You Must Remember This

Chapter 11 - What's buried within

Wakanda, 2016

"Captain Rogers, please do not react. There is something you have to see. Come to my lab at once. Alone."

Steve frowned when he heard Shuri's voice in his earpiece. What had she discovered that she couldn't say over comms? And why couldn't Bucky know about it?

"I'm starting to see stars." Steve pretended to sigh deeply. "I'm gonna take some air. You gonna be okay on your own, Buck?"

But Bucky gave no reaction. He was so engrossed in Evelyn's journal that he barely noticed anything else. Steve hoped that was a good thing. He prayed that whatever his sister had written down would help fill in the holes and bring some closure. Maybe Bucky could even leave the Winter Soldier behind for good.

Steve left without saying another word and headed straight for Shuri's lab. Natasha and Sam were already waiting for him at the door. Their pinched lips and concerned expressions didn't bode well. He followed them inside and saw Shuri walking between screens. He recognized the image on one screen as a full-body scan. The other seemed to be a very detailed close-up of a particular body part. Shuri glanced over her shoulder at the sound of their approaching footsteps.

"Good, you're here. I was trying to figure out Nemesis' tracking device. It is still receiving a signal, so the only logical reasoning is that whatever it's tracing must yet be active. I have checked all of Sgt. Barnes' belongings, but they were clean. So I went further and thought to check his body. That is when I found this."

She showed Steve the close-up image. It looked like a miniature robot, straight out of one of those movies on his list: Star Wars, Star Trek, something like that (all very confusing, and he had never understood the hype. Whatever happened to the movies from his childhood?). 

"It's embedded in his heart."

"My God... How did she get it into him?"

"Hard to say. My guess is it was injected during hand-to-hand combat. Though it could have also been shot in, I suppose. It only had to enter and travel through the bloodstream. See here? These hooks are designed specifically to latch onto an organ. I cannot say whether or not it was intended to be the heart. We can attempt to remove it, but I would not be surprised if the device had a failsafe in place. Electro-shock or perhaps a fast-working poison that would be administered at any attempt to extract or deactivate it. To be honest, I do not even dare to hack into it."

Shuri faced the trio of disgraced Avengers.

"I am not easily impressed when it comes to technology and science. If I had to name someone who could rival me, it would be Tony Stark. But I have never encountered anything like this before. This is created out of simple material, and yet it is more advanced than our vibranium weaponry and the Iron Man suit put together. Whoever Nemesis is, it would be a terrible mistake to underestimate her. If she can create something like this, she can have many more tricks up her sleeve."

Steve pressed his lips together. He hated to admit it, but Shuri was right. Nemesis was proving to be unlike any enemy he had ever fought before. HYDRA, Loki, Ultron... It was like she was all of them combined. Not to mention that she was older than she appeared and seemingly indestructible. But... there was something else she was.
Steve looked over to Natasha. He hated that he had to ask this of her, but right now, she could help shed some light on their foe. Nemesis might just let her guard down around a fellow Black Widow.

-----

"Прошло много времени, маленькая Наташа."
(It's been a long time, little Natasha.)

"Я уже не такая маленькая."
(I'm not so little anymore.)

"Нет. Вы выжили так далеко."
(No, you're not.)