Command • T'Challa

Lost: part 1

(you guys, I'm sorry that this is so short and it's kinda a cliffhanger. Huge bombshell will be dropped tomorrow night for a gigantic update. Hang tight, like poor T'Challa is trying to. PS- I got to meet Sebastian Stan+ Anthony Mackie at Wizard World last Sunday. Both guys are incredibly sweet & huggable, but hot damn, Sebby is so tall. I also saw Chris Hemsworth & Chris Evans for like 6.5 seconds. Side note- they were sold out of T'Challa Funko figures, much to my dismay. When will Chadwick Boseman ever do Wizard World? *sighs longingly* I swear I'd wear a princess crown for pictures if he did. I LOVE YOU ALL!!! xo, xo)

..............

I remembered nothing when I awoke. Barnes had been there- but now I was being held in some kind of cell.

No one had bothered to restrain my hands.

I was aware of someone else's presence- two forms of presence, actually, but one was stronger than the other.

There was a door behind me with a small window, and I could see T'Challa's tall frame, as he peered anxiously in, looking at me now that I was awake.

I wondered how awful I looked, and what kind of damage I had inflicted in my incapacitated state- or rather, the alter ego that apparently existed on the other side of me, kind of, I guess, like the Winter Soldier.

The connection had been broken, I guessed- that's why I went nuts. Only God probably knew where Barnes was now, if he wasn't detained near me- and I could use some divine help right now.

Help with the massive headache, and the overwhelming sadness I felt. Longing, I guess. Something that was so far within me that I hardly knew it was there.

Maybe Barnes was near me, I thought. Maybe I could hope beyond hope-

Wait, why did I care so much? What was it about him that drew me in like a magnet- and no, it wasn't his looks or the idea of fixing him, it was something else, something deeper.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. No use.

Then I heard a voice.

"You were out for a while, Miss Alburn." a nasally male voice said. I knew that voice- Joseph Stevenson, SHIELD-HYDRA agent, sometimes my gatekeeper- the agent who assisted in my training, what little I remember of the actual training. He was short, freckled, and light-haired. Not like his race or skin color really meant anything, it was just that he looked like he spent his days keeping his skinny body behind a desk, out of the sunlight, not someone who should've been screaming at me to climb faster, pull more, blah, blah, blah.

He was an asshole, to put it politely. I dimly remembered how hard he pushed me in my training exercises, his shouting, his cursing, his belittling. I remembered that I hated him, that was for damn sure. Now his piercing grey eyes were boring holes into me from the other side of the glass that separated us. Apparently he'd been given a way to communicate with me.

Screw him.

"Did you have a pleasant nap after that little escapade with the Winter Soldier? You went into operative mode when the connection was severed by a certain interfering party." he gestured towards the door, where T'Challa still stood behind, still looking.

T'Challa had caused the break in connection? Didn't he read my file well enough to know never to do that?

"He didn't want you to get hurt by Barnes, I guess. Ah, young love." he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. I balled my hands into fists.

"Oh yeah, what of it?" I asked.

"You don't know, do you?" he countered. "You really don't remember a single damn thing, do you?"