Bucky was dreaming. He was standing in a meadow, vast and green. There was a woman in front of him, her hazel eyes sparkling. She was wearing a white lacy dress, and her brown hair hung down. She was smiling beautifully.
"Who are you?" Bucky asked. She laughed, her beautiful laugh.
"I'm Ingrid!" She exclaimed, taking his hand. In this dream, she never cared if he was the Winter Soldier or Sargent Barnes.
Ingrid always danced, gracefully whenever she appeared. She seemed to be made of water. Sometimes she danced like fire, or the wind. But tonight she was water.
The sky above was clear, but the sun was nowhere in sight. The light didn't seem to come from anywhere. She took his hand and the two of them danced. Bucky didn't know how, he hadn't danced in seventy years. Her hands and feet guided him. He would have followed her to the edge of the world.
Then Ingrid stopped dancing. Her shining hazel eyes met his stormy blue ones.
"I must be going, love. The storm is coming. Take this, if you should require assistance."
Ingrid vanished in a cloud of white silk. The skies above darkened. Rumbles of thunder shook the meadow. Lightning clashed above in a violent blaze.
Bucky looked down at what Ingrid had placed in his hand. It was a black disk, with a raised diamond lightning bolt in the center. It was only as big as his thumb, and he studied it, not paying attention to the brewing storm.
"You should be going," said a familiar voice. It was the girl who had rescued him and taken down the helicarriers. She was wearing a black trench coat. Her hair was braided on top of her head.
"Where have you been?" Bucky demanded.
"I'm going to clear your name, when they catch you," she said firmly.
"They won't catch me."
"Well, when they do, press the disk for help. But you really should wake up."
Wake up is what Bucky did. He sat upright on the spring mattress. In his hand was the black disk with the diamond lightning bolt.