Warnings: Some angst, mention of blood and torture.

Italic = flashback

'internal thoughts'

The moment T'Challa got the call from Steve he knew things had gotten much more complicated. He sighed heavily as he brought his hand to his eyes, rubbing them. He knew the moment he had offered to help Barnes that Steve would inevitably bring his troubles back to him, whether he meant to or not. T'Challa knew that Steve just couldn't stand by and watch things go bad without trying to help. And as much as Steve would like to think it sometimes, he couldn't do it all on his own. Especially since the man did not have a single self-preservation instinct in his body. Not a great combination. The reckless and lovable super soldier needed someone to have his back, and T'Challa was glad that he had the Black Widow, the Falcon, and the Scarlet Witch with him. Although he suspected that it probably took all three of them to do what one man used to do alone. The more T'Challa got to know Steve, the more he appreciated Barnes. Barnes had been around since childhood, and that spoke volumes on the man's character. It took a certain kind of man to willingly follow, and then pull Steve Rogers out of whatever situation he got himself into. T'Challa could only imagine the effort it took to keep Steve alive and in one piece over the years, and especially during a world war. As evidenced by the fact that Steve flew a plane into the ice just days after losing Barnes. Now flying the plane into the ice might have been inevitable, but he was sure that if Barnes had been there, things would have played out very differently. That being said, there was no hesitation in his mind as to whether or not to extend his help to Steve once more. But he was quickly realising that being Steve Rogers friend and also a king did tend to give him headaches. And he felt a particularly strong one coming on now. Rubbing his eyes once more, he sighed before going on to make sure things would be ready for Steve's arrival. Making a mental note to go see Barnes and ask him how he'd done it for all those years.

T'Challa ran through the list of who and what would be needed in his head. Thankfully the number of people that needed to know was small, and until he knew more, this needed to stay a need-to-know only operation. Which simplified things for him somewhat. But every time T'Challa extended his help to, well anyone really, there were questions and doubts as to whether it was the right course of action for Wakanda. T'Challa was steering the small country into uncharted territory as they entered the wider world. Which in and of itself made the more conservative voices in his kingdom very nervous. And add the recent events with Killmonger... Well lets just say that things had been pretty shaken up in the little kingdom as of late, and cracks had emerged. But despite all that, the people were behind T'Challa and had great faith in the man. Despite their individual reservations, they knew their king was a good man, and at the end of the day you wanted a good man at the helm.

Nonetheless, the circle of people who needed to know about this was small, and he was going to keep it that way for now. This wasn't a democracy, he was king, and he was going to do what he thought was right. And hopefully when everything was said and done, that would be enough.

The quinjet arrived early the next morning.

T'Challa, Okoye and the Dora Milaje, joined Shuri and her small team on the landing platform as the quinjet began it's landing sequence.

"Brother." Shuri greeted as T'Challa got closer.

"Shuri. Are things ready for our guest?" He inquired as way of greeting his sister.

Shuri just rolled her eyes, of course things were ready. T'Challa just smirked, he did enjoy irritating his little sister.

Okoye just shook her head, 'Children' she thought 'I'm surrounded by children'. Her attention was drawn back to the quinjet as it touched down and started powering down. She was not happy about this, not in the slightest. In her opinion, her king was taking too great a risk here. Yes T'Challa had "revealed" Wakanda to the world, but if they found out just how much they had skirted around the Accords... Well that would bring the whole world to their doorstep, and that... well that gave her a migraine just thinking about it.

The ramp came down and Steve walked out first, followed by the others who couldn't stop gawking at the place. Steve's demeanor was a stark contrast to that of his companions, and Okoye noticed that he looked worn thin. Steve gave them what she could only describe as a relieved smile at seeing them there waiting for him. It reminded her of the smiles tired soldiers gave when they finally returned home from a long tour of duty, after having seen too much, done too much. Okoye took a closer look at the super soldier, and noticed the new shadows dancing in his blue eyes, and that he was having difficulty hiding them. Despite the security risk Steve represented to Wakanda, she worried for the man. She, like him, was a warrior, and she wondered how long could a soldier keep fighting a war before he never came back home.

