Madripoor
February 2017 - Wakanda
Things were going well. She had a peaceful time, lying in the fields, looking out at the forest, helping Bucky around, reading at the cottage or outside. It was all okay. She’d contemplate about the things going on in her life, who she is, and how she fits into the world.
She loved being here, in Wakanda. It was her safe haven, her home. Everything was simpler, easier, soothing. Always being by his side made her extremely happy.
Sometimes, she’d put on her cuffed shorts, tuck in her shirts, not bothering to put on flip flops; and she’d wander into the fields. It was always peaceful there. Like an old memory. She’d sit on the uncomfortable walking trails and wait, patiently, dipping her hand into the stream, listening to the sounds of the birds and the wind rustling through the leaves. No one ever bothered her here, no one except Bucky. That was the way she liked it.
She took her current book with her and went to sit under a tree. She could spend her whole days reading under this huge and majestic tree, bringing her all the shade she needed to escape the heat. The best part of her day was when Bucky came to join her under that tree, sitting next to her and hanging out with her.
She pointed her finger to a flower “You see the butterfly over there ?”
His chin rested on his hand, leaning on his knee, his back to the tree, the same position he was in since he joined her there. His frown deepened, “Clearly my eyes are on you only. So no, I have not seen the butterfly somewhere.”
“I will name her Gina.”
“What if it's a he ?” She smiled sweetly, “Butterflies are too pretty to be males.”
“It can be.” He leaned closer to her face. She thought about it for a second, “Then it's George.”
“Why are you naming an insect?”
“It's a butterfly.”
“Just because it's pretty doesn't mean it's not what it is. You've been complaining about flies since we got here.. You never named a fly.”
“I apologize for my biased preference on insects.” She shut her book tight, “Why are you angry at me?”
“Why are you assuming I'm angry at you Snowflake ?”
“You have been staring at me for the last 15 minutes.”
“20. That is how long you have abducted me for.”
“I asked you nicely to give me company.” She reopened her book, ignoring his pretty eyes.
“I have been cursed by a stray witch to not be able to refuse an ask for a week, you took advantage of it knowing full well I have other plans.”
“Sleeping is not a plan, Bucky.” She tapped on his hand sweetly and returned to read the story of the witch who fell for a grumpy wolf.
At some point, she’d get uncomfortable from sitting on those hard wooden logs, and they’d return to the cottage.
Those were the old days, when she didn’t have to worry, when she felt good, when she always had company, when she never felt alone. The days where, even though she felt love for everything around her, the only thing she could feel for herself was hate. And this hatred diminished more and more as the time she spent with Bucky grew.
That cottage was her home, the place she felt safe– kind of in the way one might find peace during a plane crash.
The place where love and peace were everywhere.
A memory that is so strong she can relay it effortlessly for the world to see, and yet so distant it makes her wonder if it was all a dream after all.
Present time - Plane to Madripoor
She had to re-read the paragraph at least twice before being able to focus on her book again. Thinking of the moment of peace and happiness she felt when she was in Wakanda alongside Bucky 7 years earlier warmed her heart. It had been a long time since she had felt such emotions. She hadn't even paid attention to Zemo who had sat across from her, Bucky and Sam face to face on the row next to hers.
Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. Everyone except Zemo who kept staring at her. If looks could have a sensation, she would have felt his eyes burning on her face from the amount of time he spent staring at her.
She looked up from her book to look in turn at Zemo. She closed her book and put it on the table in front of her, directing her gaze towards the porthole, watching the clouds and the sky turning orange as the sun went down, slowly giving way to night.
“I can feel you starin’ ” she said, breaking the silence but not once looking away from the sky. It seems to have grabbed everyone's attention as she spoke, “if you want to ask a question do it and stop staring.” she said, annoyed. She hated bringing attention to herself, her hair was enough to make people turn their head, she didn’t need to be noticed more.
“Don’t mind me, I was just wondering how a supposed failed experiment could have turned out as remarkable as you are” Zemo answered.
She closed her eyes for a moment, loudly inhaling before turning her head away from the porthole to look at Zemo. Her hands were shaking, she clenched her fists till it turned white.
All the horror she caused during her time at being Hydra’s weapon came to her mind. The cry from the children, the cry from Bucky when he was being tortured echoed in her head as well as a tear slipped down on her face.
Bucky stood up in one motion and grabbed Zemo's neck. His face inches from his, he whispered into his ear, "Don't push it".
