A Taste of Magic

by HarlanSpindlewheel

[Follows CA:TWS through F&TWS] Ilana Dimitrov, code name Illusion, was born with extraordinary abilities. As such, she quickly falls onto the radar of Hydra. For years, she's forced to carry out heinous acts that haunt her nightmares until, finally, she escapes her captors.

7. Chapter 7: Marbles

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- CHAPTER 7: MARBLES -

"I mean, I know cargo boats can be slow," Surge continued, picking a piece of fuzz from his tailored blazer, "but my patience was really put to the test."

I'm not sure if it was my training from Hydra or my uncertainty over what exactly Surge—or whatever he was called—could do, but I immediately lashed out. Both shards of metal flew, lodging in the doorway as he quickly moved out of the way. His hands remained in his pockets, unbothered by my reaction to his presence. He didn't seem threatening but he advanced closer, causing James to also turn alert. He lunged at the long-haired man, trust the furthest thing from his eyes.

Meanwhile, Surge moved with lithe and casual movements as he advanced towards me. I rolled away, sending shards in his direction as I went. My eyes were sharp, enhanced as I felt the veins around them pulsate. I had no doubt they were as black as they usually were when I was honing my full potential.

Preoccupied with avoiding my assaults, Surge didn't notice as James moved upon him. He placed a well-aimed fist to the gut of the blonde before kicking him immediately after and sending him flying against the far wall. James heaved me up from my crouched position and we cautiously walked towards Surge, who was now placed on all fours. He was slightly heaving from the double blow to his stomach.

But of course, it wouldn't be that simple.

Surge's head whipped upwards to face us, his face pure rage as his eyes glowed a luminescent gold. They were like mine but the exact opposite. Light versus dark.

He stood confidently, hands widening with his palms out. At the center of them, a flash of light built and grew until they encompassed them entirely. It looked a lot like static, maybe even electricity. The thought only crossed my mind for a second before he lashed out, hitting James first. He flew across the room, and I vaguely saw his metal arm twitch as he stood back up. His face was contorted in pain, but he shook it off with a hard rotation of his arm.

Surge proceeded forward, hands raised to strike again. I ducked in front of him, throwing up a field to block his next attack. It rocked me backwards and I landed on my back, so hard it felt like I definitely bruised something. As Surge stood above me, his eyes softened to assess me. I used it as my opportunity, distracting him with a metal shard in my hand before I tripped him with a swipe to the ankles. He tumbled backwards but recovered with a flash of static to the floor to regain his balance, and we stood face-to-face by the time I was able to stand.

My entire back was killing me from my fall but I couldn't let it show as we faced off. His fingers tingled with bright electricity while mine seeped with metal, shards at the ready. He raised his hand as if to strike once more.

But his hand was stopped by a metal one to the forearm. Despite the pain the electricity was clearly causing his fake arm, James held Surge back with a firm grasp. They stared at one another for a long moment, and my body was frozen as to what to do. I wanted to help James but I couldn't harm Surge too significantly until I got answers from him.

Thankfully, Surge made the decision for me. His face melted back into its normal sharp features. The light surrounding his fingers completely dwindled, and he released his hands before placing them up in a truce.

James's face immediately fell in relief and I rushed over to hold him up, my eyes cooling as I felt my power suck back into me. I grasped onto his face with a normal palm as I assessed any of the damage. His metal arm was slightly singed but besides any potential internal pain, he didn't seem scathed.

"Sorry, that was a bit dramatic." Surge said with a smile, hands back in his pockets. He had the beginning of a bruise forming on his cheek but if he was anything like us, that would be gone in twenty minutes. "Boyfriend?" He nodded towards James.

"Part-time mindless killer," I bit back in warning.

He raised his blonde eyebrows. "That's not the same thing?"

"You good?" I turned my attention back to James. His eyes were focused on the man who'd turned and made his way back to the doorway. "Hey," I pulled his face to mine as I spoke, "I asked you something."

For a moment, in the heat of grabbing Surge's arm, I saw a flash of his blank eyes. The Winter Soldier's eyes. The thought alone petrified me enough to send shivers down my spine.

If this mission was going to turn him back into that, maybe I actually should consider sending him off somewhere.

"Yeah," he breathed, standing straight. He rolled his arm once more, the metal creaking as it recovered from the electrical shocks it had received. "What the hell is this guy?"

"I have a feeling it's a very similar story to mine," I mumbled. James reached a normal finger up to the side of my mouth and wiped, it came away with blood. " Thanks." I blushed slightly and he just nodded.

As we approached cautiously, Surge pulled one of the shards from the doorframe. "So rudimentary," he mused, rotating the piece of metal in his hands. "I mean I knew Hydra was primitive but did you even learn anything else besides this?" He held up the shard for emphasis and my jaw set. "What's the most complicated thing you've ever made?" He assessed me, but this time it felt different. Almost like he was genuinely curious.

"A dagger, I think." I shuffled on my feet, uncomfortable. "And a sword. Once."

"And why didn't you practice those?" His genuine curiosity remained.

"They didn't think I needed to—"

"Access your full potential?" He flipped the shard as he paced slightly. "They settled for brute strength, rather than showing you what could be." He scoffed. "Because they knew that if you knew what you could actually accomplish, they'd never be able to stop you."

I rolled my eyes. "You don't know anything about me," I said through grit teeth.

"Oh, I know a lot more than you think, Ilana." He threw the shard and I caught it with ease. "Like how, if you were trained appropriately, that could be the most deadly dagger on the planet. The matter you pull out of thin air is practically indestructible. Imagine what you could do with it if you actually formed it into something more than a miniature traffic cone."

A blush crept up my face but for a completely different reason than just a few moments ago.

"And what's it to you?" James interrupted.

"I'm sure you've gathered," Surge continued, ignoring him, "that our stories aren't so different. You learned just as much on your way over here." He smirked. "Clever, by the way. Stowaways."

"How did you know about that?" James clenched his fists as he stepped in front of me.

"I knew exactly where you were and what you were doing as soon as you accessed my files," he replied, casually.

A gasp escaped my lips as I stepped forward. James didn't let me get far as his arm twitched in front of me. "That laptop is untraceable."

"Nothing is untraceable to me." He smiled. "Besides, who do you think Natasha's contacts got the thing from?" James and I shared a frantic look. This could be very bad if anyone else had been able to tap into our search history. "Relax," he said through a chuckle. "I am the only person on this planet that could trace that laptop, I assure you. And I was only watching you because I have an alert set for whenever someone searches for me."

"How?" Venom dripped from my voice. I was getting very annoyed by the vagueness.

He gave the abandoned warehouse the once over, kicking at a couple of pieces of paper. "Perhaps we should relocate this conversation elsewhere." He turned and began to the open doors, calling over his shoulders. "There are ears everywhere these days now that Hydra has fallen. Other organizations are feeling a little more empowered."

James and I didn't move, even as Surge stepped a couple of feet out into the setting sun. James sent me a skeptical look. This could easily be a trap, us walking into our deaths like idiots. Based on his most recent show of power, I wasn't sure we'd be able to stave off Surge without at least one of us dying.

Even from a distance, I could see Surge's dramatic eyeroll as he turned back to look at our unmoving forms.

"What was the point of you coming here?" he asked seriously, tilting his head. "Was it to get answers or no? I could have just killed you but I need you just as much as you need me, rough edges or no." We remained stone-faced and at a distance. He held a hand over his heart. "And I promise I won't electrocute your boyfriend again."

James sent me an annoyed look but left the choice up to me. I looked at the blonde just outside the door, his face towards the decrepit well as he kicked some rocks. He really could have hurt us a few minutes ago—I mean, he did, but nothing lethal. He'd just scraped the surface of his power to make sure we knew what he was capable of while also keeping us very much alive.

"We don't have much of a choice," I said through a sigh. My eyes met James's blue ones. "I would understand if you wanted to back out." Even as I said the words, my gut punched itself for giving him the opportunity to leave.

He just stared at me sternly, emotions a blank canvas for me to create my own picture based on assumptions.

"Stay behind me," he said quietly before moving after Surge. "And if anything happens, run."

Before he could get too far, I grabbed his wrist. "Not without you," I said just as quietly. "We didn't make it this far for you to become a martyr." I cleared my throat, removing my hand before moving past him with a look. "Well, that's actually the wrong word. 'Martyr' implies that you're dying for something righteous. Which is not what you would be doing if I let him kill you while I ran away with my tail between my legs." I gave him a smirk before following after Surge, ignoring James's annoyed looks at my unwillingness to let him act as some sort of fleshy shield.

Night fell quickly as we made our way through the streets of Paris. The landscape twisted from orange daydream to mystical fairytale as the lamps illuminated the cobblestones. Patrons happily sipped wine at outside tables that lined the streets, animated conversation floating all around us as we snuck past groups of people.

