Epilogue

The sun had yet to rise when Bucky reached the city docks. The only sounds were the crashing waves. Even then, Bucky was cautious as he made his way to the designated dock. Even with the security of the scheduled time and the solitary location, Bucky couldn't let his guard down.

He waited and would wait until the sun rose. If it rose then it meant Chloe had gotten to her contact and the deal was off. He supposed it was selfish to still take this contact's help without Chloe but it was worth a try. Now he just had to hope that this person would be willing to help him once they realized he purposely left Chloe behind. The wait was agonizingly slow. The sun would almost start peeking and then he would have to—

Heeled boots made a noise a behind him.

Bucky turned immediately, hands raising enough to pose for retaliation.

Slowly, a woman with long, curly dark brown hair that seemed to struggle to stay on one side of her shoulders, appeared across Bucky. She was light skinned with dark brown eyes and she was dressed in casual clothing but one enough to allow for subtlety — she was easy to miss in a crowd.

Her lips curved into a small smile after her eyes did a quick scan of the place, and of Bucky. "I believe you are the friend of a friend?" She spoke with a slight Spanish accent.

Hispanic. Tall. Seemingly fit. Bucky was observing and drawing conclusions in case this went south and he had to fight her. He wasn't nervous about fighting her, only the attention that it would draw.

The woman didn't wait for his response. She seemed to expect his silence. "Where is Chloe?" She asked, eyes scanning the area again.

Bucky knew this was his moment. She would either agree to help him for the reasons he left Chloe behind or she would turn around and walk away. "She's...I had to leave her..." he said. The woman's eyebrows raised.

"You left Chloe?" the woman said, surprised, then studied him again. "For what reason?"

"Do you know who I am?"

She smiled again. "A man of your caliber is hard to forget, especially when the news and history in general have talked about you since forever. You have been a popular story, Sargeant Barnes."

Bucky tried not to flinch at the name — his name.

The woman noticed it. She straightened up and walked a few steps towards Bucky. "You know, I was not born in this country but I still went to school here and I learned all about your history. Chloe told me the truth...all of it."

Bucky blinked in surprise; Chloe had not told him that. They had agreed to keep his presence a complete secret until it was time to flee.

"Don't think of her a traitor," said the woman, as if she had read his thoughts. "Chloe and I have been friends for a very long time now. She knows that with my work, I need honesty and she knows that I would never divulge her secrets, no matter how complicated they are. You are a man who has lost a lot and you have no idea how much I can empathize with that. So if you left Chloe, and you are telling me this straight to my face, then I can only presume that you did it for a good reason. I know all about Chloe's situation, I've known for a long time, so your reason doesn't have to be explained to me."

"You trust me just like that?" Bucky eyed the woman who was holding herself with much more composure than Chloe, and even Seren Soul for that matter. This woman bore her own experiences that Bucky could just tell weren't all that great. It could have hardened her. He could empathize with that as well.

"I trust Chloe, and I trust everything that she told me." With that, the woman held a hand out to Bucky, expecting him to shake it. "My name is Citlalli Del Rio. I'm a CIA agent but first and foremost, I am someone who helps those in need, no matter their situation."

Bucky slowly extended his flesh hand to shake with Citlalli.

"It is good to meet you," she said, taking back her hand and bringing them both behind her back. "Now, I will work with you but I demand transparency. The network I work in demands that and truthfully I myself would prefer to know who I am putting into our community."

"Community? Network?" said Bucky, completely lost.

There was something about Citlalli's smile that gave Bucky a sense of unusual security. It was like what she was offering — transparency. No secrets.

"The network is very large and it extends beyond your belief, including to old fashioned underground railroads. It is how you will be escaping. The people you will meet after me are people who you can trust to get you to the next point. So, tell me, where is it you would like to go? And should Chloe ask, are there any words you want me to tell her?"

Bucky was dead silent, something Citlalli had no qualms about. In the end, he nodded.

A/N:

To be continued in...Therefore I am listed under my profile!. The story will feature the Ultron plot!

And when I said I would update in the weekend, I totally meant like a week and a half later of course...whoops!

P.S. As always, I have an AO3/Wattpad account under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)

I like to add a few little facts as a 'behind the scenes' things every time I wrap up a fic so here's a few:

1. Truthfully, I had intended on keeping Seren & Steve broken up in the previous story and so then I would have kept in the small Sharon/Steve moments for jealousy bits lmao

2. And then, because obviously I live for the drama, I originally had Seren and Steve breaking up at the end of this fic because Steve would be focusing his entire time on finding Bucky...but I felt guilty and kept them together lmao. I love them, I really do.

3. Chloe was originally going to meet her mom (who Seren was going to bring back from Malibu) but I ultimately went against it thinking it would just overwhelm Chloe and lead to all chaos lmao. I switched it instead to the next fic where it's more fleshed out.

4. Seren's and Atria's relationship wasn't going to be that destroyed here but I thought that Seren deserved a moment to finally snap and just decide to take care of herself over maintaining familial relationships.

5. Seren wasn't going to spend so much time with her parents in the fic but writing out the first chapter where she went back home, I felt like that was her "healing period" which would genuinely last more than just a day or two.

6. This is the last fic with just Seren and Chloe as OCs, as the next fic I start to weave in some Black Panther seeds for my OC Citlalli (which yall just officially met;)). An extra fun fact, she's the oldest out of the three OCs!