She was out, she had actually pulled off the heist. The black haired woman was now sitting in her lair under the abandoned doughnut shop. Her stomach had a small smoldering mark from the device Agent Romanoff had tossed to her along with a sore jaw. Erin had evaded SHIELD nearly unscaved. Her underground home was dimly lit with a corner lamp, allowing the exhausted woman sit in adjoining darkness to contemplate her previous actions in the government building. Laying in her palm was a piece of metal, cut in a thick circle. Averting her gaze to the far wall, Erin toyed with the circle, flipping it through her fingers and physically studying every detail of it. She knew what it was; a tracking device. The Shadow Stranger had willingly took it as an exchange for her book. Tilting her head back to stare unblinkingly at the ceiling, she recalled the conversation between her and the director of SHIELD.
At the time, Erin had easily evaded the unsuspecting men and women searching for her. She found herself hopelessly lost within the endless maze of the headquarters. The Shadow Stranger upheld her reputation by disappearing in the shadows and emerged at random points around the building. Eventually, she had wandered into one of the security rooms inside. After transferring the guards into her own cell, she was left alone to scan the cameras. The lobby area and the visible levels with civilians carried on their business, unaware that a "mass murderer" was loose in the secure walls. Erin watched the large monitors and quickly found nothing that would led her to believe her book was kept in the higher levels. She came to the conclusion that they must have it somewhere below the surface. Swearing under her breath that she would have to return to the labyrinth underground, The Shadow Stranger kicked away a chair in frustration. Before she could create a portal, a land-line began to ring. She looked curiously at the phone with a raised eyebrow and slightly worried face. Choosing to ignore it, like any sensible criminal would, something from one of the monitors caught her ears. A constant thudding drew her attention back to the screens. In one of the offices, a notebook was tapping against the camera. The words "pick up the phone" was written with thick black marker.
The notebook was removed to reveal Director Fury standing in the center of the view, holding a phone to his ear. He nodded to her; causing Erin to become overfilled with curiosity. She grabbed the phone but did not speak into it.
"Ah, there you are. Afraid my security staff was sleeping again," he smiled to the camera in his corner office. Erin kept her mouth shut as he stepped away from the view. "Could you tell Agent Semms that I finally finished that book of his and he can come and get it at his earliest convenience." Still nonspeaking, Erin narrowed her green eyes at the screen with Director Fury in it. The bold man gave a look back at her, as if giving her a message. He hung up the conversation and returned to his desk. With his back to the camera, something happened that caused the camera to cut out and immediately change to a different office; this one was clearly unimportant. Does that son of a bitch have my book? Never in her wildest dreams did she expect to pay the director of SHIELD a visit during her heist; now, he was particularly begging her to enter his office. Slamming the land-line down, Erin stormed to the wall and quickly created a portal, leading from the security room to Director Fury.
Easily stepping through her shadow portal, she emerged into the half glass office. The view overlooked many of the capitals historical landmarks, The Washington Memorial, The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier, and a small portion of Capitol Hill. Erin wasn't focused on the impressive scenery; her bitter cold gaze rested on the man looking out the windows. She glanced around the remarkable office in case Black Window was hiding behind the sofa or under the desk.
"Man, that was fast," Director Fury said, continuing to look outward.
Erin remained where she stood, close to the wall and a hand pressed against it.
"Don't worry, you can speak freely here," he crossed his wrists behind him, "I secured the room, security cameras are offline, doors triple locked, and tinted windows so no one can see inside."
She didn't reply.
"It's meant to be impregnable. Of course, that was before we realized your abilities," the man glanced over his shoulder to her. "They are quite extraordinary."
"Where is it?" she gathered enough confidence to snarl at him. She wasn't in the mood to casually chat with the man who hunted her down and labeled her a monster.
He chuckled a little, shaking his head, "You know, its hard to take you seriously without shoes," he used the reflection in the spotless windows to watch Erin. She couldn't help but subtly glance down at her feet, colored pale with red toes from the chilling floor beneath her. She curled her toes to pump blood into them. "Now, I need something from you."
"Well, I'm sure we can make a deal," Erin carefully watched Director Fury walk to his large desk, turning more in her direction.
"That's the ultimate goal," Fury seemed unafraid of her; but she didn't want to take any chances. Keeping her guard up, she held her lips tightly together, only speaking when she felt it was absolutely necessary. "I saw what you did; for Agents Ward and Dunn," he nodded out the windows, Erin guessed he saw the whole ordeal. "Why did you go back for them? Why not leave them in the concrete? You would have had a higher chance at avoiding Agent Romanoff that way."
