The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 66

Wakanda

Spring 2016

To say the mood between Nadine and Nina was subdued as they made their way back to the quarters they'd been given was easily an understatement. Barnes had been successfully frozen and was now waiting—resting, even, Nadine thought almost whimsically—peacefully as he waited for Shuri to complete her preparations to begin working on removing his programming.

Still, it felt like little consolation. He was still frozen.

That he'd at least had a few moments to reunite with his Iris was a small comfort, Nadine supposed, but part of her was still disappointed that Barnes had still opted to go along with the procedure even after Iris' arrival. The image of the younger woman standing, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, in front of Barnes' cryopod, unwilling to leave him just yet, just...watching, stuck in her mind. She'd hoped...

Ultimately, they'd all known the instant he'd told them about Shuri's recommendation that he was going to take it. It made too much sense. That his being in the state of suspended animation cryogenics offered would make what Shuri needed to do safer for him and easier for her—thus increasing the chances that it would work as they all hoped—made it all but necessary.

What wasn't necessary was him going under immediately. Not so far as Nadine was concerned. Who knew how long it would take Shuri to get her preliminary work and preparations in order so she could start on Barnes? Surely, he could've remained awake until she was actually ready to start working on him, right?

Nadine swallowed back a heavy sigh. But at the same time...she did understand. Mostly. She could somewhat understand his reasoning, that he genuinely believed it better—safer—for everyone if he was frozen.

To reduce the chance—minimal though it was, part of her argued, now that he had been offered sanctuary in Wakanda—that his programming could hurt anyone else.

Especially the people he cared about most.

Steve. Iris.

Nina.

Next to Nadine, Nina pressed against her side, her arms hugged tight around her middle as though trying to alleviate the ache there Nadine suspected she felt over watching Barnes getting put under.

She admittedly felt something similar.

It had been...peaceful. But that didn't stop how unsettling it had been. Not knowing or at least suspecting as they all did what sorts of horrible memories Barnes held of being frozen in the past. He'd never explicitly said what the experience had been like in the past, but Nadine had read between the lines. The way his features had grown guarded and nearly blank any time it had come up, his eyes haunted and almost painfully bright in his pale, drawn face as his lips pressed together, echoing the tension that had stiffened his frame? Not to mention what Nadine knew of his treatment by his handlers when he was awake...

It was easy enough to infer that it had been pure torture.

Nadine suppressed a shudder at the thought, a prickle of sensory recall skittering beneath her skin and deep into her muscles like the ghosts of a hundred thousand fire-tipped needles that sunk all the way down to the bone, radiating outward through her veins from her left hand where, for a split-second, she could almost feel the IVs from years before.

So yes. She could easily imagine the sorts of torments he'd endured.

"He is going to wake up, right?" Nina's soft, wavering question broke Nadine free from her own melancholic thoughts with a sharp snap. Arranging her features in a reassuring smile she didn't quite feel right in that moment, she squeezed Nina's shoulders gently.