Surge didn't say a word as we wove through drunk tourists and the judgemental Frenchmen that watched them. He wasn't hard to keep up with, his looming body and bright hair like a beacon in the night. For someone who seemed to want to remain under the radar, he wasn't exactly keeping his appearance lowkey. But in such a busy city, not many people even gave him a second glance. Those that did, I imagine were doing so because of his good looks.

We walked for what felt like an hour before he began to lead us down much smaller sideroads and narrow alleys. I ignored James's worried looks, giving Surge the benefit of the doubt.

I knew I was being selfish, leading James into something so dangerous even though he was in such a volatile state. Would I be able to leave this behind if it proved too much for him? Part of me wanted to think I wouldn't hesitate but... I guess it depended on what happened when we got where we were going.

Finally, Surge stopped in front of a metal grate tucked away at the base of an ancient building that was hidden away inside a maze of alleys. He pulled it back as if it were a piece of aluminium foil. Then, with a small jump, he disappeared inside.

I made to follow but James held out an arm. "Seriously," he said as he looked at me with stormy eyes, "stay behind me."

"Whatever," I grumbled, rolling my eyes. "But I can handle myself, you know."

He smirked. "Only sometimes. And that doesn't mean you have to." And then he disappeared into the hole.

With a small smile, I sat on the ledge of the hole. It was dark, not a sight to be seen or any indication of what I might land on. I took a steadying deep breath, and then slid off into the darkness. It felt like only half a second, but when I landed on my feet, I looked up to see that the crate must have been at least twenty feet above us. I looked around, my eyes struggling to adjust, and saw that James was a couple of feet away. The crate shut with a resounding clang, casting us even further into darkness.

"This way," Surge's voice echoed from already a significant distance. "I hope you don't value those shoes."

Without a word, we followed after. Nearly every other step, I tripped, and James's back beccame my permanent wall to catch me from tumbling over completely. Rats scattered about, and water soon soaked through my shoes.

"I don't suppose you have like a flashlight or something?" I called out after a while, tired of the stubbed toes.

As soon as I said it, small lanterns lining the top of the cavern lit up, revealing damp stone walls around us. The sudden nature of it had me grabbing onto James's backpack to pull him back in case something went wrong. But no one moved to attack. Surge wasn't as far ahead as I thought he would be, standing a mere two feet in front of James.

"Sorry," he said, shrugging. "The lanterns are bright so I can't have them too close to the crate or else someone might notice."

"How did you do that?" I let go of James and reached up to touch one of the lanterns, as if that would reveal something. It went out when my finger was an inch away and I gasped. A second later, it was on again, Surge's hand reaching up and touching the one right above him. "How did you—"

"My codename is Surge," he said with a smile. "You should be able to figure it out."

Much to his displeasure, I pushed past James again to catch up as we continued to walk. He didn't let me go, placing a sturdy hand around my wrist. I easily matched pace with Surge as he proceeded through the tunnel at a leisurely pace.

"Electricity?" I asked, right behind him. "That's your thing?"

"It is indeed my 'thing'," he replied as he glanced back briefly. "Manipulation, control, and knowledge of it."

"Knowledge?"

James's hand on my wrist was too uncomfortable, so I pulled myself free and just grabbed onto his hand instead.

"I'm a bit of a tech whiz." He turned left at a fork in the rocks. "It's why EvolVed wanted me so badly. I can hack anything, create the most advanced pieces of tech you can imagine... assemble and track untraceable laptops." He gave me a smile as he stopped at what seemed like a random part of the wall.

"So have you just been freelancing for the past five years, then?" I leaned on the wall next to him, James letting me go to lean casually behind me. "How did you get away? I can't exactly imagine a hacker organization just letting their best asset walk, even if they stopped existing."

He gave me a sly look before running his middle finger down the center of the wall in front of him. With clinging noises, the wall shifted slightly. The shape of a door protruded from the face of the rock and he pushed hard, revealing an opening. He indicated for us to enter first. With a look back at James, I walked through.

If our surroundings outside were considered ancient, this space was the exact opposite. It was like stepping into the most futuristic spaceship, with computers of every size littering table after table around the room. Some were complete and clearly functional, while others were just parts ready to be put together. I couldn't help but gape at the sharp concrete walls, so out of place compared to the rustic tunnels we'd just emerged from.

"Where are we?" I asked, poking at a piece of wire.

"Don't touch that," he said as he walked past me to a large monitor. With a few clicks of a keyboard, the bright screen booted to life. "And you're in the bowels of the catacombs. The part where no one—not even those dipshit explorers—dare to go."

"You know that's not what I meant." My crisp tone was for him but my eyes were on James as he looked over the room. I knew this was a little too claustrophobic for him—hell, it was for me too—the walls too similar to Hydra's headquarters. But he just shot me a look that said don't worry about it, so I reluctantly set my sights back on Surge. "What is all this?" I waved my arms around in emphasis.

"My secret lair," he joked. "It's where I set up shop about eight years ago."

"Eight years? But EvolVed—"

"EvolVed ceased to exist over a decade ago." He tapped away on his computer, pulling up some documents and scanning them in silence. "I kept it running 'officially' as a front for some extra money until I shut it down permanently five years ago."

My mind was swimming with questions, a slight sense of vertigo coming over me and not helped by the bright lights above. "Why'd you shut it down?"

He didn't look my way. "Too many clients. Some dangerous. Wasn't very smart considering it was just me." He shot me a smirk. "Even if I'm so incredibly powerful."

I rolled my eyes. "Why did EvolVed call it quits in the first place?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D.," he said simply, going back to his screen. "Well, I guess technically Hydra then, right? They took custody of some of our top researchers and the bosses got paranoid. Wanted to shut everything down."

"So they just signed the deed over to you?" James sounded skeptical as he flicked a piece of metal hanging on some contraption.

"Can you two keep your hands to yourself?" Surge eyed us as he turned from the computer. "Or to each other? Whatever it is that'll stop you from touching my things."

"God, we're not—" I ran a hand through my hair. "They just let you keep it all?" I repeated James's question.

"No." He turned his face back to the screen. "Were adamantly against it, actually."

"Then how did you manage?" I leaned on a nearby desk, topped to the brim with more screens.

A shrug. "Killed them all," he said as if it were the most casual thing in the world.

James and I exchanged a look. Maybe it really hadn't been a good idea to follow him all the way down here, potential answers or not. I saw the cogs in James's brain start to run, looking around at potential escape routes. There were a couple of doors around the room but no way to tell what they led to. I slipped my hand under the desk casually in search of perhaps a hidden weapon or anything that might be of use.

"Oh, don't get all quiet like it's so shocking," he said with a sigh as he faced us. The screen behind him was lit up with words and pictures, too small to tell what they were from a distance. "That was a bit of exaggeration—I didn't kill all of them. Just the big guys." He eyed us each in turn. "The ones that were going to kill the rest of us along with the evidence of their misdeeds before they went into hiding."

I relaxed a bit at that, though another look was shared with James. "And the warehouse?"

"Just a random physical address for taxing purposes. Running a fake business was a lot more paperwork than it's worth."

"So what do you do now?" James crossed his arms, walking up to lean on the same desk beside me.

Surge waved a hand around. "Pretty much the same thing, just much more low profile and only for certain, trusted clients. Plus tech development and bulk selling, like your laptop."

He got up, walking us over to one of the doors on the far side of the room. We followed and heard the clicks with another slide of his finger. James and I peeked inside without actually walking in. The room was full to the brim with gadgets—laptops, tablets, phones, but also what was definitely weapons.

"Holy shit," James breathed on my neck from his leaned position over me.

"Who do you sell these to?" I asked suspiciously, side-eyeing Surge.

"Relax." He read my tone. "I'm not Tony Stark. These are only for when necessary, not for a profit or pillaging." The door locked with some resolute gear shifting. He headed back for the computer. "Which is part of the reason I need your help."

He clicked a couple of buttons on his keypad once more before landing on a very clear and very familiar file. It was mine—the same one we'd found previously but much more comprehensive.

Name: Ilana Dimitrov

Code name: Illusion

Date of birth: October 30th, 1987

Location of birth: Hoghilag, Romania

Assigned Agents: #762, #990

Notes: Specimen tested positive at birth and relocated to Paris, France headquarters. Moved to safe house location in Noyers-sur-Serein. Last known location of birth parents as of 1990 is Hoghilag, Romania. Recruited by Hydra in 1992 for the highest bid. Considered Alpha level but has potential to reach Omega level. Capabilities include internal and external matter manipulation.

"What's 'Alpha' level?" I asked, my brow scrunched.