"I have my reasons."
Fury took a second to attempt to read her mind; she wasn't giving up her motivates that easily.
Erin noticed this, and chose her next words carefully, "I'm not a monster, or terrorist; if that's what you think."
He broke a short-lived smile, "We can deliberate for hours who is a terrorist. Or, we can cut to the case and be out of each others hair."
The Shadow Stranger didn't answer, silently waiting for him to explain himself.
"You see, it has been brought to my attention that I might require your special talents in the near future."
No reply escaped her lips.
The Director padded his fingers together, hoping for her to answer. When she didn't, he continued, "If what I suspect is true, then our alliance with one another will be short lived. It's only a precaution."
"Why ask a terrorist for help?" she condescended.
"I have my reasons," his voice was grim and stern.
Another copycat game. Erin shifted her weight uneasily. "What do you need?"
He relaxed a little, easing back in his chair and moving his hands to his lap. She immediately suspected that he had a gun, hidden from her point of view. Taking mental notes, Erin decided to not provoke Fury from shooting her. She wasn't fond of getting shot at, so she wanted to avoid any conflict. "All I need, is to know where you're hiding. I know you've been in D.C. for a while now. But, it appears that we cannot find your hideout," Erin silently doubted that was true, but she didn't dare speak up her thoughts, "If my theories are correct, then I would need to disappear quickly."
"Then just disappear," she plainly stated. "It isn't that hard."
"For you, no. However, for the rest of us, without the shadow manipulation thing, we rely on the old-fashioned way."
Erin rolled her eyes at him. She only used her shadows when it was necessary. Essentially, she never wanted to run and hide for the rest of her life, using portals to travel from Nevada to Maryland in less than five minutes. Running was not her goal in life.
"Will you help me?" Director Fury simply asked.
"If I say yes, you'll give me back the book?"
"Of course-"
"I'll need more than that," she immediately added in. Fury was surprised as much as she was; however, she couldn't miss this opportunity. "I need it all gone. Everything about me, Mountain Pass, it has to be erased. No records, pictures, names, birth and death certificates. Everything deleted."
She wasn't too sure what she was asking, for a fresh start? Or for everyone to eventually forget about her name? All she knew was that she didn't want such a terrible label as "terrorist" or "murderer." She was acting solely for her own benefit. Her mind did drift back to the origin of why she was there, to help Winter rid HYDRA for good. But, before she could throw in some conditions to aid him, Director Fury had already answered.
"Deal," he said confidently.
The Shadow Stranger dropped her tense shoulders and exhaled loudly; was she really going to have Fury erase Mountain Pass, Colorado off the map? Is that truly what she desired for her hometown? All her life, she dreamed to give Mountain Pass the name and recognition it deserved, now she wanted nothing to do with that black pit in the middle of the mountains.
"Okay," she replied, her mind still lingering at her previous thoughts, but decided that she wanted to leave before he had changed his mind.
"Okay then," Director Fury slid a drawer open next to him. Erin was speechless of her actions and stood like a statue. He retrieved her thickly bond book with weathered pages. Holding it up with both hands, he walked over and offered it to her.
A hesitation of disbelief emitted from her, still confused and worried. When she reached to take it, Fury tilted it back, as if silently telling her to wait.
"Ah," she averted her eyes to him, "You will need to keep this on you, always." Fishing in his pocket for a second, he pulled out a cell phone. "And, leave this at your hideout." Fully opening his hand revealed a small circular device. "If I need you, I will either call you or follow this tracker."
"How can I trust you?"
"The same way that I can't trust you to actually keep the phone or locator."
"I don't understand," she confessed her confusion, "Why ask for my help?"
"You said that you weren't a terrorist, take these, and prove it."
"What are you afraid of that you would risk such a thing?" She nodded to her large tome and openly wondered his motives.
"Let's just say I'm afraid of the real terrorists. But, this is just a precaution."
They stared at each others eyes, searching for their true purposes.
"What about the other stuff?" she weakly asked, unsure she should even request such a monstrous thing.
"If and when this whole thing blows over, I'll be sure to personally destroy all records of Mountain Pass."
But how could you do that if you have to hide? She knew better than to prolong this conversation. Erin could tell that further interrogation would be fruitless, and she needed to get her tome back for Winter's sake.