As Steve approached, T'Challa noticed the wariness in Steve's eyes and demeanor. Yes, he had made the right choice in extending his help to Steve once more. He just wished this time Steve would stay a little longer in the kingdom and rest a little. There was only so much a man, super soldier or not, could take. There would always be another fight, another war. If Steve wanted to keep going, he needed to rest and replenish, let someone else carry the weight of the world for a little bit.

T'Challa worried for his new friend.

Steve stopped in front of T'Challa and extended his hand.

"Thank you for this, I owe you." Steve said, truly grateful, trying to convey this to the man in front of him. He knew full well that T'Challa could of, should of, said no. He was really asking for a lot here.

"I know, I'm keeping a list." T'Challa answered with a sly smile, taking the man's hand and shaking it.

The slight jab did the trick and Steve smirked, nodding his head, as the handshake ended. He was about to turn around and introduce his companions when Shuri came bouncing forward, obviously both impatient and excited.

"Well? Where is it?" She asked Steve.

Steve looked at T'Challa who just smirked a smile that said 'this is all you my friend'.

"Princess Shuri." Steve greeted with a small head bow.

"Well?" Shuri replied, obviously she had no patience for formalities right now, she had an exciting new problem that awaited her and the man in front of her was slowing things down.

"It's this way." Steve said as he motioned towards the quinjet, only to be practically pushed aside as Shuri impatiently passed by. "Now it's not in the greatest of shapes." Steve yelled, but Shuri was already halfway up the ramp and not listening to him anymore.

Steve looked back slightly confused and worried at T'Challa who was trying not to smile. He was used to his sister's antics, Steve still wasn't.

Steve headed back towards the quinjet. He trusted Shuri, don't get him wrong, but this was important cargo and her carefree behaviour made him very apprehensive. He relaxed somewhat when he heard Shuri's comments coming from inside of the jet.

The moment Shuri had stepped into the quinjet, she immediately began deploring the state of the cryopod and the makeshift power supply Tony had built. Saying something about incompetent colonisers, and how she always had to fix their mistakes. Making the others, who had stayed at the foot of the ramp until called on, smirk.

"I like her" Wanda said smiling, echoing the feelings of Sam and Nat.

Steve came up the ramp and joined Shuri in the cargo bay. She was about to say something snarky to the man, but when she turned around to face him she saw the worried expression on his face. It was the same expression he had on his face when Barnes had gone back under, except this time he was doing an even poorer job at hiding it. Shuri internally kicked herself for not having picked up on Steve's mood sooner. This was very important to him and she had let her excitement get the better of her. She had been very tactless, making it seem like this was nothing more than a science project and that there wasn't a person's life at stake here. Which couldn't be farther from the truth. Shuri knew exactly what was at stake, and she wanted nothing more than to help this poor soul in anyway she could. She reassured Steve that the pod and its occupant were in good hands, and that she was going to take good care of her. Steve just nodded a little unconvinced, but grateful nonetheless. Shuri took that as her cue and called out for her team.

It didn't take them long to stabilise the cryopod and take it off the quinjet, taking it to the medical centre where they would be met by the medical team. Once there, they would be able to get a more detailed scan of its occupant's current state, and whether or not is was even safe to "thaw her out".

As they headed towards the medical centre, Steve recognised rather quickly where they were going, it was the same room they had kept and treated Bucky. Under his watchful eye, the pod was placed in the middle of the room, and screens were brought around it as Shuri and the medical team began their work.

Doctor Mbote and his team worked at their various screens as their equipment scanned the pod. Steve stood in front of the cryopod, looking at the sleeping face through the mist. He noticed that the mist wasn't as opaque as it had been at the HYDRA base, that it seemed to be clearing up, and he could start to make out actual facial features. No… his heart started racing, it couldn't be… but FRIDAY had said… how...