"Dunno," he said as he pulled up his file. "Mine says so, too. Must be important if that's the only thing they really redacted, though."

His notes had been filled out as well.

Notes: Specimen tested positive at birth and relocated to Paris, France headquarters. Moved to safe house in Noyers-sur-Serein. Last known location of birth parents as of 1990 is Seoul, South Korea. Recruited by EvolVed Industries in 1994. Considered Alpha level but has potential to reach Omega level. Capabilities include electromagnetic manipulation.

"And what do they mean 'tested positive'?" I frowned. "Weren't we just born this way?"

"Yes and no," he sighed, looking downcast for the first time since we'd met him. "Project Jinx was an initiative to... evolve humans. Make us different. A mutated form of who we are."

"Like super-soldiers?" James was looking at the screens with just as much interest as me.

"Again, yes and no." Surge sighed.

"Can you just get to it?" I shot him an annoyed look.

"Project Jinx saw what happened with the super-soldier serum and didn't think that was enough," he said as he flipped through more files. Pictures of laboratories and men in labcoats crossed my eyes. They tugged on memories in my brain that I pushed away as I tried to focus. "They didn't think it was enough for someone to be made that way. They thought the only effective way was for someone to be born that way."

"So they just..." I trailed off, trying to think of a logical method to do that, "picked pregnant women at random and hoped for the best?"

He chuckled without humor. "I wish." He pulled up a picture of a red stone. Even on the screen, it shone with an unnatural sparkle. "Back in the sixties and through the eighties, there was an underground cult that worshipped a rock that they said 'held the secrets of the universe'." James and I raised our brows, and even he didn't sound like he believed it. "Trust me, I can't make this shit up."

"And so this magic stone..." I couldn't even finish the sentence, it sounded soo ridiculous.

"This magic stone apparently wasn't so magical at all." He flipped through more pictures. "A group of scientists out of Madripoor somehow got ahold of it and realized that it had actual power. Power that could be siphoned and used to experiment on human beings. So, they drained it and did just that."

"But I thought you said—"

"Those pregnant women you mentioned? They were the ones experimented on. All in the hopes that they'd birth something new."

We were all silent for a moment, the disgusting reality washing over me and causing bile to creep up my throat. Even Hydra held more regard for life than that.

"As you can imagine," he said quietly, "the success rate was very low." He cleared his throat. "The worst part was that the families volunteered. They targeted members of the cult, saying it was the stone 'calling them to a higher purpose'."

"That's disgusting." I rubbed my eyes hard with the foot of my palm.

Being called a witch, all of the slurs they sent my way at Hydra, I always knew it was a cruel joke. I just didn't realize how much so. James was looking at me intently, as if reading my mind and knowing exactly what I was thinking. His eyes were forlorn, pity etched in his frown. It both aggravated and comforted me at the same time. I didn't want pity... but maybe I needed it right now.

"What happened to these guys?" I asked, my jaw set. "To the stone?"

"I think they've gone under," he said, uncertainty lacing his voice. "But so long as there's a market, you can never be sure... The stone is definitely gone, though."

"How do you know?"

"Another report," he sounded frustrated. "So encrypted that I'm still working on cracking it. I mean as good as I am, you'd think I'd have that bastard open in no time. But the files I am able to view have indicated that it was 'returned'."

"This success rate," I began, putting that off for later and refocusing us, "how low exactly?"

"There's no data on just how many they tested on," he said with another swipe of his fingers, landing on one last file, "but out of everything I've found, only three children survived. Two of them are in this room." He pointed at the screen. "This is the last."

Name: Miles Colbert

Code name: Phantom

Date of birth: January 3rd, 1985

Location of birth: North Yorkshire, England

Assigned Agents: #762, #990

Notes: Specimen tested positive at birth and relocated to Paris, France headquarters. Moved to safe house location in Noyers-sur-Serein. Last known location of birth parents as of 1990 is North Yorkshire, England. Recruited by MI6 in 1991 for the highest bid. Considered Alpha level but has potential to reach Omega level. Capabilities include transdimensional teleportation and manipulation.

The file was accompanied by the photo of a gangly pale man with a friendly but aloof face, his dark curly hair slicked back into a perfect coif. He looked pleasant, and a bell went off in my head.

"Hold on," I breathed, placing a finger on the mouse pad.

Surge groaned. "I told you not to touch my—"

"Shut up," I snipped, poking away at the file. Picture after picture confirmed what I was thinking. "I've met this guy." My frantic eyes turned to James. "Do you remember—" I stopped short. It was probably the only mission we went on that he actually hadn't. My face burned as I turned it back to the screen. "I mean, we had a mission in Seoul one time. He was there when I was staking out a location to eliminate a target."

James's brows scrunched, whether or not in confusion I couldn't tell. Perhaps he was trying to dig through his mind to pinpoint exactly what night I was talking about.

"The mob boss trying to recreate the super-soldier serum, right?" I shot Surge a confused look after he was done asking. "We had a lot of overlapping enemies. EvolVed was actually pretty grateful that you all did the dirty work for us. My skills were much better served in the lab."

"You're oh, so welcome," I replied dryly. "What was he doing there..." I mused aloud.

Surge shrugged. "Probably trying to do the same thing as you. All terrorists see other terrorists as their enemies."

"Yeah," James spoke, spooking me away from how close I'd gotten to the screen, "except this guy is MI6. Isn't their goal to take down said terrorists?"

"Not these days, from what I hear." Surge said, throwing a piece of hardware up in the air before catching it repeatedly. "I think it's another Hydra in S.H.I.E.L.D. situation... Just with another group of radicals."

"I'm sorry," I said, rubbing my brow as I remembered something he said earlier, "so what do you need our help for? This isn't Hydra, so it's not really our problem."

"That guy," he pointed at the man known as Phantom, "stole from me recently. A very important weapon and, while it's going to take them a while, I imagine they'll be able to recreate it eventually. Can't let that happen."

I watched James jaw set. Another day, another fight.

"That sounds an awful lot like a 'you' problem," I said with annoyance. "Maybe you should just count your losses and get better locks."

"They have a copy of Zola's algorithm."

His words stopped us once more, another bomb landing with a resounding crash before settling over us like dust. My hand unconsciously reached out for James's as it sat on the table behind us. I pulled it back when I realized what I was doing.

"You're lying." I shook my head as I spoke. "You just want your little gadget back, so you're making up bullshit."

"The weapons wouldn't be as effective as the Helicarriers," Surge began, ignoring me, "but it could judge anyone they're aimed at and determine if they should be allowed to exist in half a second. Imagine a government with their hands on that. It would start small but... with power like that, it would take them no time to rule the world."

"So it's actually exactly a Hydra situation," James said quietly. His chin was nearly touching his chest as he looked down.

"Unfortunately so," Surge responded, sounding genuinely sympathetic. "Cut down the big guy and the copycats will come running to grab the spotlight."

I nodded. "There's probably wannabe vermin all over the globe doing God knows what with the information we've released about Hydra." I rubbed my brow, the corners of my eyes prickling. We were so sure things would be fine. That surity was actually stupidity, I realized. "Say we do help you," I began, trying to sound calmer than I was, "what happens to that guy?" My head tilted at Phantom.

"Depends." Surge gulped, nervous eyes flitting to James. "We know what that type of evil can do to people."

I shot him a glare in warning but the damage was done. James stalked off to a corner filled with older devices—a couple of record players, old TVs, and various other things I didn't even recognize. His large back was to us as he stuffed his hand in his pockets. His breathing was even, shoulders rising and falling gently, but I was aware of just how well he could hide what he was actually feeling.

"Obviously," Surge's voice was low, but he kept his eyes on James's back, "you don't have to come with. But it's not exactly like I can walk up to the Avengers and ask for help with all the shit I've done."

"I did," I said flatly.

"No, they walked up to you." He shot me a look, throwing the device in his hand once more. "Very big difference. And you've kind of made yourself a fugitive again considering the company you keep."

My head nodded. "I'm not leaving him behind."

"I know," he said genuinely. "And I know how delicate it would be to walk into a situation like this." He pushed himself off of the table, looking back at me. "But it would be nice to have someone who knows what it's like to be me lend a hand." He looked at the picture of Phantom with sad eyes. "And who knows? Maybe Metal Arm back there isn't the only one that can be saved. We could start our own super squad that only operates by doing lowkey evil things."

"It's a very optimistic outlook," I mumbled but I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my lips.

"Think about it." He smiled slightly. "Either way, you guys can stay here for as long as you want. I've got a couple more rooms in the back." Continuing to throw the device up and down, he began to walk towards one of the doors. "At the very least, I think it's time to see what those Omega-level powers might be, yeah?"