She settled her demons that even if he couldn't erase Mountain Pass, she would still help him; to an extend. The Winter Soldier needed her a lot more than Fury did. Whatever he was scared of, it must be drastic in order to seek her aide.
Director Fury placed the phone and tracker on the cover of the book and offered them to her again, "So we have a deal?"
A significantly shorter hesitation this time before she grabbed all three trinkets. "Yeah, we got a deal."
Afterward, she had immediately created a long-distant portal to take her directly back to her doughnut shop. That's where she sat for at least twenty minutes, staring around her darkened lair and fiddling with the tracker. The phone was resting on her couch next to her, constantly reminding her of her new agreement with Director Fury. She couldn't understand why she wanted everything from her hometown to be gone; too many painful memories? Was she ashamed? Probably, that was what caused her life from simple mountain girl to spiral into this mess that could barely be recognized as living. Using fake names, jumping from state to state, hiding in abandoned restaurants, and never keeping any friends, this was not living. It was running.
Hopefully, after all things of her hometown had been deleted, she could move on and settle in a small town. She never liked the big cities. Always busy, loud, full of angry people. No one knew each other, and, worst of all, she never could get to see the night sky or cloud watch from soft grass. Getting a serious case of homesick, Erin knew she would never get to enjoy those pleasures again. All she could do was soldier on.
She doubted Director Fury would need her assistance so soon after their deal, so she focused as much as she could on her book. Switching on more lights, Erin began to flip through the yellowed pages. During the year and a half that she didn't have the book, she had forgotten how utterly difficult it was to read; every possible word could be substituted with a much easier one. Big words weren't even the problem. Key words within the text were written in a strange language that didn't seem human. The markings were littered all over the pages, forcing Erin to guess what the translation would be.
A diagram was drawn on the pages of more advanced techniques; according to what she had briefly glanced over near the back of the book, if she perfected her Stage Two lessons, she could control people's movements, make them fight for her or lie for her. However, Erin didn't need such development. Scanning more of the "easier" lessons, she finally found the technique she was looking for. Across the top read "Memory Retrieval," and the directions under it was short and vague. To the side, a picture of three fingers were resting on the brow of another person. She read, reread and actively studied every word on the page. A footnote was near the bottom, informing her that the person could slip into an unconscious state if they followed their own trail in their mind.
Of course, the first few times she read the ambiguous instructions, she didn't understand. It referred to "entering their mind," "searching for the trauma," and "extracting it." It was more of a surgery procedure rather than shadow manipulation. It hardly made sense to her. When she was younger, she found that practicing the techniques made it easier to comprehend. It was scary though; the directions made it sound as though she would be inside his mind, physically looking for whatever, and removing it. The footnote wasn't building her confidence either; "if the patient commences to unconsciousness, substantial action must be taken to increase pulse. If descended too far, patient's essence will be disorientated." Why can't something be easy with this damn book? Naturally, she took extra precautions to ensure Winter wouldn't fall into a irretrievable coma. She needed a vessel for the memories, once she had extracted them; so, a simple water bottle would have to do. Hopefully, she didn't need to remove too many memories before he became the man he once was.
Ticking just after four in the afternoon, Erin left the access to the roof unlocked (partially because it was still broken), and the step ladder from the refrigerator open. Her nerves shown as she paced the basement and took heavy breathes. Constantly cracking her knuckles and popping her neck, The Shadow Stranger wondered if she was actually capable of performing such a task. It was under Stage Three, and she wasn't comfortable doing any Stage Two. Before she could figure out a way to weasel out of doing this procedure, her attention snapped to the step ladder.
The Winter Soldier was leaning against the back wall while quietly waiting for her to notice him. His dark brown hair lined his face, which was half covered by a menacing mask. As usual, his black garb was layered on thickly over his muscles except for his left arm to expose the metal coils and red star painted on the shoulder. His sudden and silent appearance startled Erin, making her flinch and gasp.
"Jesus," she placed a hand over her racing heart, "Don't you ever knock?"
He tilted his head, giving a slight expression with his eyes.
She rolled her eyes and walked up to him, "Do you have to wear that?" Erin gestured to his mask, "It's ominous and a little creepy."
Winter dropped his crossed arms and eased it off his face, looking a little confused at the black material. Erin sighed with relief; she felt more comfortable around him when she could see his whole face. It made him look less like a soldier, or assassin, and more like a regular man.
"Thank you," she said honestly.
He glanced up passed her, "Is that your book?"
Erin followed his gaze to the coffee table, "Yeah, that's it."
