Second chance

Security teams ran past her cell shouting out rappid commands to those who worked on the lower levels of the S.H.I.E.L.D compound. Emily lay on the hard mattress of her bunk looking at the speaker which hung in the back corner of her concrete cage. The voice that was ringing out was new to her. As she listened to the famed Captain America speak she realised just how different he was to others she had come across. He truly was a man out of time with his rousing wartime speech. Emily smiled looking back towards where some Strike agents were trying to get ready for transport. Listening to Cap talk made her think about everything Hydra and Strike had done to her over the years. She was an asset to them not a person. She never would be anything more than that to them, but this could finally be her chance at a way out. They would have to take her out of her cell, they would then cuff her and blindfold her. She would have all of a 10 second window to use her powers to get out.

"You ready?" Asks a nameless agent to his college.

The Strike agent looks at Emily. "You sure she won't hurt us. We all know what she's capable of."

"Rumlow said we have to get her out of here." The other replied. He was older and had been to collect her several times for different missions. "They don't want Cap or Romanoff to find her. You open the door and I'll cuff her."

Emily slowly stood as she watched the younger man walk towards the door. As the door opened and she stepped out she gave him a smile. The boy froze as he felt the taser rod in his hand slip from his fingers and turn on him. The same happened to the other guard holding the cuffs. Emily watched them both drop to the floor, completely unconscious she had never killed anyone that didn't deserve it. That was the only difference between her and the winter soldier; she just was not capable of it.

Looking down on the pair as she cuffed them she was disappointed at just how easy it had been to fool them. "Men!" She muttered walking away towards the door which led to the stairs.

She fought her way out of the building, several times coming across Strike agents that had clearly been sent after her. She had no real clue where she was going, but she finally managed to find her way out of the Hydra levels of the building and into the main reception.

Emily made her way out of the building and down to the embankment. She had spent years in that cell. The first thing she wanted to do now that she was free of it was to watch it burn. As she was sitting under the trees watching the whole thing go down as the helicarriers fell, this was the end of everything she had known. It was an odd feeling, but she didn't have long to ponder over it as she spotted first one then two figures fall through the sky from one of the helicarriers. The first went down in a blur of blue and red, Emily could only assume that it was the Captain. The next however, this figure she knew well. She could make out the silver glint of his metal arm. He seemed to be diving directly after Rogers, but why? Emily got up and walked over to the bank edge watching as the Winter soldier dragged Cap out of the lake and placed him on the shore.

He looked up at her. "How did you get out?"

"The new guy hesitated."

He raised his eyebrow at this. "You shouldn't have left."

"I would be dead if i hadn't. Look at the place, it's just rubble." Emily shook her head. She knew he was still in mission mode. "Look I told you that if I could I would leave and it would be the last time you'd see me. I'm asking now. Come with me. Last week you were given a name by that man." She pointed to Rogers. "Don't you want to know who that man was? If you are this Bucky guy maybe you can figure out who you really are underneath Hydra's bullshit."

He looks at her completely silent for a moment before nodding his head once and holding out his hand, with a smile she took it. She dragged him through the tree line towards the car pack of a nearby office building. She picked out an SUV that had lightly tinted windows and managed to get it started. "Put the gun under your seat and stick this on." Emily pulled a coat off the back seat and gave it to him. "Anyone left will look for us and that arm is a big give away."

She had no idea how long they had been on the road they had stopped twice to change driver and car, but other than that they had just kept driving until at last she began to fall asleep. They pulled over into an old motel car park and Emily used her powers to check them without having to leave any money or a name.

The room was small and far from clean but it would do for the next couple of days while they figured out what was their next move. She came back into the bedroom/living area from the bathroom and sat on the second single bed as her friend had taken the other.

"So now what?" He asked.

"I've never known anything but Hydra." Emily stated with a sigh. "However i'm pretty sure that most people in the real world have actual names and few have soviet stamped metal arms. So i'm guessing it would be good to get our stories straight. I can only do so much."

