#judywrites

[3ndoftheline]

Touch

Bucky x OFC

Summary: Can you ground someone who doesn’t do anything?

Warnings: language (as usual LMAO)

Word Count: 8.1k (literally can’t control myself im soRRY)

Author’s Note: here it is!!! (finally) part two of touch for all of you lovely people. i watched beauty and the beast last night and i was just so happy and came home and just banged out the rest of this so i hope you all enjoy. also tag list is at the bottom and if anyone would like to be added just shoot me a message! feedback is appreciated greatly xx

“You’re grounded.”

I blinked in shock. About a million reactions ran through my system before I chose the most professional one. I laughed. “That’s the first thing you say to me?” I snickered as I stared at an amused yet affronted Tony, an annoyed Natasha and a fuming Steve. “I’m not a child, Tony. You can’t…ground me.”

“Well, I can’t fire you, can I?” Tony shot back and I realized very quickly that although his initial response was comical, nothing about their reactions were comical. I was in deep shit and I knew it.

“I mean, you can–”

“–and he should,” Steve growled and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes.

“As much as I’d love to,” Tony shot me a hard look, “we need you.”

“Do we at least get to compromise on my inevitable form of punishment?” I cut in, waving my hand to regain attention.

“Depends on what you’ve got.” Steve folded his arms over his chest but I didn’t miss how his eyes flickered over to Bucky.

I sighed and tapped my fingers against the back of the tablet as I struggled to form my thoughts together. “Carol Raulson – the computer engineer, isn’t real. She doesn’t exist.”

“That’s fantastic,” Natasha mumbled sarcastically and I resisted the urge to throw a few choice words her way. Instead, I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay on track.

“Her real name is Jolene Kaplan. I think so, anyways. It’s the only logical explanation. I don’t know anything about her since I haven’t had time to run an extensive search but I do know that Jolene was Bucky’s target. Whether it was for a hit, a kidnapping, whatever the motive was behind it, she was the target. My guess was Hydra was planning to attack while she left the building or in the transition from her handlers inside the engineering firm to DCGSE. It wasn’t specified fully what the assassin’s purpose was or why they were even running the mission. Bucky doesn’t really remember any specifics from the mission, either. He said he was in the middle of briefing when everything went to hell, or whatever the fuck happened. Kotevsky, the Russian, is also someone he remembers. Not much, but he remembers him from somewhere cold. I’m taking a wild guess that Kotevsky may have been around during Bucky’s time with the Soviets but I don’t know. I won’t know for certain for a while.” All of the words came out in a rush as I attempted to get all of the information out while being as convincing as possible. When I finished, I was panting slightly.

There was a stretch of silence as they glanced at my face, then Bucky’s, then at each other before Tony finally broke the quiet. “How long will you need?”

“Well…” I stalled as I pondered how to broach the touchy subject. While I hesitated, a low and throaty sound pulled my attention away for a second. All four of our heads turned to see Bucky glaring at me with such fervor I was surprised I didn’t melt into a puddle right there. I rolled my eyes at him as I turned back to my audience. “In order for me to really make any sort of headway with this, I need to–”

“No,” Bucky suddenly snarled and I whirled on him with a deadly glare.

“Honestly, this doesn’t concern you. So if you could let me speak without rudely interrupting me, I’d greatly appreciate it.” Bucky glowered at me, his entire body stiff and wound tight. But I didn’t care. If information was wanted, it had to be done.

“What the hell is going on?” Natasha snapped, obviously not pleased to be kept in the dark the way she was. I shot a warning glare to Bucky as I turned back to the three of them, all in varying degrees of confusion and bewilderment.

“I can find information on Kotevsky and Jolene via the regular channels but it might not be enough. I want, no need, to get a hold of the mission files for the Winter Soldier and–”

“No,” Tony interrupted, “absolutely not.”

My jaw dropped. “But, you don’t understand–”

“Are you out of your mind?” Natasha hissed, suddenly catching on too.

“Yes, but I don’t see how that matters–”

“What are you talking about, Tony?” Steve cut in, throwing me a stern look as I began to protest louder.

“In order to get to the Winter Soldier mission files, darling Hannah here needs to infiltrate a Hydra base and–”

“Absolutely not.” Steve wheeled to face me with a heavy scowl etched on his face. I opened my mouth to argue but he didn’t let me. “Hannah if you think for one second I’m going to let you go on a mission all by yourself to a Hydra base you’re out of your mind.”

“I won’t be alone,” I shot back. “I’ll take someone with me. Natasha can go.”

“No I won’t,” Natasha deadpanned and I glared at her. Some friend, I thought to myself.

“You are not sacrificing other people for this…this suicide mission.” I could tell he was trying his absolute hardest not to yell at me but it seemed with each word he was getting closer and closer to failing at that. “Goddammit Hannah, you’re smarter than this.”

“Honest to God, can we please relax,” I interrupted with a sigh. “It was just an idea, okay? Obviously I was going to run it by you first. I’m just laying out my options here.”

“No it’s not,” a voice piped up behind me. When I turned around Bucky’s eyes were on me as he muttered out the words that I was pretty sure would end my life. “She was planning to go on the mission with no mission plan, whether you agreed or not.”

“No mission plan?” Steve all but screeched as my jaw dropped.

“You mother–” I didn’t have a chance to finish my sentence before Steve absolutely unloaded on me.

“What the hell is a matter with you? Do you have no care for your own safety at all? Or the fact that this is Hydra here? This isn’t something you do behind a computer screen, Hannah. This is real, this is real life and you’re treating it like some sort of joke. Do you even understand the repercussions? Do you understand what would happen to you if you were captured?”

“I wasn’t even going to do it!” I protested. Total lie. It was such a bad lie I had trouble executing it. I justified myself but saying that if I didn’t lie, Steve would’ve keeled over from a heart attack. “I swear, I was just throwing ideas around that’s it. Jesus, Steve. A little more trust in me, please? I may be reckless but I’m not stupid.”

“I don’t care,” Steve seethed. “You are not to leave this compound, do you understand me? Not unless one of us are with you and it’s cleared by me first. I’m not kidding around with this, Hannah. Whatever this information is, we will find it some other way.”

“Okay,” I acquiesced with a nod of my head. Steve released a breath as he stared at me with hard eyes. “I swear Steve; I’ll stay inside the compound.”

He seemed to accept that as his shoulders relaxed a bit and he nodded. “Good,” he responded gruffly. “Now, go. Get to work. You said we had twelve hours, right?”

I nodded as Tony stepped up with a light touch to my shoulder. “C’mon, kid. We better get started now.” He flashed me an encouraging smile. He had been on the other end of Steve’s temper tantrums too many times so I knew he would be the safest person to go with. I bit my lip and kept my head down as I passed around Steve and Natasha. As soon as I was behind their backs, I whipped my head up and gave Bucky the most murderous glare I could muster. His eyes were on me and there wasn’t a single shred of remorse or apology in his gaze. In fact, he looked a little smug. I snarled quietly before Tony’s voice broke my stare.

“Your lab or mine?” He grinned. He already knew the answer. Nobody went into my lab except for me. No exception.

“Yours.” I answered stiffly. I tried to control my anger but it was taking everything to not turn around and give Bucky a piece of my mind. He had the audacity to call me untrustworthy? What a fucking hypocrite. God, if I ever saw that two-faced bastard again I’d–

“Hey,” Tony’s voice broke my thoughts as I suddenly realized we were already in the elevator. “You alright?”

“Yeah, of course.” I lied straight through my teeth as I flashed him a smile. “Sorry, just thinking about where to start.”

“How about those phone calls? I want to hear this politician’s voice when he isn’t sniveling like a little kid.”

I snorted as I leaned back against the elevator. But when I shut my eyes, all I saw was Bucky’s smug face.

***

“Motherfucker,” I swore as I stared at my five computer monitors. Series of texts ran through on the screen, all blinking with keywords that made no fucking sense.

I had managed to uncover all of the deleted calls and scrubbed audio files between the politician and Kotevsky. Deciphering them was pretty easy too, but all of a sudden the bastards decided to use their brains and started speaking in code. I was in the process of trying to decipher their secret language and had gotten nowhere. I had four hours left until this supposed drop somewhere and I was about as close as I was eight hours ago.

Wedding.

Gift.

Reception.

Bride.

Groom.

It all would sound like a normal conversation if you were to hear it on the street or in a café. But in the world of espionage and terrorism, this was anything but an innocent conversation.

The wedding, I had deduced so wonderfully, was hopefully the main event with the reception possibly being a rendezvous point afterwards while the gift was perhaps whatever the politician was selling. The bride and groom were what I assumed were codenames for the politician and Kotevsky. Again, there were no facts. Only theory. And that was about as far as I got with that.

I had lasted about ten minutes in Tony’s lab before his horrific need to constantly fill the silence with some sort of irrelevant comment and his horrible messiness forced me out. I tasked him with working on the identity of Kaplan and if there was any connection with Raulson while digging deeper into Kotevsky. I figured that would be more difficult but turns out I was so wrong I embarrassed myself.

Now, I was stuck staring into a sea of code and secret language that looked so goddamn appealing on TV shows but the second it presented itself in real life I questioned every decision that led me to be in my position. I banged my head against the table as I began muttering to myself, sounding certifiably crazy but hey, might as well play the part.

“Wedding…wedding, who the fuck wants to go to a wedding?” Kotevsky and the politician I told myself bitterly and groaned. “Okay, okay,” I muttered to myself with a deep, cleansing breath that sort of sounded like I suffered from whooping cough. “Think. The wedding…what type of wedding?” The politician was fancy and flashy. Even when he was selling secrets, he set the drop at a fancy hotel with all eyes on him and a pretty girl on his arm. He had an expensive taste that was obvious with his financial records. I mean, who spent 500k on a single fucking fountain pen? He used his wealth and riches to show off and intimidate his competition and colleagues – though I wasn’t too sure how intimidating a fountain pen was but hey what the hell did I know. “Someplace fancy, someplace new.”

But I knew Kotevsky wasn’t a pushover. While he had played into the politician’s hand, he still had control. He had the money, he was the payday. And while the politician threw around that he had other buyers lining up, I was sure Kotevsky doubted that. Politicians lie, especially one as slimy as this one. He’s make a compromise, some way that he’d have the advantage. “Home field advantage,” I mumbled. Anyone was more comfortable on their home turf and with a deal like this, I had a feeling that’s exactly what Kotevsky would want.

Tony had managed to figure out that Kotevsky was in fact Russian, but the rest of his files were heavily encrypted. He and FRIDAY were still working on trying to decrypt it. I felt a zip of excitement down my spine. I was close, I could feel it. My fingers typed furiously as I tried to figure out where there was going to be some sort of grand opening of someplace rich and fancy as all hell. I knew the politician – whose name was John Arnold Smith, how much more boring white politician who fucks anything that breathes because his wife is more of a business relationship rather than a bond of true love and chooses to betray his country because apparently his boring, white, rich life isn’t exciting enough – would want something fancy. A statement. Whatever this deal was, it was worth a billion cash. It would establish him; it would make him a well-known figure in the legal and most definitely the illegal world.

A dozen popped up in the Moscow area and I was able to narrow it down to three. An art gala for some stuffy French-Italian artist who swore God spoke to him through the splatters of his paintbrush, a museum grand opening honoring all of the czars of Russia, and a hotel opening owned by some prince from the Middle East, most likely Israel from the look of it. I knew for a fact that the politician travelled to Russia under a pseudonym. I uploaded his picture to TSA and began scanning all of the images from Sheremetyevo for a match to good ol’ John Smith’s face. The second it popped up, I’d get his passport information and I’d nail the smarmy bastard.

Hopefully. Maybe. This was a perfect example of me thinking that I definitely had the answer when in the end, it was obvious, that I most definitely did not.

The moment the search began, a sharp knock rapped against my door. “Yeah?” I called out.

“Room service,” Tony yelled.

“I didn’t order anything,” I retorted as I drummed my fingers against my table.

“Lemme in, Han, we gotta talk.”

“Not a chance, Stark. Whatever you need to say, send it in an email if it’s that important. If it’s not, it can wait.”

“I prefer face to face communication. It’s good for the soul.”

“Has Pepper got you doing those stupid yoga videos again? You’re starting to sound a true yogi.”

Tony was silent for a moment. “Hannah. I need you to talk to Barnes.”

I snorted as my mouth twisted into a scowl. “Forget it. I don’t do interrogations.”

“This isn’t an interrogation. Think of it at as a friendly conversation at a bar. Except you’re not in a bar, you’re in a holding cell. And it’s not really a conversation, you’ve got scripted questions and what not.”

“So basically an interrogation.” I deadpanned.

“Sure, sure, nuances,” Tony admitted nonchalantly and I rolled my eyes. “Hannah, if we want to make any headway we need to get Barnes to talk.”

“Alright, send Steve in. Or Natasha, our resident expert on interrogations.”

“Already done, Han. Even I went in. He won’t say a word. This guy has been around for almost a hundred years, and about seventy of that was spent with Hydra. He doesn’t even flinch anymore.”

“So why the hell do you think I’m going to make a difference?”

“Because he talked to you.”

I swore under my breath. God, fuck Bucky Barnes. “Listen, Tony. I’d love to be the knight in shining armor here but honestly he didn’t even say much. And I’m pretty sure that’s a one-time deal.”

“That’s bullshit Han and you and I both know it,” Tony snapped. “You’re our best shot at this. C’mon kid, show us how versatile you really are.”

“Fuck off,” I muttered. I didn’t want to do this. I shouldn’t do this. Bucky Barnes was none of my business. He helped me once that was it. And of course that backfired because apparently confidentiality meant nothing to him. But Tony was right. I had just barely made some sort of headway after eight hours of nothing; he had only been able to find Kotevsky was from Russia, around Moscow but nothing too serious. Nothing to launch an investigation. We were dry, we were desperate. And unfortunately, we needed Bucky. I sighed heavily and dragged myself out of my chair as I took one last longing glance at my monitors.

When I opened the door Tony jumped to attention and I wasn’t surprised to see Steve loitering at the end of the hallway trying to act nonchalant. “There she is! What’s it like to see actual sunlight?”

I glanced up at the fluorescent lighting. “I wouldn’t know,” I shot back. Tony flashed me a grin as I frowned and snatched the case file from his hand. It was painfully thin and I had to hold back my frustrated sigh. “Alright Flag Pole,” I called out to Steve as I walked down the hall. “Let’s go do an interrogation.”

“I’m going with you?” He glanced at me curiously when I slammed the file into his chest.

“What part of ‘I don’t do interrogations’ did your star-spangled brain not understand?” I shot him a look as I continued down to the elevator. “I’m just going to stand there. I’m not talking to him again.”

“You think it’ll work?” Steve asked his voice incredulous as I jammed the elevator button and willed the elevator doors to never open.

“It’ll have to,” I grumbled as the doors pinged open and a slew of SHIELD agents tumbled out, all moony eyed as they stared at Steve. I rolled my eyes and pushed past them and typed in the code to get us to sub-level.

“Eager?” Steve mused with raised eyebrows but his smile faltered at the poisonous look I threw him.

“Eager to get this over with,” I muttered as I folded my arms. Steve nodded and didn’t say anything else as the door shut. FRIDAY’s pleasant voice spoke about the weather and today’s current events but I didn’t listen. When the doors opened again, Steve stepped out and the floor was just as quiet as it had been when I had first gone down eight hours ago. It was unsettling.

We reached room 12 and Steve punched in the code that swung the vibranium doors open. Once inside, I saw Sam was across the room. He made eye contact with us and walked over, his shoulders stiff.

“He won’t talk, Cap,” Sam muttered, his voice quiet. He sighed heavily and then his eyes met mine, brown irises filled with concern. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

“I’m doing the interrogation,” Steve whispered. Sam seemed shocked as he eyed me curiously. I avoided his gaze as I stared at the cement floor. I moved to the corner of the room as Steve spoke with Sam for a few minutes longer. I kept my eyes on the guards instead of on Bucky, refusing to give him the satisfaction. I didn’t even see Sam walk over to me until his voice was in my ear.

“Why aren’t you running this?” Sam asked. I met his gaze, trying to look confused but he wasn’t having it. I sighed and rested my shoulder against the cold stone wall.

“I don’t want to,” I muttered. “Besides, I’m not adverse in interrogation or any of that shit. This is something you guys do. I’m just a girl with a computer.”

“You’re more than that, and you know it,” Sam frowned as he shot a glance towards Steve. “What’s really going on, baby? You locked Tony, Steve and Nat in here just to speak to Bucky. Now you won’t look at him. What’s going on? If he did something to you, Hannah. We need to know.”

I swallowed thickly as I toed the ground with my sneaker. “He’s just not someone I want to be around. Is that so hard to understand?” I looked at Sam, begging him to drop it. Really, I was just angry at Bucky. He and his big mouth had gotten me ‘grounded’ as Tony said and now the situation was even worse than it had been before. And it pissed me off.

“Okay,” Sam acquiesced and I breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s not hard to understand. What is hard to understand as that you’re actually trying to pretend that you’re not pissed at him for foiling your master plan.”

I whipped my head to face Sam, who wore the smuggest smile on his face. “What are you talking about?” I hissed.

“I know you don’t believe in best friends or relationships, but as your unofficial best friend who knows you like the back of his hand, I know when you’re mad, baby. And you’re furious.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re not my best friend,” I snapped. “And so what if I’m mad? Doesn’t change anything.”

“No,” Sam mused. “But doesn’t mean you’re not still going to be mad. I also know that this makes you even more motivated to do exactly what you aren’t supposed to do. So, when are you going on this unsanctioned, highly dangerous mission?”

“I’m not,” I shot back and crossed my arms. I didn’t like how Sam was digging into my brain. I knew Wanda was the only one who could actually read brains but I seriously wondered if Sam didn’t possess some ability too. “Besides, I’m grounded, remember? Steve won’t let me out of his sight.”

“Sure he will,” Sam shrugged. “We all know he’ll calm down eventually. And you’ll wait until he does. And that’s when you’ll go. So my only request is, let me know when you go, okay. I’m always down to kick some Hydra ass.”

“Okay, bird-brain,” I rolled my eyes. I turned my attention on Steve as he stood before Bucky. Every muscle in his broad back was stiff, his arms folded in a defensive stance. He was speaking quietly to Bucky, loud enough for the soldier to hear but quiet enough that we couldn’t. I risked a glance at Bucky and saw his eyes were trained on the floor, unblinking and unwavering. I frowned as Steve leaned forward, almost imploring Bucky to look up. The brunette didn’t move a muscle. The only thing that moved was his left hand. There was a slight jerk in his fingers, like an electric shock was going straight through his left hand.

“Have you had any luck with the politician?”

“Smith?” I shook my head. “I’m searching surveillance at Sheremetyevo to see if his face pops up. I alerted TSA too, see if they can get him at departure and had them expand the search to private airfields.”

“Can they do that?” Sam asked.

“Government can track anything.” I muttered. I averted my eyes back to Steve and Bucky. Steve was pacing now and I could see the agitation. From the side profile of his face, his jaw was wired so tight even I could see the muscle tic from where I stood. And my eyesight was shot from staring at a computer screen my whole life. Bucky’s gaze still remained trained on the floor, but his fingers still twitched. It was like he couldn’t look at Steve’s face, even if he wanted to.

“S’kinda weird, y’know?” Sam whispered to me as we both watched Steve and Bucky. “How Bucky won’t look at Steve. It’s like he doesn’t want to believe that’s his best friend.”

Something clicked in my head at Sam’s words. It’s like he doesn’t even want to believe that’s his best friend. “What if he doesn’t?” I murmured.

Sam gave me a disbelieving look. “Han, I saw the two of them in Berlin. Bucky never forgot Steve. I mean hell; in Bucharest he protected the damn guy even with his head all over the place. He pulled him out of the water at Triskelion. You don’t forget someone like that, a best friend. They’re with you for life.”

