Ghosts, hollowed out corpses of people he used to know. Being alone in a way that so few people ever truly are. Steve knows that feeling all too well. Remembers the worst times when he first woke back up after dumping his plane into the Arctic. When the only things familiar to him were ghosts of the people he used to know seen in the faces of the living.
Steve's face starts to soften, a hand reaching up to grasp at Blaze's shoulder because he does understand and Ghost is right. He's lived through this and knows that kind of lonliness. Except Blaze isn't finished, and what she says next robs the breath from Steve's lungs.
She rebooted. Wiped. Again and again. Left grasping at figments of things she should know with no real understanding of what she'd lost. Only knowing it would happen again. nothing she could do to stop it.
There's white noise crowding into Steve's head. The bellowing scream of a train and fingers slipping just out of reach. The sound of armor piercing rounds punchign through his apartment and striking Nick Fury. The stuttering hum of the helicarrier engines failing and the weight of wrecked steel in his hands. Footsteps hurrying up the stairs in a rickety row house in Germany.
That wasn't your fault, Buck.
No, but I still did it.
How much of it do you remember? You didn't remember me or Brookyln, so--
I remembered every one.
Steve's hand is shaking when it finally grabs onto Blaze's shoulder. Gives blaze a sharp nod and turns wet eyes away from her. There's only one man who knows what Blaze went through better than Steve Rogers, and he's currently recovering quietly somewhere hidden in Wakanda.
"You made it through." And it sounds like Steve has had to say this before. Has had to say it for himself as much as the person he's trying to support. "You're here. Blaze-37. Ghost is still here. I'm here. You've got that back. Those memories."
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branchandroot
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Date: 2018-03-23 01:09 pm (UTC)Steve's face starts to soften, a hand reaching up to grasp at Blaze's shoulder because he does understand and Ghost is right. He's lived through this and knows that kind of lonliness. Except Blaze isn't finished, and what she says next robs the breath from Steve's lungs.
She rebooted. Wiped. Again and again. Left grasping at figments of things she should know with no real understanding of what she'd lost. Only knowing it would happen again. nothing she could do to stop it.
There's white noise crowding into Steve's head. The bellowing scream of a train and fingers slipping just out of reach. The sound of armor piercing rounds punchign through his apartment and striking Nick Fury. The stuttering hum of the helicarrier engines failing and the weight of wrecked steel in his hands. Footsteps hurrying up the stairs in a rickety row house in Germany.
That wasn't your fault, Buck.
No, but I still did it.
How much of it do you remember? You didn't remember me or Brookyln, so--
I remembered every one.
Steve's hand is shaking when it finally grabs onto Blaze's shoulder. Gives blaze a sharp nod and turns wet eyes away from her. There's only one man who knows what Blaze went through better than Steve Rogers, and he's currently recovering quietly somewhere hidden in Wakanda.
"You made it through." And it sounds like Steve has had to say this before. Has had to say it for himself as much as the person he's trying to support. "You're here. Blaze-37. Ghost is still here. I'm here. You've got that back. Those memories."