Prologue Part 2
Brooklyn, 2014
The blare of a truck's horn, a screech of tires and the distinct smell of burning rubber fills the air. I roll out of the way just as the truck barrels past me, whipping my hair around my face. I scramble over to the shoulder of the highway and collapse on the other side of the metal barrier.
This can't be happening again. I was so close to finding Bucky…
Frustration and despair well up inside of me, drowning me like a torrential downpour. I can't live like this, never knowing when I'm going to be thrust forward in time, never able to have a proper life. Every time I am thrown into the future, it's like I have to start all over again, reinvent myself. It's so exhausting.
Tears burn my eyes, my throat clogs up and my fingers dig into the dirt ground below me. I scream.
I scream until my throat is raw and my lungs are empty, until I fall onto my side and curl up into a ball, sobbing. I am so afraid that the next time I jump through time, I will wake up to an unrecognisable world. What if there is a nuclear war or some extinction-level event and I somehow end up being the last person alive? I don't ever want to experience that.
"There she is!"
My head whips up and I see a black SUV has stopped on the side of the road and a woman dressed all in black is racing toward me, a few men following closely behind.
I scramble to my feet, backing away, my eyes filled with terror.
"It's ok, it's alright," the woman holds out her hands non-threateningly. "My name is Daisy Johnson. I'm from SHIELD and I'm here to help you."
~O~
"SHIELD's had a file on you since the 80s. They were never able to track you down though, you kept disappearing for years at a time, then you'd pop up again," Daisy explains to me. We sit in a containment room on opposite chairs. Everything is blindingly white and sterile, like a hospital.
"I can't control it," I look down at my lap. "One moment, I was in 1946 and the next, I woke up in 1966. It just keeps happening and I don't know how…" I shake my head. "What year is it now? What year did I jump to?"
"2014," she tells me and my head drops into my hands. I wonder if Rebecca is even still alive. She's all I have.
"I can't keep…" My voice cuts out, emotion choking me. I hear Daisy stand up from her chair and come crouch before me, resting her hand on my knee.
"Look, I can't imagine what you've been through, dealing with this completely alone. When I went through it, I was so terrified—"
"When you went through it?" I interrupt, raising my head. "What do you mean?"
She takes in a deep breath, her short, dark hair swaying at her shoulders. "I'm like you. An Inhuman."
"A what?"
"An Inhuman. It's what we call ourselves. We're just like everyone else, but have slightly altered DNA. What you described before, when you were captured in the 40s, sounds like Terrigenesis. It's like a transformation that gives us enhanced abilities. Your ability is time travel, to some degree."
"So whoever captured me was…what? Experimenting on me?" I ask.
"It's possible. SHIELD believes that it was a small, rogue division of Hydra that kidnapped you and the Howling Commandoes. They managed to get away, but you…"
"I got turned into an Inhuman," I murmur.
"No, Flo. You were always an Inhuman. Going through Terrigenesis is a birthright. This is who you're supposed to be."
I stand up abruptly, upset. "Who I'm supposed to be? And who is that, exactly? Because for the past few years, I've been no one. I can't live my life like this, never knowing whether I'm going to wake up in the same year tomorrow."
"This isn't easy, I know that. And we're going to help you get your powers under control, I promise. But first…there's something you need to see." She backs away, toward the door.
I watch her, suspicion in my eyes. "What?"
"Follow me."
We go down a long, grey-scale corridor, harsh fluorescent lights bearing down on us, then stop outside an office.
"There's someone who really wants to see you," Daisy says and opens the door.
I can scarcely believe my eyes. Steve stands regally in the office, staring pensively out the large, arching window.
For a moment, I don't recognise him. My whole life, Steve was small and skinny and bony. I loved him that way just as much as I love him now. I only got to see him a handful of times after he joined the army and went through the experiment, so his increased height and width is still somewhat new to me.
But it's still Steve.
He turns to me and emotion immediately breaks through his strong expression.
"Stevie?" I croak out. How on Earth is he alive?
"Hey, Flo."
I run into his arms, wrapping myself around him like a monkey and clinging tight. I don't ever want to let go, for fear he will disappear like smoke in the wind. His strong arms hold me securely, my face buried into his shoulder.
"How?" I cry. "How?"
"When I took the ship down, it went into the ice. Froze me. SHIELD found me seventy years later."
I pull back to look at his face, to make sure he's real. He feels real; warm and solid and sturdy. But I remain unconvinced. "But you were dead. Peggy came and she told me herself. She said you were gone—"
"I know, I know." He cups my cheek, all bleeding empathy and deep understanding. "I'm so sorry, Flo. God, I thought I'd never see you again."
I press my face into his chest and breathe him in. Everything is different, everything - including myself and my brother. But he still smells the same. Like home.
"I've been so alone." My words are muffled, barely perceptible to an average human's ear. Luckily, Steve is anything but average.
"You're not now. I'm here. I'm right here."
~O~
"Ow!" I flinch as Tony Stark inserts a chip into my arm. I squeeze Steve's hand as hard as I can. He's here for moral support - he's barely left my side since we reunited a few weeks ago. "Is it over?" I ask.