Before I could say anything, he slipped through one of the doors. I looked at Phantom on the screen, his intense brown eyes gazing back at me as if he were actually seeing me through the screen. The information I'd acquired in the past hour was overwhelming, causing my breath to increase. I placed my hands on the desk and bent forward, counting up and down from ten to slow it while my head spun.

No. No. No. I was not going to place me—to place James—into another Hydra-esque situation. We'd both lost so much of our lives to them, already fought enough battles for and against them.

We were ruined by them.

It was time to retire. Hiding in plain sight was second nature to us, so we would get by no matter what happened to the rest of the world.

Standing, I saw that James was in the same place. With careful movements, I placed myself beside him.

"A record player," he broke the quiet as he nodded his head towards the device. "Finally, some technology I recognize."

"Maybe it still works," I said cautiously. "We can ask if there's some records lying around or something."

His lips twitched. "That sounds nice."

"We've got time... He's offered to let us stay for as long as we need." I sighed. "So, we can rest up until we decide where we want to go next. I've heard that Taiwan is pretty nice." Eyes were on the side of my face as his head swivelled slowly in my direction. I eventually met them, their gaze contorted with concentration. "What?"

"We're not going after him?" he asked quietly. I just shook my head, and confusion overwhelmed him. "Why... why not?"

"Why would we?" I mimicked his questioning gaze.

"You need answers." He turned his body towards mine.

"And I got them." His jaw set, confliction reading on his face. I grabbed his metal hand and removed the glove that covered it. The metal was cold as I traced its divets. "We've just gotten away from guys like this," I said quietly. "We don't need to do anything else."

"We need to stop those who are using Hydra's knowledge." His palm wrapped gently around my moving fingers. I looked up to meet his eyes. "And we need to end the organization that did this to you once and for all. We can't do that unless all the outposts of their biggest buyers have been taken out."

"Root and stem," I mumbled, repeating what I had told the small assembly of Avengers back in D.C.

My mind considered it all for a moment, the idea of letting Zola's algorithm run rampant around the globe. Albeit at least not airborne this time.

But then I looked at James—the tired look that seemed permanently etched on his face—and I shook my head.

"No," I said with finality. "I'm not putting you through this."

"Well, I say yes." He stared back with determination.

I narrowed my eyes. "What did you just say?"

"I think I have my brain back enough to make a decision," his tone was far from certain, "and I say we're doing it."

"Huh." I said simply, eyeing him. "Well color me surprised. James has finally made up his own mind about something." We shared a chuckle but it quickly melted into me assessing him seriously. "Are you absolutely certain?" I asked, deadly serious.

His cold hand squeezed mine, still in his grip. "Yes."

"Well," I sighed, "then we better get some rest. I, apparently, have some training to do if I want to be Omega or whatever."

I began to walk away to the same door Surge had disappeared behind but was pulled back, James not letting go of my hand. He planted me right in front of him. His eyes were tortured as he looked at me.

"I remember all of them," he said quietly. "Not completely but... enough. So, I remember Seoul." He swallowed. "I don't want you to feel like you need to dodge around the truth or minimize what happened just to spare me."

"James, I'm sorry," I began, flustered, "that's not what I was—"

"Because that's not fair to you, either." He looked at me with determination. "You're helping me by forcing me to face my past. How can I..." he trailed off, looking for the right words. "How can I help you if you don't do the same?"

He looked so serious, eyes boring into mine with such an intensity that I felt small. Finally, I nodded.

"Alright," I said quietly, "unfiltered from here on out."

The tiniest smile formed on his lips. "The whole picture."

"The whole picture," I repeated and returned the smile. "Goodnight, James."

He let me go, using his now free hand to tuck a piece of loose hair behind my ear. "Night, Ilana."

When I turned back at the door, he was writing something down in one of his notebooks as he continued to admire the record player.

---

"It's a marble," I said flatly, glancing at the translucent thing in my palm. It was one of those marbles that had a swooshing sliver of color running through it.

"It's a start," Luis said—he'd told us adamantly over dinner last night that we weren't to call him by his codename unless out in the field—as he leaned against the stone of the cavern we found ourselves in.

He'd led us into a wide opening of the catacombs just after breakfast. It was large, like a chamber in a cave, and chilly with dusty walls and floors. After he handed me the marble, I'd plopped down in a poof of sediment in the middle of the room and began fiddling with it. James leaned right beside Luis on the wall, arms crossed as he eyed me.

But his eyes were distant. Last night had been a rough one, the screams from his nightmare waking me up from my room across the hall from him. Luis, at least, was polite enough to ignore it.

"I understand," he had simply said with a sad smile when I tried to talk to him about it before James woke up again in the morning.

I hated to admit that with each passing hour, I was beginning to like our new companion more and more.

"A start to... making marbles?" I scrunched my brows as I rolled it between my palms. "Am I going to trip them?"

"I mean, that would be quite enjoyable." He chuckled. "But no, it's to get you started on focusing on how you manipulate things. Those shards of yours are jagged, random representations of your panic in the moment." He began to create a ball of electricity in his hands, flipping it back and forth between his palms like a baseball. "If you focus, you can control it. Manipulate it into something purposeful."

I watched the controlled electricity in his hands with a peg of jealously. I'd never felt truly in control of my powers beyond my ability to make armor. So seeing someone who came from the same background as me have such calm authority over their abilities only ignited my frustration.

"But why a marble?" I asked, continuing to roll it between my palms.

"It's a perfect shape. Smooth, no edges. If you can reach that level of precision, creating other things should be no problem."

"Oh, great," I said dryly, "let's start off by achieving perfection and work our way down."

He smiled. "You seem like a woman up for the challenge." He lightly slapped James on the bicep. "Don't you think, Frowny Face?"

James shot him a glare, not moving an inch from his position.

I sighed. "Okay," I began, grasping the marble firmly in one hand, "how am I supposed to do this?"

"Just think about the marble," Luis said with a shrug. "Hold it in one hand and, in the other, make another one."

"Wow." The mockery dripped from my voice. "Are you shouldn't be a professor of this shit?"

"You'll see." He kicked himself off of the wall and began to walk back to the lab. "Once you actually do it, you'll know that I described how to do it perfectly." With a wink, he disappeared around the corner.

I let out a frustrated groan, releasing the marble from my grasp and holding it up in one palm. It wobbled a bit on the semi-flat surface, the grooves of my hand the only thing preventing it from toppling onto the floor. Just past my line of sight, I watched James watch me. His eyes just as intensely focused on the marble as mine. In theory, it seemed simple enough. Just a sphere—how hard could it really be?

So, I held the piece of glass in between the index finger and thumb of my left hand while I raised my right to perch parallel in the air. With a familiar feeling, I felt my powers course through me as my right hand engulfed in metal. Looking only at the marble, I willed myself to understand its shape, its density, every detail about it that might prove useful. My teeth bit down on my bottom lip hard as I focused, sweat breaking out on my brow despite the chill.

I felt a surge of power in my right hand, but when I looked it was just another shard. Jagged and long, nowhere close to the perfect shape in my other hand. I threw it to the right and it lodged into a wall.

Again and again, I tried and yielded nothing beyond deformed spikes. The walls became littered with them as my frustration grew. After what felt like hours, I threw the marble along with the shard I'd created. My face met my hands, one cool from the magic that still engulfed up to my right wrist.

I heard light steps, the tinkling of glass against metal, and then the soft thud in the dirt of someone sitting in front of me.

"It's not going to work," I mumbled at James, picking up my head. He'd been there the entire time, just watching silently as I fell further into my hole of worthlessness.

"It's been a couple of hours," he chided, rolling the marble across to me. I let it hit my foot before I used a finger to send it back his way. We repeated the motions as we spoke. "It took you thirteen years to become a trained killer. I think you should cut yourself some slack for not being able to make a marble out of thin air in a day."

"That's exactly it, though." I frowned. "They trained me to be a killer, nothing more and nothing less. Just imagine what I could do if they actually had nurtured my abilities. I could have..." I could have destroyed them. Gotten us out of there sooner. I didn't dare speak the words aloud.

"But," he continued as he rolled the marble towards me again, "would you rather have had them train you? Knowing what they would use those powers for?"

My frown deepened. I guess I hadn't thought of it like that. Truth is, if I had reached this Omega level of understanding, I would have probably acted under very similar circumstances as James.

"I suppose not," I admitted.

"Right." He nodded. "So it's better that you learn them yourself. That you decide what to do with them."

A small smile tugged on my lips. "I'm starting to see how you were a ladies man back in the day." I flicked the marble to hit his boot. "You know exactly what to say to make a girl feel good sometimes."

The edges of his lips twitched upwards. "I don't think I was that good."