He just looks at her. He had worked with her in the past. She could manipulate anything or anyone. He'd watched her make grown men do anything she wanted, she made the ground shake till buildings had collapsed. He'd watched Hydra push her, make her stronger, faster.

"What do you suggest?"

"You need a name and Cap has already given you one. You say you want to remember who you really are, maybe the best way to start is to actually use it. Yes it might lead him to us but is that really a problem now?"

"No not really, but it could lead whoever is left of Hydra to us as well."

"Fair point. Fine from now on I'll call you Bucky and you pick a name for any documents we might end up needing."

He nodded, suddenly becoming silent. Emily noticed the look on his face, like most people he was worried she was gonna use her powers on him. She hated the fact that people were guarded round her from the get go. "I won't use them on you." Bucky looked up at her. "you're just as broke as i am."

"That's one way of looking at it." He said with a sad smile.

"Why did you pull Cap out of the water?"

"I knew him pretty well….i think. The way he talked to me and what he said before he fell from the carrier, I don't know, but it felt like I was meant to do it. Like it's what the man he knew would have done. It's all so messed up in here that I'm not sure what is me and what is the man I was meant to have been before all of this."

"I can help with that, well I think I can. But maybe when you trust me more."

Bucky gave her a half smile before giving a muttered "Good night."

Emily watched as he curled up on the bed and veined slept. What little she knew about him from their years around each other, she knew that Bucky very rarely slept and when he did it was restless. She felt sorry for him. He was a killer. Every mission he had been sent on that she knew of it was only ever to do one thing. Kill. Her missions were always the opposite or at least they became that way when they realised that her interrogation methods were far better than her killing skills.

The following day Emily had to use her powers quite a bit, being on the run from the government was not easy. They needed to get out of the country, she had managed to get them on a ship that was heading to Europe. Bucky had watched in amazement as she worked on the men at each checkpoint. The boat they had picked was the Marco Polo which had just finished its East Coast trip up America and had docked in Virginia ready to set sail for Europe in a couple of days. They had spent two days buying everything they could think of needing for the trip as well as extras for when they arrived in Europe. Emily had managed to get into an ATM top up van and stole just over four thousand dollars. Not as much as she was hoping but it had been enough. Now they stood unpacking in the surprisingly roomy twin bed cabin on the fifth deck of the ship.

"Ever been on a boat like this before?" She asked him. She hadn't stopped smiling since she stepped foot onto the gangwalk.

"Once." He didn't feel like talking. He felt lost. He could only remember Hydra and his routine there. He couldn't remember being normal. He wasn't sure what he was meant to do now that they would be stuck on the ship for the next ten days.

That first night on the boat, he woke to find he was the only one in the room. He waited a few moments to see if she might simply be in the bathroom, but when he still heard nothing after five minutes he decided it was best to get up. Knocking on the bathroom door it slowly opened showing that the small room was empty. He was worrying slightly about not knowing where she was and so grabbed his trousers from the chair at the end of the bed and tugged them on before pulling on a hoodie. After searching for about half an hour he finally found her standing on the top deck looking out at the sea.

"You ok?" He asked as he walked towards her not wanting to make her jump.

"I've never been this free. I've never known anything but Hydra. We never got to see anything other than our cages or the people we were after. Not once did we ever have long enough to stop and look. I want to enjoy this."

"I think that was rather the point for a lot of it. Keep them busy, keep them focused and they won't know what they are missing." Bucky stood next to her, he understood what she meant and looking out now at the vast black water ahead of them and the night sky that was filled with a billion stars he was beginning to feel a little lighter inside. They were free, kind of. When the air started to grow too cold for them to stand out in what they had on they finally headed back to their cabin, Bucky got back into bed, Emily on the other hand decided to read a little while. She had picked up a book in the waiting area before the boraded and this had been the first chance to read it.

An hour later when she had thought he had fallen back to sleep, she started getting undressed only to jump at the sound of his voice when he spoke. "Did you mean it when you said you might be able to help me remember?"

"I did. I might be able to use my powers to help you remember."

"Thank you, Emily."

Emily smiled to herself.

….. End of chapter 1