LIVING PROOF
— 004. GRAVEYARD VISTIS

✱⧗⍟

THE OLD QUINJET CUT THROUGH THE AIR LIKE A GHOST, SILENT, STEADY AND SLOW. SNOW SWIRLED AROUND THE MOUTAINOUS landscape below, painting the world in an endless stretch of white and shadows. The GPS coordinates Val had given Rosemary were buried somewhere deep in the arctic forest, far from any road, any path, any life.

Rose sat hunched forward in the jump seat, her flight suit zipped up to her chin and a hood draped loosely over her braided hair. Her breath fogged faintly in the cold of the quinjet's cargo bay, and she bounced one leg, trying to shake the weight sitting in her chest.

Val hadn't told her why this target mattered so much, just that he had tech, intel, and pieces of data once stolen from one of HYDRA's most secret labs. A lab, Val had claimed, that Bob might have passed through once... a long time ago.

Rose didn't let herself hope. She'd done that before, it had burned her too deeply.

Still, something about this felt different. The way the air sat heavy in her lungs, the quiet ache in the back of her mind, like a whisper trying to surface.

"Approaching drop zone." The AI chimed in through the ear piece she wore, one that she took recently from Val, "Target structure located beneath glacial rock. Estimated temperature: minus fifteen degrees Celsius. Atmospheric stability: poor."

"Perfect." Rose muttered, standing up and pulling on her gloves. She grabbed her bag and stepped to the ramp, her boots already coated with frost. As the quinjet opened to the cold outside, a gust of wind slapped her in the face, biting down to her bones. But she didn't flinch.

The mission was simple. Get in, retrieve the stolen HYDRA tech, neutralize the merc if necessary, and leave no trace. Clean and quiet, but nothing ever really was with Valentina.

She leapt down into the snow without thinking twice, her powers coming in handy for her confidence and activated the tracker embedded in her glove. A pulsing light pinged back, 700 meters northeast.

She trudged through the trees in silence, her breath a steady rhythm, her senses humming. The deeper she went, the more the trees closed in, ancient and tall, branches swaying through the wailing wind.

Finally, she found it. A rusted metal hatch half buried in the snow, almost invisible unless you knew where to look. The keypad beside it was cracked, but one flick of her glowing hand and the lock fried with a hiss.

"Typical HYDRA security." She muttered, rolling her eyes and scoffed knowingly remembering all the times she's fought them, "All bark, no brain."

The hatch creaked open, releasing a puff of stale air that smelled like oil, metal, and something forgotten, before she climbed down carefully.

The tunnel dropped her into a long corridor, boots landing first on the floor as she grunts. The walls were made of reinforced concrete, half the lights flickering or dead. Vines from decades of neglect had crept in from above, pushing through cracks in the ceiling. It was cold, quiet. Too quiet.

Rose walked slowly, her footsteps echoing softly in the corridor. Her telekinetic field gently scanned the area, a habit, now and picked up faint heat signatures. Two guards, easy for her.

She moved with quiet purpose, staying in the shadows until she reached the split hallway where the signatures converged. In a blur of movement, she slammed one man against the wall with a pulse of force and swept the other's legs with a low kick. They didn't even have time to scream.

She didn't enjoy it, but she wasn't here to play nice. She continued deeper, her light manipulation power casting soft gold light ahead of her.

Then something shifted. She turned a corner... and stopped.

The hallway had widened into a larger room, a control center, it seemed, long abandoned. Broken glass scattered the floor. Most of the monitors were cracked or dead, but a few flickered faintly, displaying data that was decades old.

And in the middle of the room, there it was. A chair, a restraint rig. She stepped toward it slowly. Her fingers grazed the metal bindings still attached to the armrests. They were scorched, slightly bent, warped with energy.

And suddenly, it hit her. A feeling, like static crawling down her back.

Her fingerless gloved hands began to tingle with familiar, pulsing warmth, her powers responding to something in the air. A trace of something else... someone else.

Her knees weakened when she realised, a choked sound getting caught in her throat, "...Bob?" She whispered faintly, praying it wasn't just her powers playing tricks on her again.

She spun in a slow circle, scanning the room, the walls, until her eyes landed on the panel in the far corner. A mess of scratched-in markings covered it, burned partially by some other force, but the initials stood out like they had been carved yesterday.

