the winter soldier (metallic) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2014-09-14 21:06:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !log, bucky barnes / winter soldier (mcu), lucy stillman |
Who: Bucky Barnes MCU, Lucy Stillman
When: Tonight.
Where: Lucy and Bennett's lab in Brooklyn
What: Bucky decides to figure out who the woman was that HYDRA agent Robert Crawford returned to. Unexpected results trigger Lucy's new power.
Rating: R for language and uh, possible attempted murder.
While the lab in Brooklyn had been their area of operations for the large quantity of their work for several months now, preparing it for all of their work with all possibility of oversight removed was another entirely. There was a lot to do in preparation and Lucy had perhaps developed too much of a habit of staying there at all hours. For the past week the only reason Lucy had bothered to return to Potts Tower had been to feed Fiona and Maria. If not for the tiny mice depending on her Lucy would have made more use of the sofa she had invested in for her office as a bed. But it was not just the imminent move. Bucky had been in contact only once and Lucy had not pressed for further, but the chance was now more present than ever that he might actually come back, that there would be a use for the work they had put him through for a year. With so much work to be done remembering to eat was an entirely forgotten issue. It was only when her stomach started to rumble loudly that Lucy looked at her phone and realized it had been a full twelve hours since she had last bothered to eat anything other than coffee. Checking the fridge in the lab for food, it was empty which was not terribly surprising given how much time she had been spending here. It was past midnight, most places closed for food within easy access. But there were always a few diners whose lights bled into the night air that were close enough. Closing up took longer than it strictly should have, layer of security placed atop one another to keep people out. Finally the key was placed in the lock and Lucy made her way down the stairs and then out past the buzzer. Now, to a diner or to just head home to the meager offerings that she kept in the fridge at home. When Bucky destroyed his last holding place, the AP Bank in Washington DC, one person had escaped him. He'd managed to track him down to this building Brooklyn. There were strange, old memories attached to this place, but Bucky couldn't quite put his finger on what they were. His head was a mess. Now that he was back in New York, he could figure out who the hell the woman was that he'd returned to. He'd watched her from across the street, from the roof of another building. She had all the hallmarks of a scientist, though he'd never met one so pretty, but Bucky knew that she was trained to kill. He could see it in the way she grabbed a knife or carried herself when her back was turned. There were just ways the body moved when you were always prepared for shit to go down. As soon as he'd noted her closing up shop, he thought he might get a closer look at her. Maybe test out those skills of hers, if it meant he might get some answers. When she walked from the building and paused, he knew she was deciding on a route, something completely and absolutely normal: she hadn't killed anyone or had to beat anyone for information in quite some time. Time for a different scenario then. Bucky pushed off the wall he leaned against and began to walk in her direction. His hoodie was pulled down over his face, and he'd tugged as much of his hair into it as he could. With his hands in his pockets, no one would know he had a metal arm. As he passed her, he reached out with a snap of his bionic arm to grab her by the neck and shove her against the wall. "Who are you?" It had been a long time since Lucy had to defend herself. The instincts never truly left and she was hardly the fool to think this world was any safer than her own. People killed for a variety of reasons and there were any number that could place a target on her own head. It could be something as simple as a mugging. New York was full of people who were struggling against the tide around them. The back of her neck prickled, that uneased sense that put someone far too close to her. Even idleness from the loss of being hunted never fully got rid of that sense of her surroundings. There was a knife in her pocket, quietly disguised and her hand went quickly to it for assurance. But while Lucy was trained she was trained against humans. Even if certain assassin’s had special skills, they moved at the same speed and strength as a human being was supposed to. This was not simply a human, not in base capability. He was too fast, the penknife that found its way into her hand didn’t even have time to shove upward into the stomach presented in front of her. Instead... it fell to the ground with a clatter against the sidewalk despite the firm grip she knew she had on it.. Her skin prickled, like she had just been dunked into ice water or the blood had been drained from her body. In fact if felt exactly like that, the blood pooling out and all feeling leaving as the world would become cold and dark until it no longer existed. And in an instant she watched a metal hand that she knew far too well the implications go straight through her neck and slam onto the brick behind her. Lucy’s eyes went wide as she stared at the arm going through her. “What have you done?” she asked, not expecting an answer as she was fairly certain she had just died. Bucky was almost one hundred percent certain that he had just snapped and gone completely crazy. The woman was here one moment. His hand made purchase, he was sure of it. Maybe he couldn't feel her, but he could feel the pressure in his shoulder as he pushed her into the wall. His hoodie slipped from his head as he gaped open mouthed as his metal fingers chipped brick. "What did I do? What the hell did you do? Who the hell are you?" “I’m Lucy!” she snapped, looking up with him with wide eyes when he