"Please." I rolled my eyes. "I visited the Smithsonian with Steve before Insight and the entire walk there was nothing but tales of your wooing." He blushed and looked away, the marble nearly skidding out of my reach as I had to catch it. "Heard a lot about Coney Island... and about how good of a friend you were—are. You looked out for Steve when no one else did, even when he was a pipsqueak."

His eyes brightened ever so slightly, an actual smile emerging and taking over his features. "I always felt bad, so I made sure every date was a double date." He didn't pass the marble back as he flicked it between his hands, and it hit the metal one with a delicate clink each time. "He almost got away with it sometimes. He was a pretty good dancer."

"Oh yeah?" I pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. "You guys danced a lot?"

"What else do you think there is to do in the forties?" The smile didn't falter. "Sure, movies were new and cool but nothing beat hitting the dance floor."

"God, you're old." I chuckled. "But it does sound nice."

"Have you ever danced?" He asked suddenly, eyes pulled out of some memory and back to me. "I mean, with Hydra and all... We didn't exactly throw a good party."

"A couple of times," I replied with a vacant nod. "When I was on the run, I tried out the whole 'meet-someone-at-a-bar' thing but, as you can imagine, dancing these days isn't as courteous as in the stone age."

"I can't imagine that, actually." He leaned back as well, legs spreading until they rested by my hip. "I haven't exactly been out much these days."

"You don't want to, trust me." I chuckled. "Just like the dancing, I think the guys have gotten worse, too."

"Did you go on dates?" He had the nerve to look shocked.

"I did," I replied, narrowing my eyes. "Is that so hard to believe?" He laughed. "What? I was bored!" He didn't stop laughing and I soon joined him, the caves echoing and bouncing the sound right back to us.

"So no one stuck?" He asked after we settled down.

"Well," I sighed sadly, my chin resting on my knees, "I was having trouble deciding if I should tell them I'm an ex-assassin freak on the third or fourth date, so I usually moved on pretty quick. A couple of dinners, a couple of nights together, and then I'd disappear." I absentmindedly drew circles in the dirt with a metal finger, watching them as the room settled into silence. "Kind of a shame. There were some nice ones."

"Seems pretty lonely." His tone was sad, matching his eyes when I peeked back up at him.

"It was." I nodded. "But it's looking up. Now I've got you to be lonely and miserable with." I sent him a sad smile. "And I guess our new nerd friend. Speaking of which, have you noticed how utterly handsome he is—"

"Alright." James lightly kicked me in the hip with his outstretched leg. "Maybe that's enough talk about men for the time being." He rolled the marble back to me. "Another go?"

"I mean the luxurious blonde hair," I continued, ignoring him and his annoyed looks. "And those cheekbones... Like he was carved out of marble or something." He swatted some dirt at me, but a smirk littered his face. "Okay, okay."

I stretched out my legs, crisscrossing them and picking up the marble. Again, I held it up between my finger and thumb and just stared at it. My other hand lingered nearby, looking useless as nothing came to it. After a couple of minutes, there was a surge of power that yielded another ragged shard. James grabbed for it, and I tried not to let my overwhelming frustration show.

He rotated it like he would a knife. The metal of the shard was shinier than the hand that wielded it. "You know," he began, pondering as he stared at it, "there's that one magician's trick."

"Oh, I can't wait to see where this is going," I grumbled sardonically, propping my elbows on my knees as I hunched over.

"They used to always come around to the city fairs—all bullshit, of course, but still entertaining." He leaned up, stabbing the shard into the ground before reaching for the marble in my hand. "There was this one trick that I remember this one guy doing." His eyes wandered off for just a moment, clearly willing the images back into his brain. "He was really gross, his face paint always cracked, with very yellow teeth..." he trailed off at my raised eyebrows. "Anyway, he would take a red foam ball in one hand and close both of his fists." He repeated the motions with his own hands, the marble disappearing into his clenched metal fist. "And then he would have you bop the other fist. Then the ball would magically multiply and there'd be another one in the other hand." He opened both fists, his normal one, naturally, devoid of any marbles. "Obviously, I'm not magic so I can't do it but... maybe it's the same type of thing."

I stared at him incredulously. "I can't believe you used your allotted words for the month to explain a stupid magic trick that's really just a con." He sent me a stern look. "He also wasn't magic, though. It was just an—"

"Illusion?" He smirked.

I groaned. "That was so lame."

He shrugged, smirk growing. "But what I mean is," he reached out for my normal hand as he spoke, "maybe looking at it isn't what's going to help you." He placed the marble in my hand and closed it into a fist. The chill of the glass sphere was like a pinprick in the center of my palm. "Maybe you have to make it just yours for a moment before you reveal it to everyone else."

My eyes focused on my closed palm, the marble warming in my hand until all I could focus on was it. The shape became more clear in my mind as I was able to feel every part of its smooth surface, feel the real weight of it. As much as I hated to admit it, he might have a point.

"Such a ladies man," I said quietly. "That shit really must have worked on those gals."

"Can't truthfully say it didn't work in my favor," he replied slyly before nodding down to my metal-encrusted hand. "Let's see some magic."

With a roll of the eyes, I closed it. Putting both fists side-by-side, I tried to focus on the marble and imitating it in my other hand. This was ridiculous. Minutes passed with nothing stirring within me, and I was about to just give up once more. But something tickled at my metal palm. Barely there but a small force that made me twitch.

James poked my metal fist with his finger like a child would at a carnival.

I turned it over and gently unwrapped my fingers to reveal... nothing. My gut wrenched in disappointment.

"So much for magic, huh?" I said flatly.

"Try again," he said softly. "I'm sure even conmen have to practice before they call themselves magicians."

With a sigh, I flipped my hand back over and bunched it into another fist.

I focused this time—hard. My brows scrunched until I finally just shut my eyes completely. I felt the marble in my left hand, while I imagined it in my right. The tickle returned, much more prominent now. It grew and grew in my metal palm until I could swear I felt something through the armor. Something tangible. I opened my eyes in a fury.

Hesitantly, I held out the fist to him. He tapped it.

When I turned it over and unwound my fingers, atop my palm sat a smooth lump of metal. Far from perfect, but the right size and the general right shape.

James took it and gave it a push along the floor. It didn't roll at all.

"Well, not exactly a marble." He smirked as he spoke. "But still quite the trick."

I just looked at the hunk of metal as it sat in the dirt. While it was practically worthless, it was the most controlled piece of anything I'd ever made. A feeling of glee welled in my gut and I couldn't help but smile.

"That cracked-paint magician better watch himself," I replied, smile unfaltering.

"Oh, you had him beat with just your looks alone." He picked up and analyzed the metal lump, and I was grateful he had something else to focus on as my face heated. He threw it from hand to hand as he looked back at me. "Not that you had a high bar to jump over."

My face melted into a playful glare, all feelings of being flustered gone. "I now have the power to throw lumps at you, so you better watch yourself," I joked.

"And they are very beautiful lumps," he nodded, catching it in one hand before leaning back on his hands. He locked eyes with me. "Try again?"

I eyed him. "You don't have anything else to do? Might be nice to walk the streets or something."

"I'm fine." He leaned back more, eyes not leaving mine as he settled in. "I much prefer magic tricks."

---

That night, screaming broke through my own bad dream, and I leaned up slowly with a groan. I couldn't even remember what I'd been reminiscing on in my slumber, the shouts from across the hall disrupting my thoughts. Running a hand over my face, I stood from my bed and threw my hoodie over my head. I kept my long hair tucked underneath, not feeling like throwing it up in a sloppy bun.

I opened the door to my room, the floor cool against my bare feet. My leggings were too thin to combat the chill that cascaded over our dwellings at night, and I held my arms across my chest as I began to trot across to the door on the other side of the hall.

"They're getting worse, I think," Luis startled me as he appeared in his doorway down the hall. He let out a long yawn, his face scrunching. His long blonde hair was loose, cascading over practically his entire torso.

"Yeah," I sighed. I'd noticed it too—the fits becoming more aggressive, more frequent as they even presented themselves when he took a nap during the day. But I didn't realize Luis had caught on as well. "I'm really sorry. I thought he was getting better and he seems so fine when he's awake." A frown formed on my lips. "I'd get it if you wanted us to find somewhere else to stay, you know."

He swiped his hand to brush me off. "Don't be ridiculous. Like I said, I understand."

"Do you really?" I asked, not unkindly.

That's how he always answered, and it made me wonder just how true that actually was. I would never minimalize another person's trauma, given everything I've experienced. But he just never gave away anything that would indicate he actually knew what James and I were going through nightly.

His tired eyes focused on the wall just past me. A serene look passed over his face. "I've had a lot longer than him to get over the nightmares, you know," he said quietly. "And I still have nights where they creep up on me." He sighed, closing his eyes as he leaned his head on his doorframe. "I might be a tech geek, but that doesn't mean I wasn't also seen and used as a weapon. None of the ledgers under this roof are clean." Another shout rang out. He gave me a small smile and opened his eyes. "I'll leave you to it."