Doctor Mbote worked on his medical tablet trying to make sense of the readings he was seeing. He finally turned away from the cryopod towards T'Challa, taking Steve's attention with him.

"Based on these preliminary results, she is in practically excellent health." Doctor Mbote told T'Challa, confusion clear on his face and in his voice. It didn't make sense.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Steve cut in, as he turned away from the cryopod to face the Doctor.

"Yes," Mbote answered side glancing at Steve before continuing with an explanation.

"Then what is the problem Doctor." T'Challa asked.

"I would be expecting evidence of severe malnutrition, vitamin D deficiency, extreme stress, and serious injuries in varying stages of healing. Especially in someone that was held captive by HYDRA for nearly 2 years.

"2 years?!" Steve breathed, as he turned away racking a hand over his face.

"But it seemed that there was an effort to keep her in good health. There is evidence that she was tortured at some point, but those injuries were treated and have healed." Doctor Mbote continued.

"2 years. Are you sure?" Steve asked still in disbelief.

"We are." Shuri said to Steve as she gently touched his arm, trying to convey her sympathies.

"The only reason HYDRA would have kept her in good health was to perform experiments on her." T'Challa said as he walked to the cryopod, looking at the sleeping woman. Whatever Shuri had done to stabilise it was clearing up the mist, allowing them to see the occupant more clearly. A testament to how bad the condition of the pod had been in. Tony might have been off on his estimate of how long the pod still had before it failed completely.

"I agree, but until she is woken up I cannot perform anymore tests and assessments. And at this time I do not see any issues with waking her up." Mbote continued.

"Shuri?" T'Challa asked as he turned away from the pod to face his sister.

"I will need at least a couple of hours to do my scans brother." Shuri added.

The woman in the pod had been in HYDRA hands, and therefore there were a few more scans and tests that needed to be done before they would feel comfortable waking her up.

T'Challa decided that regardless of his sister's timeframe, and Steve's anxious impatience, there were still things that needed to be done. For one, they needed Tony to arrive and give Natasha enough time to go through Bolshov's journal. Then they needed to get together, compare what they knew against what Shuri had found, then go from there. Who was she? Why was she taken? What was done to her? Hopefully those questions would be answered before they woke her up. T'Challa was trying to minimize any surprises once they woke her up, and Steve, despite his feelings about it, understood and agreed with the king's decision. He needed to be logical about this. There were so many questions, but they needed to do this right.

To stop himself from pacing a whole into the floor, Steve decided this was as good a time as any to go see Bucky and give him the trunk he'd gotten from Tony. Bucky... God, what was he going to tell Bucky? 'Nothing.' Your voice popped into his head, startling Steve. He usually heard Peggy's or Bucky's voice when he was at a loss as to what to do, but it made sense he would conjure you up when it came to Bucky. Especially now. And just like that there you were, standing in front of him surrounded by a snowy forest. Your hair in a messy braid, your face covered in a fine layer of dirt, your nose and cheeks a rosy red form the chill in the air. Your knuckles and fingernails encrusted with dry blood and dirt as you pulled your collar up trying to keep warm. 'You're not going to tell him anything, because you don't know anything yet, and what you do know you're not even sure of.' Steve blinked the tears back at the memory of you, and everything else it brought up with it. You were right though, Bucky had gone through too much to put him through the hell Steve was currently going though because of the hopes that had sprung amidst the void of information. He couldn't give Bucky that hope only to snatch it away if it turned out he was wrong about the whole thing. And if he was right, well Bucky would understand.

As he headed to the quinjet to retrieve the trunk, he passed Nat sitting in a corner going through Bolshov's journal. Steve wasn't sure what to make of the expression of Nat's face, which caused him to stop and walk towards her.

"Nat?"