They’re with you for life. “What if he’s doing that now?” I whispered to myself as the pieces came together.

“What?”

“Sam.” I turned to face him. “What if Bucky is protecting Steve now?”

Sam’s brow furrowed. “Han, baby, what are you talking about?”

“He knows. Bucky knows something. He’s not telling Steve. I know it.”

“Alright, alright,” Sam acquiesced. “Talk to me, what are you thinking?”

I caught my lip between my teeth as my brain hurried to fit all of the pieces together and as it did, an image began to form. A very blurry, very sketchy picture that probably didn’t mean anything but it definitely meant something. Maybe.

“Bucky can’t look Steve in the eye. Why?”

Sam shrugged. “Dunno. I think it’s because he can’t.”

I turned to Sam. “He can’t?”

Sam’s face turned dark. “On one of the…trips Steve and I took, we came across a Hydra facility where they had some, uh, soldiers in training if you will. Very early in the process. But they couldn’t look us in the eye, and they wouldn’t speak. We finally figured out they would only speak when addressed and we had to give them permission. It was engrained within them.”

“They saw you as superiors,” I murmured. “The ultimate control.”

Sam nodded. “I think that’s why he can’t look at him. He sees Steve as superior to him.”

I shook my head. “It’s more than that.” I sighed as I began playing with the tips of my hair, tugging and twirling. “Sam, I don’t think he’s not looking at Steve because he views him as his superior. I think he can’t because it’s Steve.”

“I don’t follow,” Sam frowned.

I turned to face him. My voice became hushed and faster as I got more excited. “You said it yourself, Sam. The type of friendship Steve and Bucky have – it’s for life. Nothing could break it. With that type of closeness, I mean, they know everything. What if Bucky is afraid that Steve will read him like a book? Know exactly what Bucky is hiding without Bucky having to say a single word.”

“So, you think this whole not looking each other in the eye thing is because Bucky is scared? That it has nothing to do with Hydra?”

I shook my head. “I think if Steve were to give Bucky an order, Bucky would follow. He’s been made to follow orders. But he can make decisions. He chose to talk to me. I didn’t tell him to talk to me, I never gave an order. I merely asked. And he responded. So he can make his own decisions, but maybe only to a certain point.”

Sam nodded slowly, as if the puzzle was just beginning to form in his head too. “What if Bucky doesn’t see you as his superior?” I whipped my head to him and narrowed my eyes, a warning for Sam to tread very carefully. “I’m not saying you’re less than him, baby,” Sam defended himself quickly with an assuring smile. “All I’m saying is Steve kind of screams the whole I’m the boss I make the orders aura. You’re much more laid back. Maybe Bucky felt that he didn’t have to answer to you, that you weren’t there to give him orders.”

I relaxed my rigid stance as I thought about what Bucky said. It was interesting theory and I struggled to make sense of it all. I turned to Steve and found him talking to Bucky again, his face closer to the electromagnetic wall.

I stepped away from Sam and moved closer to Steve, careful not to startle Steve. “Steve,” I prompted softly. He looked away and I was floored by the look of pure exhaustion on his face but it melted away into impassiveness as he walked towards me.

“What is it Hannah?”

“Steve,” I swallowed. “You need to order Bucky to look at you.”

There was a beat of silence. “What?” His empty voice made me shift uncomfortably. I felt like I was asking someone to kidnap a child. And essentially, I guess I was. If the child was freewill and the ability to make your own decision.

“You have to,” I murmured.

“Hannah. I am not going to force him to do something.” His voice was fierce as he bent down to my face, his blue eyes chips of pure ice.

“Steve,” I forced myself to meet his chilling stare. “I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t have to. He knows something. Trust me, please.”

My heart cracked as his face twisted into one of pure anguish. “Hasn’t he been ordered around enough?” He asked his voice tight with pain.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Steve nodded and I watched as his face turned to stone and his voice became hard as rock, void of emotion.

“Bucky, I need you to look at me.” His voice wavered but Bucky didn’t. I flashed him a sideward glance. His shoulders stiffened and it almost looked like he was bracing himself. “Soldier, look at me. Now.”

Bucky turned his head. But it looked like someone was pulling an iron chain and he was doing everything he could to fight back. But when his eyes met Steve’s, I felt as if I had been sucker punched.

The look of pure hatred that scorched in Bucky’s eyes made my stomach churn. But Steve’s gaze didn’t falter. “I know what you’re doing,” he murmured. “Don’t do this, I need to know.” Bucky didn’t look away, but there was so much more than anger in his eyes. I had never seen a look so loaded before in my life. “What are you trying to hide? Who are you trying to protect? Is it Kotevsky, is it Hydra, who is it?”

There it was. The finger twitch. The moment Kotevsky left Steve’s mouth, Bucky reacted. It was slight, almost invisible. But it was there. I turned my head to look at Sam, whose eyes were narrowed. He saw too.

“You know,” I whispered, my voice shell-shocked. Bucky didn’t look at me, but I know he heard me. Steve snapped his head down as his brow furrowed into a knot of confusion. I ignored him as I stepped forward. “What is it, what is it about Kotevsky that you know?” Bucky’s gaze didn’t waver and I felt that tiny flutter of anger in the pit of my stomach. I swallowed to try and calm myself down as I spoke softly. “Who is Kotevsky, Bucky? What is he going to do, is it the drop tonight?” Bucky turned his face away, but I saw. The slight tremor of fear that skittered across his face. Right before his features turned to marble. I reeled back as it dawned on me. “The drop…you know. You know about the drop.”

He didn’t answer, his face stoic. Like a statue. “Jesus,” Steve whispered behind me.

I ignored him and dropped down to Bucky’s level, tilting my head as I tried to meet his gaze, no matter how hard he tried to avoid mine. “Bucky. Tell me, please. I need to know.” The silence that followed was deafening. “What are you so afraid of?” I prompted softly. He finally met my gaze, and it was pleading. Begging me to drop it, to walk away. My breath stuttered in my chest but I refused to look away. “I will find out,” I told him firmly and willed my voice to remain steady. “You know it’s just a matter of time.”

“I know. I’m just hoping you run out,” he murmured, his voice rough. I frowned heavily as I gripped my hands tightly together. There was that flare of anger again that threatened to lash out. I took a deep breath and willed myself to calm down.

“Why?” I whispered. “What do you know? Bucky, please. Something is happening; something big and we need to stop it.”

“No you don’t,” he gritted his teeth. “Please, drop it. It’s not important.”

“Yes it is,” I argued as my face grew hot. I was getting angrier and angrier by the second. “If it’s worth a billion dollars then it must be pretty damn important.”

Bucky winced. “It isn’t. Let it go.”

I held back a snarl as I stood up suddenly, my glare fixated on Bucky. “He knows,” I muttered to Steve. He nodded as I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room. “Useless,” I muttered to myself the whole way up to Tony’s lab. “Absolutely, utterly, useless.”

I slammed the keypad outside Tony’s lab and jammed in the code. Out of my peripheral I saw the red lines scan my face and a red dot appeared. “Unconfirmed facial scan. Please turn to face the–”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I shouted as I turned to bang on Tony’s door as the stupid scanner kept reading my face. “Tony, open this fucking door or so help me–”

The heavy door swung open as Tony stood before me, a shit-eating grin on his face. “You were saying?”

I growled as I stomped past him, throwing a middle finger to the scanner and the disembodied voice. “Kotevsky,” I spit out. “What do you have on him?”

“Jesus, Barnes really got your knickers all in a twist,” Tony snickered but stopped the moment I glared at him. He cleared his throat quickly before he sauntered towards his monitors, ignoring the piles and piles of junk that threatened to suffocate the spacious lab. “Nothing. I ran his face through every government operated security camera in the entirety of Moscow and found nothing. I don’t think he is in Moscow, Han.”

“No, he is,” I muttered. “Smith is way too over the top. Moscow is the capital, it holds the most importance. That’s where he’ll want to be.”

Tony snorted. “God, you sound like my shrink. Watching too much Criminal Minds lately?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, I just hang out with you too much,” I quipped. Tony attempted to look affronted but I could see the smile fighting its way.

“What have you got so far?” He asked as he plopped down on his leather chair.

I sighed and shook my head. “A bunch of coded conversations. I’ve pretty much guessed that the wedding means the main event – maybe a grand opening of some sort. The reception is the actual drop-off. But I’m also pulling this out of my ass so really I have no idea. I have searches running for his face at Sheremetyevo and through TSA. If he’s cocky enough he’d go through the international airports.”

“You don’t think he’d use a private airfield?”

I shrugged. “I’m hoping he doesn’t. Even if he does I have the ones that he frequents under surveillance. I’m really hoping his ego comes in the way of his intelligent thinking and somehow we get a hit.”

“So really, we have nothing.”

“Exactly,” I sighed as I leaned against the table.

“Barnes came up dry?”

A sour look came across my face. “Drier than the Sahara. He didn’t give us jack shit. He just said it wasn’t important or whatever the hell that means.”

Tony scowled as he shook his head. “He’s hiding something,” he muttered into his coffee cup.

“Or protecting something,” I added.

“We just don’t know what or who,” Tony finished and we both shared a grim look. Bucky was the missing puzzle piece. He was just the piece that refused to cooperate. Just as I was sitting and contemplating all of the ways that I could kill someone without getting caught, my phone dinged. I pulled it out of my pocket and when I saw the notification, I jumped up and nearly catapulted myself to the nearest computer.

“I found him,” I explained to Tony before he asked. He perked up instantly and came to stand beside me as I sent the information to Tony’s monitor. When the successful search popped up, I almost laughed.

“Is…is that a fake mustache?” Tony sputtered as he tried to hide his laughter. There was Smith, in all his mediocre glory, wearing the fakest mustache known to man and this god awful fedora that made Patrick Stump look fashionable.

“Jesus, I hate politicians,” I moaned as I minimized his picture. “Alright, he arrived at Sheremetyevo about four hours ago. He then–” I followed CCTV throughout the airport before I found him climbing into a town car, “–gets into a town car which is taking him…somewhere. That I’m going to find out.”

“That’s what I pay you for,” Tony remarked sarcastically but I ignored him. I ran the plates of the town car and found it linked to a private limo company that contracted out limos and cars to very high-end and prissy clientele.

“God, do I love wire transfers,” I grinned as I followed the bank and found an account in Switzerland tied to the name Noah Trilnoj Dohms.

“What kind of name is that?” Tony snorted as I entered that name into the limo company clientele list that I oh so conveniently hacked into. “Who names their kid some plain name like Noah and then give them a middle name like Trilnoj?”

“I mean, your parents named you Anthony so you’re not far behind on the whole plain name list.”

Tony scoffed. “I’ll have you know that Anthony means highly praiseworthy. I’m anything but plain.”

“Yeah, but the Greeks associated Anthony with flower, so like you said,” I turned to him and gave him a mocking smile, “I guess you really are anything but plain, hm?”

Tony’s mouth opened and closed – sort of like a flower in bloom – as he searched for an answer. I smirked as the monitor dinged and the ever so plain Noah Trilnoj blinked at me. “You know,” I mused, “maybe I should make you a flower crown. Those are highly praiseworthy, aren’t they?”

“Shut up,” Tony snarled and I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled up Noah’s sheet.

“Well,” I hummed. “Looks like Mr. Extravagant is staying at an equally extravagant hotel.”

Tony leaned over my shoulder, seemingly forgetting my quip. “Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel.” He rolled his eyes. “How American.”

“Well, he is American,” I looked over at Tony with a raised eyebrow, “and are we going to forget the little fact that you won’t stay anywhere unless there is a Marriott stationed nearby?”

“Hey, I like the food. Plus they have the softest towels.”

“Do they really?” My voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Oh, definitely. Softer than a baby’s bottom. Especially when they’re snuggled around your–���

“Yep! Okay, moving on,” I yelled, waving my arms in the air. Ignoring Tony’s amused chuckle, I easily moved through the servers at the Hyatt and easily found where Noah was staying. “He’s in the Winter Garden Suite, checked in about…two hours ago.”

“Do you ever wonder if your fingers are going to fall off?” I whipped my head around to stare at Tony, my eyes narrowed as he shrugged nonchalantly. “I mean, you type so fast and practically drill your fingers into my poor, fragile keyboard. I’m just wondering if it’s possible for them to actually just fall off, y’know.”

“God, you’re hopeless,” I rolled my eyes towards the sky and pushed back from his desk. “And your keyboard is a projection onto your desk, jackass. I hardly doubt it’s seeing some damage.”

“The whole table vibrates when you type. The whole table.”

I tutted softly in mock sadness as I patted his cheek. “My apologies, il mio fiore. I’ll make sure to send your desk a thank you basket for putting up with my brutal ways.”

I didn’t give Tony a chance to answer before I sprinted off, snagging a tablet in the process. All I heard was Tony’s voice bouncing through the lab as he yelled: “Did you just call me flower?!”

I pulled out my phone and dialed Sam’s number. He picked up on the first ring. “What’s shakin’ bacon?”

“Smith just checked into the Winter Garden Suite at the Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel about two hours ago. I’m cross checking now but I’m pretty sure there is an art opening about five miles from there tonight.”

“Hey, HP found something,” Sam said away from the receiver. He was back within the moment. “You think this could be him?”

“Oh, I know it’s the slimy bastard. He’s under the alias of Noah Trilnoj Dohms–”

“What kind of name is Noah Trilnoj Dohms?”

“Oh God, not you too,” I sighed heavily as I nearly dropped the tablet in disappointment.

“No, but seriously Han. Think about it. I mean…Noah and then–”

“Moving on, Sam,” I spoke sharply as I reached my cave. “He’s wearing this god awful mustache which is really what you should be focusing on.”

“Mustache? Like Tony’s mustache bad? Or me during the 80s bad?”

“Try Charlie Chaplin bad.” Sam whistled beneath his breath and I had to stop myself from laughing. “I’m sending a photo to you and Steve now. I’m inside the GPS of his town car so if the key even comes near the car I’ll know about it. I’m working on the security system to see if they’ve got cameras inside the suite, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Alright, you’re the best baby,” Sam cooed into the phone and I rolled my eyes as I hung up.

I set down the tablet that was connected to the GPS system of the town car as I brought my monitors back to life. I quickly wrote a code and began hacking into the security system, which took me all of twenty minutes. I soon found myself in the Winter Garden Suite where the lovely Johnny was staying. Nothing was really going on, it seemed like the security detail was completely relaxed, some of them even conversing. They obviously had no worries. I tapped into the audio and began downloading all of the audio while I let it play into my earpiece.

Nothing interesting was happening, just quiet murmuring. Smith was nowhere to be seen. But even then, I could definitely hear him, and whoever he was with. And from the looks of it, so could his unamused body guards.

“On zvuchit kak slon.” One of the guards muttered to the other. After a quick Google Translate into what he said because shockingly, I wasn’t fluent in every language, I nearly choked on my spit. It sounds like an elephant.+

As I scanned over the security tapes, heading back to when they first entered the room, my eyes caught a flutter of white that fell to the ground when Smith opened his briefcase. I quickly froze the image and zoomed in. It turned out to be a piece of card stock with elegant script in what looked like silver cursive.

 ◊              ◊              ◊

THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY

IS REQUESTED FOR THE EARLY SHOWING OF

Treasure Nukus

Named after IV Savitsky

MONDAY March 16, 2017

FROM 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

THE PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

FORMAL COCKTAIL ATTIRE

◊              ◊              ◊

“The wedding,” I whispered with an exhaling breath. My fingers shook with excitement as I quickly searched Treasure Nukus. It was some set of paintings from the State Museum that apparently was a great representation of Asian culture. Either way, it was big. One quick sweep of the invitation list told me it was extremely secretive and a very expensive list. Big money was going into this showing and it was just an opportunity for people to show off their wealth and importance. It was Smith’s playing field.

I immediately rang Sam. “What’s cookin’ good lookin’?”

“I found it.” I practically panted out like a rabid dog. “I found the wedding. Well, I think so. It’s the closest that I’ve gotten and it makes sense because…well, it just does. It has to. If it doesn’t you have full permission to punch me in the face.”

Sam laughed. “I’ll remember that, baby. Now, tell me. Where is this lovely wedding that I have a feeling me and Steve are invited to?”

I grinned as I relayed what I found to Sam. “So, essentially, I’m shipping you off to sunny Moscow.”

“I’ve always loved how the Kremlin looks in the middle of the night,” Sam shot back unenthusiastically. “So, you’re all packed baby?”

“Packed?” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously as I clicked the monitor and let the video feeds play at real time.

“Well yeah, someone’s gotta go say hi to the good politician.”

I nearly dropped my phone. “I’m sorry…what did you just say?” I nearly screeched. “Are you out of your damn mind? What the hell have you been huffing down there?”

“Baby, we already sent Nat in so he’d recognize her and know we’re onto him. Wanda is too noticeable after Lagos. Hill is too in love with Fury to leave his side for more than ten minutes. So, that leaves you HP.”

I sputtered as I desperately grasped on some way to get myself out of this. “I’ll die out there Sam…I can’t, you can’t do this to me. I do not spy. I’m an awful spy.”

“Baby, you’re the best damn spy the world has ever seen.”

“Yes, behind a computer screen. Away from people.” I pressed my hand to my forehead and I immediately felt it break into a sweat. “God, are you trying to completely botch this mission?”

“Not yet,” his grin could be heard through the phone. I huffed out a breath as I stared at my monitors miserably. I suddenly had a sickening image of Smith’s wrinkly hands running up and down my back as his thin, papery lips pressed against my ear. I was gonna throw up.

“No, nope, absolutely not.” I shook my head and shot up as I began to pace. “I am not, no way. Send someone else. I quit, I resign, and I’m faking my death if I have to.”

“Oh, come on Han…” Sam’s voice faded away as a flicker of movement caught my eye on one of the feeds. It was the one that was trained on the living room, yet the hallway that led to Smith’s room began to show someone walking down it. A man walked out, shirtless with the top button of his pants undone. His dress shirt suddenly appeared as a pair of hands pulled it onto his broad shoulders. The gaunt body of John Arnold Smith emerged; his thin smile caused a shudder to dance down my spine.  But what happened next caused me to shoot up with a shocked gasp.

Smith leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to the lips of the man, his fingers brushing over his face.

“Oh my God,” I breathed out before a smile lit up on my face. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

“Hannah, what is going on? Talk to me, what happened?” Sam’s frantic voice suddenly registered in my mind as I grinned widely.

“I think the real question is: are you packed, Sam?”

There was a heartbeat of silence before Sam spoke. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I tapped my finger to my chin as I watched Smith say goodbye. “It seems to me that Smith doesn’t really like redheads, or brunettes, or girls, for that matter.” I could literally hear the thoughts clicking in Sam’s brain. “And Samuel…it seems to me that you are exactly his type.”

“No,” he immediately said. “Nope, not happening. Nice try Hannah. You’re lying, I know you are.”

“Am I?” I gloated as I sat back. “Besides, would I ever lie about someone’s sexual orientation? I may be a cold-hearted bitch, but I still have a heart.”

There were voices in the background and I heard Sam hiss, “Don’t agree with her. There has to be another way. No way, this isn’t happening.”

I held back my laughter as I watched Smith wave goodbye as the man left the suite. I had to make sure to send Smith a thank you card after all of this.

“So, baby,” I leaned forward in my chair with a wicked grin, “What color suit are you going to wear?”

TAG LIST:

@reinakatarina @decemberftw @yehummno 

[3ndoftheline]

Touch

Bucky x OFC

Summary:  He doesn’t talk to anyone, until her. She doesn’t touch anyone, until him.

Warnings: language (i think that’s it????? what is this??????)

