A/N:Â Hello guys! After the short break to get adjusted to new schools, Iâm back with another chapter of Never Strikes Twice!Â
At the moment I have a lot of free periods with no work to do, so Iâve been trying to churn this out. Recently Iâve been trying to figure out how to progress the plot without having constant drama /and Iâm trying to procrastinate the plot point Iâve got for the end of this fanfic so I can get as much character development and romance W/ Bucky as possible before the big finale (basically i gotta think of like at least two more character arcs)/ so sorry if the upcoming chapters are a little choppy.Â
Also sorry if this chapter reads especially weird, I've been feeling horrible the past couple of weeks and have been constantly feeling really out-of-it atm :(
                   ~ Rachael
That didnât add up in my head. If I was potentially a HYDRA agent, then why did Orion attack me? I didnât feel like I was able to be a terrorist; I was too soft. However, it would explain my memories from when I was fighting him. It began to occur to me that he had been threatening me with a stun gun. One that, since I had electrical powers, would give me a small power boost. Thoughts were slotting into places that I didnât like as I realised how true Steveâs theory might be. Orion may have been sent to retrieve me, and Iâd just betrayed him. G r e a t.
âI guess that would make sense,â I said grimacing, passing the tablet back to Tony, âIf you want to lock me up to keep an eye on me, I wouldnât blame you now, but if you want me, Iâll be in the gym mulling over my thoughts.â
They made no move to stop me as I made my leave. As I reached the stairs I remembered that theyâd been blown apart in places. Hesitating for a moment, I made the probably reckless decision of heading down there anyway. It was as dim as it was before. Lighting up my hands to give me a little more visibility, I began to take the stairs by two. When I reached the gap that I had fallen down I just leapt over it and landed safely on the other side. It didnât take me long to reach the gym, though part way down there I almost tripped over a discarded gun that hadnât been collected. The gym was pitch black, but with a flick of my hand, I hand sent power to the lights.
I returned myself to the treadmill, quickly turning it on and getting back into jogging. The sound of my blood pumping in time with my breaths was soothing and calmed me from the former stress that had been eating away at me. I lost myself in running, gradually speeding up the treadmill until I was at a comfortable but still fairly fast speed. Suddenly everything faded awayâŠ
I found myself running in a field. Next to me, a younger me ran, much more flustered. In her hand was a gun. Every minute or so she blindly aimed behind her and released several shots. I heard a few cries of pain, and thumps as their bodies hit the ground. Risking losing speed with myself, I turned to see who was chasing me. There were half a dozen armed men and women in black racing after me, trying to get a good aim on her. Turning back, I picked up speed to catch up with this poor memory-me. She was losing ground and honestly looked like she could drop there. Nevertheless, she continued to plough through the grasses, careful to keep an eye on her footing. Behind us, the group drew fire. Neither of us took any chances as I felt the air around us electrify. I flinched as bullets flew around us, their paths bent so they didnât hit us. That was close. I had my hopes up as we sprinted across the field when memory-me tripped. Everything began to fade again, and too soon I returned to the present day.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I switched the treadmill off. Honestly, I was dying to know what had happened to me after Iâd tripped, but I knew that I couldnât force my memories to return. After that memory, and after Steveâs theory, the world seemed a hell of a lot darker. There was the glaring notion that Iâd probably killed in the past since I was HYDRA, and probably in cold blood. The thought made my stomach churn.
Ugh.
I glanced at the clock on the wall at the end of the hall. 10:30 PM. When did it become this late? The realisation of the time freed my repressed exhaustion, and the journey to my room was a blur. As much as I was tired I was sweaty, so I stripped in record time and slid into the shower. The warm water soothed my aching muscles as I washed. I had no idea when I had last previously washed, so I was glad to have made up my mind to do so. I had no idea how dirty I was until I saw the water change colour slightly when it ran off me. How grimy did I get from fighting on the stairs?
I was about almost done showering when I heard someone enter my room. Instinctively I dropped into a defensive stance, the water still flowing down my back. The door separating my room and my bathroom was shut, but I hadnât bothered to lock it, so whoever was there could walk in on me at any moment. Carefully stepping out of the shower, though leaving it still running, I snuck over to the towel rack and wrapped a F/C towel around me. Arming myself with a hairbrush and making sure I had a firm grip on my towel, I slowly stalked towards the door. The sounds of movement halted as approached the door. Holding my breath, I pushed the door open.
The intruder was none other than Bucky, sitting on my bed, reading a book.
âWhat are you doing in here?â I quietly screeched, ready to bat him away with the previously mentioned hairbrush. He looked up at me, dog-earing the page he was on.
âI wanted to chat with you.â
âI was showering!â
âAnd now youâre not.â He gestured back towards the bathroom. âYou probably want to turn it off when youâre not using it, though; you wouldnât want to raise the water bill.â
âUgh.â
I overdramatically stomped back and turned the shower off. However, as I was returning to Bucky, I found myself slip on the wet tiles. A scream rocketed from my throat as my head hit the floor and my vision faded to black. I just prayed that towel had stayed around me.
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I really enjoy studying, which is a bizarre revelation to have at 3am right before my first midterm in a subject I haven't studied in four years.
I sort of wish I were a science major sometimes, not merely so I could make the parents proud or fulfill expectations or whatever, but simply because I find the workings and processes of our bodies to be so incredibly fascinating...how great is our God in creating such intricacies that function flawlessly, daily, in order to keep me alive and able to type this? And if my friends thought my appreciation for blisters was weird, I have a newfound love for mucus now. So cool.
But the truth of the matter is that I can't deal with the constant memorizing of everything and that's it. Sad, but my greatest demise. People ask me why I opted to take NST 10 over the summer when I could probably and fairly effortlessly get an A in the school year; a big reason is because I can't handle memorizing in large quantities, yes, but also because (back to my first point) I secretly just wanted to invest time into really learning and understanding the only bio class I will take in my entire college career. Yeah.
Okay though, it's late and I'm tired and I have to wake up earlier than usual in order to ensure that I have enough time to hobble to class on my ankle...and on a totally random note, I will add that P.Ed announcing Gracepoint's switch to the ESV Bible was probably one of the biggest highlights of my day, as weird as that sounds. I love ESV and have been actively struggling against NIV to make it my primary version. Not that NIV is bad, but I really appreciate the strict literal translation of ESV...anyway, it was just really happy news. Finally all my memorizing verses in the "wrong" version will pay off; I'm excited to do deep studies with my roommate, among other people, who is getting her new ESV study this week. It's nice being able to read the same version, since you really do derive different things from different wording. I usually do devotions in two or three translations, but ESV is often overlooked...psyched to see some light being shed on it and for the appreciation to grow.
