You Must Remember This

Chapter 47 - Plan B

Wakanda, 2016

Nobody spoke a word. Nobody dared to move or even swallow. All eyes were on the unconscious woman with the dark-skinned face and light ivory-toned body. Steve's hands trembled at his side. The moment Okoye's husband and the head of security of Wakanda's Border Tribe, W'Kabi, had contacted T'Challa to say they'd caught the woman impersonating the nurse, Steve had been counting the seconds until they brought her to the medical ward. But now that she literally lay within reach, he couldn't bring himself to even touch her.

"You good?" asked Sam.

"No," admitted Steve. "But let's get this over with."

He took a deep breath and de-activated the Widow's Veil attached to the young woman's face. The sheet flashed, reverting Danica's visage to the one they'd all believed dead.

"Nemesis," Sam whispered in awe. "Son of a bitch, that little minx."

Steve carefully peeled the tech device off. He gently caressed Nemesis's brow and temples, searching for the seams of a wig, but there was none. Her own dark-brown hair was almost black, so it'd fitted naturally among the Wakandans.

"I will call off the search for our missing corpse," said T'Challa.

Okoye gave a scoff. "She's lucky W'Kabi had orders to bring her in alive. He's been irked about her slipping through Wakanda's defenses for days. And after what she did to me, he wanted to —"

"That's enough, Okoye."

The proud Dora General tsk-ed in annoyance at her Crown Prince's stern warning, averting as much as she could in her wheelchair. Steve paid them no heed. He only had eyes for Nemesis. The more he thought about her, the fewer things made sense.
The assassin had taken Danica's appearance to move freely through the city, but the security footage outside Bucky's room showed a blonde woman eerily resembling Evelyn as well. Logic dictated Nemesis must've changed faces from one to the other, but why go to such lengths? Why not simply frame the nurse and get the hell out of Dodge while she could? And what was her relation to Evelyn? Why use her image to make Bucky suffer? To make him suffer?

"How long will she be out?" Steve asked.

"That is hard to say," answered T'Challa, brow wrinkled in thought. "Nemesis is a super-soldier like you and Sergeant Barnes, but has eaten nothing since we captured her, so her natural defenses may be lowered. And she was hit with enough voltage to take out a herd of elephants. It may be some time."

"Where will you keep her?"

Steve glimpsed behind, watching the Wakandans exchange a glance. Where, indeed? Nemesis had proven her skills more than once. Heck, not even a straightjacket had held her back.

"What about the cryo-pod?" offered Sam. "Put her on ice until we sort this out."

"No," said Steve resolutely.

"Why not? It's safest for everyone involved."

"I'm not freezing my daughter, Sam."

"You gotta be friggin' kidding me. Cap, she's outsmarted us way too many times already. Bucky is in surgery, again. Shuri is playing damn Operation to unhook that device from his heart before it kills him. Do you really wanna give this girl another chance to finish her job? You wanna risk everyone's safety just because she may or may not be your daughter, and she may or may not know if your sister is still alive? We need some goddamn answers first!"

"She's the only one who can give us those answers!" Steve jumped to his feet, adrenaline and anger pumping through his body. "We still got nothing on her DNA profile. Evelyn's journal is missing, and —"