Word Count: 8.3k (it’s long af i’m sorry i just get too excited)

Author’s Note: guess what!!!!! it’s my birthday!!!! and so my gift to you is this new story that i’ve been writing for a few months as a break from Savior. it shouldn’t be too long, probably under 10 parts but we’ll see how i do. this is one of my favorites and the main female character has definitely been on of the funnest to write so i hope you all enjoy :) feedback is encouraged, love you all xx

I wasn’t having a good morning.

Normally, no morning was a good morning. If it was morning, it meant I was up before noon which wasn’t something I normally aspired to do. If, for some horrible reason, up before noon, I wasn’t truly functioning until 10:30 or until about I had drank 50% of my body weight in coffee.

And on that fine, beautiful, bright morning it was the ass crack of fucking dawn and there was no coffee, no Nutella, and no Lucky Charms.

“Who the fuck ate all of my Lucky Charms?” I yelled to no one in particular. The kitchen was empty and I was pretty sure half of the team was away on a mission. It didn’t matter.

“Good morning to you too, Hannah,” Clint answered as he sauntered into the kitchen and much too chipper for the godforsaken hour that blinked on the microwave clock. I shot him a withering look as he grinned brightly. “I think Nat and Steve were talking about going healthier in the kitchen. Everything with a sugar count above two grams got trashed.”

“My diet consists of foods that have sugar counts above two grams,” I whined as I slammed the cabinet shut. “I’ll kill them. I’ll fucking kill them all.”

Clint laughed but it was quickly strangled by my venomous glare. “I may or may not have heard Tony may or may not have hid some poptarts in his lab,” he whispered before he slipped out of the kitchen, a Nutrigrain bar in his hand. I perked up instantly and didn’t even think twice before I practically sprinted out of the kitchen. Tony owed me anyways. Why? I had no idea but I was sure during the two years that I had been a consultant for the team I had saved his ass at least once. So, he owed me a poptart. Or four.

I made it to the lab without any distractions and barely encountered anyone. Again, should have been a huge, massive indicator that my morning was about to go from bad to worse. But I still had a sense of innocence plus I was so focused on sufficing my weekly sugar intake within a single meal I didn’t think of much else.

I made it into Tony’s lab and punched in the known codes and the vibranium infused doors slid open to reveal a sprawling lab that was an engineer’s wet dream. I made a beeline straight for his file cabinets that he never used for files. Low and behold, in the third drawer I found a box of s’mores poptarts with a sticky note on top.

PROPERTY OF TONY STARK – DO NOT TOUCH (HANNAH I’M TALKING TO YOU)

I cocked my head to the right as I stared at the note. I decided for a moment on whether or not to listen to the note. But then decided that I didn’t actually care and crumpled up the offending sticky and immediately pulled out a silver foiled packet. I bumped the cabinet drawer closed and sauntered over to one of the tables. It was filled with wires and parts of a robot that Tony was working on. There was a charred piece of metal that looked like it had held a roll of film but I had no idea, bits of plastic melted to the black twisted metal. I wasn’t sure if this was a new project or him just tinkering. I learned over the years not to ask.

I wandered over to his main desk where three monitors sat, all with different images flickering across the screens. The middle monitor caught my eye though. An unsent email, meant for me.

Hannah,

Take a look at this file, I probably should’ve given you the paper file but I’m too lazy and it’s covered with bolognese stains and I don’t have the time to explain nor do I feel like it. See if you can make any sense of the file. I’ll forward the email from the old man that he sent me, maybe it’ll help. Doubt it, though.

