The river burbled along, gently supporting their bodies as it washed away the dust and blood covering them.
Bucky stared steadily at the girl before him, his eyes clear yet empty.
He remained silent for a long time. Finally, his throat bobbed, and his hoarse, dry voice was filled with bewilderment. "...I don't know. I don't remember."
Oh, poor Bucky.
Miaomiao gave Bucky a sympathetic look. She didn't know what being brainwashed felt like, but it wasn't hard to imagine that someone forced to have his entire past erased, someone who had completely forgotten even himself, couldn't possibly feel good.
"It's okay. Don't worry about it if you can't remember." Miaomiao gently stroked Bucky's head as though petting an oversized cat. "I know someone who knows you. I'll take you to him!"
The instant her fingertips touched him, Bucky went utterly rigid.
He didn't remember his past, his name, or his identity, but he still retained some memories of being the Winter Soldier. Those fragments contained nothing but cold machinery, brainwashing phrases like the murmurs of a devil, and endless pain and slaughter.
His body had long since grown accustomed to blades and gun barrels, to everyone using him, guarding against him, or loathing him.
Yet now, a girl as exquisite and lovely as a doll was touching him with warmth, her eyes gentle and her guard completely down. Her soft, warm palm settled on his soaking-wet hair and gently rubbed it twice, dispelling the bone-deep chill the river had left in him.
His gray-blue pupils contracted slightly, and a rare, faint ripple stirred in the emptiness of his eyes.
"Find... who?"
He had no memories, no past. He didn't know where he came from, whether he was good or evil, right or wrong, or even whether anyone in this