The letters of her every own name stared back at her. She choked out a breath, blue eyes going wide in horror staring at the wall, "No, no, no..."

It was like he knew she would find this place, like he did it on purpose to show her sign, a sign that gave her some hope. He had been here, that much she knew.

She stumbled backward a step, bracing against the wall, her powers pulsing outward in a short burst that shattered what remained of a glass table nearby, as her heart pounded rapidly inside her chest.

He had sat in this chair, he had carved her initials in that wall. He was here, and he had remembered her.

However, before she could ponder on it anymore, the sound of a door sliding open behind her snapped her back to reality. Rosemary turned around sharply, eyes glowing.

A tall man stood in the entryway, clearly surprised to see her. He wore tactical gear, a stolen SHIELD patch on his chest, and carried a plasma rifle. This had to be the merc, Drake Corbin.

"Well, well," He sneered, lowering the weapon just slightly, "Valentina really is desperate if she's sending pretty little ghosts after me now."

"You took something that doesn't belong to you," Rose said coldly, stepping forward with her gaze narrowed down on the male in warning.

Drake just shakes his head, leaning the weapon on the floor to push his weight against it, and chuckled lowly, "Is that what she told you? Lady Lumora, fallen from the sky, doing wet work now like a common bounty hunter?"

Rose didn't blink, didn't remove that lethal calm expression covering her face, as she felt a spark of her powers at the tips of her fingers, "Say that name again."

He smirked widely, sensing he hit a soft spot, and raised his brows thoughtfully, "Lumora. That you?"

She let her power unfurl now, strands of light glowing along her arms through her veins that glowed, her eyes burning white in the barely lit atmosphere around them.

And because she was charging up, he raised his weapon automatically and went to try and fire it at her. But since Rose was prepared for that, the shot missed. She didn't.

A wave of concussive force slammed into him, flinging him into the control console. Sparks burst from the walls as the room shook. Corbin tried to scramble for his rifle, but Rose crushed it midair with her mind, the metal twisting like tinfoil.

She stood over him now, glowing, radiant and terrifying, "You've been in contact with someone, someone like me." She sneered out, hoodie fallen off her head to reveal her messy braids that added to her scary look, "You're going to tell me everything."

He coughed blood, back leaning against the broken console as he wiped the edge of his mouth with his knuckles, "He's not what you remember..." He grunted, making her eyes flash brighter.

She knelt down to where he was, and grabbed his collar in between her fists as she grits out protectively, "He's mine. Now tell me what you know."

The lights flickered above her, humming weakly like they might go out at any moment in affect from her power usage. The walls were stained, cracked, and broken in the corners, just like the man slumped in the metal chair in front of her that she managed to tie him to.

Corbin's face was bruised from the impact, a thin trail of blood tracing down from his temple to the corner of his jaw. He chuckled bitterly despite it all, arms chained behind his back with kinetic-cuffs that Rose had pulled off the lab wall, "You really are just like him," He rasped, "The Captain. All righteous fire and no patience."

Rose didn't respond at first. She was pacing the room, slow and deliberate. Her knuckles still ached from punching a hole in the corridor wall, but her voice was ice, "Don't talk about him like you knew him."

Corbin leaned forward as far as the cuffs allowed, "I didn't. But I know you. Or at least, the version of you they warned us about."

She stopped pacing hearing what he said, and turned around slowly, glancing at the male from over her shoulder.

"The version who lost her father, her team, her name and then went off the grid like a shadow with a pulse." He grinned with broken teeth, and laughed like talking about her was a joke to him, "You really wanna pretend you're not just one more lost soldier Valentina reels back in with promises she doesn't intend to keep?"

Her jaw clenched, but she didn't deny it. Not out loud, "You've been moving stolen tech. From HYDRA ruins," She said, tone low, "Including what was recovered from this lab. Why? And don't give me crap about salvaging for credits."

Corbin licked at the corner of his lip and spat blood to the side, "Because there were files here, subjects. People no one else knew existed. I didn't touch them... but I saw one."

Rose's heart picked up in speed, and stepped closer, her arms crossed over her chest to hide how nervous she was, "Who?"

  He tilted his head slowly, leaning back into the chair as he watched her with amusement, "You already know."

Her power pulsed beneath her skin, a flare of light sparked off her knuckles. She leaned in, and the room dimmed as her presence pressed in like a stormfront, "You're going to tell me what happened to him." She said, the weight of her grief bleeding into every word, "Where he was taken. What they did to him."