Thanks,

Tony

P.S. Don’t touch my poptarts.

~~~~~~~~Original Message~~~~~~~~

Subject: File 145879 Level A

           Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2016 15:36 EST

           From: Steven Rogers <srogers1918@avengermail.com>

           To: Tony Stark <onyourstarkgetsetgo@starkmail.com>

  Tony,

The file I just had Jason drop off is classified intel on a recent mission Natasha went on. It was the Jakarta mission. I think it’s about Bucky, possibly a location on him but I’m not sure. There’s a lot I don’t understand. Can you make sense of it?

Thank you,

Steve

P.S. Don’t show anyone this, its top secret and I’d like to keep it that way. Your discretion is greatly appreciated.

My interest instantly piqued as two major things caught my eye. Major classified intel and the fact that I wasn’t supposed to know about it. I immediately sat down and was about to go to town when I hesitated over the mouse.

First, I wasn’t even in my lab so Tony’s computers probably wouldn’t be able to handle the software I would have to run. Second, if Steve stressed how I wasn’t supposed to see it, or anyone else for that matter, maybe there was a good reason for it.

But Tony was going to send it to you.

I stared at the screen. I knew what I was going to do. It was the only logical thing to do in my mind. Then again, it was also six am so I wasn’t too sure what was logical and what wasn’t.

I sent the email and stood up from his chair and hurried towards the door, not before swiping the whole box of poptarts.

I take everything back. I was having a great morning.

***

When I settled down in my office which I humbly called The Cave because…honestly? It really was like a cave.

I had found this hidden door about six months into my time with the Avengers and it led to a room about twice the size of my apartment. It had amazing cell reception, perfect spots to plug in my computers and it didn’t have any windows which meant that I could never see the dust that littered my computer screens. What more could a girl want?

I plopped down on my leather chair and booted up my computer and within seconds all five monitors were up and running and the gentle hum that often comforted me filled the quiet crevices of the room. Dropping the poptarts onto the counter, I typed through my security and fished out the email I had sent myself.

I clicked the link to the file and instantly a plethora of pages and information popped up. I began sifting through the file and after a quick search, I pulled up the files for the Jakarta mission that Natasha had been sent on last week.

I had remembered Natasha had been bitching and moaning about the mission. She apparently had to seduce some sleazy politician into revealing the price for selling US secrets and who the buyer was. It was a simple mission in retrospect to the others that had been thrown around before. Natasha was granted access to an art gala within Jakarta and she found her way into the politicians mind and boom she walked away with a buyer, a location of the drop, the flash drive and an unwanted phone number.

It seemed pretty clean cut. Sam and Steve raided the drop and managed to take in four of Russia’s top hitting crime bosses and made a huge dent in another Russian crime family that was reigning terror on the rich of Moscow. Either way, it didn’t seem like anything that warranted a second look.

The file Tony had sent me but not really sent me held something completely different. It was a file on a supposed hit from some undercover SHIELD agent planted deep in the reserves of Hydra. Apparently, one of Hydra’s new and improved assets was planning on taking out a computer engineer from France just as DSGCE had planned to pull her out of her position at some engineering giant and move her to a safe house in northern Italy.

I frowned as I scoured the file for anything else but all I found were schematics on the planned route and any other excess escape routes or other possible routes. There were terrain maps, detailed descriptions of the vehicles being taken and a full inventory on what soldiers DSGCE were going to use for transport and what security was to be added to the trip. There was a myriad of information on how the mission was to be dealt with, but nothing on how the asset was to get to the computer engineer, nor how they planned to execute the assassination. It made me shiver how Hydra knew so much already about the mission that hadn’t even been executed yet.

“What are you hiding, Miss Computer Engineer,” I muttered as I turned my attention to the target. “And what the hell do you have to do with Bucky.”

I knew very little about Bucky. I had come into the team after the civil war. Bucky was supposed to be in Wakanda, frozen like a popsicle in some cryotank. A year ago, he somehow broke out or someone got him out and he had been MIA since. There had been isolated events that would send Sam and Steve running off for about two weeks and they’d come back dejected, annoyed and injured. I never knew what happened, and I never asked. There were some things I didn’t need to know. Bucky Barnes was the definition of a touchy subject. Every time his name was mentioned Steve would get all stony faced and Tony looked like he was about to have an aneurysm. So, again, I learned not to bring it up. But how he was connected to a computer engineer from France? I had no idea.

Her name wasn’t stated within the file but after a quick employee search within the engineering company, I found her. Carol Raulson. 34 years old, recently divorced and hasn’t had contact with her kids in the past two years. She worked graveyard shifts mostly and then worked as a waitress during the day at a café in Paris.

I dug deeper, going back ten years into the company and her part within all of it. She had been on Project Insight, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. A lot of people had been employed for the project but not a lot of them knew what they were building or what the purpose of it was. They were handed a check and given orders and that was it. She had worked on a few other government projects, though she never had a big enough part or high enough clearance to garner the attention of Hydra. She was too quiet, too in the shadows, too low level. She wasn’t important enough.

I frowned as I began searching through the mission Natasha had been on. I started digging into the politician’s life, his connections, his past, and his contacts, his everything. I tapped into his phone and found he had been in contact with an unknown number that had to be his buyer for about two weeks and their texts were sparse with as little information as possible. Just enough to scrape together a location and a time and date that Sam and Steve used to drop in on the Russians. There were longer phone calls that I was able to tap into and found their conversations mainly one sided. A Russian gave the orders and the politician followed them. I scoffed and was about to make a comment about how spineless politicians were until I came across a deleted call. After a quick dig, I was able to pull up the deleted audio file.

“Are we alone?” The politician asked, his usual wavering voice was suddenly strong.

“Of course, we always have been,” the Russian replied in a rough voice.

“You know what I mean,” the politician snapped. “Are we being recorded?”

The Russian growled beneath his breath and he sounded oddly like an annoyed teddy bear. “We never have been.”

“Good.” The politician cleared his throat. “You’re stalling Kotevsky. You’re wasting my time and I’m not interested.”

Kotevsky? I quickly checked the names of the Russians Sam and Steve had picked up. Kotevsky was not a name on the list.

“I am not wasting your time,” Kotevsky snarled as his voice crackled over the receiver. “What you ask for…it takes time.”

“And what I offer is priceless,” the politician shot back. “I am giving you a chance to make things right. To end four years of mistakes. I am giving you a chance to start anew. Are you willing to give that up over an issue with pricing?”

“No,” he answered quickly. “You ask for a billion…that takes time that takes patience.”

“I can take my offer somewhere else–”

“No! No, we will pay.” Now Kotevsky sounded nervous, cautious almost.  “Give us two days and the money will be ready.”

“You have thirty-six hours.”

And with that, the conversation ended. I checked the time of the call.

10th of October, 06:14.

“Shit,” I swore under my breath as I stared at my monitor. 36 hours. “Shit, shit, shit, shit.”

“Hannah?”

“Shit!” I yelped as I jumped about a foot in my seat. I whipped my head up to the offending disturbance and found Sam leaning against the doorway, his eyes wide in alarm. “Sam! God! What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing! I knocked like four times, everybody’s been calling you. Where the hell have you been?”

I furrowed my brow and quickly grabbed my phone. Sure enough, I had about twenty missed calls and most of them were from Steve. “Where’s Steve?” I asked as my eyes flicked to the time on my phone. Fuck.

“Well, that’s what I was here–”

“Sam,” I snapped. “Where is Steve?”

“He’s in tower four, basement level. He’s been looking–”

I didn’t wait to hear the rest of Sam’s sentence. I shot up and grabbed my phone and bolted out of the room. Sam stood back as I slammed the door shut behind me and sprinted down the hall.

I had never run so fast in my life, and I wasn’t even exaggerating. By the time I got to the elevator I was heaving and could barely get my command out to FRIDAY. “Fuck, I need to get out more,” I huffed to myself as I leaned against the cool metal interior of the elevator.

“Due to your elevated heart rate and blood pressure, I would advise extra physical activity and a change in diet.” FRIDAY’s pleasant voice filtered through the speakers. I gaped at the AI and fumbled for a response as I realized I had just gotten told by a computer that I was fat.

“Rude,” I muttered as the doors pinged open, revealing the basement level of tower four. I quickly exited the elevator when I suddenly realized I actually had no idea which part of the basement Steve was in. The basement was silent. Deadly silent. Although you’d think that would be a norm considering that it was a basement, but nearly every part of the Avengers facility was full of people. It just came with the job. So to see it this quiet, it was unsettling.

I swallowed and crept forward, looking for any signs of life. None. On either side of the hallway. Repressing a shiver, I unlocked my phone and checked my messages from Steve, hoping that they would give me some sort of inclination on where he was.

I need you down in the basement. ASAP. Code White.

Hannah, did you hear me? Code White. Get to the basement. Now. I need you in room 12.

Answer me.

Answer your phone. Now. That’s an order.

“What the hell is a code white?” I muttered to myself as I stared at the texts. I had never heard of a code black in my life. Code blue? Sure, I watched Grey’s Anatomy. Code red? Obviously, I wasn’t an imbecile. Code white? Never in my life. But whatever it was, it was bad enough for Cap to use it so I spurred myself to motion and hurried down the hall to room 12.

I reached an unassuming gray door and quickly rapped my knuckled against the metal. I barely touched my knuckles to the door for a second knock when it swung open to reveal a stony faced Natasha.

“Nice of you to show up.”

“I need to talk to you and Steve. Now.” I completely ignored her snarky comment and pushed past her. I scanned the room and found Steve walking towards me, his eyes flashing with a dangerous glint.

“Where the hell have you been?” He hissed before he even reached me. “Do you understand–?”

“Listen,” I held my hand up for him to stop, “lecture me all you want later. But you need to hear this. Now.”

Steve looked like he was about to argue but Natasha placed a soft hand on his forearm before she turned to me. “What’s going on?”

I sucked in a deep breath and looked at Steve and tried to ignore the frigid stare he was sending my way. “That drop you and Sam went on, where you canned those Russians, it was a diversion.”

“What drop?” Steve asked with a perfectly pulled confusion face. It was his I have no idea what you’re talking about because you don’t have the clearance look. So I gave him my I know exactly what you’re talking about because even though I don’t have the clearance I still saw exactly what I wasn’t supposed to see look. It took him two seconds for his face to smooth over as realization dawned on him. He whirled around to glare at someone behind him. “Stark,” he growled. But before he could make a move, I interjected.

“Again, scolding later. This is much more important.” I tugged on his jacket sleeve and bounced on the balls of my feet. I barely registered the burns and tears that littered the jacket and the blood that speckled Steve’s shirt. Steve turned around reluctantly as his jaw clenched and unclenched.

“Go on,” he bit out. I wrung my fingers as I struggled to compose my thoughts.

“The drop, that Natasha got from the Jakarta mission. It was a fake. That’s not the actual deal.”

“Hannah, we received credible intel on the politician. He’s been dirty before. Steve and Sam brought on a huge loss on the Markolinski family who we believed for quite some time now had ties to Hydra. That mission was anything but fake,” Natasha explained gently but her eyes warned me to tread carefully. I was pretty much telling her that the information she gathered had been wrong. It was like caging a newly-woken grizzly after its hibernation. It was suicide. But she needed to understand.

“I’m not saying the whole mission was a waste. That politician is still dirty. But he’s planning something much, much bigger. The drop was a diversion, to get you guys off his trail. The real drop is happening tonight. More specifically, in twelve hours.”

“Hannah,” Steve’s voice was suddenly measured as his face transformed into marble. His Captain face. “What do you know?”

I sighed. “Not much,” I admitted miserably. “I didn’t have enough time to really look; I needed to find you first. But, I was looking into the file that you had sent Tony. The one that you thought had something to do with Bucky’s location? Well, Carol Raulson–”

“Who the hell is that?”

“–the computer engineer,” I shot a look at Natasha who merely shot me an even darker look. “I have no idea why Hydra has a target on her back. She’s not important. There might be more to her, but she barely had enough government clearance to be considered for Project Insight. She only got on because another engineer dropped out and they needed another body to fill the space. Other than that she’s worked on low level stuff for the French, nothing major. Then, I looked into the politician and found the same things Nat did. He had a buyer, they exchanged phone calls, and the Russian was calling all of the shots. Then I found a deleted audio file, a phone call. It was between the Russian, a guy named Kotevsky and the politician. And it tells a whole different story.”

“Kotevsky?” Steve shared a look of confusion with Natasha. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“I know. Me neither. I hadn’t had the chance to dig into his life, but I’ll do that later. But, the phone call had the politician calling the shots. The politician told Kotevsky that he was stalling, that he had something that would right a mistake that happened two years ago. His price was a billion, something Kotevsky was having trouble with. The politician gave him thirty-six hours to come up with the money. That was twenty-four hours ago.”

Steve muttered something under his breath as his fingers carded through his hair. “So we have twelve hours to find the new drop site and figure out what the politician is selling.”

“It’s something big. Something worth a billion dollars.” Natasha stared at a fixed point behind my shoulder and her eyes darkened before they quickly flashed back to mine. It happened so quick I wondered if I had imagined it.

“But what I don’t understand,” I continued with a quick clearing of my throat, “is why you thought Bucky’s location was in Carol Raulson’s file.”

Steve swallowed thickly as his eyes, same as Natasha, flickered to something behind me before he looked back at me. I was floored by the pain that swirled in his blue irises. It was so raw, so ancient I wanted to curl him into my arms and comfort him for the next one hundred years. “I thought that if we could find the origin of the assassin, or at least where his safe house was it would…we could be closer to find Bucky.” He sighed as his hand rubbed the back of his neck. “But, uh, that’s not necessary anymore.”

My eyebrows shot up as I stared at him. “What do you mean?”

Steve didn’t answer me. Instead, he stared over my shoulder. With a furrowed brow I turned around and froze immediately in my spot.

There, fifty feet behind me, was Bucky Barnes.

At least, I thought it was. I had only seen grainy pictures of him on a TV and an old military issued photo from the forties. But the long, shaggy hair and the piercing blue eyes were unmistakable. And considering the suffocating tension that I had somehow managed to breeze right by hit me like a ton of bricks and I knew. It was him.

“Oh,” I squeaked. “I see. Um, okay. That’s uh, that’s…cool, good. Yes, good. So, um where did you find him?”

“Cryotank in Siberia.” Tony spoke this time, his voice dripped venom. I couldn’t help but flinch.

“Has he been active?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Natasha shrugged. “He hasn’t spoken a word since we woke him up. We’re not even sure if he’s him. He nearly tried to kill Tony once he was awake.”

“That would explain that get-up,” I muttered as my brain registered the buckles and braces that he was tied in. His arms were stretched out and attached by chains to the electromagnetic walls of his holding cells. His legs were bound by vibranium braces that covered his whole lower leg and a chest brace that was leather but I knew it was vibranium and Antimidium infused. I had created those braces myself. Electrodes were connected to his shoulders, neck, chest and back. Safety precaution but I knew if he so much as tried to make a sudden movement so much electricity would zap through those electrodes it would kill a normal human. I wasn’t sure how Bucky would react, but I knew he would be stunned for a bit, long enough to be detained and restrained.

“Yeah,” Tony spit out. “Should have done that four years ago when we had the chance.”

“Tony,” Steve warned but he sounded tired. So damn tired. I opened my mouth to make some sort of comment when suddenly Tony’s words stuck in my brain.

Should have done that four years ago when we had the chance.

Four years ago.

“A mistake,” I whispered as everything abruptly snapped into place. A mistake.

“What was that?” Natasha asked but her voice was muddled as my brain kicked into overdrive.

“A mistake that happened four years ago,” I said in a soft voice as I stared at him, Bucky Barnes. “He was the mistake that happened four years ago.”

“Who, Bucky?” Steve asked as I stared, my mouth agape.

Tony scoffed. “Sorry to burst your bubble, sweetheart. But the Winter Soldier was created in 1945. Not four years ago. So I don’t know what you’re going on about but–”

“No,” I interrupted him as I turned to look at Steve, pleading for him to understand. “Four years ago, what happened?”

Steve furrowed his brows as I saw his brain working. “Uh, SHIELD fell?”

I nodded furiously. “Yes, because of…?”

“Hydra?” Steve tilted his head and I wanted to scream.

“The Winter Soldier, Steve. The Winter Soldier was the final piece of the puzzle. He was the catalyst, the beginning of the end.” I could barely understand myself I was talking so fast. “But after the Battle at the Triskelion, the Winter Soldier abandoned post. He went AWOL. He broke protocol and reverted from the Winter Soldier to something else.”

Steve’s eyes suddenly widened as he saw what I saw. “Oh my God,” he whispered as his gaze fixated on Bucky.

“What is it, Steve?” Natasha asked as she looked between us with an annoyed expression.

“Bucky is Hydra’s mistake,” I said. “The politician told Kotevsky that Kotevsky could right a mistake that happened four years ago. I know we don’t know much on Kotevsky, but we already know that the guys Steve and Sam got had known ties to Hydra. What if Kotevsky does too? What if he had something to do with the Winter Soldier, with Bucky and the Battle at the Triskelion? If he did, if he somehow is to blame for Bucky becoming something other than the asset, wouldn’t that be something he’d want to fix?”

“But how do we know that Kotevsky had something to do with Hydra? This is all speculation, you have no actual proof,” Natasha said as she glanced at Steve.

“We’ll find it.” Steve’s voice was clipped as he whirled around to face the three of us. His eyes locked with mine and I could see the desperation that filled his normally cool gaze. “Hannah, can you find something on Kotevsky?”

I nodded. “Probably. It’s, um, it’s probably not gonna be completely…you know, legal if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t care. Do what you have to do. Do what you do best. There’s a reason you’re on this team. Now prove it.”

“No pressure,” I muttered to myself as I turned to Tony. “Got a tablet I can borrow real quickly?”

Tony nodded as he nodded to the table towards the back of the room. I squeezed past Steve as I made a quick beeline for the tablet. I swiped up the clear glass square and the moment my fingers touched the screen, the world was at my fingertips.

I typed Kotevsky into the search bar and had FRIDAY run the name through every database Tony had access to. I hesitated for a moment, then ran another search using Carol Raulson and waited as FRIDAY ran through the different databases.

As I waited, I watched as Tony, Natasha and Steve spoke furiously with one another while they kept glancing at Bucky. I followed their gaze and nearly fell off the table when I saw his blue eyes fixated on me. They were intense, even from fifty feet away and all of the hairs on my body stood up.

The tablet pinged in my hand and snapped me from my revere. I looked down and frowned as NO RESULTS FOUND blinked on the screen for both Kotevsky and Carol Raulson. I tapped the retry button and expanded the search to global level, including underground networks that SHIELD wasn’t even sure existed. When I looked up again, Bucky was still staring at me and a thought popped up in my mind. What if I didn’t need to search online, what if I had a personal google search engine right in front of me?

I set the tablet down as I slid off the table. I met Bucky’s hard stare as I got closer to his cell.

“I wouldn’t even try, Snowden,” Tony called and I winced at the nickname. “Frosty doesn’t know how to speak, we’ve already established that.”

I ignored Tony as I approached Bucky’s cell. I watched his arm as it tightened the moment I breached the twenty feet mark. I immediately stopped as I stood before him, hands at my side. “Do you know who Kotevsky is? Or Carol Raulson?” I asked softly. I knew he heard though. He merely blinked at me, his mouth stayed in a thin line. “Please,” I whispered. I could have sworn I saw his jaw clench but within the same second, his face was smooth and unaffected.

I swallowed and shook my head and was about to turn around when I heard a single word, uttered so softly I thought I had imagined it.

“Alone.”

I turned around quickly and narrowed my eyes at him. His eyes flashed towards Steve, Natasha and Tony who were only half paying attention. His lips barely moved as he spoke, barely loud enough for me to hear. “If you want answers, we have to be alone.”

I barely breathed as I stared at him for a heartbeat before I spoke. “Uh, hey, guys. Is it cool if I have the room?”

“What?” Tony snapped his head in my direction. “And leave you alone with this maniac? No way.”

“Tony–”

“He tried to kill me, Hannah.” Tony hissed as his hand passed over his neck. Purple bruises hid beneath the collar of his shirt. “He’s unstable, we don’t even know if he’s out of his brainwashing yet. I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“Trust me,” I begged as I turned to face them. “Please. Give me the room and I can give you answers. Just, please.”

Steve glanced at Tony who looked like he was about to combust. Steve then looked at me before he sighed. “Sorry, kid. Tony’s right. It’s too dangerous.”

I snarled as frustration curled in my stomach. I heard the distant ping of the tablet and a plan formed in my mind. With a sigh and I rolled my shoulders back and nodded curtly. “Fine,” I bit out as I stalked to the tablet. I grabbed the tablet and stared at the screen as NO RESULTS FOUND flashed across the screen again. I gritted my teeth and tapped out of the search engine. “Sorry, Cap,” I said as I found my way into room 12’s mainframe. “You said I have to do what I do best to get what you need.”

Steve stared at me before he suddenly spurred into action. “Hannah, don’t you dare–” his voice was cut off as a blank wall separated me from him. I tapped furiously on the screen as I cut off all cell service from the room and isolated the room from the rest of the facility. Security feeds shut off and I rerouted FRIDAY to ignore commands from room 12. Finally, I blocked all visuals and the clear wall turned gray as Bucky and I became well and truly alone.

“God, I’m so fired,” I muttered as I brought the tablet down by my side. I glanced towards the wall that I had created and could just imagine what was going on on the other side.

“You’re Ramsey.” His voice was raspy, like it hadn’t been used in years. It was deeper than I imagined, like warm honey.

“Who?” I tilted my head at him.

“You’re Ramsey,” he repeated. “You were my mission.”

“Oh, cool. I usually never meet my assassins so this is refreshing,” I smiled the fakest smile I could muster before I sighed. “Listen, I don’t know who started this rumor of Ramsey, but it’s just that. A rumor. I am not this fabled Ramsey, in fact I’m actually the exact opposite of Ramsey. Ramsey tries to hide I really don’t have shame in what I do.”

“What you just did,” he nodded to the wall, “that’s something Ramsey can do. I read the file. I know it.”

I had to hide the eye roll. “I don’t care what file you read or analyzed or whatever. I have no idea what else I have to say. I am not Ramsey. I am Hannah. Simple, old Hannah who would really love this answers you mentioned so I know that I didn’t just put my whole career on the line for nothing.”

Bucky stared at me; his blue eyes were sheer sheets of ice. They were empty, hollow. That’s what freaked me out more. How lifeless he was. Just a shell of a man. “You’re not going to find Kotevsky or Carol Raulson in the system.”

“Yeah, got that far,” I muttered as I waved the tablet at him. “Figured as much. Even used all of my not so legal sources, too. So, what have you got for me?”

“Not much,” he muttered and I felt myself deflate. “Kotevsky…he’s familiar to me. I don’t know why.” He frowned and I watched as his muscles tensed, bulging against the straps. He didn’t wince though I knew a warning zap of electricity had just been administered.