"Then why are we waiting?" Winter walked around her to check the large, open tome that took up the majority of the table. Rather than answering right away, she allowed him to study the pages; to him, they would appear blank. "I don't understand," he turned a few pages to examine the other sides, which only led to further bewilderment, "It's empty."
"To your eyes," she said, joining him in front of the couch. "It's a bit difficult to explain, but I swear, there's something in there to help you." As she suspected, Winter narrowed his dark eyes at her. Before he could speak up his anger or qualms about the tome, she elaborated. "Only one person can read it at a time. I know this sounds stupid, but it's almost like a rite of passage. I didn't believe it at first either, but trust me, I know what I have to do." Erin remembered having a similar discussion with one of her childhood friends back in Mountain Pass; hopefully, these two situations will have completely different outcomes. "Here, I'll read it to you."
She rushed to sit down and lay the book on her lap, patiently waiting for Winter to take the hint to sit next to her. Once he did, she cleared her throat and resorted to second grade reading, using her index finger to follow the lines. She read it carefully, attempting to sound as though she knew what she was talking about. Erin finished repeating the instructions and the warning in the footnote to be met by Winter's unhindered gaze. It was strange, normally, people would stare at her book when she read from it, thinking her crazy for such descriptions. But, he was staring at her. Eyes unblinking and face expressionless, Erin raised an eyebrow at him. She placed the book back on the table and turned towards him. Her natural reactions when anyone would stare at her was to get out of their line of sight; however, this time, she was a little angry.
"Dude," she scoffed, "Did you hear anything I said?" Erin couldn't help but remind herself of a nagging girlfriend.
Winter seemed to subtly snap out of his trance and focused back to Erin, but he didn't answer.
Rolling her green eyes, she sighed, "This is your part, and it's kinda important." She faced him entirely, to better convey how serious it was. "I'll be inside your head, looking for what's blocking your older memories. It's crucial that you don't think about anything, otherwise you could go into a coma, and I won't be able to get you out." Erin kept her visual contact fierce and stern. She didn't want him to slip away when they were so close to freeing him from HYDRA. "You can do that, right?"
"I'll try."
That's all she could ask of him. She wasn't entirely confident that she would be able to pull off this technique, but she would do her best.
"Alright," she nodded a little, still attempting to gain the courage to actually perform this procedure. "It suggested that you are asleep, are you tired?"
"I don't sleep," Winter replied dryly.
Another awkward nod from the black haired woman, "That's fine, but you have to have an empty mind. So," she wiped her sweaty palms on her pants, "You ready?"
He never answered verbally, but the determination in his eyes shouted loudly enough. Erin adjusted herself to sit on her knees and rolled her shoulders. Inhaling a deep breath, she glanced for the correct position of her fingers to his brow. Raising three fingers above the bridge of his nose, the two locked eyes; his unafraid and confident in her abilities, and her green orbs lacking in assurance. Before closing her eyes, she pressured her inner darkness from her stomach, traveling through her speeding heart, and had it coat her eyes once again. The Winter Soldier seemed unfazed by her eye change or he just didn't display his shock. Erin shut her blackened eyes and channeled the darkness from her to transfer to Winter. It took a minute, a few mistakes of misunderstanding what the book was referring to, but she did eventually enter his cloudy mind.
To say the experience was outlandish, eccentric, or bizarre would not explain how she truly felt. All around her, she was standing in a misty haze. The gray fog fluttered by her legs, giving a small light source. Everything above the haze wasn't necessarily black, just distance. The horizon seemed far off and small compared to herself. Erin circled a tiny circumference, keeping her eyes wide open for any sign. In here, she didn't have her trusted book as a guide; apparently, she would have to improvise what to do. The longer I'm in his mind, the more likely he could start to fall. Gotta hurry. Picking a random direction, she began to run.
No matter how fast she thought she was sprinting, she never reached an end. The horizon kept its distance, always drifting away. Her head was spinning around to try to find anything that could resemble memories. She suspected it would be in liquid form, or at least, that's what the book had led her to believe. Wait, the mist, maybe? She immediately ceased running and dropped to her knees. Carefully pooling together as much of the gray fog as she could, Erin kept her eyes open for anything that would stand out. A flashback, memory, hell, a simple math problem would work. But she couldn't find anything.
"What the hell is this?" she voiced her concerns. "There has to be something here. Where's the memory of his mission earlier today?" There has to be at least that here.
