needle into Evaline's neck, bringing blackness down on her.
—
When she awoke, Evaline was sitting in some empty, darkened warehouse room lit by only a few simple bulbs hanging from the ceiling, as if lighting had been an afterthought when creating the room. There was still some grayness at the edge of her vision as whatever drug they had given her worn off, and she wondered distantly how much she could get of the tranquilizer before she either built a resistance to it or ended up getting overdosed.
It took her a few moments to realize that she was not the only victim in the room. Another figure was sitting across the room from her, tied up to a chair just like she was. Due to the darkness of the room and the fact that the other person's head was hanging down, she had difficulty placing him at first; but then, as her eyes took in the outfit that matched the one he had been wearing in the picture, Evaline realized who it was as her stomach sank.
Completely forgetting about whoever else was in the room with them, or otherwise watching, Evaline almost involuntarily called out, "Luke."
Although he hadn't really been moving to start with, Evaline watched him freeze as all of his muscles tensed. Slowly, his head lifted from where his chin had begun to rest on his chest, and instead of looking relieved or hopeful or any of the things Evaline had expected, he looked crestfallen that Evaline sat across from him.
In a hoarse, weak voice, he asked, "What are you doing here?"
Although the first words that popped out of Evaline's mind were 'saving you', she figured that wasn't the best response for the moment considering she had been captured just like he had. So instead, she swallowed, her tongue still thick as the medicine began to wear off, and said simply, "I got a note that said I had to come here or else you'd be killed."
His eyes widened a bit, Evaline thought due to the fact that his murder had almost been imminent. But instead, surprise laced his voice as he asked, "And you actually came after me?"
"There wasn't really another choice," Evaline said defensively, thinking about how her team would be reacting once they realized she had gone again, and thinking about how they would respond to the knowledge that she had done exactly what they probably would have all advised against. "We've been looking for you for a while, Luke."
"'We'?" Luke asked in genuine confusion, although some of his surprise remained as he no doubt guessed who Evaline meant. "Who's 'we'?"
It still felt almost ridiculous to Evaline to say it, but she answered, "The Avengers."
"The - " Luke laughed in disbelief, shaking his head as his eyes went wide. "S.H.I.E.L.D. sent the Avengers after me?"
"We found some of your DNA and blood at an old HYDRA base a few months ago when we were searching for you, and we weren't sure where from or what the deal was," Evaline said slowly, seeing that Luke was having a hard time coming to the reality that people were looking for him. "How did they injure you?"
Luke's face paled a bit as he said, "It was from my calf, near my Achilles tendon. Not the worst thing to cut out, but not particularly fun, either. It's made me very weak; my ankle basically gives out anytime I stand. I think the worst thing that's come from it is that I have to lean on the guards whenever they move me anywhere, like a human crutch."
After doing a more thorough perusal of his body, Evaline asked carefully, "Any other injuries besides that?"
"My mind could be a little less fractured," Luke admitted, "but they haven't done much to me besides torture me for information about the inner workings of S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't think I've given anything away, but I heard the guards talk about how their boss, or whoever the hell he is, has some neurological drug that makes people incredibly susceptible to suggestion, and that makes them forget their actions shortly after. Kind of like what HYDRA used on Bucky Barnes."
Evaline felt the color drain out of her face, lying a little bit as she said, "Do you know if they've used any sort of needle on your neck? That's how the poison they put in Bucky's brain worked."
"Besides the thing they used on you as well to knock us both out?" Luke said, shaking his head. "I don't think so, but obviously I haven't been aware of what they've been doing to me while I'm unconscious."
Evaline thought for a second that she would just slip in a few words into conversation that could potentially trigger Luke as they did her and Bucky, in hopes that it would may be answer her question on whether he had been given the same serum that they had if he reacted. However, she then realized that the words she would have used from his birth year also coincided with her own, and were therefore unsafe for her to speak. She wasn't sure what would happen if she said the words herself, or if it had to be another person saying them in order to command her, but she wasn't willing to try it when she was in the room with someone who was innocent and she herself was tied up in a chair.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Evaline asked, "Any idea why they took you? Or any idea why they keep contacting me about coming to find you?"
"I wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things, if I'm to be honest, and we weren't that close," Luke said, shrugging his shoulders as he looked just at a loss as Evaline was. "I was in some classes you taught, and you took me to the side sometimes for one-on-one training, but it wasn't really anything more than that. We got along well, and I called you by your first name, but that was it. I can't think of why they would have taken me in order to get you, besides you just being a good person and Avenger who would rescue anybody."
Evaline looked away from him, feeling a slight warmth to her cheeks both due to his unneeded compliments and as she realized she had attributed such a weight to their relationship that didn't even exist. Luke's voice sounded out quietly, "Why? Do you know why they took me?"
Slowly, Evaline raised her head to Luke, amazed that even with the grime and exhaustion and sweat and without his glasses, he still looked so much like the Luke who had introduced her to the world of Star Trek, who had suffered through her having a cat for two weeks before admitting he was allergic, who had always made her cup of coffee better than she could, who had been one of her best friends.
More than anything, she saw the trust in his gaze as he looked at her, and that reminded her of her Luke more than anything else.
She breathed out heavily, rolling her eyes around the room to gather her strength and focus as she decided to trust him and said, "Well, it's a long story, but it looks like we've got some time."