“Do you have memories?” I asked cautiously. I had read Bucky’s file. Only the SHIELD version, which was sparse if that. I wasn’t prolific in neuroscience or cognitive science but I had a feeling his file was far more in depth than the one that was presented to me. I figured that I had the actual person in front of me I might as well divulge some extra information along the way.

“I don’t know.” His frown deepens. “He wasn’t Hydra, I know that. Pieces, I see him where it’s cold.”

“You were held in the Ural mountains so that would make sense,” I spoke mostly to myself but I had a feeling he heard.

“And Carol Raulson isn’t real,” he added.

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling as I tried to calm down. “Wonderful. So I’m supposed to tell Captain America that this engineer who doesn’t really matter but Hydra wants dead doesn’t actually exist? That he was chasing a dead lead the whole time? Great. You know how that’s going to go, don’t you?”

“Hydra didn’t want her dead. She was my mission.”

“Oh, oh! Right, so sorry, my bad. So Hydra wasn’t going to kill her. You were.”

“I wasn’t going to kill her. She was my mission.”

“What were you going to do, take her out for dinner instead?”

He wrinkled his nose. “No. She was my mission.”

“Okay, what exactly does that mean?” He tilted his head in question and I tried to hold back my sigh of exasperation. “This whole ‘my mission’ bullshit you keep spewing. Does this mean you were going to kidnap her, ask for her autograph, what were you planning to do with her? Because last time you said that, I’m pretty sure you were in the process of rearranging ol’ Cap’s face on top of the Triskelion.”

There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes before it morphed into blank anger as he regarded me with narrow eyes. He displayed more emotion in that one second time span than I had seen since I had walked into room 12. “How do you know that?”

“I read the transcript. He was wired, you know that right. That’s like, SHIELD 101 right there.”

“How did you read the transcript? That’s classified.”

I snorted. “What the hell are you, my boss? I read lots of stuff I’m not supposed to. That’s why I’m here.”

“That doesn’t make you very trustworthy.”

“That’s not my goal,” I spit back. “Besides, you’re one to talk about trust. Last time I checked I’m pretty sure we’re tied for the least trustful in the room right about now.”

Bucky looked like he wanted to argue but instead he sat back – as much as the bonds allowed him – and rolled his lips into his mouth. “She was my mission,” he repeated. His voice was hard with a dangerous edge, but there was a hint of confusion. “I don’t know what that means. I just know she was the last mission.”

I sighed and sat down on the ground before him. The cement was cold and seeped through my leggings but I ignored it as I settled the tablet in my lap. “Alright, Tinman. Let’s see what we can figure out here.” I looked down at the failed searches and an idea blossomed in my mind. “Do you remember anything about your mission? Maybe a name, a location, a time? Anything?”

He furrowed his brow. There was a beat of silence and I wondered if he wasn’t going to answer when he finally spoke. “Jolene.” There was a hint of a spark in his eyes when he looked at me. “Jolene Kaplan. I don’t know who that is, but I remember that name.”

I nodded encouragingly as I typed the name into the general search engine. I ran the search and received results instantly. Three million of them. “Okay, that’s a start,” I mumbled. I glanced at Bucky who was staring at his knee with such severe concentration I was worried he’d pop a blood vessel. “Anything else?” I prompted as I tried to keep the urgency from my voice. I didn’t want to freak him out or anything. Again, I wasn’t a neuroscientist I had no idea how delicate his brain was or what his boundaries were and I was not about to test them.

“It was urgent. Mission prep was only two days and I was in the process of being briefed, I think before I blacked out and woke up here.”

“What happened?”

He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Relapsed, had a heart attack, who knows.” Ah, the Winter Soldier has a sense of humor, I mused to myself as I tried to hide my grin beneath the curtain of my hair.

“Take me back to the briefing. Was there any important information that stuck out to you? Something that could make or break the mission?”

There was a beat of silence again that only frayed my nerves even more. “France,” he murmured. “Something about France.”

I nodded as I typed in France, which only narrowed it down to about a million. “Fantastic,” I muttered sarcastically. I pulled at my lip as my brain a thousand miles a minute trying to figure out a plan. France, something about France. “Carol worked in France,” I whispered to myself as a small idea began to form.

“Carol Raulson doesn’t exist,” Bucky reminded me with a hint of annoyance and I had to sit on my hand to keep myself from adding a jolt of electricity to his bonds.

“On paper she does,” I snapped. “Jolene, she exists though. Jolene is in France, so is Carol.” I looked at Bucky with wide eyes. “Could Jolene and Carol be the same person?”

Bucky considered it for a moment. “I guess. That doesn’t make much sense–”

“It does, though,” I said excitedly as I sat up on my knees. “Carol is supposedly an engineer based out of France. SHIELD gets intel that Hydra is putting out a hit on her, but what if the hit is a kidnapping? Carol is actually Jolene, someone completely different, someone Hydra wants.”

“What are you saying; my mission was to kidnap Jolene?”

I shrugged. “Why not? It’s obviously she was hiding from something. Who else makes a fake identity and stays low level at an engineering firm for five years?”

“Someone who wants to hide.” He was finally catching on. “Is Carol – or Jolene, French?”

“Carol is French. But Jolene…Jolene, I have no idea. I need to find out though.” I frowned as I began to pace, my fingers tapped along the tablet, typing nonsense into the search bar. “I have to get a hold of the mission file.”

“My missions file?” Bucky sounded incredulous. “Can you hack into Hydra and find it?”

“Sure, sure,” I muttered. “I’ve done it before. But it won’t be so simple.” Bucky gave me the what the fuck are you talking about look so I decided to indulge him. “If it’s your mission file, it’ll be under the files of the Winter Soldier. Your file is sealed off, major. Surrounded by layers of interfaces and AI’s all intent on keeping nosey people like me, out. But I can hack into it. But once I do, that means a self-destruct program will set off and I have thirty seconds to gather all of the information I need. That’s not nearly enough time.”

“So, it’s useless.”

“No, nothing is useless,” I admonished. “I can do it if I have direct contact with the source. Then I can deactivate the self-destruct program temporarily, long enough for me to download the files.”

“What do you mean by the sources? You want direct contact to Hydra’s mainframe?” A disbelieving laugh left Bucky when I didn’t respond. “Are you crazy? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yes. Which is exactly why I should do it.”

Bucky shook his head as he gaped at me. He was absolutely right. In order for me to do what I want to do, I’d have to literally be on the computer within Hydra that held access to the mainframe, and then download the files I needed after hacking into the Winter Soldier mission files. I was looking at least an hour and that was practically impossible with Hydra. I was asking for death. “You’re asking for a death wish,” Bucky accused and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“Probably. But do you have another plan just lying about?” He was silent which was all I needed. “Exactly. If there is any chance of figuring this out, I have to get to those mission files.”

“And how do you plan to do that? Just waltzing in to a Hydra base and asking politely to steal their files?”

“I’m not stealing,” I snapped. “I’m borrowing. Indefinitely. And I’ll figure it out.”

“Can you even shoot a gun?”

“Of course I can,” I protested hotly. I was lying, 100%. Whenever I heard a gunshot I wanted to pass out. Bucky seemed disbelieving but I merely scowled and turned my face away. I was not about to let him have the satisfaction of being right. “Anyways, why do you care? Not like you can do anything about it.”

He gave a small, noncommittal shrug. “I know the repercussions of sneaking into a Hydra base. You don’t.”

“Who says I don’t?” I shot back with folded arms and a heavy scowl. “And besides, who says you do? Snuck into a lot of Hydra bases in your heyday?”

He shook his head and a dark look passed over his face as his jaw tightened. “No. But I was the repercussion.”

I swallowed and nodded as I suddenly realized who I was sitting in front of. A man who could very easily kill me seven different ways with his pinkie if he wanted to. Instead of dwelling on that chilling fact, I forced myself to stare at my tablet and think of the other chilling fact; finding my way into a Hydra base. “Alright, so if I were to hypothetically sneak into a Hydra base undetected and have about an hour to myself, how would I do it.”

“You can’t. It’s impossible without getting killed first.”

“Hypothetically,” I snapped and flashed him a hard glare. He pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes to the sky. As if he was getting exasperated with me.

“Well, hypothetically, you’d have to find a Hydra base that had direct access to the mainframe, which isn’t common. Most of Hydra’s facilities hold bits of the mainframe and documents pertaining to their purpose but they don’t have enough connections to the mainframe for what you have planned. Once you find the base – which you probably won’t – you have to plan a coordinated attack based off the blueprints you can obtain of the building. You most likely have to get a mole – who will probably be discovered and killed – in there to scout out escape routes and tunnels that aren’t shown on the prints. Once you have those, then you can spend weeks planning a mission that will evidently fail because missions never ever follow the plan you create, and once you do that you go to the base and then maybe get a half an hour tops before you escape with your life and only some of your limbs, if you’re lucky.”

I blinked at him. “Wow. Has anyone ever told you what an absolute ray of fucking sunshine you are?”

He smirked. “Comes with the territory. Just being realistic.”

I rolled my eyes as I began tapping away at my tablet. I was mostly writing code for absolutely nothing, but it helped me think. “This actually isn’t too hard,” I muttered to myself. “I can find the mainframe easy enough, or a way around it. I won’t have to worry about getting in–”

“You definitely have to worry about getting in.”

I sighed as I stared at Bucky. “No, I don’t. You said yourself that having a plan is useless because it never goes as planned. So I’ll just go in with no plan, save myself a few weeks of mission prep.”

“Go in with no mission plan?” Bucky spluttered before he laughed out loud, harsh and disbelieving. “You’re officially the stupidest, craziest, most idiotic person I’ve ever met in my life. Do you know anything about missions or even coordinating highly covert ops like this?”

“Excuse you,” I miffed as I tried to swallow the hurt. I knew how to do my job, probably better than anyone else and I almost wanted to punch the skeptical look off of his face. “Last time I checked, I’m the one not strapped into a million belts and shackles with absolutely no room for any movement. I’m also not the one who got captured from their own mission they were supposedly planning. So while yours seemed to have failed, and mine hasn’t, I’d keep the fucking comments to yourself.”

His face turned to marble and I knew I had hit a soft spot but I couldn’t care less. His ego was suffocating me and I was having enough of it. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. What they can do. I’ve seen it, I remember. Trust me, this is the last thing you want to do.” I was shocked at the severity in his voice. It cut through me like a knife.

“Why does it matter?” I shot back. “Not like you can stop me, anyways.”

“I’ll tell Steve.”

I blanched at that. Steve would murder me, or even worse, lecture me. “Please,” I scoffed as I attempted to act nonchalant. “I don’t take orders from Steve or anyone else in this building so go ahead.” It was true, slightly. Steve did give the orders, mostly. Technically, he was my sort of boss I just chose to ignore what he said most of the time.

Bucky raised an eyebrow curiously. “Really? The way he was going off in here could’ve fooled me.”

I scowled. “Well if you had such suspicions, why didn’t you say anything?”

Any sort of semblance of a smile was gone as he glared at the ground; an ancient sadness clouded his eyes. “It’s better if I don’t say anything?”

“Is it?” I was surprised at how soft my voice had become. “If you hadn’t said anything to me I would still have my face stuck on my tablet fruitlessly searching a name that didn’t exist.”

“Yeah,” he frowned, “yet now I somehow got in your head that going on an impossible mission with no sort of mission prep is somehow a good idea.”

I shrugged. “Really, that’s not your biggest problem.” Both of his eyebrows shot up until I nodded to the thick cuffs that kept him locked in place.

“Oh.” He sighed as he flexed his fingers. “Trust me, I’ve been through worse.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I mumbled. I threw a glance at the invisible wall and cringed at the thought of what was going on on the other side. “You want to tell them, or should I?” I threw my thumb in the direction of the wall.

He shook his head. “Your mission.” It didn’t really sound like my mission, it sounded like he was giving up.

I sighed but didn’t push him. He made his decision. He didn’t need me badgering him about it. I opened the tablet and began to run the code to unlock the room. In the ten seconds it took for the program to run, I turned to Bucky and looked in his eyes as I whispered, “Thank you.”

He didn’t respond. But I thought I saw him smile, which was enough for me.

[3ndoftheline]

Savior

Bucky x OFC

Summary: Breaking hearts and being controlled by pens - all in a days work.

Warnings: language, blood is mentioned, possibly confusing greek dialects??

Author’s note: it’s the first day of march and ya girl is coming at you with a brand new installment of Savior!! this part kind of goes into depth of the languages the Greeks used back in ancient times. again, i’d like to point out that i am not an expert in Greek mythology or the linguistics of the Greek language. The information in here is from research on the internet. If there are any questions or something is wrong, please let me know! as usual, feeback is welcomed and i hope you all enjoy xx

Sophia vs The Real World

Avengers Facility: Upstate New York

Sleep, what an odd word.

I almost laughed out loud when Bucky told me to go to sleep. It was cute that he was making sure that I got enough rest, it really was. If the thought wasn’t so hilarious I probably would’ve melted at how adorable it was.

I didn’t sleep. In fact, I couldn’t sleep. I could rest, I suppose, but sleep? And dream? Not a chance.

I didn’t want to tell Bucky that, or even try to explain to him how the hell that worked because even I wasn’t totally sure. Plus, I had dropped enough metaphorical bombs on him for the time-being. I figured he deserved a break.

I hadn’t meant to tell him about Zolo, or about anything regarding his past. It was a bit fucked up that I had been there for a good majority of his life as the Winter Solider. It wasn’t even a little bit, actually, it was completely fucked up.

But Bucky had practically begged me to tell him. It was his life, a part of his life he wanted to forget but also a huge missing piece that he was desperately trying to figure out. His eyes had been my undoing. Big, blue and desperate as he stared at me, it was like puppy dog eyes but a 1000 times more potent.

I could feel the warmth of his skin against my cheek still, and on my hands I could feel the warmth and the cold his hands provided. I found myself tracing the back of my palm, imagining what it would like to be that warm all the time.

I was so consumed in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear the door open as my favorite redhead walked in. “You’re awake.” I turned my head and had to keep myself from rolling my eyes as she approached the cell wall. She had breakfast in her hand and I was willing to bet money that there were potatoes on the plate.

She pressed a few buttons on the tablet in her other hand and a space in the wall appeared – just as it had been for the past three months – and she placed the plate on the little tray underneath the window.

“You should probably eat, it’s going to be a long day for you,” she suggested but she and I both knew I wouldn’t be touching that plate of food. Probably why she didn’t even give me a chance to take the food (not like I was going to) as she sighed heavily. Natasha tapped her tablet for a bit before the entire wall disappeared.

She then pulled out the weirdest contraption I’d ever seen until my brain caught up and realized that it was handcuffs for my hands and ankles but it was all connected with chains and various other buckles. It looked like a strait jacket but without the actual jacket material – just the buckles and straps.

She didn’t speak as she walked forward and locked the cuffs around my wrists, leaving now room for me to move. Every time I tried, I felt the bite of the metal dig into my skin. She didn’t angry as she clamped the ankle cuffs in place but she didn’t look apologetic either.

“C’mon, Tony wants to see you,” Natasha muttered. Normally, I wasn’t so dressed up when I went to go see Tony, but perhaps after my last little show and tell they decided to take precautions. Smart I thought to myself. Bucky’s face flashed in my mind, the twisted features when I said the same thing to him about the government. I had never seen him so angry before. In fact, I hadn’t seen him angry at all before that moment.

I followed her – well, more along the lines of shuffled since the chains only allowed me to move so far. I had to be careful with how long my strides were. I could easily break through the chains but I didn’t want to freak them out any more. I didn’t need another week and a half of isolation.

So, it was slow going but we finally made it to Tony’s lab. It was huge, spanning so large I couldn’t see the other side of it and it was filled with gadgets and toys, half-finished projects and coiled wires. Today, there was an audience. Wanda and Vision, the two little mind readers and the one who shot the arrows, I had no idea what his name was. Carl? Connor?

“Welcome back,” Tony announced as he emerged from behind a towering pile of metal. I gazed quizzically at him as he walked forward, his hand hidden behind his back. Gone was the snarky remark that begged to be thrown out as I watched his arm. Hm, definitely something. “Nat, uncuff her. The whole point of this is to give her more freedom, now you’re just suffocating her.”

Freedom? Now I was very curious. I tilted my head as Natasha unlocked the handcuffs, looking anything but pleased with the situation as she narrowed her eyes menacingly at me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I dropped my hands to my sides, ignoring the pain that flared around my wrists.

“This wasn’t my idea,” Tony seemed to defend himself. From what, I wasn’t sure. “Vision and Wanda seem to think this will help, but if it were up to me you would’ve been in an entirely different situation.”

Like in the hands of the government, I thought to myself. Bucky would never allow it I wanted to gloat, to brag, and to shove it in his face. But I knew that would do nothing aside from get Bucky in trouble. Because I was 99.9% sure his little late night excursions would not be approved of if anyone knew.

I was still confused by Tony’s words until his hand revealed itself and I saw a massive syringe clutched in his hand, his thumb already hooked through the hole. Dark green liquid filled the canister and it seemed to be moving, flickering beneath the bulbs.

“Microchip,” Tony explained, seeming immensely pleased with himself. I had never seen one in liquid form before, and my interest piqued tenfold. He nodded to my arm and I stretched it out, suffering from déjà vu as I remembered all the times in his lab when we did this. Every day. Same tests. Same results. At least today it was a bit of a change.

Tony began explaining what the microchip did or more aptly what it was supposed to do. As I stared at the liquid tracking device, I knew it wouldn’t work. Even though Tony gloated about how he had made it fit to track a super-soldier, I knew it still wouldn’t suffice. I wasn’t a super-soldier or Vision. I was something different.

Give me something, I heard Bucky plead in my mind. I knew what he had really meant. Talk to the others, tell them something. I didn’t want to. In reality, I really had nothing to say. I couldn’t give them the answers they wanted. I didn’t have the answers they all seemed to think I had magically stowed away in my inner garden of knowledge.

But I realized now, I could tell Tony the microchip wouldn’t work. A part of me – a very large part of me didn’t want to tell him. Being tracked wasn’t exactly something I looked forward to. Having my every move monitored definitely was a giant pain in the ass and made me feel like a child that was sent to its room, confined to a single space. So, really, I could very easily not tell Tony about the chip and go on my merry way and not have anything to worry about.

Yet, all I saw was Bucky’s anguished face. The normally sky blue irises had darkened to a navy blue and I saw true fear in his eyes. The prospect of me going to the government scared him. I could see it, even though I knew he’d deny it the second I ever mentioned it. He wanted me here, at the tower. But in order for me to stay, I had to speak. And while I was very content with keeping my pretty little mouth shut and remaining a mystery, all I heard Bucky’s pleading voice and something twisted in my chest. It was all I needed before I said: “It won’t work.” Oh, here we go. Tony jerked back and glared at me, his face affronted.

“Excuse me?” He looked like I had punched him in the gut and told him the world was ending all in the same second. I sighed and leaned against the table. This is for you I thought to Bucky and made a mental note to myself to remind him of that next time I saw him.

“The microchip, it won’t work. It’ll dissolve in my blood the second you insert it. You’ll never track me with that.”

“This chip does not just dissolve,” he hissed. “It’s not like some…tablet that disintegrates in water. This is top of the line, brand new technology that was imported straight from Wakanda and–”

“I don’t care where it came from, it won’t work,” I told him, trying to keep my frustration at bay. It was like he refused to believe I was different, yet the whole reason why I was here was because I was different.

Tony began to launch into another tirade that I absolutely had no care for. Before he could react I snatched the syringe from his hand with blinding speed and turned to the petri dish that sat idly on the table beside me. I quickly dispensed the microchip into the clear dish and watched as the liquid bubbled and solidified into an unassuming tiny chip.

I turned to Natasha as I eyed the impressions of the knives and weapons that peeked through her clothing. “What metal are your knives made of?”

“Excuse me?”

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “Your knives. What are they made of?”

“Adamantium and vibranium,” Natasha finally answered as she regarded me cautiously. I frowned. Neither of those would break my skin. They’d barely scratch me.

“Do you have any celestial bronze? Or imperial gold?” I turned to Tony who looked at me as if I had three heads. Of course he wouldn’t know what I was talking about. Celestial bronze and imperial gold were extremely rare, even rarer than vibranium and Adamantium. They only affected a small portion of the population and they were so rare they were considered a myth. Just like me.

“I mean, I’ve got regular gold princess. I got lots of that, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

This time, I did roll my eyes. “No, too weak,” I muttered as I glanced around the lab. There had to be something. But there wasn’t. There was lots of stuff that could hurt a lot of people, all types. But not me. I realized how pretentious that sounded, like I was something special and ethereal. Which wasn’t what I was going for at all. It’s just how I was made. Unfortunately, nothing I could do about that.

I knew I’d have to go straight from the Earth itself, something I didn’t really enjoy doing but desperate times called for desperate measures. This wasn’t exactly desperate but in order to ensure that I wasn’t totally insane, it was desperate enough.

“Do those windows open?” I asked Tony, nodding towards the large bay windows.

He stared at me, completely mystified. He nodded though and the Robin Hood turned to open one of them. I walked towards the window and took a deep breath, smelling the fresh air. The sun was warm and welcoming and I watched as a little blue jay fluttered onto the window sill. It saw me and ruffled its feathers proudly and sang a stunning tune. I smiled as it hopped around, obviously proud of itself. I held my finger out and the bird completely bypassed my crooked finger and flew to my shoulder, nestling itself into the junction of my neck and shoulder. I let him stay there as I leaned my head out of the window.

I closed my eyes and focused my mind on the mines on Olympus. Soon, I could smell the musty Earth and the faint trickle of water and the stifling smoke from the forges. In my mind, I was there, with a pick axe over my shoulder and my skin black from grime and soot. My eyes fixated on a tiny pebble that was as black as the rock around it. As I walked closer, I could feel the power that radiated from the tiny circle. My hands reached out and I brushed off the dirt and found a dull piece of celestial bronze, humming with energy and practically begging to become a part of another piece of weaponry. I pressed the pebble into my palm and when I opened my eyes again my hand was clenched into a fist and I could feel the nugget of bronze warming against my skin.

I walked back to the table, ignoring the gaping stares of those around me. I pressed harder on the bronze and felt the pebble shape into a thin stick. I quickly held the piece of bronze in my hand and pinched the tip off, revealing a sharp edge. This is gonna have to do. If they thought I was crazy before…

With a sigh, I rolled my shoulders and pressed the sharp front against my palm and dragged an opening against my once untouched skin. Immediately, golden ichor – the blood of the gods – flowed from the cut and spilled into my palm. I dipped my hand forward and watched as four droplets fell against the microchip. Almost instantly, it folded in on itself like it was trying to become smaller. Smoke curled from the chip as my blood bubbled and collected around the chip like an angry, golden cloud. Soon, all that was left was a tiny puddle of my blood. The microchip was gone.