Nat looked up from the worn out pages, as Steve leaned on the wall beside her. She had been so engrossed in the pages she hadn't picked up on Steve's presence until he was leaning on the wall.

"I'm almost sure Bolshov killed the soldiers and scientists. I'm just not sure why yet." She said, obviously confused. The more she was reading, the less things were making sense. The man she was reading about was not the man she had known.

"Strange for a company man." Steve wondered aloud.

"This whole thing is strange Steve." Nat pointed out.

"True." He conceded.

This whole thing was very strange indeed.

Leave it to Shuri to change the plan. When Steve had returned from visiting Bucky he headed directly to the medical centre and the room where Shuri had set up the cryo pod. The others had congregated nearby while they waited for Tony to arrive, which shouldn't be too long now. Nat was sitting in a corner still reading Bolshov's journal, while Sam and Wanda were talking as they looked out a big window at the city below. Steve could hear T'Challa and Shuri arguing, and as he continued down the hall and came to the room he saw why. Instead of having a cryo pod in the middle of the room, there was a bed with a woman laying on it. Shuri had pulled her out of cryo to make her life easier as she went about doing her stuff.

"I am keeping her sedated brother!" Shuri defended.

"That is not the point Shuri!" T'Challa said, exasperation in his voice.

"The pod was interfering with my assessments! There was no other way." She said attempting to justify her actions.

"That is not my issue here Shuri, you should of told me before you took her out." Trying to get through to his sister that he understood operational needs and whatnot, he just wanted to be told first, was it too much to ask?

"I am sorry brother." Shuri said genuinely, as she looked at her feet then back up at her brother. She knew she sometimes got carried away in her work and forgot that her king needed to be kept in the loop.

"Just don't wake her up until I tell you please." T'Challa asked bringing his hands together pleadingly.

Shuri nodded and went back to her screens.

"I mean it Shuri!" T'Challa warned, pointing a finger in her direction.

"I won't!" Shuri replied her arms up in surrender.

Steve pulled up a chair and sat down beside the bed, making sure to not be in the way of Shuri and the medical staff.

Steve had hoped, but hadn't truly believed, it was you until he had seen you lying there on the bed. Had stood there in front of you, brought his hand to touch yours and felt the warmth radiating from your skin. He squeezed your hand, making sure you were real. Rubbing his thumb on your hand, trying to convey as much comfort into the movement as he could. Steve hadn't really expected a response from you, but was sad nonetheless when he got none.

As he held your hand, Steve couldn't stop himself from being brought back to the war, reliving every moment from when you and Bucky had met, to the news of your death, to when Bucky had fallen from the train. You had been in his life for such a short time, but had managed to carve yourself an irreplaceable place in his heart. You were the love of Bucky's life, and that had made you family. You had been like the big sister Steve had never had, and he had missed you.

'You were right, Y/N, you were right after all.'

Steve had ghosted his fingers over the familiar scars on your arms. But there was one missing. That very distinctive one on your neck was not there. Steve had never really asked you about your scars back during the war. He had been told about what had happened to you with the SS, and like pretty much everyone, had assumed that all the scars were from that incident. You had never said otherwise, so why wouldn't he? Now Steve wondered how many of them you'd gotten from that room. Tony had told him that your DNA was in that room, well presumably yours, they didn't know for sure then that you and subject 142 were the same person. The part of him that wanted you back had hoped you were, and the part of him that understood what had happened in that room hoped you weren't.

Steve looked at you lying there sleeping peacefully, and rubbed a hand over his face. A very large blood stain on the ground flashed in his mind. How had you survived that much blood loss?

They found Nat standing just a few steps into the room, she had found the light switch and had turned it on. Another thing she regretted doing immediately.

Nat didn't acknowledge them as they filed in behind her and took in the room. Everywhere they looked they saw horrors painted in blood. One didn't have to have a vivid imagination to figure out how things had played out, the instruments and chains were still in the room, covered in what one would initially mistake as rust until one's brain caught up on what it was seeing.