Corbin's smirk faltered, just slightly, "He was... different, but whatever happened to him worked." He muttered, trying to recall the bits of information he heard, "Didn't talk to anyone. But he could split the air apparently. Break the sound barrier just by breathing. Turn into this... void of sorts. They were afraid of him. They tried to... box it in, control it."

Rose's chest tightened, fearful for Bob and what had happened to him while they were spilt apart, "And?" Her question was only a whisper, afraid of the answer she might gain.

Corbin met her eyes, a serious glint in them that flickered back to fear the more he spoke and thought, "They failed.... at first. Until someone it worked, and they trapped him."

There was a long, aching silence between them. The hum of failing power circuits above, the distant drip of water leaking somewhere in the dark.

She bit her bottom lip nervously, and ran a hand down her face to calm herself down from panicking, "So he didn't escape?" she asked softly.

Corbin's expression shifted, like he was weighing something, "He did try, I know that. But as you know, no lose ends can escape. Especially if they want to hide it."

She staggered back half a step. Her light flickered, then dimmed. A whisper in the back of her mind started to echo louder now, he doesn't remember you. She swallowed hard, "You said he was different. What else? Tell me everything you know."

Corbin stared at her, breathing heavy. For a long second, he didn't answer. Then, with a tone she couldn't quite place, part wonder, part fear he said, "He shifted into this... black shadow figure. Not just plasma or magic. Not even light manipulation. It was something else. Like he wasn't human anymore. He could kill you without touching you. But it didn't feel evil, it felt... lost."

The words hit her like a punch to the chest. Rose turned away from him, arms folding over her middle like she was trying to hold herself together. Her eyes flicked to the scratch on the far wall again where her name was, and her voice came out low, "Did he say my name?"

Corbin's silence was deafening, watching her reaction closely as he tugged on the chains he was trapped in. Then, "Once."

She spun around quickly from the wall, her eyes wide, "When?"

He shifted in his spot uncomfortably, eyes dull now as they met her brighter ones, "They brought him in sedated. But he was murmuring, over and over. Just one name."

She waited, breath held in her chest.

"Rosemary."

The breath left her in a stutter. Her knees nearly buckled, but she gripped the table for support, her fingers trembling against the metal in disbelief, "He remembers," She whispered.

"Maybe. Maybe not. But even drugged, he held onto something," Corbin said with a shrug, "I'm not the enemy, Lady Lumora. I just collect scraps. You're the one who's chasing ghosts."

Rose pushed herself from her weak position, no commenting on him using her her name, as her expression was unreadable, "I'm chasing the only person who's ever seen me for who I really am."

A beat passed. Then she stepped toward him, unclipping the cuffs with a flick of her fingers. His arms dropped forward as he groaned, "You're letting me go?"

"No." She speaks firmly, and shoved a tracker into the side of his neck with a precise pulse of telekinetic force, "I'm keeping you on my radar in case I need more information from you again. I don't kill for Val. But if you disappear, I'll know."

Corbin muttered under his breath, rubbing his wrists, "You Rogers kids really know how to hold a grudge."

"No," She retorted as she turned toward the door, eyes flashing a strong gold glow that made him shrink more into the chair fearfully noticing it, "We know how to finish what we start."

───────────

THE AFTERNOON SUN DIPPED LOW IN TH SKY, CASTING A GOLDEN WASH OVER THE TOPS OF THE GRAVESTONES THAT STRETCHED OUT like silent sentinels across the rolling green. The trees were quiet, branches swaying gently with the spring wind, the soft rustle like whispers between old friends.

Rose walked the familiar path between them, her boots crunching softly on the gravel. One hand clutched a small bouquet of freshly cut flowers, white roses and forget-me-nots, her father's favorites, while the other hand held the leash of the fluffy white dog padding faithfully beside her.

Krypto's ears perked every few steps, his tail wagging lazily, aware that this was not just any walk. It never was.

Rose's body ached faintly from the mission, a bruise bloomed under her ribs, her wrist was sore from a bad landing, but it was nothing compared to the ache behind her sternum.

That old, hollow pain never quite healed. Not after losing her dad. Not after losing Bob. Especially now, after what she'd just seen and learnt.