I dropped the celestial bronze and it melted into the worktable as the cut on my hand healed within seconds. I turned my head to Tony who looked about two seconds away from passing out or suffering from a stroke.

“See?” I nodded towards the now smoking petri dish. “Your microchip didn’t stand a chance.”

“How?” Was all he managed to say and I was surprised that it was slightly coherent.

I shrugged. “Who I am, chemical makeup. I dunno it’s just how it is.”

“But…when I ran those tests, all of that…why did I get results?”

“You didn’t.” I shrugged again. “They came back normal or inconclusive. Your systems identify unknown substances but unnatural substances. They aren’t equipped to handle that sort of information or results, so they just revert to normal or inconclusive.”

Tony blinked as he stared at me and he suddenly laughed, short and clipped and stressed. “I can’t…we’re going to talk about this later.” He motioned between the two of us. “This conversation is far from over.”

I wanted to laugh but I managed to hide it in a form of a smile. “Not much else to say.”

“Oh, sweetheart. I always have something to say.” He flashed me a lopsided grin and I couldn’t tell if I should feel creeped out or smile in return. “But, this has gone on for too long. We have a team meeting in five minutes and since I can’t track you, you’re coming with us.”

I frowned, having no interest in showing up to a meeting and it seemed like most of the room agreed with me but Tony didn’t give anyone a chance to protest. He strode straight to the door and didn’t wait for anyone to follow, we just did.

I was behind Tony and Natasha and the guy – gods what was his name? – walked behind me at such a close range I could feel their breath on my neck.

We walked through different hallways and doorways and I honestly had no idea where the hell we were until Tony stopped in front of a mirrored door which was extremely unsettling when I realized that the whole wall was actually a mirror. How narcissistic did you have to be to have a whole wall of mirrors in your place? Apparently, Tony Stark was narcissistic enough to find it necessary.

Tony swung the door open and I had to lurch forward to grab the handle as it threatened to swing shut. Rolling my eyes, I pushed open the door and stepped inside.

There was a long oak table that spanned across the room and fifteen cushioned leather chairs surrounded the table. Four of them were occupied with Steve, Sam, a guy whom I didn’t recognize, and Bucky.

But what caught my eye were the walls. They weren’t mirrors on the inside. They were holographic screens, depicting different events across the globe. Fires burned in California, buildings rose in Dubai, streets swelled with people in Tokyo and caution tape crisscrossed behind a news reporter in Toronto. Every major city was broadcasted on the screens and it seemed to be scanning for major news that was shown on the main screen at the north wall of the room.

“Scott, nice of you to join us,” Robin Hood shouted from behind me and I flinched at the sudden noise. The man whom I hadn’t recognized – Scott – looked up and grinned with a sort of boyish charm that made him look about five years younger.

“Clint, it’s good to see you buddy,” Scott bypassed the outstretched hand and went straight for a smothering hug. Clint! That was his name. I knew it started with a C.

The others breezed by me and I cautiously hung in the back as I watched everyone said their greetings and took their seats. I watched as Tony stood at the head of the table, his eyes flashed to me every few seconds as he spoke to Natasha.

“C’mon,” a thick voice said beside me and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned and saw it was the other red-head (why were all the girls redheads here? I felt oddly out of place), Wanda. She smiled kindly and for once I didn’t feel this insistent prodding at the base of my skull. She wasn’t trying to poke around in my head for once. “You can sit next to me.”

I narrowed my eyes skeptically at her, wondering if the seat she pointed to was booby trapped or something. “Are you gonna try to scrounge through my head again or are you over your little scavenger hunt?”

She smiled yet she visibly flinched and I suddenly felt a bit guilty. She shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know. I might keep looking, I sort of like looking at all the dogs you send my way.”

I couldn’t fight off the smile that twitched at the corner of my lips. She winked playfully then sat down and gave me a pointed look. After a second of hesitation I sat next to her and folded my hands in my lap as the table fell quiet.

“Well, glad you could all make it,” Tony began and I wanted to scoff at him but I kept my mouth shut. Everyone shifted in their seats and I allowed my gaze to lazily flicker over everyone. Natasha and Clint were muttering about something and their eyes kept glancing over at me then skittering away whenever I caught their stare. I fought off the urge to roll my eyes. Steve was listening attentively to Tony while Bucky sat beside him and looked enthralled with the pen that flipped between his fingers. I watched, mesmerized as the pen rolled effortlessly until suddenly the tip of the pen stopped and pointed right at me.

My breath froze in my chest as I looked up and was met with silver irises that danced with quiet amusement, hidden behind a sheet of ice. I raised my eyebrow and his right eye dropped in a discreet wink that was only meant for me. I quickly tore my eyes away and tried to ignore the warm heat that spread from my stomach to the top of my head. Gods I needed to relax. It was literally just a wink. It wasn’t like he proclaimed his love to me. I shook my head angrily trying to clear my head.

I turned my attention back to Tony and my breath froze in my chest for an entirely different reason. The north wall screen had changed to a bunch of documents and all of the lettering had black lines through them. But I didn’t care about the black lines. What I cared about were the words that weren’t blacked out.

They were in Ancient Greek.

“These are the files that we were able to download at the base in the Katun Mountains,” Tony claimed as he motioned to the screen. “As you can see, pretty useless.”

“What the hell are those words? What language is that?” Clint pointed to the Ancient Greek lettering as his brow furrowed.

“No idea,” Tony shrugged. “FRIDAY can’t decode it. It doesn’t register as a dialect. It might be a form of code that Hydra has created that we just haven’t been able to crack yet.”

“What about the redaction lines?” Natasha tilted her chin to the thick black lines that blocked out most of the information. “Can you remove them?”

Tony shook his head and his lips twisted in irritation. “They aren’t normal redaction lines. There’s code embedded in the lines. FRIDAY is still trying to decode them but everything she throws at it gets rejected or destroyed. Think you’ve got some contacts that can help?”

Natasha frowned as she stared at the documents. “I’ll see. I’ve never heard of redaction lines being encoded, but maybe someone else has.” She stood up and walked gracefully out of the room while tapping on her cell phone.

Tony turned his hard gaze to me as his eyes narrowed. I immediately tensed and braced myself for whatever he was about to throw at me. “Since you’re our resident expert on Hydra…you have any idea what any of this means?”

I ground my teeth together as I struggled to keep my face impassive. Resident expert on Hydra, who the hell told them I was the encyclopedia for all things Hydra? Whoever it was I hoped they stayed out of sight because I was going to kill them next time I saw them.

I sat back and drew patterns against my legs as I looked away from Tony. My eyes fell on the pen that was trapped in Bucky’s hand. The tip was pointed to me – again – as if to say your time to shine. I flicked my eyes up and saw Bucky staring at me. His eyes held nothing but his eyebrow curved up.

Give me something.

I glanced down at the pen again and found myself shifting in my seat. Like I was intimidated by a fucking pen. But the more I stared at the tip, the more restless I got. Could you believe it? The tip of a pen was slowly convincing me to speak. I was going crazy, I had to be. It was the only logical explanation.

I clenched my jaw and tore my eyes away and looked at Tony who was staring at me expectantly. Actually, so was everyone else. I released a tiny sigh and looked at the Greek lettering.

“The words are Ancient Greek,” I finally said and tried to ignore the various looks of shock on everyone’s faces. I felt like I was the main act in the circus. The main freak in a group of freaks.

“Uh, not to sound like an asshole,” Scott began saying. So you’re about to sound like an asshole I thought to myself, but kept my mouth shut. “But Ancient Greek is a pretty well-known dialect. I doubt that would stump FRIDAY.”

“It’s an ancient form of Greek known as Mycenaean Greek which was spoken by many Greeks in the sixteenth century up to the twelfth century,” I spoke calmly though I was a rage of annoyance inside.

“What are you our resident expert on Greece too?” Tony narrowed his eyes and this time I did roll my eyes.

“Well, Tony, some people are experts in more than one area. As a self-proclaimed genius, I would’ve thought you would’ve understood that. Perhaps you’re not as intelligent as you think you are.” His face blanched and then brightened to a lurid shade of red within a span of three seconds. Before he burst an artery, I continued. “As I was saying, Mycenaean Greek is the oldest form of Greek there is. It’s normally written in Linear B format–”

“What the hell is linear B?” Clint interrupted.

“A type of script. Like your alphabet is written in Latin script, the Mycenaean Greek is written in Linear B.”

“Linear B is an ancient form of script that was deciphered in 1953 by Michael Ventris. FRIDAY has the largest archive of ancient dialects as well as some alien languages. Deciphering Linear B should not give her any issues.” Vision spoke and I immediately decided I liked his voice. It was cool, calculated, measured. Like a robot. A refreshing change from the annoying chatter that came from Tony’s mouth.

“Because what’s on that board isn’t Linear B.” I pointed to the few letters that peeked out from the redaction lines. Each image could mean so many different things it was hard for me to understand. But the different option each image presented, I didn’t like where the context of the document was heading towards.

“Then what’s it written in?” It was the first time Steve had spoken during the entire meeting but he looked the most interested out of everyone.

“It’s written in Linear A.”

“Jesus Christ enough with the lines,” Clint muttered but I pointedly ignored him.

“Linear A is a dialect that Linear B is derived from,” I explained as carefully as I could. “Basically, Linear A is an unknown writing system that has never been deciphered. No AI in this world would be able to decipher it because there is no reference to go off of. It would be like trying to decipher a bunch of keyboard smashes. It’s impossible.”

“Then why can you understand it?” Sam asked. He didn’t look like he was accusing me of something – again, another refreshing moment – but he looked totally confused. I pressed my lips together as my chest tightened.

Give me something.

“Because I was alive when Linear A was used.”

“Um when was that, exactly?” Scott raised his hand and I had to resist the urge to call on him like a school teacher.

“2500 B.C.”

“How old are you?” Tony gaped at me.

“Didn’t your mother tell you, it’s rude to ask a woman what her age is?” I smiled sickly sweet at him. He scowled darkly as he pointed to the board.

“Can you understand this or not?”

I looked at the Greek symbols that jumped out at me. They seemed to swim before my eyes and I had to blink a few times just to focus. I frowned and shook my head. “No. Not without the rest of the documents. There is too much possibility with what the meanings of the symbols could be. It’ll be pointless to try and decipher when the meanings could change so easily.”

“Awesome. Just what we needed,” Tony muttered and silence fell over the table.

I sat back as my frown deepened. Linear A was an ancient, ancient form of writing that only a select few understood. It belonged to a civilization so old I had almost forgotten about it. But Mycenaean was associated with Linear B. Someone had to have found a way to take one language and manipulate it into a completely different writing system, one that only a small group understood much less could write. Whatever was on those documents, Hydra really really wanted no one knowing. And that’s what concerned me.

“Wanda, go show our Encyclopedia to her room.” Tony turned to me pointed a finger at me. “Don’t go anywhere, I’ll have a tracker for you soon.” I just smiled at him and ignored his heavy scowl as Wanda stood beside me and motioned for me to follow her.

I happily scurried after her but not without a quick glance towards Bucky. His eyes were focused on Tony but the pen was pointed in my direction. Instead of it being still, he flicked it back and forth, as if it were waving to me.

“I’ve lost it,” I muttered to myself before I ducked out of the room and welcomed the blissful silence of the hallway. Wanda wove in and out of the corridors and I had to struggle to keep up. Soon, we arrived at the elevator and I breathed out a sigh of relief because it was something I knew. It was normal.

The doors slid open and I followed Wanda inside and immediately retracted my previous statement.

The elevator was anything but normal. There was a TV screen that took up the wall to the left of the doors and images flickered past, revealing what looked like a promotional video for SHIELD and the facility or whatever building we were in. There were no buttons on the right side of the doors, just a square glass door with a tiny screen to the side of it.

“It gives you food,” Wanda said as I peered at the glass. I whipped my head at her, shocked. She tapped the screen and wouldn’t you know it, there was a whole menu. Think of all your favorite fast food restaurants and then throw in a few random healthy options to feel good about yourself and then you had a perfect description of the menu.

“North campus, the fourteenth floor please,” Wanda spoke and I was about to ask who the hell she was talking to when a voice suddenly responded.

“Yes, Miss Maximoff. What music would you like to listen to?”

She glanced at me. “Uh, High School Musical,” I blurted out. Wanda stared at me as – wouldn’t you know it – Breaking Free filtered through the speakers. While my cheeks flushed I didn’t regret my request one bit.

“A classic,” she smiled wryly at me and I couldn’t help but grin in return.

“Will that be all Miss Maximoff?” The despondent voice spoke again.

“Yes, FRIDAY, thank you.”

“Vision requests you in his quarters once you have finished.”

“Thank you FRIDAY.” Wanda’s cheeks blushed a faint pink. Her and the robot? Interesting.

We rode in silence as Troy and Gabriella belted out probably the most iconic song in the entire High School Musical trilogy. I tried not to sing along because that would probably make the situation even more embarrassing, Wanda broke the silence. “What was it like?” She asked. “Back then,” she quickly clarified when I frowned in confusion.

I shrugged as I dug out memories that were buried in cobwebs. “Smelly. We hadn’t quite mastered the concept of hygiene at that point. And hot. Also hadn’t mastered the concept of air conditioning.”

Wanda laughed as the doors pinged and slid open to reveal a single black tiled hallway that had doors that lead to two different staircases. One side the wall was glass, the other was metal. Wanda led me to a metal door and motioned to the keypad beside the door.

“You can set up your own four digit code and scan your hand. All the security here is biometric. Tony will get you into the system later today.”

I had a strong feeling that I wouldn’t have much access but went to the keypad typed in a four number code. I followed the instructions and got my handprint locked into the door and soon the door slid open after a successful ping from the keypad.

“Every Avenger has their own floor in this building. I’m on the third floor, if you need anything.” Wanda’s smile was apologetic as she glanced into the room. “Sorry, you were such short notice so we didn’t really have another room for you.”

I shrugged and breezed by her before stopping in my tracks.

The room was huge. It was easily twice the size of my apartment. There was a small kitchenette to my right and another door to my left was propped open and I saw that it was the bathroom. The floor was covered in a beige carpet and the bed was low on the floor with a plain white duvet. What caught my attention was the span of wall in front of me. It was entirely made of glass and for a brief moment I wondered if that whole side of the building was glass, but I didn’t care. The view was beautiful like something straight out of a painting or a postcard.

“You can decorate it any way you like,” Wanda added. “It’s yours. You do with it what you’d like. Sorry it’s small, like I said. You were short notice.”

I nodded mutely. This was small? I would hate to see what their big would look like.

“Well, if you need anything. Floor three.” She smiled awkwardly before she shut the door behind her. Silence enveloped the room and I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. Today had been hectic, a huge contrast to the past however many months I was locked in my cell. I couldn’t tell if I liked the change or not.

I glanced around my room, mouth open at the sheer size. I cautiously stepped forward, towards the windows and saw two other hallways that led to who even knew where. I didn’t have the energy or the mental capacity to find out at that moment.

You can decorate it any way you like.

With a soft breath, I opened my palm and felt the power of the Earth tug at my chest. I closed my eyes, and let the Earth grow, filling my room with everything I wanted.

[3ndoftheline]

Savior

Bucky x OFC

Summary: Story time is always necessary once you’ve broken the rules.

Warnings: i don’t think i swore in this but knowing me i probably did so i’m going to put up the language warning anway

Author’s Note: woohoo, part six (i think?) of Savior and i’m excited for this part since one of my favorite stories of greek mythology is going to be told. i hope you all enjoy and feedback is encouraged :)

Sophia vs Solitude

Avengers Facility: Upstate New York

I didn’t go to interrogations for a whole week. Nobody came down to see me, not even the guards. Food and water were supplied by a robot.

All of a sudden I wasn’t the main attraction. I wasn’t the fire-breathing lion or the trapeze elephant. I was the clown, the lonely monkey that everyone laughed at. I was hard to look at. I was a joke.

Which I guessed was fine. I mean, it was better than being tortured or something. But isolation sucked. Being stuck with just your thoughts…it gets to people; I’ve seen it drive people to absolute madness. It turned some people into mania, insanity spirits. When the person has long since died but the soul remains, wreaked into an absolute manic state and it controls the body. It destroys not only the soul, but the people around them.

Luckily, I was so close to insanity anyway I’m pretty sure my soul was saying Come on, I dare you to get any worse. Instead, I wasted my days away making my cell into various forms of the jungle. That was entertaining for a solid six minutes. Then I tried to make the largest flower crown but then I sliced myself on a thorn and got so mad I ripped the whole thing to shreds. Again, lasted about ten minutes. So sixteen out of the 10,080 minutes I was isolated in my cell were occupied with something only slightly productive. Awesome.

I knew things could’ve been a lot worse. Like, catastrophically worse. At least I wasn’t with Hydra anymore. Gods that place had been the worse. And the food there? Completely subpar. I had no idea who their chef was but he needed to be fired ASAP.

On the seventh day of complete silence, the door cracked open. I attuned my senses and could tell immediately that whoever was tromping down those steps like a fucking elephant was human. I turned my head and was surprised that it was Natasha. I always pinned her as a light walker.

“You’re awake,” her voice held a hint of surprise. I wondered what time it was. “I brought you breakfast.” Ah so it was morning. A little space opened up in the electromagnetic wall and she placed a plated on the tray. Even from here, I could tell the omelet had potatoes in it and they had home fries on the side. It was like these people only survived off of starch, eggs and meat.

She sat down on the metal chair that looked so uncomfortable. She crossed her legs and eyed me like I was a new toy in a shop window. I ignored her, something I had mastered, and continued drawing patterns on my jeans. “Sam is okay,” she said. “He’s in therapy since he needs to regain muscle function but he’s walking and functioning. Just as you said.” I didn’t look at her. Her words sent a cold relief through me, even though I knew he’d be fine. Apollo’s medicine never failed, unless the Fates planned it differently. I shuddered at the thought. The Fates were pretty much the personification of the idea of fate itself. They planned a person’s life according to how they wanted it to play out. And you didn’t mess with their plans. What they said went. Whether you liked it or not. But they were easily the creepiest old ladies I had ever met in my life, and I’ve been to the Underworld.

“You saved his life,” she stated but her tone didn’t sound extremely thankful. She said it more like I had dunked him into a vat of poison. “How did you get out of the handcuffs? Those were designed to keep people like you contained.” Maybe because I’m not an Asgardian psychopath, I wanted to bite out, but I kept my jaw screwed tightly shut. Suddenly she sighed and I realized where this interrogation was going. “I want to get you out of here, you know. I don’t like keeping you locked in here, especially after what you did for Sam. But you’re not helping your case. You staying silent don’t make any of us trust you any more than we do.”

I wanted to gag. It sounded like something straight from some shitty cop show where the good cop tries to reason with the bad guy while the bad cop smokes a cigar in the corner.

Natasha leaned forward and a hard look settled over her eyes. “You are powerful. We’ve deduced that pretty quickly. We don’t know to what extent, and that’s the problem. A man comes in claiming he’s Hades, someone who doesn’t exist – a myth – but apparently does. We’re cut off from the interrogation room and even Bucky couldn’t get through the door, no matter how hard he tried. Then, when we can get in, you’re unscathed and Hades is gone. Without a trace. He doesn’t even appear on our security cameras, nothing. Then you sing a few words and bring Sam back from the dead yet you claim that he was alive the whole time even though Helen said that nobody could survive those injuries. All I want to know is who you are. That’s it.”

I stopped tracing the pattern on my legs. She was good. She made herself sound sympathetic, like she was just trying to do the right thing. So heroic. The problem was that I hated heroes. So I turned my head to her and smiled, just because I knew it would piss her off. And I was right. Her entire body stiffened as she slowly rose and walked to the wall. Or at least as close as the wall would let her.

“I think you’re powerful, but I think you’re afraid,” she stared down at me. Her body shook with anger and her eyes danced with a vicious fire. I tilted my head; she had never reacted like this before. Suddenly, it clicked. Hades. Whatever had had shown her, whatever that fear had done to her, it had changed her. She was afraid. He had incapacitated her in a hot second and that scared her, and pissed her off. She couldn’t take it out on him, so I was her next best thing. “You’re afraid of what we can do to you. You’re afraid of our power. Because I think if you were as powerful as Tony claims you to be, you would’ve escaped long ago. You would’ve beaten us long before. Maybe you aren’t as powerful as everyone here thinks you are.”

Something ticked inside of me. Perhaps Hades had gotten to me too, who knew. But if there was one thing I hated more than anything else, it was superiority. People who saw themselves as above another, who looked down on others and saw themselves on a fucking pedestal.

And I was tired. I was tired of being patient and listening to her questions. I was tired of her running herself dead trying to get me to do something. I was tired of listening to the same damn thing every day. And I was tired of people trying to tear me down. First it was Hades and his stupid skeletons, I was not about to let Natasha gain the upper hand. Not this time, not ever.

I stood up slowly. My eyes leveled her gaze as anger coursed through me. I held it back as I walked towards the wall. It hummed with energy, like a river rolling through a mountainside. She didn’t back down and from the triumphant flash in her eyes I knew she thought she had me. She wanted me to break, she wanted me to explode, she wanted me to prove her right. She wanted me to show how dangerous I truly was. Just like Hades did.

Instead, I straightened my shoulders and smiled at her. I raised my hand and pushed against the electric barrier and watched as my hand passed through with ease. There was a little tickle, like the electricity was giggling. I opened my palm and focused on the center of my hand. Immediately, the energy pushed outwards and flew into the palm of my hand until a medium sized ball crackled against my skin while the barrier that had caged me in fell away. I looked up and saw Natasha’s eyes widen and she struggled to keep a neutral expression but I could tell she was feeling anything but neutral inside.

“You’re right,” I said, my voice soft yet held a dangerous edge to it. “I could’ve escaped a long time ago. I could’ve made this entire place disappear and none of you would’ve known. I could’ve killed every single one of you in a single second and no one could’ve stopped me. But I didn’t. Because I don’t need to. I am not afraid of you. I have no reason to be. You have given me no reason to fear you.” I wiggled my fingers and the bright energy swirled between my fingers like golden ribbon. I smiled slightly as I watched the light sparkle and twist against my skin as if it were saying thank you. I looked up again and my smile was gone. I lifted my head and stepped forward until I was standing right in front of her. My voice changed to a tone that I hadn’t used in hundreds of years. “But, do not taunt me, Natasha Romanoff. Or I will prove to you just how powerful I can truly be.” And with a flick of my wrist, the electricity shot backwards and wrapped around my cell again, returning back to the crackling wall behind me.

Natasha’s expression hadn’t changed but I noticed the muscles in her neck work as she tried to swallow or how her stare wavered when she stared at me. I had gotten my point across. That was all I needed. With a final steely look her ways I turned around and strolled through the electric wall and back to my bed.