With my own small smile, I nodded as he disappeared back into his room. I really needed to talk with our host more often. It was nice to know that there was another recovering soul like James and me out there.

My mind was pulled back to reality when yet another cry echoed throughout the hallway. It must've been a bad one, given the way he was yelling out. So I moved, clearing the distance between our doors quickly and going in without knocking.

"Hey, hey," I said quietly, turning on a lamp in the corner after I closed the door behind me.

He was writhing slightly, his face a mask of torture as his brows scrunched. Sweat dripped down his forehead and covered his bare torso. He was on the floor, as usual, never one to sleep in his bed.

I crouched beside him. "James," I said calmly, placing a palm on his chest. He began to lash out more so I straddled him like always. It was like second nature, these episodes. I grabbed ahold of his cheeks and held him still. "James," I said a little more sternly, a couple of slaps to the face harmonizing with my words.

His eyes fluttered open, the bags underneath them prominent in the shadows of the warm lamp. He looked exhausted and his body slumped completely—a small but sad mercy. Usually, his eyes opened and he was frantic. It often took me using brunt force to contain him before he calmed completely. But he just looked defeated.

Whatever haunted him tonight had been too strong for him to continue fighting.

"Hey," I repeated, my voice low as I wiped away the hair from his forehead. "You with me?" His eyes locked on mine. "You know the deal. Name?"

"James Bucky Barnes," he said immediately, voice coarse like sandpaper.

"What year is it?"

"2014."

"And where are we?"

"Paris." His eyes closed as he let out a sigh. "With what some would say is an 'utterly handsome' tech nerd."

I let out a chuckle as I leaned up and rolled off of him. "That was probably the quickest you were able to come back." I watched as he struggled and groaned while leaning up onto his elbows. The dog tags clinked as they fell onto his chiselled chest. "Even though that seemed like a pretty brutal one." He took some deep breaths, looking towards the door as his mind continued to wake up. "Don't want to talk about it, right?" I knew the answer but I always asked anyway.

"It was about that first time in the cage," he mumbled. "Your fifteenth birthday, right?"

My mind froze, struggling to catch up to his words. "Um," I began, still trying to process that he was actually talking about what he dreamt about. "Y-yeah?"

He just nodded his head, remaining silent. "I broke your collarbone, right?"

"And my shin, I think," I mused, a phantom pain rolling down my right leg. "Or maybe my knee? Not quite sure." I tried to keep my tone light, but it didn't help the hurt look that formed on his face. "To be fair, they didn't let me use my powers." There was a prickle at the nape of my neck. "It would have been a much more even fight if they had," I joked.

"No, it wouldn't have," he said seriously. "They fried me the morning of. Commanded me to do the most damage."

"How can you remember that?" I didn't realize he remembered specific commands when he was his most Winter Soldier-y.

"As the thoughts start coming back," he began, his breath heaving slightly, "they come back in full. I'm beginning to remember everything they told me, even when I wasn't... me."

I stared at him, my eyes glossing over as tears invaded my vision. "I'm so sorry," was all I could think of to say.

He scoffed. "You're sorry?" With a plop, he landed back on the floor, his metal arm leaning on his forehead as he stared at the ceiling. "I'm the one that's supposed to be—"

"Shut up," I said immediately and he gawked.

"What did you say?"

"I said shut up. Are you deaf now?" I picked at a string on my hoodie aggressively, looking down. "You shouldn't be sorry about any of it, okay?" Pulling a hand through my hair, I yanked most of it out from where it was hidden in my hoodie. For something to do with my hands, I began braiding the ends. "It wasn't you and, more importantly, it's in the past."

"Not that far in the past," he mumbled, eyes back to the ceiling.

"What's so important up there?" I said with annoyance, flopping down beside him. Bumping shoulders, I laid right beside him to look up at the ceiling. "Wow, another rock wall. Fascinating."

He chuckled—finally, a pleasant sound. "You're so weird."

"And you're so dramatic." I lightly slapped his arm. "Sulking at walls. Apologizing for things that, again, were not your fault."

"Even if it wasn't," his voice cracked a bit, "I still did it all."

"Yeah, well," I swallowed hard as I pushed back the tears, "so did I. Luis, too. We all had to do shit we didn't want to do." My chin quivered. "And that's horrible. So incredibly so. But all we can do now is stick together and try to move on little by little."

"We'll never be alright." He shook his head in my peripheral. "We'll never be fixed."

A couple of tears slipped out of the corners of my eyes, creating hot streaks down to my ears. "Never said we would."

We lapsed into a heavy silence then, both of us continuing to stare at the ceiling. In the shadows, I watched ragged shapes form in the crevices. They were random, none matching the other, but they still fit perfectly within the surface of the rock.

"James?" I called out quietly, my voice echoing around the room.

"Yeah?" He responded just as quietly.

"Thanks for telling me what you're nightmare was about." I rolled slightly towards him. "Means a lot."

He looked me in the eyes, our faces barely half a foot apart. A sad smile formed on his lips.

"The whole picture," he said quietly before turning back to the portrait that was the ceiling.

Looking at him for a few moments longer, a flash of light caught my eye.

On his desk sat a lump of metal, the first one I'd been able to make earlier that day. With a flutter in my stomach, I turned back to the ceiling as well, watching the shapes shift until I fell asleep.

---

It took me a week to recreate the perfect spherical shape of a marble.

After that, as much as I hated to admit it, Luis had been right. Everything came much easier after I mastered perfection. Over the next few weeks, I learned to manipulate the sphere into different sizes, multiply it so I went from one to twenty in the blink of an eye. They had to watch their step whenever they came in to check on my progress.

"Quite impressive," Luis said when he entered the cavernous room. James looked up from his seated position against the wall, closing his notebook as the pencil he was using held his page.

"Some people are just born more gifted than others," I said playfully.

Little did he know that, even after my success on the first day, my nights over the past few weeks had been filled with frustrated crying and the desire to give up. But each day I awoke and James dragged me off to practice. Sometimes he would leave for a while but most of the time he stayed, supporting me even if it was just sitting quietly against the wall and writing things down.

Luis knelt in front of me, plucking a couple of the metal marbles from my palm as I revealed them to him with a flick of the wrist. "I would call you hotheaded but this," he held up a marble as he spoke, "does prove me wrong. I think you're ready for what's next."

Over the past few weeks, we'd gotten really close to our host. Past his pompous facade was a smart and powerful individual that shared many things with me and James. He'd been just as much of a pawn to his organization like us, and his ledger was almost as bloody. Whenever he wasn't physically harming people himself, he was getting others to do it via leaks of sensitive information into the right hands.

"And what would that be?" I stood with him, stretching out my arms and legs.

"You've made them," he began, kicking around some on the ground, "now make them move."

I kicked at a couple myself. "Done." James chuckled from behind Luis.

"You know what I mean." He narrowed his eyes at me, though his face betrayed a smile. "No touching."

"And do you have any oh-so insightful words like you did last time?" I produced a couple of more marbles between my metal palms. "Please. The more cryptic the better."

"This is unfortunately out of my wheelhouse." He shrugged at the unbelieving look I gave him. "What? Electricity isn't exactly tangible."

I just scoffed. "Thanks for the help."

"You'll figure it out." He gave me a wink, shoving his hands in his pockets before turning away. He was just at the exit when he looked back at James. "Oh! Almost forgot to tell you. I actually did find some in storage, so I put them in your room."

"Thanks," James said with a smile. His eyes were alight, like that had been the best news he'd heard in a long time.

"Found what?" I asked him as Luis disappeared back to his nerd sanctuary.

James's face reddened but I couldn't tell if I was imagining it as he dipped his head to look at his notebook. "Nothing important."

He didn't see my suspicious eyes as he continued to scribble. "Uh-huh," I said to gather his attention. He looked up but didn't say a word. "Fine, keep your secrets but know that I am taking it personally." I threw a marble at him and he caught it easily.

"You are doing well," he said as he analyzed it.

"Yeah." I sighed, sitting back down on the floor in the middle of the room. "Any magic tricks to help me make them float?"

"Never saw any foam balls fly, sorry." He rolled a couple of the marbles around, making them hit one another with tiny clinks. "Looks like this one's all on you. But," he watched the rolling marbles as he spoke, "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out eventually."

"Sure." I sighed, running a dusty hand through my hair. "But how long will it take? We've got to start helping Luis out with finding this Phantom guy. We can't just wait around for me to be good at something I should already know how to do." I threw a marble across the room and it lodged in a stone pillar.