“Don’t make me lose control, Zemo. You won’t like it.” Aspen says, warning Zemo. She could have lost control if he carried on like that, freely talking about Hydra as if it was nothing much, as if it wasn’t them who destroyed many lives amongst Bucky’s and hers.
Everyone remained silent for the rest of the flight, minding their own business. Aspen’s gaze went back looking at the sky whereas Bucky seemed to stay focused on her without being noticed by Sam who took a nap or Zemo. When looking at her, he only noticed how she always looked sad and defeated. He kept wondering if she was feeling the same guilt as he was, if she was getting the help she needed as he was, and lastly, if all her feelings for him were ever real or if they were there just because she, as well as him, was broken. A broken mind doing irrational things. He knew it all too well.
Yet the only thing he thought was true was her love for him. The only thing that kept him grounded. Alive. Connected to reality and not lost into the depth of his mind.
They were landing at Madripoor, an island in the Indonesian archipelago, to find a mid-level criminal named Selby. Madripoor was a lawless place, and they couldn’t walk in as themselves. Unfortunately for Bucky and Aspen, they were going to have to channel the part of themselves they abandoned – the Winter Soldier and the Winter Witch.
“Are you kidding me ?” She hates it. Her old clothes from Hydra. She had no idea where Zemo found them, she never thought that one day she would have to wear them again. Besides the fact that those clothes represented all the horrible things she had done in the past.
It was a complete black jumpsuit with small details of blue, revealing her chest well accompanied by black combat boots, very uncomfortable.
She must have hated it at least as much as Bucky, who was forced to wear one of his old leather suits as well. Once they had put on their old clothes and stepped out of the plane, looking up, Bucky noticed that Aspen, although dressed in her old Hydra clothes, was wearing makeup to highlight her delicate and beautiful features. Despite her scars and her mid-length hair, the latter was more than ever magnificent and radiant.
Aspen and Bucky looked at each other. Looking at the other was triggering for both of them.
Bucky was surprised at how easy it has been to become the Winter Soldier again. Even if he overcame most of his trauma, the soldier was still here, it was still a part of him. It will always be a part of him.
“You alright ?” Bucky asked Aspen with a soft voice. She lifted her head to meet his gaze. She always felt so small next to him. But something didn’t feel right, something in her gut was telling her something was off, “I don’t know… It’s disturbing to become her again.”
“Yeah. I know. I feel it too”
Instinctively, she grabbed his hand and squeezed it, it was her link with reality, reminding her that it was no longer the past but the present and that it was just for one night.
“No matter what happens we have to stay in character”
The whole country looked like one big nightclub, Bucky and her had already spotted more than a dozen armed people, money exchanges under the cloak, suspicious looks, drugs.
After walking for a while they entered a bar. The boys went to get a drink whereas Aspen walked around the bar, taking in every potential threat, an old habit she owed to Hydra.
They were all connected to each other through coms, and could hear what everyone was saying.
“Every kingdom needs its king. In Madripoor, he is judge, jury and executioner.”
In every square meter there were drunk people and armed ones. As she walked past people, she had eyes on the men at the bar, “Potential threat incoming” she warned, while continuing to walk around like a predator watching for his prey. She hated how easy it was to fall back into character, becoming her again. This evil version of herself. She could feel eyes on her and she hated it too.
No one was really prepared for Zemo to order Bucky to attack the men who approached them. One after another they tried to stop Bucky. None succeeded and all ended up on the ground in pain.
Her breathing was jerky, uncertain but rapid. It all sounded way too much like the past she desperately tried to drown and forget. Her hands kept shaking, she was scared. Afraid that something will happen. Fear for Bucky. Fear for Sam, and fear for herself. She didn't want it to end like the last battle she had fought in. She didn't want to lose anyone, much less have to bury another loved one. She had already lost enough.
If only she was away from it all, if only she was home. But what about Bucky ? Or Sam ? What about the Flagsmashers and the unknown who released the serums ? What about all that ? What would happen if she wasn't there ?
Too many questions swirled around in her head with no possible answer. She felt the panic attack rising in her, yet her eyes never left Bucky, she watched him. She tried to calm herself down, to calm her breathing, to count between each breath, her right hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat trying to slow down, in vain. Her breathing was getting louder and louder, and louder and louder.
“Stay in character or the who-”, she didn't even bother to listen to what Zemo had to say anymore. His presence was too disturbing, everything around her was. She ripped the communicator from her ear and put it in her pocket. Zemo's words made Bucky's head turn in her direction. His eyes fell on her.
