Steve walked to the doorway and commanded "Okay, everybody out. Let's give her some space."

Everyone's heads snapped around to Steve and then to T'Challa, who made a small motion with his head for them to obey the order. They put down whatever they were busy with and filed quietly out of the pillar room.

Everyone took up a position outside from where they had a good view.

You could hear a pin drop. It seemed like they'd waited a very long time when the woman's head rolled slowly to the side and a frown grew on her bony features. Her eyes blinked open and she looked confused. She blinked a few more times before her squinting eyes began to dart around the room. She raised her hands and looked at them, turning them back to front. She propped herself up on her elbows and rolled slowly into a sitting position with her legs dangling from the side of the bed.

Steve noticed that they had cut her hair. It was now hanging just below her shoulder blades, a tangled, grey-white mess.

First Okoye and then Ayo came to a halt next to Steve, slightly out of breath, they were late to the party. Startled by the sound, the woman's head snapped up to the crowd watching her. She visibly tensed. Nobody dared move a muscle. She made a sudden movement to get up as if to run away, but her legs failed her and she fell on her front on the polished black floor.

At this, Steve moved through the crowd and slowly entered the room; the air was warmer and thicker in here. The strong smell of chemicals and ammonia cutting through the warmth. Cold light reflected off every surface.

The woman already had her elbows on the bed and was shakily pushing herself up. She managed to bring herself into a standing position facing the bed and slowly began to turn around, gripping the bed for support. Her eyes were cast down as she slowly and shakily turned, her face marred with effort. There were at least six feet between her and Steve, with Ayo at his left shoulder.

The woman's eyes flew up and met Steve's. He'd seen many things in his life, but few had pierced him like her eyes did just then. They were at the same time terrified, laced with a trace of anger and glinting with curiosity. She was breathing rapidly as her fingers hung on to the bed. She was gaunt, a living skeleton.

Steve raised his right hand out in front of him - it felt empty. In a low, quiet tone, he said reassuringly:

"It's okay. You're okay."

The woman's eyes darted to Ayo and back to Steve.

He muttered under his breath. "Perhaps it's better if you let me handle this?"

He could feel the disdain of what she had perceived as an impertinence. "I do not take orders from you." She breathed after a short pause.

"Please, Ayo." Steve implored clenching his jaw. There was a motion from outside the room from T'Challa and Ayo slowly retreated, not turning her back on the scene.

Steve waited for her to clear the room before he very slowly, took a step forward, crouching slightly to make himself smaller as one would approach a wild animal. The woman did not break eye contact with him. With a few more slow, careful steps, with both hands now out in front of him, everyone was holding their breath. Steve was about three feet away from the woman when he instantly knew the last step he'd taken was one too many.

She pushed back into the bed abruptly, as if the air between them had pushed her back. The bed moved back a little from where it hung in the air. He dared not break the only he hold he had on her, the connection between her eyes and his.

"It's okay." Reassured Steve. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you're okay."

Her eyes searched his face for a moment. Steve noticed they were an extraordinary shade of blue. Inside deep blue rings, brighter blues and fiery threads swirled in clouds like pictures of nebulas he'd seen on a space documentary. Around her pupils were blazing halos resembling the rays of the sun from behind an eclipse.

She seemed to relax a bit, unable to find a lie on his face.

"What's your name?" Asked Steve.

She shot his question back to him with a slight upward jerk of her head. He had to go first.

"I'm Steve."

His name seemed to disarm her a little.

"Where am I?" She croaked.

"You are in a medical facility in Wakanda." Steve offered without hesitation. "We... found you."

She frowned, not recognizing anything of what he'd just said.

"What's your name?" Steve asked again.

Her eyes fell to the ground, he could see her reaching back trying to find something.

She became more panicked again. Her eyes welled with the promise of tears as she looked up.

"I don't know." She choked. "I don't know what my name is."

She was shaking. Steve instinctively took a step closer. She allowed him one but shot out a bony arm when he took a second. He was close enough to touch her.

"Please." She breathed. "Please don't come any closer."

With that, she swayed, fighting her eyes wanting to roll back. She slowly collapsed on the ground, like a tired, wounded animal. She fought the darkness pulling her down for as long as she could and then succumbed to its cold embrace. The last thing she saw as her vision faded was Steve bent over her, concern etched on his face.

Chaos erupted as all the staff rushed back into the room. Steve lifted the woman back onto the bed and lay her down gently. After they had made sure she was breathing and that her other vitals were okay, they all took a tentative step back. It was a while before an uneasy calm fell over the lab.

Steve had taken up a seat at a distance from the woman's bed where she had asked him not to come any closer. He'd closed the doorway with the touch of a button to give her some privacy when she woke again. He was scanning through all the photos they had taken of the woman's slight progress on a tablet that was laying on a gleaming steel surface within arms reach. The enclosing folder was named 'Subject X'. His eyes were drawn to the clock in the top right corner of the screen. It was just after 3:15 am.

Steve looked up from the screen of the tablet and his eyes met the woman's. Her head was turned to the side and she was staring at him intently, a frown etched between her brows.

"You're Steve." She croaked softly.

Steve slowly put the tablet back where he found it.

"I am."

Her eyes glazed over as she searched again.

"I... I don't know who I am." Her eyes welled with tears.

"I can't... remember anything before... before this." She said as her eyes refocused.

"What happened to me?" She implored.

Steve's face had softened as he searched for what to say. "We're... not sure. You've been asleep for a very long time."

She frowned. "How long?"

Steve paused for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to say it.

"A very long time." His whole body was tense. His palms were sweating. He didn't know how she was going to take the truth so he opted to ease her into it.

She grew eerily still as if she had plucked the truth out of his mind. A silent tear dripped over the bridge of her nose.

"Either you know how long, but it's so long, that you're afraid it will break me. Or, you don't know and you are bluffing to see if I am hiding my memories."

Steve was caught slightly off guard by her summary of the situation.

"I... I just don't want you to have a harder time of it that you need to." He responded.

She locked her eyes with his. "How am I to know which one it is if you are not honest with me."

Steve's eyes dropped to the ground as her words hit home. He frowned and clenched his jaw, before looking her square in the eye.

"I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this." He began. "We estimate that you have been asleep for about ten thousand years." His words hung between them like the suspense in a good horror movie.

She slowly began to shake. She looked up at the ceiling and brought her bony hands up to her face, running them over her eyes and down to her mouth. She took in a deep breath, it scraped over her vocal cords and rattled out over her fingers. She slowly closed her eyes as she pulled her hands from her face.

"What century is it?" She whispered, not opening her eyes.