Frustrated, she jumped up while grinding her teeth. Glancing upward, she felt her body become unresponsive to her commands. The scenery altered completely. Rather than standing in a gray fog in the middle of nowhere, she was standing on a busy street. The surrounding buildings were fairly tall, not quite skyscraper, but they had billboards on them for a local news channel. I know that news team. She only had a second before her head moved on its own, facing away from the buildings and to a quickly approaching black SUV. She could see multiple bullet holes, the windows broken, and the front bumper smashed it, but still operational. It's gonna hit me! Erin began to panic and increased her efforts to leap out of the way. What the hell is happening?! Her body moved in it's own way again; swinging up an impressive gun, she could just barely see her arms, one was covered in black, while the other was coiled in metal. Squeezing the trigger, a strange round flew from the barrel of the large machine and slid across the gap towards the SUV. It slammed itself to the underbelly of the armored SUV. Erin had a moment to look at the driver of the vehicle; an African American male with an eye-patch. Fury? Before her theory could be confirmed, the odd round from her gun exploded in between the front tires. Black smoke and orange fire blasted the front end of the SUV to flip backwards onto its back. The momentum continued to press forward to her. Taking a calm step away to allow the sliding and burning SUV to pass, Erin followed the horribly damaged vehicle until it finally stopped. Holy shit! Powerful strides brought her next to the flipped SUV. Using an abnormally strong grip, she ripped off a car door and tossed it away effortlessly. Am I seeing this from Winter's point of view? Kneeling down, she looked into the cabin of the SUV; a square was welded away as well as part of the street under it; his target had escaped.
"He got away," she sighed a breath of relief; she had witnessed enough death for one life.
The Shadow Stranger finally had control over her body and hastily backed away. Once turned around, the setting had resorted to the original way it was, hazy with no true horizon or edge. Running her shaken hands through her hair, Erin tried to relax herself to figure out what had just happened.
"My God, what the hell was that?" she whispered out loud.
"You wanted to know about my mission," Winter's voice sounded behind her. Horror-stricken, she spun around to see The Winter Soldier stand a couple feet away. "So, I thought about my mission," he finished.
"No, no," she said, shaking her head, "You can't do that. You have to let me-"
"But I can hear you."
"I'm talking to myself," she rushed out. "Winter, this is dangerous." Was this what the book was talking about, "the patient descending?" Is he losing his mind? "You can't think about anything!."
"I know, but there's something I have to tell you."
"Not now! Winter, you have to stop!"
"You're in my mind, you're going to find out sooner or later."
"Then later!" she pleaded with him. "The longer you're thinking-" However it was too late.
The image of Winter seemed to duplicate itself. Erin watched as the two soldiers divided again, making four. There was a hesitation among the four, all looking at each other with confused faces and raised eyebrows. They were all in sync as they crossed their arms in disbelief and curiosity. Erin stepped back, terrified of what she was seeing. Was this the warning?
"I have to leave," she muttered to herself, forgetting that Winter could hear everything she said. All four copies immediately turned to her.
"Wait!" they said in unison, "I have to tell you!"
"Not now!" she demanded.
Covering her ears from whatever was so important, she cradled her head to block out all four of the copies. This is freaking crazy! When she had read the book, it never mentioned how to exit the patient's mind. More improvising; she automatically regretted ever doing this. You have to leave. It's gone wrong. Get out. Holy shit, get out!
As if her prayers were answered, when she opened her eyes, she felt the darkness immediately drain from her eyes. Once she could see, Erin found Winter sitting next to her on her soft couch. His eyes were closed and her fingers were still touching above his brow. She snatched her hand well away from his head and pushed herself back, not shaming herself for taking extra precaution and adding some distance from him.
"Son of a bitch, man!" she scowled at Winter. "I told you not to do that!" She shoved his shoulder back, releasing some bottled in anger. Because of his strong physique, she expected him to bounce back; instead, his body landed on the cushions behind him. Erin noticed his eyes were still closed. "Hey, wake up," she said in a much softer tone. Using her left hand, her non-dominant hand, she lightly shook his arm. He didn't respond. "Winter?" For every second he didn't show any response, her heart began to sink deeper into her stomach. Moving closer to him, she rested a hand on his chest, searching for a heartbeat. It was just barely there. "Oh crap," she uttered. Jumping from his chest to just under his chin, she checked for his pulse. With her own racing heart throbbing in her hands, she could scarcely feel his pulse. It felt as though it was fleeting. "Oh shit."