Tony was actually the first one to move further into the room as he had FRIDAY scan the bloodstains for possible DNA matches.

"30 distinct profiles, dozens more that are mixed." He finally said. "FRIDAY's searching databases for possible matches."

'God' they all thought as they slowly spread out into the room, looking around at the testaments of suffering that had happened here. They had all seen some horrible things in their time, but none of them had ever seen anything like this before. You could feel the pain and suffering in the air, practically hear the screams. Any reasonable person would have looked away, walked out of that room, but they somehow felt that it was their duty to bear witness. These poor souls deserved to have someone know what had happened to them.

Sam had knelt down in front of a very large bloodstain on the ground near the far wall.

"I don't now if I want this to be more than one person or not." He mumbled as he looked at the large stain on the ground. It was by far the largest stain in the room.

The others turned to see what he was talking about, looking at the stained ground and based on their individual experiences they all came to the same conclusion, and agreed. Wanda bent down beside him, reaching out with one hand as if to touch the stain. The tendrils of her energy danced at her fingertips, as if deciding if she wanted to try or not. Wondered if she could even get an impression of the person or persons that had left this stain. Wondered if she even wanted to.

"Ummm Steve..." Tony said hesitantly. Effectively stopping Wanda in her tracks, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Tony?" Steve asked as he turned to look at the man.

"I hate to be the one to have to tell you this. But that's subject 142's blood. Only 142's. FRIDAY just confirmed the DNA match. It's a match to the missing person's report." Tony stated, watching Steve carefully.

Only one. Was that better or worse than if Tony had said the blood was from multiple people?

'142, could you really have been subject 142?' Steve thought. Until seeing this room Steve was hoping that you were, needed it to be you. But now he wished and hoped that you weren't. That 142 was a doppelgänger, or clone, or whatever. That you had indeed died in the Bois Jacques, and not on this dirty floor, in this cold and damp room, all alone in the basement of a HYDRA base.

But regardless, you were dead, and with that realisation the hopes that Tony had given Steve had died too. It hit him like a ton of bricks. It was like losing you all over again. He was angry at you for the fact that you might have been alive only to die and he hadn't known. Was angry at you that he couldn't bring you back to Bucky. Bucky needed you, needed you more than he needed Steve. Bucky had come along way since his escape from HYDRA, but there was still so much work left to do. And Steve knew that if you were here Bucky would be able to find peace. You would be able to give him that. Steve was also angry that Bucky would lose you all over again if he decided to tell him about all this. He was angry at you that he might have to keep all of this from Bucky. And he was angry at Tony for giving him hope. But most of all, he realised he was still angry at you for lying. You had lied, and for a brief moment he had thought that maybe, just maybe you hadn't. That you had all somehow survived the war. But you hadn't. You had died, you were dead, and nothing was going to change that.

Which then begged the question, who was in the cryopod if not 142?

How had you survived that much blood loss? It was not the first time that question was associated with you. Steve remembered overhearing a random conversation between a few men of Easy Company about the state they had found you in. These were not green soldiers that were discussing the fact that you should of been dead, but well seasoned soldiers that had seen their fare share, had done their fare share.

Which brought Steve back to the early days after he had rescued Bucky, how his bruises and cuts had healed much quicker than they should have. Bucky hadn't talked about what Zola had done to him, not that he would of known what was being injected into his veins, not that he would have talked about it more if he had. Had HYDRA done something similar to you? Had you been a prisoner of HYDRA longer than you had told them?

No. Steve didn't believe that you would have lied about that, especially not to Bucky. Something else was going on.

As Steve sat there he was trying to wrap his head around what Shuri had told them. She had confirmed that subject 142 was indeed you, but not the "you" you would expect. She had told him that the Y/N that he knew from the war was older than the Y/N that was currently lying in front of them.