"Hey," James said sternly as he threw one at my arm to get my attention, "that's not your fault. I should have my memory but I'm also having to learn." He went back to his notebook. "We're in the same corner, remember? Phantom can wait for us to kill him for a little longer."

"You want to kill him?" My brows raised.

He shrugged, writing something in his notebook. "Depends."

"On?"

"If he wants to hurt you—" his words slipped out and he quickly continued. "Us. Whenever we go after him."

I chose to ignore him and instead grabbed my knees. "What if he doesn't want to hurt us?" I mused. "What if he can be saved just as much as we were?"

He leaned his head back, his head hitting the wall with a thud that I could hear even from my place across the cavern. A look passed across his face as his brows scrunched, clearly trying to decide on something. I narrowed my eyes.

"Just have to be prepared, is all," he finally said, eyes not moving as they gazed upward.

He didn't want to look at me, I realized. He was trying to hide something.

"What do you know?" I asked, leaning forward. He still didn't look at me. "James."

He sighed. "I was talking to Luis the other day. He found out some things about what we're going up against."

I knew they'd been talking, getting closer, but I didn't think it was to the point of keeping secrets from me. We were still getting to know the guy, while James and I were close. Or at least I thought we were. At least to the point where we wouldn't keep anything from one another.

The whole picture.

"And what's that?" I asked sternly. His reply was another gaze to the ceiling. "What is it?"

"You should just keep practicing..." he trailed off, throwing a couple of the marbles. "I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly.

"Fine." My jaw set as I stood. "Then I'll ask Luis."

I heard him sigh and yell after me but I was out of the cavern in a flash, turning corner after corner that I knew would lead me back to the main lab. Luis had shown us a way to get in that didn't involve him via strategic pushes on rocks in the surface of the wall. I practically punched the stones, shoving the door open in a quick heave.

Luis was bopping his head to some French pop music as he sat at one of his desks, typing away for a few seconds before turning to a contraption on his right.

"What do you know?" I asked sternly, stopping right beside him and glaring down.

"A lot of things," he said without pausing his work, "so you'll have to be more specific."

I placed a firm metal hand on the device next to him, interrupting his attempts to work on it with a small screwdriver. It was a cube, pointy in some spots, but I could barely feel it through my enchanted palm.

"Ah, that's the only rule." He went to swat at my hand but I held still, earning a glare from him.

"What do you know that you told James about?"

"Ah, that." He gave out a long sigh, placing his tools down. "I knew he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret."

"Actually, he did," I said, annoyed. "Do you think I'm asking you just for fun?"

He stared at me for a moment, a strand of his blonde hair hanging from his bun and tickling the side of his face. Finally, he rolled his eyes, standing as he nodded for me to follow him. I let go of the cube and walked behind him over to another pair of monitors. Scale by scale, my magic dissapated until my hands were once again bare.

"It's a little excessive that we have to move around the room to look at stuff, you know," I grumbled. "Why couldn't we just pull up whatever it is you're about to show me on the one you were working on?"

"More secure." He booted up another computer. "Each of these has different connections bouncing around to millions of other connections so they aren't traceable. It's annoying but the most effective."

"Nerd," I said under my breath.

He chuckled. "Nerd with a safe house, don't forget."

I couldn't hide my slight smile. He tip-tapped away, my eyes unable to keep up with what was happening on the screen. Finally, he landed on documents—more files of some sort. I was getting really tired of seeing words on screens.

"When I was digging to get more insight on Phantom," he began, tone suddenly nervous, "I found out that MI6 wasn't just after him in the nineties."

I scrunched my brow, trying to read the files. "Okay?"

"They also tried to recruit you." Recruit. The word was disgusting and left a bad taste in my mouth every time we described the situation like that. We were only kids. "Hydra outbid them right before the deal went through."

"Okay, so they're annoyed but it's been over two decades." I shrugged. "I'm sure they aren't holding that much of a grudge."

"Oh, but they are. Remember Seoul?" He clicked another button, revealing a plethora of CCTV photos. "MI6 kept a record of every single mission Phantom went on. Heavily encrypted of course, but I was able to find and open them all. There's not a single one from his trip to Seoul."

He pushed through the photos—they were all of me and James the night before the assassination. Our trip down alleyways, along streets, even as we sat around in the restaurant and pretended to eat dinner.

"So..." I began, searching my brain for an answer, "maybe it was one they wanted to keep off the books or something."

"Yes, because I don't think he was there for your average mission." He zoomed in on a couple of pictures and I gasped. "I think he was there to nab you."

In each of the pictures, Phantom was present. A distant body in the crowd or a shadow against a wall, but definitely there. Watching us.

"I would have seen him." I shook my head in disbelief. "James would have seen him—he'd just been... He was at his most assassin-y."

"But Phantom also can teleport. Disappear and reappear out of nowhere." Luis sighed. "He's easy to miss."

"Why would they care?" I held my arms against my chest, the thought of someone following me sending chills down my spine. "You would think they'd just count their losses after all that time."

"Maybe they needed more muscle." He shrugged. "Or maybe they really do hold a grudge. Either way, I think they're going to use any opportunity to swipe you up."

"You jealous?" I asked playfully.

"Oh, yeah," he replied just as jokingly, "I would love to be hunted by a terrorist sleeper cell hiding out in one of the most elite secret intelligence organizations."

I gave out a small chuckle. "Well, you might want to keep that hope alive... I seriously doubt they won't be looking for you too now that they know what you're capable of."

"Yeah," he said quietly, "which leads us back to our predicament that I was hoping James would be able to keep a secret."

Leaning on the table away from the monitors, I rubbed my eyes. "I was just wondering when we would get back to that."

"We're not going to succeed on the first try, that's just the reality." He leaned next to me, biting on his thumb in concentration.

"Wow, great to know how much confidence you have in the team."

"We can't even hope to succeed unless we know what the terrain is," he continued with a sideways glance. "Which means a couple runs just to know what we're dealing with."

I nodded. "Which also means that they'll most likely catch on."

"Exactly." He nodded in unison. "Which means they'll know you're involved and most likely do whatever it takes to grab ahold of you."

"And you too," I reminded.

"We don't know that for certain, so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." He bit his thumb. "But we are absolutely sure that they want you."

"Okay, so I'll just stay out of the way." I shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Fight when I need to. Easy." He fidgeted even more, practically drawing blood as he bit down on his thumb. "What?"

He sighed, dropping his hand completely. "James has taken it upon himself to volunteer to kill him in the event he gets close."

"That's not necessary." A scoff escaped my mouth. "I've wiggled out of worse situations."

"I'm not saying he's planning on doing it in a situation where they've taken you," he whispered, head dipping. "He's planning to kill him on sight. Prevent it from the get."

My breath hitched as my head swivelled hard to look at him. He kept his eyes on the floor as he kicked around a screw with his polished boot.

"But why would he—" My throat was dry, the words dying on my lips. I shook my head. "He's not that person anymore. He's not going in to assassinate. Sure, he'll defend himself if needed but that's all it is." My eyes prickled. "Just defense, no offense."

"It wasn't my idea," he said softly.

My palms met my eyes as I quickly ripped away any of the small teardrops that had formed. We'd made so much process. He was becoming himself—James—once again. We didn't know how volatile his mind was. Doing something like this could easily set us back. How far, I couldn't be certain, but it wasn't a risk I wanted to take.

I couldn't let him turn back into a soldier, bloodthirsty and running headfirst into a fight unprovoked.

"How long have you known?" I asked quietly, my palms still on my eyes.

"Almost a week now, I think."

"Are you kidding me?" I pushed off the table to face him, rage coursing through me. "Why has no one said anything?"

He raised his hands up in defense. "His idea, too. Though I did agree it was for the best."

"Why?" I clenched my fists, the metallic talons poking at my palms as I struggled to control my powers.

"Because you need to focus," he said sternly. "I thought Hydra was stifling you but when I saw just how far behind you were, I was shocked."

A flush of embarrassment rushed to my cheeks. "I'm not that—"

"Yes, you are." He sounded like a teacher chiding a rebellious student. "I was able to completely control the shape of my energy by the time I was ten. I formed tangible weapons without blinking not even two years after that. I can use my powers to tap into the deepest parts of the web, or clear out a city's electric grid with just a few seconds of concentration." He looked at me with a slight hint of judgement. "You can create marbles. And even that's a new skill."

The dejection I felt was so overwhelming that my talons melted away in a wave of sadness. I leaned back on the table next to him, my head rolling back as my eyes were blinded by the lights and I began to see stars. The worst part was that I didn't even know how far behind I was, that Hydra had stunted my abilities so much. Any feeling of pride I'd held in the past few weeks immediately disappeared. All that was left was a sense of worthlessness.