When I turned my head again, she was gone.

*       *       *

After Natasha’s little two second vacation, my cell went from the Sahara Desert to Grand Central Station within the hour.

First it was Tony who stormed down the steps and began demanding answers to questions he couldn’t even formulate properly. He hated me. He truly, honestly, hated me. Which was fine, I wasn’t really looking for his love or affection anyways. He spent about two hours rattling off equations and theories all the while asking me how I got the energy to bend like that, how I was immune to the electricity when the mere touch of it to my skin should’ve killed me, and why the hell all of his tests were coming back either normal or inconclusive.

Next was Helen Cho (I finally figured out her last name) and it was just a quick update on Sam. She asked me about the incantation I had sung and what healing abilities I possessed. I didn’t answer her, same with Tony, but I smiled at her at least. Gave her something. I felt bad for her. She was honestly curious but if I gave her the answer she wanted, about 5,000 more questions would follow and Gods I hated questions.

Steve followed not long after Helen with my lunch. He sat down and didn’t say a word (a bit creepy) and then he began rambling on about ice and airplanes and intergalactic stones (not so creepy, but very weird). He then realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to talk and he wasn’t making any sense. He mumbled an apology and glanced at my full plate (steak and, of course, potatoes) but didn’t seem very surprised. He then walked away with a stuttered out apology before the door slammed shut behind him.

After that I dozed off for about a glorious ten minutes before the door opened again. I knew someone was coming down the stairs but I chose not to open my eyes. Hopefully they’d leave me alone.

“You sure know how to create quite a disruption, hm?” The smooth voice caused my eyes to snap open as I turned quickly to find Bucky resting his hip against the back of the metal chair as he regarded me with an amused expression.

My heart did not stutter painfully in my chest. It did not.

I shrugged but didn’t respond. Steve, Tony and Helen had all been bugged (they did such an awful job of hiding it) so I wouldn’t be totally surprised if they had Bucky bugged too.

“S’alright, I’m not bugged,” he said as if he could read my mind. He had a nice voice, deep and rough from years of not using it and sometimes his Brooklyn accent would peek through. “Jus’ wanted to see how you are.”

I shrugged again as I sat up this time. “I’m fine. I liked it better when no one came down here though.”

Bucky forced out a chuckle but something dark crossed over his face. “Do you want me to leave? I understand if you want some alone time.”

My knee-jerk reaction was to say yes. Because honestly, most of the time I liked being alone. But since we’re on the path of honesty, I also really enjoyed Bucky’s company. He was like a breath a fresh air and he was probably the only person within the facility that wasn’t either absolutely terrified or loathed me. “No, I don’t mind having you around,” I said without even thinking, and immediately wanted to dive into the Earth and never come back.

Bucky leaned back and I saw the ghost of a smile flicker over his lips. That meant he was either over the moon, or just really didn’t care for what I said. I was still busy figuring him out. Absentmindedly I traced the moss that covered my bed. Right now, my cell was transformed into the forest. Moss and bright green ferns were nestled in the shadows from thick oak and pine trees. The sunlight (or in this case, the incandescent light bulbs) flitted through the branches of the trees and created dancing sunspots across the soft floor. Wild flowers grew in speckled bunches and turned the air sweet and fresh. It reminded me of home, and my heart ached for it.

Bucky made a noise which sounded oddly like a grunt and I looked up to see his eyes narrowed at the back wall of my cell which was wrapped in vines and moss. “I’m sorry,” he suddenly said and I jerked my head back in surprise.

“What?” I answered oh so eloquently.

“For this,” he waved to my cell which sent me spiraling into a deeper sense of confusion. “No one should have to live like this.” I stared at him, wondering what the hell he was going on about, until it clicked for me.

The Fog.

The Fog was like a mist that wrapped around mortal minds (i.e. people not like me) and obscured the truth of my world. So if a ten foot tall monster was charging down the interstate and a bunch of heroes dressed in battle armor were chasing after it, mortals saw it as an eighteen-wheeler barreling away from a bunch of cop cars. It was our way to keep people safe and keep them from asking questions.

“What do you see?” I asked. Bucky flashed me a look as if to say are you crazy. I probably was but that was beside the point. While I had a forest inside of my cell, he could’ve been seeing the exact opposite.

“Mold. And dirty and grime and filth.” He pointed specifically to the back wall where most of the vines were. I almost laughed as a picture began to form in my mind. It was funny how The Fog worked sometimes.

“Do you want to know a secret?” Bucky furrowed his brow and I knew I was treading on dangerous territory. Manipulating The Fog was already dangerous enough for mortals, but erasing it for a moment? It could cause them to spontaneously combust, or send them into total madness. But Bucky wasn’t really mortal. He was enhanced, and due to the serum, he could withstand so much more than regular mortals. “That’s not how my cell looks.”

Bucky stared at me like I had three heads. “What do you mean?” His voice was soft and my heart stuttered in my chest as I stood slowly. Steeling my nerves, I walked forward and open my palm. The electromagnetic cage collapsed into the palm of my hand again and I raised my hand up. The crackling ball of energy floated at the center of the ceiling, throwing off dancing yellow beams of light. I looked at Bucky and his eyes danced in the light but he didn’t seem scared. Curious, confused, but not scared.

“Do you trust me?” I whispered my voice so quiet. Bucky stood up and I tried to swallow but my throat was too dry.

“You saved Sam’s life.” Bucky took a step towards me. He didn’t answer my question, but at the same time, he did.

I nodded and squared my shoulders before I lifted my hand. Bucky watched me carefully and I flashed him an encouraging smile before I snapped my fingers sharply.

The sound reverberated throughout the room as the air shimmered and curled around Bucky’s head. The burst of air that left my fingers pushed against his forehead until he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he looked the same except for the tiny glimmer that laced through his hair. A halo. It made him look even more angelic than he already did. Not that I thought he looked like an angel, or heavenly, or anything.

Bucky searched my face, most likely to see if he noticed a difference but I knew he wouldn’t. Plus I was too worried about how fucking sweaty my palms were to really focus on anything else. His brow furrowed and his mouth opened – probably to ask me what I did until he looked behind me and his mouth actually dropped open. Finally, he saw what I saw.

“Holy…” he let the sentence hang in the air as he cautiously stepped forward. He eyed the crackling ball of energy that shimmered as if to say we won’t drop on you, not yet anyways. He skirted around the electric ball before he cautiously set foot on the thick grass. The wild flowers waved gently at him as the sun beams chased each other across the patches of moss. “How…I don’t–”

“It’s called The Fog,” I explained gently as I let him explore. “It obscures reality, so that mine can remain secret.”

Bucky was quiet for a while as he ran his hands over the wall of vines that he originally thought was scum. His blue eyes were like kaleidoscopes as they shimmered with facets of light. The shadows played against his sharp and thick features. It made him seem more mysterious, yet softer at the same time. “So, this whole time, this has been–” Bucky shook his hand over to the oak trees that he still couldn’t seem to understand.

I shrugged. “Most of the time. It depends on my mood, what I miss, what I want to see.”

“What you miss…” he murmured as he stared at me with a mixture of awe and excitement. It made me breathless.

“Yeah.” I walked closer as the flowers bent towards me. I let their petals tickle my palm. “Today, I missed the forest. Yesterday it was the beach. The day before that was McDonalds.”

Bucky tipped his head back and laughed and I swore the flowers sighed. So did I. “McDonalds?”

“I miss their cheeseburgers, don’t judge,” I admitted playfully. Bucky shook his head, still in disbelief as he did a full 360.

“So this can be…whatever you want it to be?”

“Within reason.” I saw a flash of longing in his eyes and I took a cautious step forward. “What do you want to see?”

Bucky frowned. “I – I don’t know.” He paused as he seemed to weigh his options. “Coney Island. Y’know, back when it was really Coney Island. With the lights and the dancing and the cotton candy.”

I smiled and waved my hand over the cell. The forest fell away as across the floor, the ocean rolled in and sand spilled over our feet. A warm summer breeze mixed with sugar and sea salt whisked past our shoulders. Bucky’s eyes widened as he whirled behind him, only to see a wall of black.

“Sorry,” I murmured. “This is the best I can do. I’m still limited, to a certain extent.”

Bucky shook his head and walked forward. “S’perfect,” he mumbled as he breathed in deeply. And for a brief moment, he was a sixteen year old kid amazed with life. Cheeks flushed from the carnival and smile as sweet as the cotton candy that peppered the sides of his mouth.

I knew I was staring so I forced my gaze away and watched the waves roll inky black over the bone white sand. Seagulls cried in the distance though I knew none were nearby. The air held a sense of serenity to it that seemed to be lost nowadays, that blanket of peace that none of us felt anymore.

Bucky came and stood beside me. The air buzzed around me as if charged with electricity, until I realized that it wasn’t electricity at all. It was fireflies, dancing and dipping behind and above our heads.

“Fireflies,” Bucky whispered in the softest, loveliest voice you could ever imagine. “Steve and I used to catch these all the time as kids.” His eyes flickered like the lightning bugs. He looked young and happy.

“Do you know what Pleiades is?” I asked him as I watched the fireflies dance in the summer breeze. It was random and totally not relevant in the slightest but I saw the stars and sort of just…blurted it out. Plus, I was nervous as all hell so the fact that I was even able to formulate a full sentence was staggering.

“Yeah, it’s a cluster of stars that are seen around winter time, right?” Bucky furrowed his brow as if he were answering a question on Jeopardy. Gods he was cute. But that too was totally irrelevant. To the story, anyways.

“They weren’t always stars,” I murmured as I gazed up at the night sky. I looked for Orion and found him, his bow strung as his stars twinkled in the sky. He seemed tense and domineering, even in the sky.

“What do you mean?” Bucky seemed genuinely curious, so I sat down and dug my feet into the sand.

“Pleiades were originally seven sisters from Greek mythology. Their name originally meant ‘daughters of Pleione’ but that got too long to say so they became collectively known as Pleiades. They were nymphs – spirits of nature, in this case water – and they were associated with rain and Artemis, Goddess of the Moon.” I sat down and soon found the cluster, six gleaming stars that formed a little half-moon. “Their father was the titan Atlas. The titans ruled the Earth for years before the gods came into power. But once they did, Zeus punished the titans and forced Atlas to carry the weight of the heavens. Once this occurred, Orion,” I pointed to his constellation and Bucky nodded silently for me to continue. He didn’t seem too lost or incredulous which was a bit of a relief, “He was the greatest hunter in the entirety of Greece. Before he joined the Hunt of Artemis, he pursued the Pleiades. In their fear of Orion, they begged Zeus to help. Since Zeus felt a bit guilty for punishing their father, he turned them into doves so they could escape. But, since Orion was such an experienced hunter, it wasn’t long before he would shoot them down. So, Zeus immortalized them into stars and created the cluster Pleiades.” I pointed out the cluster to Bucky, whose eyes narrowed, then widened, then narrowed again.

“But there are only six stars.”

I nodded. “Merope, the youngest daughter, she shamed her sisters by falling in love with a mortal man. A king, but mortal. The sisters cast her away and thus, her star disappeared from the constellation.”

Bucky frowned slightly. “They punished her for love?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, she got it good. The seven stars became six, and that was it. They could’ve tortured her or her husband, or made their lives miserable. Really, she got off easy.” I tried to hide the envious tinge in my voice but Bucky picked up on it instantly.

“You sound like you’ve met her.” Bucky eyed me carefully and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I shrugged nonchalantly but didn’t answer. He didn’t press on, which I was grateful for.

“Humans studied the sky for centuries and fell in love with the story of Pleiades and Orion. You know, mortals love the whole stalker storyline. In a poem, one mortal described the constellation Pleiades: Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, glitter like a swarm of fireflies in a silver braid. Zeus became a huge fan of the poem and he always had a soft spot for the Pleiades so he made the firefly their calling card. So when the fireflies were out, it meant that the Pleiades would begin to show.”

“But Pleiades is already in the sky,” Bucky glanced at the fireflies. “Why are there fireflies?”

I smiled softly. “Because, Bucky. This is what you wanted to see.”

He stared at me and I couldn’t allow myself to look away. His eyes were now sea foam green that flickered with a myriad of emotions. Then he smiled. An honest, full smile that lit up his whole face. I hoped to the gods that he couldn’t see my pulse slamming erratically at the base of my jaw.

Bucky joined me on the sand and his shoulder brushed against mine. His gaze was transfixed on the sea and I tried not to focus on the electric sparks that twisted down my spine.

“Thank you, Sophia.” His voice was low and velvet rich and sparked something so deep inside of me I almost forgot that part of me existed. But instead on focusing on what was going inside of me, I decided to focus on the sea and the breeze and the faint scent of Bucky’s aftershave. Because for once, everything was fine.

And I doubted we’d get a moment like this again.

[3ndoftheline]

For Better or for Worse

Bucky x OFC

Summary: Were all love stories supposed to be this complicated? (Part Two to Lost and Found)

Warnings: language, angst (woo!!!!) it has a happy ending though so it’s okay

Word Count: 3.7k

Author’s Note: here’s the awaited and long ago promised second part of Lost and Found. I hope you all enjoy this installment of Charlie and Bucky (there could possibly be an epilogue? Or a third part? Idk, we’ll see how I feel and if you guys really want it). anyways, feedback is always welcome :)

Bucky’s smile was all I saw for two years, seven months and eighteen days.

He had become Bucky after the first date, his first name was used when I was annoyed with him or teasing him, same as mine was to him. He became a permanent fixture four months after our first date, seemingly worming his way into my life and made me forget what life was like before him.

I was happy. He made me happy, he made my mundane life suddenly burst like a kaleidoscope of laughter and colors and happiness. He was everywhere, I saw him in the simplest of things. I saw the silver of his arm in the moon. I saw his smile in ice cream and chocolate and everything sweet, I saw the mahogany of his hair in crowded park benches and blooming trees.

Being with Bucky was easy. It was so easy I didn’t even have to think about it. He was there when I needed him to be there but understood when I wanted space more than anyone else I had ever met. He understood when I was so stressed that sometimes I’d need a hug but most times he’d just make sure I was properly fed and slept well and in a few days’ time I’d crawl out of my shell and curl into his lap where he’d kiss away my mumbled apologies.

The only time it got hard was at night when I’d wake up to him mumbling and trembling. He didn’t thrash or punch or kick. It was like he was paralyzed with terror until I was able to coax him awake and he’d bolt up, panting and gasping for air as he’d look at me with wide, empty eyes. He’d pull me in close and I’d hold his huge body against mine until his erratic breathing calmed. I never asked about his nightmares. The few times I did it led to horrible fights that left both of us miserable and hurt.

So I learned not to ask and we fell into a pattern. As long as I didn’t ask or pressure him, he’d tell me when he was ready. Which was rare, he never told me anything about his nightmares until one night.

He woke up shaking and drenched in sweat and I opened my arms and let him curl into me. His arms held me impossibly close and his breath was quick against my collarbone. “They take you from me,” he whispered and I had to strain to hear him. “Every night. And they make me watch as you…as–”

“Sh,” I hushed him quickly as my heart tore in two. I didn’t know who they were, I assumed it was Hydra or whoever tore his life apart and left him to mend the broken pieces. And to know they were still affecting him like this, it made me want to cry for him and want to carry his pain all at the same time. “I love you. No one is ever going to take me away, I promise.” He calmed down faster than he did most nights, like a piece of his burden had melted away. But I was wrong. They never did take me away, Bucky’s demons.

Instead, they took him from me.

He left. Without a word, without a text, without a call. I came home from class one day and all of his stuff was gone. It was like he had never even been there. The only slightest inclination that I had left of him was the pendant of a rose that hung around my neck. Gifted to me on our two year, it was Bucky’s way of saying he loved me without ever saying it. He liked to call me petal; it was his nickname for me. I didn’t know why, he never told me and whenever I asked he got oddly silent and kissed me until I was breathless.

There were nights where I’d grip the rose so hard the shape would be bruised in palm for days until I furiously tried to rub it away, angry at him and myself.

For a long time, I thought he was dead. Perhaps, he had gone on a mission and never returned. But Steve never visited, no one did and I was pretty sure I was supposed to get some sort of notification if the love of my life suddenly fell off the face of this Earth.

But I got nothing and then in a newspaper one day, I saw him receiving the Medal of Honor alongside Steve, his lips pulled into a smile.

And I was angry. I wasn’t sad anymore. All the tears I shed, all the times I screamed into my pillow over a broken heart were gone. The gaping hole in my chest closed up and hardened over. I became bitter. I was angry at him for just leaving, leaving me by myself with no explanation, nothing. I was furious that he didn’t have the audacity to try and tell me something was wrong, to talk to me. He didn’t even try. He just…left.

So I stopped mourning over Bucky Barnes. Every time I saw a picture of him smiling and with Steve, or Sam, it drove a nail through my heart but I didn’t let myself dwell in the pain. I moved on. I burned every picture we had together and deleted every trace of him from my life. He had moved on, he was living his life, why the hell couldn’t I?

I graduated university and promptly threw myself into graduate school until I got my masters. My research propelled me into a doctorate at the age of twenty-six. At the ceremony my picture was printed in the newspaper for being one of the youngest holders of a doctorate in my field. I got a small column, but it was front page and my smiling face was there. Even in the picture, you could make out the rose pendant over my white gown, the one thing of Bucky I could never get rid of.

I walked home from work one day, whistling as I thought about the last piece of my congratulatory cake from my parents that were waiting for me to devour at my apartment. I saw a figure leaning against the wrought iron fence that caged in the front garden of my apartment complex. I didn’t think much of it, since there were people milling out there all the time. Until the figure became clearer and I froze into place.

It was him. Bucky, my Bucky. Leaning against the black iron, his hair had been cut short, but long enough for someone to drag their hands through and get a good grip. He was leaner but he was the same. His arms folded across his broad chest and the same stubble that dusted his strong jaw.

“Hi petal,” he whispered and my entire world came crashing down. The hard knot that had formed in my chest seemed to unravel in a second. But I refused to let myself fall to his feet like a lovesick fool (which I probably would have done if I didn’t have a shred of self-control). I deserved an explanation, I deserved a fucking apology.

“Why?” Was what I managed out.

“I saw your picture in the newspaper,” he murmured and there was a flash of pride in his eyes. “Youngest person in your field with a doctorate. I just…wanted to say congratulations.”

“Congratulations?” I wanted to scream. “That’s all you have to say to me? After all these years, you want to say congratulations? That’s it?”

“Petal–”

“No, James. You don’t get to petal me. You’ve got some fucking nerve coming back here after all this time. Congratulations? That’s it?” I shook my head and forced the hot, angry tears down my throat. I was so angry I was vibrating. “Is that all you were going to do? Drop by say oh by the way, congrats on your life! So glad I was there to see it and just waltz away again? Is that it?”

“No,” Bucky sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. He fell silent as he seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say as he toed the ground with his boot.

“I’m so mad at you,” I whispered. “I’m so, so mad at you.”

“I know, petal. I know.” He took a step forward and I winced. The pain that twisted his face went straight to my stomach but he didn’t move any closer. “You should be. You should hate me.”

But I don’t. I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch him, I wanted to yell at him and make him regret every second that he left me. But I couldn’t do it. Not with him, right here, finally here. I wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms and forget everything. But I couldn’t do that, not yet.

“Just…tell me why,” I finally forced out. “Was it me? Did I do–”

“No,” his voice was so fierce it shocked me. “God, no, it wasn’t you. Don’t think for a second it was you.” He shook his head as he brushed a shock of hair from his forehead. “I wanted…I was trying to protect you.”

“From what?” Bucky shook his head as his eyes begged me to understand. I didn’t. How could I? “Protect me from what? I deserve to know.”

I watched as his throat worked tightly before he fiddled with the buttons on his jacket. After a long stretch of silence, he finally spoke. “It…things were getting, bad. At the tower. Hydra was starting to infiltrate the systems and was getting information…valuable information. And they were threatening everyone, everyone’s families. Clint had to relocate his wife and kids four times because of Hydra.” He chewed his lip for a moment before he glanced at the bushes that peeked through the rails of the fence. “They didn’t know about you. Nobody did. But, if Hydra found out about you…do you know what they would’ve done? My nightmares would’ve become a reality. I couldn’t…I can’t let them do that to you.”

“So you left,” I said bluntly and this time Bucky flinched.

“I put it off for as long as I could,” he whispered. “It was…it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Leaving you. And I couldn’t tell you, you’d want to come with me or you’d beg me to stay and honestly I would’ve. I’d do anything for you. But I had to do this. I had to keep you safe. Charlie, you have to understand. I did this for you.”

I shook my head and I didn’t realize I was crying until Bucky made a soft sound in the back of his throat. He hated when I cried. It was the one thing that made him crack. I wiped furiously at my cheeks and hid my face by looking at the ground beneath me. “It sucked,” I whispered.

“I know, baby, believe me.” Bucky’s breath rattled in his chest. “I wanted to come back, I thought about it every day. But Hydra…they weren’t stopping and it took so much longer than anyone thought. But I never stopped thinking about you, I never stopped.”

“You could’ve told me,” I whimpered as I tried to keep the sobs from my throat. “I would’ve understood…we could’ve figured something out.”

“Maybe. I couldn’t take that chance, Charlie. I couldn’t put you in danger. Not now, not ever.”

“What about now?” I asked as I heard a car honk off in the distance. “Is Hydra gone?”

“For now.” Bucky didn’t sound too convinced.

I shook my head as I pulled my hair back and finally met his eyes. They were churning with anguish and an ancient pain that was only just beginning to shine through. “So what do we do now? You come back and we pick up where we left off? Then Hydra comes back and you leave me alone again? I can’t live like that, Bucky. I can’t give you everything and watch you walk away again, I can’t do it.”

Bucky took a step forward, and another, and another until he was right in front of me. “I’m not asking you to do that.” His voice was so soft and sweet and just how I remembered. Some of him had changed, but most of him was the same. “I have…I have an idea but it’s not something we’ll talk about now. I just…I had to see you, Charlie. These six years…it’s been hell without you. I thought I could do it, but I can’t.”

“I was so angry at you,” I murmured as I stared at him. “I thought…I didn’t know what to think. I thought you were dead, and then I thought you left because of me, then I hated you then I hated myself. Then I just got so angry…so fucking angry. And I tried to move on, I tried to forget you but I can’t. And I just…I missed you Bucky. I missed you so fucking much and there was nothing I could do about it.”

He reached a hand out and caught a fluttering curl and tucked it behind my ear. A zip of electricity passed over me when his fingers brushed against my skin. His fingertips trailed over the line of my jaw, then my cheek, my lips, my nose and my eyes as if he were re-mapping me. His touch passed over my neck and collarbone before his palm rested against the side of my neck, right where my pulse was.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered and his voice cracked. “I’m so sorry, Charlie…you have no idea. You have no idea what I would give to take these last six years away and make them into something good. I never wanted to hurt you. I never knew…I’m sorry, petal. God, I’m so, so sorry.”

