Let Me Go (Book Four)

Epilogue

William Alexander Barnes

I had two brothers. Twins.

I had a father. The Winter Soldier.

I had a mother. Her name was Lark.

My mother became sick after she had my brothers, very sick. It was the Aether that was inside of her body, I was later told. Something about her body no longer being able to properly contain it despite the numerous visits for treatments. She was expected to pull through, everyone thought she was going to make it.

My father was devastated the moment she died, they were together for a solid seven years before her death. I was only six. My brothers, three. I'd never seen him so distressed and heart broken before. I don't think anyone had.

Her funeral was small and quiet and there were people there that I hardly knew. I knew Nick Fury, Steve, Natasha and Banner. But not Thor, Clint or Hill. My aunt and uncle were there. Somehow Fury got them both out of prison to attend the burial.

My father never let us out of his sight afterwards, he kept telling us that it was because he loved us all so much and wanted to make sure we were safe. It wasn't until I was older that I understood why. My mother had impacted the world, everyone knew who she was and what she had done. They all knew her struggle to fight with millions against Hydra, they knew that she was strong and they knew all the pain she endured. Most of all, they recognized her as the soul survivor of Alexander Treadwatter, the man who would be my grandfather.

Now, looking back on everything my family had done, on what they world had done, I understood my purpose. My father and mother were both leaders, people looked to them for help. How they survived the fall of SHIELD and the rise of Hydra was beyond me, how I somehow came from it was another story altogether. 

My family told us all stories of my mother. How she pursued my father despite his reputation, how she'd tried so hard to set things right between everyone. Uncle Fury would tell my brothers and I stories of when she was our age running around the helicarriers and bossing him around. She met so many people, affected so many lives and changed the course of history. It wouldn't surprise me if one day, when everything was calm again, she'd turn up in the history books.