You Must Remember This

Chapter 55 - You're my mission

Wakanda, 2016

No words could describe the numbing pandemonium taking over Steve's senses and mind. He still sat in the same position he'd been sitting in for the last two hours, unable to move even a finger. Part of him was glad and relieved Nemesis wasn't his daughter. He wouldn't have known what to do with the young woman if she had been. Yet the harrowing truth was so much worse. 
HYDRA had forced his twin to leave her children behind, entrusting their safety and education to others. They'd destroyed her family, all her dreams and plans, her very life. Sheer fury overtook Steve, coursing through his boiling blood. He balled his hands until his nails dug into his palms so much his fists shook wildly. Never before had he felt such a need to punch something, someone. Not that it would be enough. What he wanted, what he craved for above all else, was vengeance. But that had to wait. First, he needed to know more.

"You," he licked his lips, "you said you got Jamie. What about Nem—Stephanie?"

"Stark's manservant, Edmin Jarvis, and his wife, Ana, took her," said Lucas. "Ana was left infertile after surviving a gunshot, and it was the best compromise we could come up with. Evelyn didn't want her son and daughter to be separated, but neither could they live together in case one was found. My house is down the street from where the Stark estate used to be. People around the neighborhood welcomed me and Jamie as newcomers, while Jarvis and Ana spread the word they'd adopted their niece. We arranged a casual meeting at the nearby park, where we publicly agreed to meet more often so the children could be playmates. Nobody ever suspected they were siblings."

"But the children knew?"

"Oh, yes." Lucas chuckled. "We told Jamie and Steph when they were old enough to understand, but they knew well before then. They could tell when one needed the other from miles away. We had to keep an eye out, 'cause they had a tendency to run straight towards each other, regardless of time or place. You should've seen them tottering on their little legs from opposite sides of the street until they literally fell into each other's arms. No matter the distance, they would always find each other. We urged them to be careful and watch out for any strangers approaching them, but the pull was too strong. It was like —"

"Two halves of the same soul coming together like gravity," finished Steve, sadly. "I know. It's... what I've been missing most since waking up from the ice. Who I've been missing. Part of me is gone because Evy is, and I'll carry this feeling with me until the day I die. She must've felt the same when I... didn't return."

"She never gave up on you, though. Evy was convinced you were alive, which actually gave us the best cover story for the folks back in Brooklyn. I left under the pretence of having been offered a new job with a start-up union out of state and only kept in touch with Rebecca and Jonesy. Whenever they asked if I'd heard from Evy, I'd tell them she was still looking for you. They never questioned it."

Steve leaned his head back against the wall and shut his eyes. His twin's face floated before his mind's eye, making his heart wrench and twist. With an angry cry, he banged a fist against the wall. "Dammit! I should've been there!"

"It's not your fault you crashed into an ice-field and turned into a human popsicle, Steve," argued Lucas. "And even if you had been there, what could you have done? Everyone in HYDRA knew Captain America's face. You couldn't have gone undercover, nor could you have stopped Evelyn from —"

A knock on the door interrupted Lucas. Steve instantly scrambled to his feet. He half-expected Bucky to stand on the threshold, having learned the same as he had through Evelyn's journal, but instead, Steve found Okoye and her husband. 

"Pardon the interruption, Captain," said the General of the Dora Milaje, "but I've finished transcribing the letters, as requested. Agent Romanoff had already started running them through the processor, so most were already done. You'll find what Miss Rogers crossed out is now revealed."