“I know.” For years I imagined how this moment would go, how I would yell at Bucky and tell him off. How I would be strong and brave before him. But I realized now that perhaps the bravest I could be was forgiving him. He had punished himself enough, I could see that. I wanted to be angry at him but suddenly it wasn’t worth it.

“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. He took another step forward and I couldn’t help but reach my hand out and touch his chest, just over his heart. Just to feel his heart beat and believe he was real. Bucky’s hand covered my own, his left one, covered in a glove.

“How long can you stay?” I asked and Bucky’s breath caught in the back of his throat. It was as if time was suspended and we were delicately treading along, not wanting this moment to be shattered.

“I don’t know.” He brought his head down and pressed his lips into my hair and breathed deeply. “For a little bit, but not long enough.”

I nodded and stepped back to unclip the chain that held the necklace around my neck. I took his left hand in my own and laid the pendant in his palm. “So you have something to remember me by, whenever you have to leave again.”

“Charlie, I can’t–”

“Bucky please,” I stopped him in a soft voice. “It’ll…um it’ll make things maybe a little easier. Just to remind you that there’s a home for you. Wherever you are.”

Bucky nodded as he closed his hand round the pendant. He brought his fist up and kissed his clenched fingers as he brushed his thumb along my jaw. I don’t know what it was, the tenderness of how he touched me or just the whole situation in itself, but a wave of emotion that I had been holding back crashed over me and I lunged at Bucky, throwing myself onto him.

He caught me easily and pressed me so close to him as I felt his muscles contract and pull beneath me. I breathed out a sigh that I had been holding in as I buried my head into his shoulder, breathing in all of him.

“I love you,” he whispered and the last bit of resistance that I had in me melted away as he pressed kisses into my neck. “I love you, I love you, I never stopped loving you.”

I started crying again as Bucky pressed my back against the fence as his hands roamed every inch of me and his lips pressed against my collarbone, neck, face, forehead, everywhere he could reach. “I love you too, Bucky,” I sighed against him and it felt so good to say it. “I love you more than you know.”

He released a strangled sob as he clutched me so close to him I almost couldn’t breathe. “You have no idea…what – dear God Charlie, you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that.”

I started laughing. It was so good to laugh again. And even when Bucky kissed me, I couldn’t stop smiling. He laughed too, deep and throaty and when he pulled back his lips were red and glistening and his eyes sparkled again.

“Before we get any further,” I said as Bucky leaned down to kiss my jaw and cheek. “What’s this plan you mentioned? I want to get all the serious stuff out of the way before we start anything.”

Bucky froze and when I leaned back to look at him, he suddenly reminded me of the nervous guy who had asked me out in the dining hall all those years before. “I – um, okay.” He nodded, mostly to himself, and took a deep breath. “I love you, more than anything in my entire life. And you’re it, y’know? You’re all I want and um…I kind of know I can’t really be without you. But the world…s’not getting any better so. I was gonna leave, the Avengers, and all. To be with you. But Tony convinced me to stay but I said I would only if there was some way to protect you. Properly. And he came up with something which I think could work. It’s a long shot but it’s something and I, um–”

“Buck,” I laughed. “Spit it out.”

“Okay, okay. Yeah, totally. Spit it out. Right.” He shook his head before he stared me deep in the eyes and blurted out, “Come live in the tower with me.”

“What?” I gaped at him. “The Avengers Tower…like the Avengers.”

“Yeah, uh, I know it’s a lot. It’s a huge change. And I know you just got this gig with the university, not that I actually know that or looked it up or anything, whatever. Anyways, um, it’s just; it was the only way I’d stay. But if you’re not up for it then I get it, I do. It’s a big change and it’s a lot to ask but–”

“Yes.”

“–we already sort of lived together, well, we did live together, before everything so it won’t be so different but still it’s change and–” his voice suddenly faded as his brain connected with his mouth. “Wait…you said yes.”

“Yes,” I repeated with a smile. “I did.”

“You actually said yes. Just like that.” Bucky stared at me in shock as he slowly processed what I was saying.

“Just like that,” I reiterated. “I’ve wanted to move out for a while. I’ve been trying to find something closer to the university. The Avengers tower is a five minute walk. What have I got to lose? Besides, Bucky, it’s the Avengers. Why the hell would I ever say no?”

Bucky blinked. Once. Twice. Then he smiled. His beautiful, brilliant smile that split across his face and he laughed like he did when he didn’t have a care in the world. It was rare when he laughed like that, but I always remembered when he did.

“So, you’re saying yes? We’re doing this?”

I laughed as I threw my arms around his neck and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips that he followed when I pulled away. “Yes, Bucky. I’ll move in with you.”

He kissed me hard, all lips and hot breath as he braided his fingers through my hair and secured me to him. Once I was sufficiently breathless, he pulled away with the brightest sparkle in his eyes. “You’ll love it petal, honest. The place has got a balcony so you can do your studying and grading and look over the city and we’ve got the whole floor to ourselves so we’ve got a living room, kitchen, everything. You can decorate however you want to, I’ll repaint whatever, whatever you want Tony already said the floor is ours so we can change it however we want to.”

I giggled like I was five years old again when Bucky breathed out a sigh and pulled me in close again. He spun me around and I couldn’t even suppress the grin even if I wanted to. “Never thought you’d be so excited about decorating,” I teased once he set me down again.

He looked at me with serious eyes and it knocked the smile off my face. “Charlie…I thought you hated me, I expected you to hate me. To tell me off, to turn me away and never want to see me again. Now, you’re moving in with me. It’s…surreal.”

“Hate you? How could I hate you?” I repeated the same words he said to me at the dining hall and suddenly we were young and stupid and hopelessly in love all over again.

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered as he kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes and reveled in the warmth of him, a part of me savoring it just in case this was all just some fucked up dream.

“C’mon,” I whispered as I pulled back and threaded my fingers with his. “There’s one more person you have to apologize to.” Bucky’s brows furrowed until he heard an insistent barking from one of the third floor windows. In the second window from the left, my black lab was paws up against the window, practically throwing himself against the glass as his eyes locked on Bucky. Bucky tilted his head back and laughed as he allowed me to tug him into my apartment complex.

And the moment I saw him embrace my dog and talk to him in hushed, apologetic tones for the next half hour, I knew he would stay. And I vowed to myself that I’d never let anything take him away from me.

Not now, not ever.

[3ndoftheline]

Savior

Bucky x OFC

Summary: You sing a song and save someone’s life and suddenly you’re the enemy.

Warnings: violence (a bit, things get a little descriptive i guess), broken bones and body and all that fun shit, language

Author’s Note: wow, hi, I’m back from the dead. i feel so bad for not posting this part sooner but my life had been crazy and i can barely keep up. since break is almost over, i’m going to queue some parts for Savior so I don’t go literally five months without posting a part lmao. anyways, i hope you enjoy this installation of Savior. We all get a little peek inside Sophia’s mind so I hope you all enjoy :) again, feedback is always welcomed and encouraged

Sophia vs The Dead and the Damned

Avengers Facility: Upstate New York

All things considered, my day probably couldn’t have gotten any worse than it already had. Which was saying something considering how things have gone for me over the past thousand years.

My day had started out the same, shitty. I got dragged into the lab where Tony tried again to run about twenty tests on me and each day delivered the same classic response. “I don’t get it.” It was like watching a gag reel. Over. And over. And over. It was funny at first, but then it got tiresome, now it was just annoying. I knew his tests would come up inconclusive. He knew the tests would come up inconclusive. So why was I back there every morning until about lunchtime? Couldn’t tell you.

After that it was the game show of How Many Times Can I Ask the Same Questions and Still Have No Idea What I’m Doing with your ever so friendly host, Natasha Romanoff. Sometimes, the producers (I assumed it was whoever stood behind the one way mirror) threw in an added segment of Here, Let Me Be the Good Guy Because I Wear a Flag with America’s greatest hero, Captain America. But my favorite is when they threw together the infamous Black Widow and hard ass Steve Rogers together for the interrogation. It was like eating a whoopee pie, except the cookie was way too undercooked and the cream was way too stale. But still entertaining, nonetheless.  

We were just about to get into the good part, where Natasha threatens me with bodily harm when I knew she wouldn’t lay a finger on me. Sometimes, if I’m feeling extra giving, I’ll blink twice in a row and she’ll lay in on me. Because apparently there was some handbook out there that depending on how fast someone is blinking, you can tell if their scared. I wonder what would happen if I blinked three times?

Before I could find the answer to that, I smelled that gods awful scent of death and panic and knew exactly what was coming. Before I could react, giant pigeon Sam came in and began tripping over himself like his tongue was sewn to his teeth but I didn’t really expect anything less. Then, all hell broke loose. Literally.

Sam was thrown into oblivion and then Natasha nearly collapsed into a heap as she stared onto the face of Death himself. She tried to look in his eyes but her entire figure shook like a mini earthquake every time she did. No mortal could look into his eyes for more than a few seconds and survive.

“Who are you?” I raised an eyebrow. I had to give her credit, she had guts. But apparently Hades wasn’t as impressed as I was.

“Hades. Lord of the Underworld. And I will not wait.” I rolled my eyes at the dramatics but it seemed to be the final straw for Natasha. She collapsed on the spot and with a sick twist of his lips, Hades extended his arm and from his index finger grew a pile of bones that assembled into a chattering skeleton. The skeleton dragged Natasha out of the room to join the crumpled body of Sam before it disassembled and turned into a pile of dust.

“Gross,” I muttered as the door slammed behind Hades. He waved his hand the one way mirror melted into the shadows and the wall became a solid block of obsidian black, boxing us in.

“Are you growing soft on me?” Hades smirked as he waved his hand and a throne created from bones and skulls rose from the ground. Rotting flesh acted as the cushion and fresh blood painted the bones red.

“Double gross.” I wrinkled my nose. “Does Persephone not teach you hygiene down there? She’s gotta be good for something.”

His upper lip curled at the name of his wife and I figured maybe things weren’t so good down in La Casa de Muertes. “I’m not here to talk about my personal life. I’m here for an entirely different reason.”

“Really? Because I love it when I play therapist.”

Hades snarled as if he was only now starting to regret showing up. “There’s trouble brewing on Olympus.”

“Since when do you care about Olympus? You hate that place more than Zeus hates his own dad.”

Hades ignored me. “Zeus’ jar of evil has been stolen. And so has Pandora’s jar.”

Okay. That was bad. That was very, very, supremely bad. But I tried not to show it. The last thing I wanted to do was show the God of Death that I was worried. “So?” I shrugged nonchalantly. “What’s that got to do with you? More importantly, what’s that got to do with me?”

“It has everything to do with everyone,” Hades hissed and the skulls on his throne clacked their teeth. “If that jar is opened…you know what will happen. You know what will be unleashed.”

I shivered. I couldn’t help it. “Yeah, I know,” I murmured. “Still don’t know why I’m involved.”

“The gods need you, Sophia.” Hades said it so simply, like it was a common occurrence that the gods needed my help. A snarl curled up my mouth as a flash of hot anger lanced through me.

“Need me? They’ve never needed me.”

“Now’s not the time to be a petulant child,” Hades admonished as if he was my dad.

“Says the master of throwing temper tantrums,” I shot back. Hades eyes flashed but I was used to him. Pissing him off was a specialty. His temper tantrums? A delicacy. Only enjoyed once or twice, but all the more spectacular than the last. “Besides, I’m not being petulant. You know what you’ve done.” Hades wasn’t 100% to blame (for once) but he was still one of the gods of Olympus. He still was a part of them.

“And so do we. Times of changed and so have the circumstances.”

“I’m needed because it’s convenient,” I spit out.

“Yes,” Hades admitted. “Your powers are…useful.” He said useful as if it were the punchline to a massive joke. Which it was, but I wasn’t about to confirm that.

“I’m sure the gods can find two jars. Or are you incapable of that as well?”

A dark cloud circled over Hades shoulders as darkness brought the room to almost pitch black. I knew I was striking nerves, but I didn’t care. Striking nerves was my specialty. “You treat this as a joke,” he growled.

“Because it is.” I leaned forward, meeting his glowering gaze with equal intensity. I was not about to be bullied around by another god. “You gods lost the jars. Not me. You caused the problem, now you need to fix it. After thousands of years of isolation and torture, you decide that hey, you know what. Maybe good ol’ Sophia isn’t so bad. Why don’t we just stroll on in and pretend nothing ever happened. I’m sure she’d love to go scavenger hunting for two jars. Gods wouldn’t that just be the peak of her existence!”

Hades’ form began to glow as he rose from his throne. His throne disassembled as the skeletons came to life, flesh and blood dripped from their bones as they rattled and groaned, causing a cacophony of pain to fill the room. “You dare turn down the gods? Maybe I should remind you of who I am?” The skeletons clattered in excitement as they advanced forward, like they were preparing for a feast of a lifetime.

Pure, white hot rage flowed through me and suddenly everything became hyper focused. I could feel the Earth beneath me, moving, breathing, living. I could feel the wind stirring through the halls, the water cutting deep through valleys and thrumming like a heartbeat throughout the world. The heat and ferocity of fire climbed through my veins and smoldered beneath my skin. The Earth swelled beneath me and whispered I am yours, my queen.

The ground caved open beneath the skeletons and a blast of cold air sucked them in as if the Earth gasped for air. Some clawed at the caving ground but it was no use. The darkness that Hades had created was pulled in, adding to the churning mess that boiled beneath the Earth. Wind blasted my hair back and I closed my eyes, willing the Earth to close, and it did. Within a second, the floor was the same concrete slab as it had been before.

When I opened my eyes, Hades stared at me with such a mixture of emotions it was like he couldn’t choose which one he wanted to be dominant.

“And let me remind you who I am,” I spoke in a deadly quiet voice, but it rang volumes. Hades narrowed his eyes to dangerous slits but I raised my head in defiance.

“You’re still the same, I see,” he whispered. “Maybe I should remind you about what happened last time you tried to prove yourself.”

Suddenly, the fight drained out of me. Pain flared deep inside me as memories flashed before my eyes like a horrible movie that kept rerunning. Yet every time I tried to change the channel, the movie just got worse and worse. I shook my head and shut my eyes, willing the images to go away, begging the anguish to end. I heard my own voice, screaming and crying and begging. You’re still the same. Remember me. Remember what you’ve done.

When I opened my eyes, Hades wore a smug smile that brought ice to my veins. “Go ahead,” I whispered. “It’s nothing compared to what I’ve done to myself.”

Hades smile faltered. While normally he wouldn’t hesitate to wreak havoc on someone, I was different. He owed me. I had saved him from himself more times than he’d like to admit. “You admit defeat to quickly,” he snarled as he leaned toward me and I wanted to gag from the stench. “You used to be a fighter, Sophia. What happened to you?”

I opened my mouth, wanting to lob some smart comment in his face, but my throat was dry and I was out of words. He had killed the fight in me. Hades shook his head as he stood straight and raised his palm outwards. “I’ll tell the gods that you refuse to help. Be careful where you walk, Sophia. They may not be as forgiving as I am.” In a blazing flash that would incinerate most people, Hades was gone and the obsidian black wall returned to the one-way mirror.

I collapsed so filled with emotion I wanted to melt into the Earth. I was angry, gods I was so angry. At myself, at Hades, at the gods. I was scared of the power that brimmed and churned at my feet. I was ashamed that I had let Hades twist me until I was kneeling, frozen into silence. I was proud that I had turned down the gods, thrown a proverbial middle finger into their smug faces. But most of all, I was sad. Years and years of sadness crashed over me and threatened to pull me under.

You are a fighter, my queen. Stand strong. Rise against the odds. No Queen of the Earth shall bend to the will of the Dead.

With that, I rose. I am strong, I am powerful, I am unstoppable, I repeated to myself until I looked in the mirror and saw the tension roll off my shoulders and the grayness melt from my face. I was strong. I was powerful. I was unstoppable.

Just then, the door to the interrogation room slammed open and in tumbled Bucky, his eyes wild and black with terror as his gaze landed on me. “Are you okay?” He asked desperately as he stumbled over to me. My heart clenched in my chest when I saw his manic expression, how his hands clung to nothing. Hades.

I nodded as I walked towards him but stopped myself. He wouldn’t want to be near me. Not when I was just in the same room as Hades. “He made you see your deepest fears, didn’t he? He made them into a reality.” My suspicions were confirmed when Bucky stared at me. Gods I was going to curse Hades to the deepest corner of Tartarus next time I saw him. Bucky suffered enough, he didn’t need any more grief.

I couldn’t touch Bucky, not when he was in such a state. Instead, I did the one thing I knew always calmed him down. I bent the air around me and pushed it towards him, a breath of fresh, clean air. His eyes didn’t stop darting to every space in the room, but his stance slacked until he was standing normally, his hands limp at his sides. Finally, I used the strength of the Earth to ground Bucky. He was far away, lost in his mind and the horrors Hades had made him glimpse at. So I brought him back down to Earth. Figuratively, of course. But still effective.

Bucky opened his eyes and his blue irises were calm. “How do you do that?” His voice was pure gravel and I tried to regulate my breathing so it didn’t look like I had just run a marathon.

Instead, I shrugged. “Hard to explain.”

“Level five friend?” His lips quirked into a smirk and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Nah, that’s the tragic backstory. Level three is an answer to one of my many harbored secrets.”

Bucky opened his mouth to say something when suddenly outside we heard, “I’m sorry, Steve. There’s nothing I can do.” Whatever Bucky was about to say died in his throat. He sprinted through the open door and I followed quickly behind.

Outside, the Avengers stood in a half circle around a woman dressed in blue scrubs, her dark hair pulled into a spikey ponytail. Her almond eyes glistened with tears as the blonde man, Steve, knelt before the broken body of Sam.

Not a lot of things made all the air leave my lungs in a single gust, but seeing Sam’s body twisted and folded beneath the huge dent in the vibranium wall was enough to leave me gasping for air. Everyone had a stricken look on their faces, all pale skin and haunted eyes. Hades aftermath.

“He can’t…he’s not dead, Helen. Do something please,” Steve begged from beside Sam. I furrowed my brow and closed my eyes, concentrating on each form in the room. Every one of them were tangible, even Sam. I snapped open my eyes and turned to Bucky who was wound so tight I worried he would snap in half.

I quietly crept to his side, using the shadows as my guide. He didn’t look at me while it was the last thing I wanted to do, I gently tugged against the sleeve of his Henley until his hollow eyes met mine. “He’s not dead,” I whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear myself. But Bucky did. He furrowed his brow and leaned forward, a look of uncertainty flashed in his gaze.

“How–”

“Don’t ask, please.” I glanced at Sam. “Just trust me. He’s alive.”

Bucky regarded me not with fear or scrutiny, it was with wonder. “Can you fix him?”

I had spent a while with Apollo, who was the god of medicine. He was one of the few (and I meant few) gods of Olympus that didn’t make me want to blast their essence into Tartarus. I had learned a few incantations from him, simple ones yet they were effective. It was dangerous to practice on mortals, but Sam was life or death. There was no other option.

With a deep breath, I nodded. Then I glanced down at the cuffs. While my powers weren’t contained by the cuffs, Apollo’s were. I couldn’t help Sam while in chains. Bucky furrowed his brow then steeled his look as he realized what I was saying.

“Tony,” Bucky spoke. He didn’t speak loud, but his tenor voice rang throughout the hallway. “Uncuff her.”

Tony turned his head slowly, his almost black eyes glittered. “What?”

“Uncuff her. She can help Sam. He’s not dead.”

The woman, Helen, look at Bucky with sympathetic eyes. Like he was in denial, or crazy. Bucky tensed beside me and I knew he understood her gaze like I did. “Bucky, I know you’re in shock–”

“He’s not dead,” he spoke with such ferocity Helen didn’t speak again. He wheeled to Tony. “Tony, please.”

“How do you know she can help him? We don’t even know who she is,” Tony hissed. I could feel the anger dispelling off of him in waves. He was furious, and helpless. The worst combination.

“Tony,” Steve looked at Tony with desperate eyes. “If she can help…”

“What if she doesn’t?” Tony spit back.

“Then you get what you want,” I answered, shocking everyone. I was tired of keeping my voice to myself. I was tired of being a shadow. I wanted to be heard. “If I can’t help him, then I’ll answer whatever question you ask.”

“And if you do?” Natasha piped up this time. She didn’t trust me. I didn’t blame her.

“Then nothing changes.” I stared at all of them. “I’m not looking to bargain. Right now, your friend his dying. If you want him to live, I’m your best bet whether you like it or not.”

Everyone turned to Tony who suddenly looked exhausted. His eyes still flashed with fire, but his entire face sagged against his bones. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t unlock those cuffs. Those were made for Loki–”

“So they can only be unlocked in Asgard,” the red-head, Wanda finished. Bucky growled low in his chest behind me and he was just beginning to say something but I didn’t have time for any of this. Sam’s life was fading as they spoke and I didn’t have the patience nor any amount of fucks to give about what stupid Viking charm was on these cuffs.

I tugged my hands apart sharply and the cuffs snapped like a twig. With my free hands I ripped off the links. Magic coursed through the vibranium outside but it remained contained. It could sense I wasn’t Asgardian. I wasn’t a threat. I tossed the cuffs aside and walked towards Sam and everyone parted around me like I was Moses.

Steve scrambled out of my way and I knelt behind Sam. I felt his heartbeat flutter against his chest, as if fighting to stay beating. I passed a hand over his body and felt his strongest point and his weakest point: the small of his back. It was where the injury originated but was strong enough to expend the force outwards. With a deep breath I hovered my palm over below his navel and my other hand stayed over his forehead, and began to sing:

Λουλούδι, λαμπύρισε και λάμψε

(Flower, gleam and glow)

Άσε τη δύναμη σου να λάμψει

(Let your power shine)

Κάνε το ρολόι να πάει πίσω

(Make the clock reverse)

Φέρε πίσω αυτό που κάποτε ήταν δικό μου

(Bring back what once was mine)

 Θεράπευσε αυτό έχει πληγωθεί

(Heal what has been hurt)

Άλλαξε το σχέδιο της μοίρας

(Change the Fates’ design)

Σώσε αυτό που έχει χαθεί

(Save what has been lost)

Φέρε πίσω αυτό που κάποτε ήταν δικό μου

(Bring back what once was mine)

 Αυτό που κάποτε ήταν δικό μου

(What once was mine)

 I watched in silence as Sam slowly reformed. First the back of his skull shifted until I was round again, his shoulder popped into place and his arms straightened out. His legs mended into normal angles again and his back shifted into place after about thirty seconds. The pained and shocked look on his face smoothed out into a peaceful expression. He looked like he was sleeping.

“He should wake in a few hours,” I turned to Helen who I assumed was their resident doctor. Everyone around me was quiet, but I ignored that. “The incantation only healed the worst. His muscular and tissue damage will take longer to heal.”

“How did you do that?” Natasha asked. I looked around for the first time and everyone was staring at me with varying degrees of shock and hostility. Even Bucky. Tony looked shell shocked and I wondered if that was the first time he was every stunned into silence.

I turned to Natasha with a hint of a smile playing at my lips. “Our deal was that questions would be answered if I didn’t heal your friend. And I think I did my job.”

Nobody said thank you. Nobody smiled. Only a few could look me in the eye. With a sigh I turned to glance at Sam once more before I faced the Avengers.

“I’ll be in my cell.”

As I turned and walked away, the farther I got the colder the air seemed to become. It was as if Hades was still there, whispering in my ear:

You’re still the same. Remember me. Remember what you’ve done.