replied. Her heart was still beating, racing beneath her ribs. But how was that even possible? Looking back down, Lucy could clearly see the metal arm that was sticking out of her throat. Our father of understanding, it was nearly as thick as her throat. If he could hear her, that meant... Lucy had no idea what that could possibly mean actually. This was not a situation that screamed alive but as far as she was aware being made into the Winter Soldier had not imbued Bucky with the abilities of a spirit medium. Reaching up, she tried to grab his wrist to peel it off of her but when she touched him there was nothing. It was the same cold, tingling sensation of loss as she watched her hand go through his arm. “No. No, no, no.” she whispered in shock, trying to gain a grip on the situation that was very clearly out of control. “We need to not be on the street.” Testing this, Lucy stepped aside, numbness spreading through her neck as she moved out of his arm. The tingling faded away, leaving simply nothing but the cold. “What were you thinking? If someone had seen you, you could have at least tried to pull me into an alleyway. It’s not that late.” "Who's going to see me? There's no one here, and the cameras are conveniently fuzzy at the moment," he answered with a growl. She wasn't exactly wrong, but he'd foreseen her struggling a little, and then they'd have retreated to this lab of hers. No harm, no foul. Instead, he stood there watching her walk through his goddamn arm. "How the hell did you do that? What are you?" “I’d offered my help, attacking me leaves you open to unnecessary exposure.” Lucy tried to keep her voice level, quiet. Panic welled up inside and ordinarily she would likely taste a bitter swell of bile. Instead there was the tightness of her through but no taste, no heat of worry. It was very much like what her nightmares played out as her death replayed over and over in her head till she simply went without sleep at all. Reaching up she willed her hand to stay steady as she touched her own throat. Her hand stopped but there was no warmth, no blood fluttering underneath skin. She was solid and yet not to herself it seemed. “I don’t know.” she looked back up at him, silently begging him to believe her. But they both knew he had absolutely no reason to. The same went for why he had attacked her. Lucy could simply be another threat, in fact with her work that was far more likely than not. Still, this was a man who at one point had believed in people, to the point of his own destruction. “I’ve never experienced this before. I’m not sure what sort of phenomena this is.” Bucky glowered at her, narrowing his eyes with clear disbelief. This had to be some kind of trick. Maybe she'd never been here at all. Maybe this was some part of her self defense protocols on this place. He knew she had them; he'd watched her enter the place. Bucky reached his hand out, through what should have been her stomach. He could see where it should be, and yet he went straight through empty air. The only difference was a temperature change, and even that, he couldn't be sure of. "Yeah right," he muttered under his breath. He took one long look at her, and then decided this was not worth the trouble. The other version of him was going to get an earful for not warning him that the Lucy he'd put her in contact with was also the same woman who had a HYDRA agent returning to her. "You're HYDRA, and we both know it." And with that, he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned around to leave. There was something eerily intimate about someone putting their hand through her stomach. Not that he could see, but he touched the scar that started all this, the hole that would never fully heal and serve as a constant reminder that she was a traitor and to many people nothing more than that. But to Bucky she never had been, even when he knew. And while logic knew that this man was not whole, with no memory or recollection, the sting of that loss of faith hit deep. HYDRA. The anger that boiled up inside at that name had Lucy nearly seeing red. “Don’t you dare turn you back on me, James!” she snarled and instinct took over. There was no reason to believe that she could do it, but Lucy ran forward, nearly gagging at the overwhelming cold and ache as she passed through him. But no matter how sick it made her she turned around and faced him again. If that worked it meant full and well that he just had to keep walking through her. She was nothing, empty, worthless. But there was one man she had made promises to and kept them, and she would not have that man accuse her of being an agent for the people who had ripped him from her. “You will never call me HYDRA again.” Lucy spat out, glaring up at him. Her height lacked any measure of being imposing and he towered over her just like he always had. But she stood her ground, even if it was nothing more than a symbol. Bucky shuddered as the tiny woman -- ghost? -- ran through him, and it was against his better judgment that he made a noise that sounded suspiciously like gurblagh. That was never going to feel any better, ever. It did stir memories, though, of pain and fear and sleep. The aching, dreamless sleep that came whenever they stuck him in the cryotube. Bucky could feel his heart rate rise in his chest. No. "Don't -- don't ever do that again. I don't -- just don't" He knew his face had gone pale, but he didn't care. She wouldn't know why. He continued on though, anything to get through this wave of nausea. "If you're not HYDRA, then why the fuck did Robert Crawford come here?" There was no color left in Lucy’s face to drain but when she saw Bucky’s face pale the sickness grew. She had done that to him, triggered something akin to fear. With how close the both of them were to death, it wasn’t at all surprising but she had not even thought. Did the aching darkness spread to those she touched as well? That was terrifying on its own. But her own condition and what it had done to him was stayed when he mentioned Robert Crawford. Patient Zero. Bucky had