She spent the next ten minutes or so explaining not only everything that had happened to her in this life, but also their relationship in the past life that she still held somewhere deep in her conscience. As she spoke, she saw Luke's face waver between slacking and tightness, both in disbelief of what she was explaining. He didn't ask a single question the entire time, allowing for Evaline to tell the story in its entirety; when she was done, she simply watched him as he obviously took a few moments to process everything.
Becoming slightly impatient with his silence, Evaline asked gently, "Any idea why you would have been a part of my alternate life?"
"I'm sorry," Luke said, shaking his head and frowning with concentration. "I really can't think of why I would feature so prominently. And I'm sorry… I'm sorry that's not really me, if that makes sense. Or that I have no knowledge of that world."
Unable to stop herself, Evaline let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Oh, trust me, I understand that sentiment plenty well."
The door suddenly opened, abruptly reminding Evaline that they were not actually alone. The two of them instantly went alert, although Luke's face went from hardened to fearful in less than a heartbeat as he spotted whoever had entered the room behind Evaline. The look of terror on his face made Evaline's blood run cold, especially as she heard the voice of her nightmares saying, "Nice to see you two are getting reacquainted."
"If you took our restraints off, we'd even be able to do a nice little hug for you," Evaline answered evenly, trying to maintain her calm by making sarcastic jokes. The figure walked past her, and although, as usual, she couldn't see his face, she could mark him by the fold of his shoulders, and the way his hips leaned slightly to the left, and the back of the baseball cap he always seemed to be wearing that masked his facial features abnormally well.
His chuckle sounded almost tinny in the tension-filled room, and he continued facing Luke, probably to limit any potential exposure of his features to Evaline, which brought her a little hope that either he didn't trust himself or was fearful of her in some way. When he spoke, however, it sounded as if he were facing Evaline and his words were direct as he said, "I appreciate the effort to convince me, as foolish as it may be."
Evaline shrugged as well as she could with the restrains still intact. "Can't blame a girl for trying. But what's the point of having me restrained anyway? You could obviously use… other means available to you to control me."
"I could," the Mystery Man agreed as he circled around Luke's chair, allowing the agent to track him nervously, before putting his hands on the back of the chair. "And this is one of those means. Take him out."
Before Evaline could process that the last words were not meant for her, but for the guards who had obviously been watching, the door slammed open and a group of men came in and slipped another needle into Luke's neck as both he and Evaline screamed in surprise and fear. Luke let out a meager "Don't" before he slumped over in the chair, before being untied and carried out by the guards, who left Evaline alone with the Mystery Man.
"What the hell?!" she demanded, losing any sense of coolness she had faked upon him first entering the room. "You said if I came, that Luke would not be harmed!"
"I most certainly did not," the Mystery Man countered, a growl to the edge of his voice that startled Evaline for a moment. "All I said is that he would not be killed. And even then, those are just words written on a piece of a paper that has long disappeared at this point. I am not a hero like you, Agent Kaeser. There is no reason I should be beholden to my so-called promises."
Struggling against her bindings in a failed attempt to at least loosen them, Evaline ground out, "I came as you requested. Now, there's no reason for you to keep Luke. You can give him some of the serum you gave me to muddle his memory, and then just let him go."
The Mystery Man clicked his tongue in admonishment, then shook his head. "You're smarter than that to think I'd simply let Agent Luke here run amok and report back on my dealings. I know that Stark and Strange and that Wakandan princess will cook up some antidote to whatever I could give Luke to keep him quiet. Also, keeping him here, I hope, will keep you a little more… obedient."
"You don't need to threaten Luke to make me obedient," Evaline admitted with annoyance, earning another chuckle from the Mystery Man.
"Yes, you are correct, but I'm not hoping to use that just for obedience," he said slowly, practically purring the words as he took a few steps closer to Evaline. He nearly whispered to her, "All of this will work so much better if you're just a little more willing to give in. The fun's just starting, and I don't want you to miss out on a single moment of it."
Nausea pooled in Evaline's abdomen as the Mystery Man turned slightly to the left, aiming himself back out the door. Pushing past her fear and her disgust, she jutted out her chin in a show of confidence that she didn't actually have, then prodded over her shoulder, "You seem awfully sure of your plan and that you can control me. So, if that's the case: why are you still hiding from me? Are you still fearful I will get away from you and reveal you?"
She heard his footsteps stop at the same time that her heart did, before it ratcheted up a few beats. Unsure of why exactly he had stopped, her mind went haywire with the possibilities. Hoping that he was just deliberating his next move, she also found herself worrying that he was going to turn and hurt either herself or Luke for her comments.
Suddenly, he walked back to facing Evaline, his head lifted a little bit so she could start to see the tip of his nose as he admitted, "I suppose we have no need for that secret anymore, not if we're to trust each other from here on out."
He slowly lifted off the baseball cap he always wore, then lifted his chin to exhibit his features. Although the lights in whatever hellhole they were in were dim, Evaline didn't need them to recognize the beady eyes or the facial scar running from his scalp line to the corner of his eye that she knew she had given him herself. The scar had obviously been poorly stitched, as it pulled up on his cheek, moving his smirk into a grimace that made his mouth the only recognizable feature on his face.
Almost involuntarily, Evaline growled his name.
"Zemo."