"I know it's not your fault, so don't think my frustration is with you," he said calmly, "but I have to be real with you. You need to be at least ten times better than you are now if we even have a chance."

"We're three against one," I said defensively.

"We're three against an entire intelligence agency that's a front for a terrorist organization, actually." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And Phantom is... advanced. Maybe even more so than me."

I shook my head, thinking back to the original source of our current argument. "Still," I said as I crossed my arms, "James doesn't need to be a battering ram. If something happens, I can get out. He doesn't need to go in looking for blood. He can't be that person anymore."

"You'll have to take that up with him." He shrugged, pushing off the table and going back to his other monitor. "But he didn't seem very willing to budge." He sat back down, picking up a tool to poke at the cube again. "Might want to be careful. Overprotective boyfriends are the worst—trust me."

"Dear God," I groaned loudly. "We are not—"

"Denial." He smiled, not looking up at me as he took a screwdriver to the device. "So sweet."

If I wasn't so frustrated with everything else, I would have focused on how annoyed I was at the notion that James and I were a thing. We were ex-assassins of one of the most notorious terrorist organizations in history. We lived everyday moment-by-moment together. But that's as far as it went.

Right? A prickle in my stomach made me hesitate but it was probably just a reverb of how chaotic my emotions were right now.

Storming out, I flicked a piece of metal on my way to the door just to aggravate Luis. He didn't say anything but I heard him sigh in annoyance as the door closed. In my fervor, it didn't take me long to reach the cavern again—the marbles littering the floor seemed to mock me.

I looked and saw that James hadn't moved, so I stormed over and hovered above him with my hands on my hips.

"You're not doing it," I seethed, no question in my voice.

"Doing what?" His face was neutral, blank like it always was when he was trying particularly hard not to show any emotion.

I kicked his foot and he winced. "You know what."

He rubbed his metal hand down his face. "It's too much of a liability to keep him alive." Standing, he tucked his notebook in his back pocket and stretched. "It's the only way to make sure they don't get to you. He has to be eliminated."

"'Eliminated'?" I let out a noise that landed somewhere between a scoff and a gasp. "You're even talking like..." My voice trailed off as I realized what I was about to say.

"Like the Winter Soldier?" he finished for me.

I met his intense gaze. "Which is why I can't let you do this." Turning, I began to pace, kicking marbles as I did so. "You've come so far, James. You're not worried this might—I don't know—ignite something? We aren't sure how they hardwired you."

His jaw clenched as he watched me walk back and forth. We'd never broached the subject of what was stuck in his head that made him so complicit to do whatever Hydra wanted him to do. All we knew was how to activate it—a few stupid words—but not if that was the only way to kickstart that side of him or how to get rid of it.

If it even could be gotten rid of.

"I don't care," he said as he shook his head. "You can't become the property of another organization like that."

"I can handle myself, thank you," I spat out.

"No, you can't," he said, moving to stand in front of me. I stopped moving, my fingers tingling as I felt the metal begin to form around them. Luis could be expected, but I didn't think James would feel the same about my lacking abilities. "Not against these guys when we don't have a legion of evil to back us up."

"We don't need a legion of evil if we have each other," I bit out. My fists clenched as my frustration grew, the metal all the way up to my shoulders now. "We're smart. If we get stuck, we can get out. I can get out. I've done it hundreds of times before."

"This is different." He shook his head, groaning in frustration. "Luis told you, right? About his powers?"

"Your point?" I glared.

"I used to think you were the strongest thing out there until he told me what he could do." The words stung more than they should have. "And if this Phantom is anywhere near as strong, we're going to have our work cut out for us. The best thing to do would be to end him as soon as—"

"We don't have to." My voice rose. "Wouldn't you want to at least give a chance to someone like him? Someone who's gone through the same shit as us?"

"Not if that means he gets a chance to take you." He towered over me, eyes hard.

"Well, I say we can risk that." I glared right back.

"And I say we can't."

"I can look after myself—"

"You are not strong enough," his words dripped with venomous finality.

"Yes, I am." A thunderous ripple of power coursed through me as I spoke.

James gasped, looking past me as he took a staggering step back. I turned immediately, expecting some sort of threat.

Instead, I saw the metal marbles—all of them—floating steadily at eye level. They drifted unnaturally, as if held up by invisible strings, and I couldn't help but gape. We were quiet as we took in the sight.

It should have been empowering, but it was just further proof that my powers were volatile at best. Fueled by emotion, rather than my own will. With a huff, I pushed past James.

"Where are you going?" He asked sternly, the marvel of what just happened wearing off.

"Out," I replied simply.

He didn't say a word as I left, the sound of marbles hitting the floor echoed around the rocky hallways as I moved out of sight. I bypassed the door to the lab and turned each corner Luis had shown us to get out of the tunnels. With each step, my breath became heavier, as if I was struggling for air. It wasn't until the tears hit my shirt that I noticed I was crying, hot streaks lining my face.

As quickly as I could, I climbed the ladder up to the grate by the old building we'd used to enter the tunnels for the first time so many weeks ago. I pushed through to the street and took a huge gulp of air. Night was falling, the alleyway blessed by a cool breeze. I gave a relieved sigh as I pulled myself all the way out and closed the grate once more. With deep breaths, I willed my magic back into me, watching carefully as my hands turned normal once more. Closing my eyes, I took one more second to steady myself and dry my eyes.

Then, without any sense of where I was going, I just began walking the cobblestones of the city. I was pretty sure it was a Saturday—time not much of a construct underground—but the patrons flocking to the streets gave me some affirmation to the theory that it was the weekend. With my head down, I dodged groups of friends on their way to various bars and took peeks at couples sitting in front of cafes and sipping on wine. I hoped I didn't look too out of place in my jeans and turtleneck, but everyone seemed too caught up in their own conversations to notice me.

Finally, I reached a bridge, the breeze increasing as I planted myself on the ledge in the middle of it. Leaning over, I watched the water ripple as tourist boats travelled along the river. I could see the flashes of cameras from my perch as people aboard tried to capture the Paris nightscape in pictures.

What a life.

I raised my right hand, analyzing it. I would never have a life of barhopping and vacations. Never be able to have a normal group of friends to go out on the town with. Never find someone to settle down with, to get married.

I had no control over the trajectory of my life because it had been set for me at birth.

But what I did have control over was how I chose to live out the life that had been predetermined for me. And I chose to make myself the best I could be given the circumstances.

So, I closed my fist, not even allowing my powers to engulf it as usual, and concentrated. It began as a prickle of energy before finally transforming into a tickle of something cold. I opened my hand to find another metal marble. A small pang of pride hit my stomach but I quickly pushed it away.

That wasn't enough anymore.

So I focused on the round thing in my hand, drowning out all the voices and the lights around me. I'd done it to hundreds in a brief lapse of control, surely I could move one with my emotions in check. I continued to stare, willing the stupid thing to move. The lights of the city glinted off of its surface in a challenge. There was another small barb of energy on my palm just under where it laid.

And then it began to float.

I had to bite my tongue from yelping out. It bobbed up and down ever so slightly, going higher or lower as I willed it. I could feel the invisible force that guided it, like some sort of tether between my hand and it. Swinging on the invisible connection, I tested what I could do. The marble began swaying left to right, in circles, and any which way I wanted. A huge smile formed on my face.

There was a sharp breeze of air and I lost my concentration, the marble toppling out of my grasp and into the river below.

"Dammit," I sighed.

Closing my fist once more, I willed another one and it came easily. Another blast of wind hit me to the right, and I had to close my fist quickly to keep ahold of the piece of metal.

I turned in the direction of the rough breeze, an odd feeling settling in my stomach. There was no one nearby—only a family entering the bridge down the way while a couple of friends made their way towards the street in the opposite direction. Nothing seemed off, so I turned back to the water, opening my palm once more.

When I did, someone was leaning on the ledge to my left.

"Scream and I'll kill you," Phantom said as he faced me, his pale dark eyes dancing in the lights of the city. He reached over to pluck the marble from my open palm. "Cute trick."

"What are you doing here?" I said lowly, eyes darting around for any potential escape routes.

He shrugged, his polished hair looking perfect in the moonlight. "Just came to enjoy the views."

I clenched my jaw. "What do you want?"

"I think we both know the answer to that." He looked at me slyly. "So, let's not make a big fuss about it, shall we?"

Realization dawned and I smiled slightly. He didn't know that he'd just given himself away. A look of confusion darted across his eyes, but he hid it very well.

He was here to get me, which meant that any threat of death was a hollow one.

I took a deep breath. "Right," I said, stepping closer, "wouldn't want to cause a ruckus."

And then with a hard shove to the chest, I sent him backwards over the ledge before sprinting off of the bridge and disappearing into the Paris streets.