The intel from the mission and merc was both everything and nothing, fragmented evidence, word scrubbed of clarity, and signs that made her search feel like a ghost story. What she heard about him turning into something... the void the merc called it, made her stomach churn just thinking about it.

She didn't know what they had done to him, where he had gone after. The last trace ended with Corbin and then, nothing. No name, no heat signature. Just the empty static of someone deliberately removed. Val wouldn't help her that easily, she knew that.

The new information gave her glimpses, not answers. Hopes, not directions. Still... it was more than she had before.

She paused now in front of the grave. Her father's grave. The stone was simple, dignified, and unmistakable: Stephen Grant Rogers Beloved father. Hero to many. Shield to the broken. 'I can do this all day'.

A weak laugh broke through her chest as she knelt in the grass, brushing away leaves and small bits of debris that had gathered at the base of the stone. Krypto lay down beside her, resting his head on his paws like he, too, knew they were somewhere sacred.

"Hey, Dad." Rosemary said softly, brushing her fingers over the engraved letters, "I brought your favorites."

She swapped out the old, weather-worn flowers for the fresh bouquet, her fingers moving delicately, "I know I was just here a week ago, but... I guess I needed to come back. Things have been, well, they're complicated. As always."

She let herself fall back to sit fully on the grass, legs stretched out before her, arms resting around her knees. Krypto nudged his head into her shoulder comfortingly, and she smiled, giving him a scratch behind the ears.

"Valentina sent me somewhere new. Gave me more information on Bob." Her voice faltered a little, tucking a loose piece of her blonde hair behind her pierced ear, "She's holding the rest hostage, of course. Said I'll have to do more for her before I get anything solid. Typical, right?"

She glanced sideways at the headstone, as if her father might shake his head in amused disappointment, "But there was something," She whispered, "I felt him. Not in person. In... in the room, like he was there. The merc told me things. Like—" She stopped, biting the inside of her cheek, "They hurt him. And I think they changed him, Dad. Like they used him, tested on him."

Her hand dug into the grass, "I'm scared," She admitted quietly, "Not of finding him. I know I will. But... I don't know if he'll be him anymore. I don't know if he'll remember me. Or if I'll even be able to bring him back."

The wind pushed softly at her hair, lifting a few strands from her shoulder, "I just... I miss you," She murmured, voice trembling, as her dog nudged his head into her thigh in a comforting way, "So much."

There was no answer, of course. Only the hum of the wind and the soft bark of a distant dog in the neighborhood beyond the gates.

"I wish you were here. You'd know what to say. You'd tell me to keep going. That I could fix this. That I could save him." Rose paused, her eyes stinging, "Even if I'm not her anymore. Not the golden girl. Not Lady Lumora."

She sniffed and wiped her cheek, shaking her head with a bitter smile, "People still whisper about me, you know. 'What happened to her? Where did she go?' I hear it. I feel it. But no one really wants the answer. They just want the symbol back." She pressed a palm against the grave, "But I can't be her again. Not yet."

A long silence passed. Krypto yawned beside her, letting out a soft whine, and she glanced down, ruffling his head gently.

"I'm gonna find him," She said finally, blue eyes that matched her fathers locked onto his grave, "No matter what. Even if he doesn't remember me. Even if he hates me. Even if—" Her voice cracked, "Even if there's nothing left of who he was."

She stood slowly, brushing the dirt off her pants. She let her hand linger on the grave for a moment longer, "I love you, Dad. I'll be back soon. Maybe next time... with better news."

Krypto barked softly and nudged at her leg. Rose smiled, faint but real, and turned away from the grave, walking back toward the path that led through the quiet cemetery. The last light of day slipped behind the trees, casting long shadows over the grass.

As she walked, her fingers curled instinctively into the pendant around her neck, a small, glowing star, made from one of the first energy cores her father helped her forge. A symbol of who she used to be... and who she was still becoming.

───────────

❪ ✏️ ❫ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂 : 3525
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
omfg im so sorry for the lack of updates guys, i had this chapter sat in my drafts for a bit and never got around to editing it since i've been busy with other stuff but i got around to editing it today so here's the long awaited updated 🥲🙏🏻

bit of a sad one and it may not make any sense YET but trust it will hopefully make all sense soon and also either next chapter or one after that will lead into the movie events finally so bob and rose reunion coming right up asap AHHH

anywaysss you all know the drill, vote,
comment (if you want), ect mwah <33🫶