She was completely out of it and he was doing his best to resist the urge to go up there and hug her. To tell her that everything was fine, that everything would be fine. That she had nothing to be afraid of, that he was there and that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. But he did nothing. He stayed in his Winter Soldier persona and continued to play the good little soldier.
She tried to remember the fields, the feel of the yellow grass under her bare feet. The feel of the pages of her book under her fingers, of Bucky's hair tickling her shoulder as his head rested on her shoulder, of having his hand in hers when they walked home. From the powerful sun that shone endlessly to the breeze that she could feel when she was near the turquoise waters of Wakanda. All her feelings she had from there, so pleasant, soothing and peaceful. If only she could go back to that time, when everything was simpler, when there was never anyone to bother her, when it was just her and Bucky and no one else.
Just thinking about it calmed her down enough to come to her senses, to take a deep breath, and reconnect to reality.
She immediately noticed Bucky's worried gaze on her. Their eyes met and didn't leave until she gave him a slight nod to indicate that she was fine, or at least better than a few moments ago.
In no time the boys were invited to follow a man who was supposed to take them to see Selby while she maintained her position until she herself was forced to join them.
Just then, Aspen heard whispers around them.
“Wouldn't that be the Winter Soldier and Witch ?”
“Weren't they part of Hydra or something like that ?”
“Look at all these scars…”
Just then, a woman, who was certainly Selby, interrupted everyone in the room with a firm tone : “You should know, Baron. People just don’t come into my bar and make demands.”
“Not a demand. An offer… Tell us what you know about the super-soldier serum. And I give you them, along with the code words to control them, of course. They will do anything you want." He said while pointing at Bucky and Aspen.
zhelaniye [longing],
sorok chetyre [forty four],
kholodnyy [cold],
zima [winter],
led [ice],
Devyat [nine],
deti [children],
odinokiy [lonely],
unikal'nyy [unique],
neudachnyy eksperiment [failed experiment]
Were the words that used to control her, which came to her mind.
In shock, Aspen looked up at Bucky. She couldn't believe the words that had just come out of Zemo's mouth.
Bucky looked at Zemo so icy at that precise moment that if the looks were capable of killing, the latter would have already passed from life to death.
“The super-soldier serum is here in Madripoor. Dr. Wilfred Nagel is the man you wanna thank. Or... condemn, depending on what side of this you're on. The Power Broker had him working on the serum, but... things didn't go as planned.”
Before they can barter further, Sam gets a call from his sister Sarah, and an already-suspicious Selby insists he answer it on speaker. Sam steers the conversation with Sarah well enough, suggesting that their situation with the ‘bank’ had to do with money laundering, but when one of her kids in the background cries out for Cheerios, well, the jig is up. But before Selby can have her men put Sam down, a bullet from somewhere zings by and kills her.
“They’re gonna pin this on us.”
As Aspen stands frozen in place at the sight of blood, Sam and Zemo scramble and run off. Bucky grabs Aspen's hand, dragging her away from the repercussions; seeing as a bounty was instantly placed on their heads for Selby’s murder.
Once outside, Zemo and Sam ran into the person who shot Selby — Sharon Carter, the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent whereas Bucky and Aspen had people on their tail while they ran across the roofs; she didn't realize how dead she felt to the world until this moment.
She turned around to take a look at them, and then prepared to jump for the next building.
That's when she missed.
"BUCKY!"
He turned around and gasped. Without a moment of hesitation, he grabbed her hands from the edge she was barely gripping, and pulled her up. Her coms, who was previously in her pocket, had fallen to the streets below, a chilling reminder of what could have happened to her.
He pulled her up, reassuring her it'll be okay. As soon as she was safe, he grabbed her hand and dragged her behind him as they continued running.
After spending some more time running through the streets and alleyways, they were now walking, trying not to raise any suspicion. The goal was not to get noticed, otherwise Aspen would have used her powers to stop them a long time ago.
“Sharon found Sam and Zemo, she should help us and will put us up for the night, Sam sent me the address. You okay Snowflake ?”
Catching her breath, Aspen nodded and before they could say more, they were interrupted.
“They’re here !”
Bucky grabbed her hand again and began guiding her away from the gunmen as Aspen pulled her hand away from him, turned in one motion and lifted both hands in front of her, letting ice escape from her hands. She pushed back the armed men who fell to the ground then she erected a large wall of ice, which bought them time to reach the address that Sam had communicated to them.
As they both set foot inside their hideout they heard Sam and Sharon talking together. Sharon was clearly bitter about having to live off the grid, now in Madripoor, ever since the events of the Accords.
“You help us out, and I get your name cleared.”