"It's done. God, you act as though I was amputating your arm, not putting a tiny chip in it." Stark rolls his eyes.
"It hurt!" I protest, looking to Steve for support.
"It's over now," he says soothingly and I rub the sore spot on my upper, left arm.
"How do we know if it worked?" I ask Stark.
"Well, if you randomly jump into the future at some point, then it didn't work." His snarky sarcasm is not appreciated.
"Tony, be serious. This is important," Steve says.
"It'll work," Stark assures us. "After all, I designed it. Now, let me draw some blood."
I shy away from him. "What? Another needle? Why?"
"I want to study your bloodwork, see how exactly your abilities work. Come on, arm out."
While Stark continues to poke and prod me - is he even qualified to draw blood? - I talk to Steve to distract myself.
"Did Natasha speak to her contact in Russia?" I ask him.
Steve nods. "Yeah she did. There's no sign of Bucky there. He's off the grid, completely."
I frown. Soon after we reunited, Steve confirmed what I had long since thought; Bucky is alive. And we're going to find him.
"We should check eastern Europe. I know he completed some missions there, maybe he'll go somewhere that's familiar to him," I say.
"Maybe." Steve doesn't sound so sure.
"Steve, we have to find him. We owe it to him. He's out there, confused and alone—"
"You think I don't know that?" Steve interrupts. He looks like he immediately regrets it, shaking his head, his expression softening. "I'm sorry. I know you're just worried about him. So am I."
"I was so close," I murmur, looking down at my lap. I don't want Stark to see me cry. "I was so close to reaching him in 1999. Maybe I could have prevented everything that happened with you and Hydra and SHIELD."
"That's not on you, Flo. Not one bit. None of this is. It's not your job to save the world," he says it like it's the most obvious thing ever.
"But it is yours?" I ask. He doesn't seem to have an answer for that.
~O~
Brooklyn, 2023
One.
That's how many times I got to see Bucky before The Snap. I got to see him once, briefly, before he went back into Cryofreeze to try and get rid of the programming in his mind.
Steve and I looked for Bucky for over a year, but we couldn't find him. Until he was implicated in a bombing of the UN and Steve went over to get him. My brother kept me as far away from all of it as possible. He didn't want me involved. Just like he didn't want me involved when Thanos killed half the population. It's not like I would've been of any use, I suppose.
A few months after Thanos succeeded, I made a bold, perhaps desperate, choice. I dug out the chip in my arm that suppressed my Inhuman powers and the next day, I was catapulted into the future.
I wake up in 2023, disoriented but hopeful. No matter where I am when I jump through time I always end up in the same place; Brooklyn. Home.
It doesn't take me long to find my brother. I've gotten better at tracking people down over the years.
When Steve and I show up at Stark's house, he begrudgingly admits to having an idea on how we can fix everything.
"I analysed the blood you gave me, broke down its properties," he says. "Looked at your DNA. And…I think it holds the key."
"The key to what?" Steve asks.
"To time travel."
We devise a ridiculous plan, to use the serum that Stark's managed to create from my blood to go back in time and get each of the Infinity Stones.
"This is never going to work," I say.
Then, it works.
I've never been so glad to be so wrong.
~O~
"I love you. You know that, right?" Steve asks me. We sit on a bench, overlooking a sparkling lake. My bottom lip trembles and I bite it until it hurts.
"I know. I love you too." It takes everything in me for my heart not to give out.
"You're not mad?" Steve's ever-worried expression is hyper focused on me. There is a pit in my stomach, an endless, widening pit. And inside that pit there is definitely some anger. But I won't tell him that. I can't.
"No. I'm not mad," I say and manage a watery smile, tears slipping down my cheeks. "If you're happy, I'm happy."
He hugs me tight, cocooning me in his arms.
This is the last time I'll ever hug my brother.
He plans to go back in time, return the Infinity Stones and then stay with Peggy Carter, the woman he loves. He's going back and I'm staying here. In the present.
I have a fresh chip in my arm that'll prevent me from time travelling and Steve is using the last of the serum that Stark made to put the Stones back. No one else alive, that we know of, has the ability to replicate that serum, even with my blood. Stark really was one of a kind.
"I feel like I just got you back." My voice breaks.
Steve kisses my temple. "I'll always be with you."
Bucky is by my side when Steve goes through the portal and he holds me up when Steve doesn't come back.
My brother is gone, but I'm not alone.
~O~
A/N: Hello! Sorry if this chapter was a bit info-dumpy. I had A LOT to get through so we could start chapter 1, where the story really begins. I really yada-yada through like the space of 8 movies, huh?
Anyway, next chapter will start with The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. I should have the next chapter out before episode 2 airs, so then I can start writing about episode 2 straight away.
Obviously this story is going to be tricky because I'll be writing AS the episodes air, which means I can't plan the direction of this story and stuff won't necessarily line up exactly. But I'll do my best.
Also some notes on Flo's age because it gets pretty confusing with all the time travel:
1940: 11 years old
1946: 17 years old
2014: 19 years old
2018 (Infinity War): 23 years old
2023/2024 (Endgame/TFATWS): 24 years old.
Thanks for reading and big shoutout to WakandaKnights for their lovely review. If you have time, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Lots of love x