Shuri had scanned your memories, granted initially looking for trigger words or any hidden HYDRA nonsense, and even though WWII had not happened to you yet, she had found a lot of evidence that supported you were Lt Y/N RN. And combining her analyses with Bucky's memories from WWII, and the information that Tony had sent her, she was 99.99% sure that subject 142, the Lt, and the woman lying there were the same person.

Shuri had concluded that in the next 1 to 3 years you would somehow find yourself back in 1940, in the middle of a war that would ultimately kill you 4 years later. Which, if Shuri was right, raised more questions than it answered. To be honest Steve wasn't entirely sure he understood what Shuri had told him. But he knew the odds of both Shuri and Tony being wrong were astronomical. And regardless of what the science said, he would know if you were really you once he got a chance to speak with you. He just needed to be patient and wait for you to wake up.

Steve brought a hand to his face once more and rubbed it slowly. This whole thing had been strange from the beginning, but time travel? Was that even possible? According to Shuri it was theoretically possible. That's as much of the explanation Steve understood, the science went ten feet over his head. Shuri however had gotten very excited at the realisation that time travel was now in the realm of the possible. Evidenced by the fact that you had, or rather that you would, time travel in the near future. T'Challa had to rein in Shuri as she excitedly began rambling about what it all meant and all the new possibilities, and bring her back on point. Figuring out time travel would have to wait, they had other more pressing concerns that required her attention.

'How would you even do that anyways?' Steve thought. He knew that if anyone could figure it out it would be the princess. And when Tony found out that his suspicions were correct, he would get on that bandwagon too. Oh god! Was that how it happened? Shuri and Tony combined their massive intellects and figured out time travel, and you somehow got sucked into it and thrown back into World War II? Steve had to stop himself. The thought of the two scientists getting together was giving him a migraine. Steve was starting to reconsider having brought Tony in on this. But he knew it was already too late, it had been too late the moment Tony had opened that first HYDRA box from Siberia. Tony would keep pulling on this thread regardless.

Tony and Shuri in the same room... Steve hadn't thought of that until now, he wondered if T'Challa had. Of course T'Challa had. Steve was getting to know the king fairly well, and unlike himself, he wasn't rash, he tended to think things through, consider all the angles, before he acted. Nonetheless, Steve wasn't sure the world was ready for that kind of meeting of the minds, for that kind of runaway scientific excitement that made discoveries that changed the world. And to having to try and rein in that scientific inquiry. Trying to rein in Tony was exhausting enough, he could only imagine if Shuri's enthusiasm was thrown into the mix. The world didn't need another Ultron incident.

Steve decided he would think about it and deal with it later. He didn't have the energy right now to deal with more than one problem at a time, and he needed to figure you out first. Steve sighed heavily. What was he going to tell Bucky? Steve looked at the file folder in his hands. To answer that question, Steve needed more information. He'd been avoiding it, and for the first time since Tony gave him the file, Steve opened it and actually read it.

Project Hercules - Subject #142.

The first page had all your background information, when and where you were born, who your parents were, whether or not you had siblings, your education history, where you lived, where you worked, ect. A full intelligence background on you.

For whatever reason you had been flagged and tagged by HYDRA, and nothing on the first page gave Steve any indication as to why that would be.

One of the monitors beeped briefly, making Steve look up at you in a panic and start to get up, as one of the nurses checked you over and pressed some buttons on the machine that was giving you an IV. Satisfied she turned to acknowledge a very worried Steve with a reassuring smile.

"Nothing to worry about, she was beginning to wake up. It would appear your friend has a slightly higher metabolism than we expected, burns through the medications we are giving her much faster."

Steve relaxed back into his chair and thanked the nurse, as she went back to monitoring the screens and going about doing whatever nurses do when they are taking care of a critical patient.

'Higher than normal metabolism' he'd heard that once or twice before too. But what did it mean for you? He was hoping the answers were in the file in his hands.

Steve flipped to the second page.

Mission Report: January 13th 2012

-Successful retrieval by Asset-

TBC in Ch.4