followed him? Of course he had, though Zero knew how to avoid a tail, it was programmed in as a background skill. Then again he had never had to outwit anyone similar to the Winter Soldier. “Because I was looking for you.” she said, lost in the shock of it. The anger drained out of her face. “HYDRA isn’t the only one with spies.” His glower didn't let up, but grew more frustrated the more she talked. Okay, so Bucky said he'd known this girl, but why was she calling him James? Why did she take such personal offense to being called HYDRA? Why did she had a spy in HYDRA? Why was she looking for him. None of it made any sense. "I'm only going to ask this one more time." The color was slowly returning to his face, even though he was terrified that he was going back on ice. "Who are you?" He didn’t want to know who she was. Who she was answered no questions, it was simply a name, one that would lead to a wikipedia page, which would lead him to more questions than answers. It told him nothing and brokered her not a thing she could work with. Whatever this was, whether she was dead or if it was a power, it made all of this worse. Threats she could handle, that simply made him just like every other man she had known really. But if he feared her, what was she to do with that? “I’m Lucy Stillman.” she said carefully. Who was already answered. What was more difficult. “You entrusted me with your memories. And I promised that I would keep them safe till you wanted them back. It’s the only promise I’ve ever intended to keep.” The line between his eyes only grew. There was suspicion in every line on his face, and there was a hell of a lot more than the last time Lucy saw him this close. There wasn't even the hint of the sometimes-carefree young man who had been here just six months prior. The man before her was cold and calculating, and even when he slept, he had a finger on the trigger. "Why? Why would you intend to keep that promise to me -- him?" As much as the change was present, Lucy still saw something of the man she had known in his face. While people had often seen the smile he put on, Lucy had watched his nightmares. She had seen the horrors from the war, the darkest memories that Bucky had kept from everyone. The Winter Soldier was not a new creation, built from nothing. He existed where a foundation had already been laid. Bucky was the foundation, distilled to anger, orders, and loyalty that had been poorly used by HYDRA. Her own expression continued to soften as his grew sterner. The answer wasn’t one Lucy could give. Because she loved him would simply leave Bucky with more questions, more suspicions. It was a memory that was so foreign at this point for him. Moreso than it had even been for her. So she steeled her jaw and gave the truth that could be given. “Because even knowing everything I am, he still trusted me.” Lucy had promised Bucky honesty at one point, and honesty she could give with caveats. A chord was struck inside him. It wasn't familiarity with her or even the old Bucky, but just knowing what he could read off her, he knew that she had her own ghosts. That one sentence told him a whole lot more than watching her for days had: she had plenty of murder and betrayal in her past, and someone had been willing to overlook it for the person she was inside. It would have been quite the coincidence if there was a person inside him. "So this thing... Never happened to you before?" She intended to keep a promise to the old version of him, and while he wasn't that man, the least he could do was try to help her out. He was trying to turn over a new leaf, after all. "You're transparent. Like a ghost or something." The relief blossomed over Lucy’s face as he moved to a new subject. Maybe he accepted it at face value, maybe he didn’t. But at the very least he seemed calmer. Which if he had approached this in a more calm fashion they might not be in this situation. Whatever this was. There were others who had been discovering abilities in the tower. But why would she? And why this? Something terrifying and so close to the death she dreamed about. “No.” Lucy looked at her hands, spectral and see through that they were. “I’d thought maybe you grabbed too hard and killed me. But you can still see and hear me, which wouldn’t make sense if that were true... it felt very much like dying though.” He didn't ask how she knew what dying felt like. He already knew countless times. Every time they put him back in the freezer. It was the only thing he remember when he was taken inside, flashing back to the time before, despite being wiped over and over again. Mental conditioning. "There's no body." He moved aside so she could see the spot, and all there was to prove the encounter happened where it had was the penknife on the ground and the brick dust. "You're not dead." “I’m not alive either though.” Lucy’s throat caught slightly despite trying to hold back the fear. This was everything she was terrified of. Death, to be stuck as nothing but a specter. It was the same fate she had doomed Clay to when he had discovered her. Only instead of a ghost in the code here she was an actual one. Stepping past him, she looked over the spot where she had been. Reaching down she attempted to grab the penknife despite, only for it to stay put on the ground. “I don’t know how to fix this.” It was way outside of his pay grade for sure. He didn't have the smarts to figure out something like this, and if she knew him as well as he thought she did, then she'd know that. All he could do was find something to punch until she was solid again. If she could turn back. Fuck, why couldn't she have just grown wings or something? "You got someone you can call?" He thought about the other Bucky. He might know someone. “Bennett.” Lucy looked up at him, her face lighting up just slightly at the thought. Bennett could help, Bennett also could get past the security of the lab. There were people who might be more experienced in this realm of... abilities, but Bennett was someone she trusted. “I can give you her phone number.“ |