"I'm looking at you through the glass. Don't know how much time has passed. All I know is that it feels like forever. No-one ever tells you that forever feels like home, sitting all alone inside your head." -Stone Sour
Len, wake up! Lee's voice screams through her mind, and she wakes with a jolt, pulling the headphones out of her ears, but hearing nothing. 'Don't sit up, they are watching us.' Lenore turns her head to the wall of the bedroom, as if she could see Lee on the other side. 'Hydra?'
'Yeah. Not as many as I expected though. And they aren't so much trying to figure out how to kill us, or how to capture us…they are figuring out how to get in to talk to us without us using our powers and ending the conversation before it begins.'
'That is weird right?'
'Yeah. Very. I can usually get more than this. I think they figured out what I could really do while we have been gone and sent their agents with the strongest minds. I don't see a way out of this that doesn't end in the whole apartment smelling like gunpowder and burnt flesh. You wanna just listen to them and then decide who we kill first?'
'Yeah, send their leader a message. I'll get ready for a fight.' Len reaches over to the side table, grabbing her gloves and swiftly sliding the black satin up her arms, first the left, feeling the chill of the cold fabric on her skin, then the right, feeling nothing. She sits up on the bed and puts her feet in her boots, zipping them both up at once and grabbing her Smith & Wesson 1911 pistol from under her pillow. She takes one last look around her bedroom, briefly wondering if it will be the last time she sees it, and heads into the hall, eyes meeting Lee's.
"They are almost here. Boss man was a little surprised to hear my voice inside his head."
Lenore smiled, "I can see how that would be unnerving. You ready for this?"
Lee gave a solemn smile, "Well we knew they would find us eventually. And we don't really have a choice."
Lenore reaches out and grabs her sister's hand in her own, squeezing lightly. Then a knock at the door. They walk down the hall until they are standing a few feet in front of the entry door. They both brace for a fight, and Lenore raises her pistol, ready to fire. Lenore glances over at Lee, 'You wanna let them in?' Without an answer or movement the deadbolt is undone, and the doorknob twists, the door slowly opening. Standing in the doorway is an average man, dark hair, dark eyes, and a black suit. His hands are raised in front of him, but two tactical agents with their rifles aimed at the girls stand on his flanks. He slowly steps into the room.
The man begins to softly speak Russian, "Hopeless. Crumbling. Autumn. Sun-"
Lenore cuts him off, "Don't bother. That doesn't work on me anymore, you Nazi piece of shit." He ignores her and continues.
"Sunset. Ocean breeze. Malicious. Beautiful. Colors. Music Box." He stares into her eyes expectantly.
"You feel better now that you finished?" She quips. "It didn't work when you were subliminally slipping it into ads on the radio and television, but you think it will work in person?"
He smiles a twisted smirk, "Well it was worth a shot now, wasn't it Edna? Or do you prefer Lenore?" His voice is low, slowly enunciating every syllable carefully.
"I prefer you shut the hell up, but I don't think that's gonna happen, so just use whatever makes your sick little soul happy." A small smirk drifts across her lips.
"Edna it is. Well, Edna. Here is what is going to happen, you and your sister are going to come back with us peacefully, and nobody gets hurt."
She raised an eyebrow and chuckled softly, "Really? You are playing that card? You can't threaten me to make my sister cooperate, and your mind control can't make me comply anymore." She smiles darkly, showing her teeth slightly. "You have nothing that can overpower us. We are going to rip you and your men to pieces, and then turn your bleeding corpses into fucking dust. You have nothing to hold over us anymore."
He licks his lips lightly, "See, that is where you are wrong. We do have something over you…" He pauses, stepping forward slightly, and Len cocks her gun. "When you escaped we learned something… You have a weakness just like your sister did," He glances over to Lee standing perfectly still beside Lenore, and slowly reaches into his pocket, pulling out a black face mask and goggles. "You forget we still have him" Len looks at the mask dangling from the man's fingers. His mask. "You have feelings for him."
"I don't feel anything. Isn't that the point of what you did to me?" She replies, feeling her mouth getting dry. "Even if I did, he is your most prized possession, you would never kill him just to get us back."
"Who said anything about killing him?" his smirk spreads to a wide, evil smile. "You see, for every man you kill while we try to get you back, we are going to give him a day in The Box." Len tries not to show a reaction, but she feels her eyes get wider, and she knows he saw it. "I know you are very familiar with the Box, but the Soldier has never had that pleasure." He steps forward, and Lenore tightens her finger on the trigger. "Go ahead. Kill me. Who are you to deprive him of the opportunity to see the Box? Don't you want him to share that experience? I have heard it is a fate worse than death, would you say that is accurate?"
"Fuck you…" is all she can get out. She can feel her finger shaking against the trigger. Her mind flashes to him, his sad eyes as he begs her not to leave. His soft lips against hers. The regret of leaving him behind to save herself. And to her own memories of the Box... Pain. Nothing but the pain and the sound of her own screaming. Screaming until her throat bled. Wanting to rip off her own skin; anything to stop the pain.
'Lenore. It's okay. I know how much you regret leaving him. I know how much you will hate yourself if he is in more pain because of you. I know what the Box is like from your memories. Nobody deserves that. If they wanted us dead, they would have already killed us. We are too big of an investment. They probably just want to put us under until they think they can control us again. It is okay. We will find a way out of it. We always do.'
'He almost broke their control that day. Maybe he can do it again. Get away… Maybe he can come back for us, like I wanted to do for him.
'Maybe he will. But we can't count on that. We will take the deal now, but then we have to figure out our own way out.'
'I get the feeling it won't be so easy a second time.'
'I know.'
The man interrupts the silence, "Well, have you thought it over? Come to a decision?"
Len swallows hard, "Yes." Lowering her gun.
The man's smile grows; a large toothy grin, "C'mon Edna. Let me hear you say the words."
She almost growls. "Ready to…comply" hatred dripping from the words. The two armed men rush in the door, knocking the twins to the ground, and forcefully flipping them to their stomachs to put handcuffs on their wrists. Lenore looks over at Lee, 'I am so sorry.'
'Me too'
His senses start to return, first the warmth of the air on his skin and the light weight of the sheets on his body, then the sound of voices in the room, calmly speaking. No yelling. No pain. He opens his eyes, taking a moment to adjust to the brightness of the room, to his right someone appears in his field of vision. He jerks away.
"Hey, Hey, it's okay. It's just me. Steve." Bucky blinks several times, bringing him into focus. Steve. His memories rush back. Schoolyard fights. The war. His capture. All of it.
"Steve? Why did you wake me up?" He sits up on the bed turning towards Steve, putting his weight on his arms. His arm. He turns to look at his left arm and sees that his metal appendage is back, "When did this happen?" He asks, moving his metal fingers around, testing the feel and movement of his new arm.
"After everyone cooled off Tony felt a little bad for breaking it, and he designed you a new one. The technicians in Wakanda installed it not too long after you went under. We are still keeping a low profile though."
"How long have I been under? Did you find a way to fix me?"
"It's been over a year. Its 2017 now. And we have a lead. Twins that were in the same mind control program as you were. They broke it, Bucky. They made it out."
"Where are they now?"
"They were…uh…recaptured and re-frozen by Hydra. We have to go bust them out."
"See? There is always a fight." He smirks.
"I can fill you in on the details while we suit up." Bucky nods and lifts himself off the bed and onto the ground next to Steve. Steve claps him on the shoulder and smiles. Bucky returns the smile, but softer. I hope this works. I don't want him to have gotten his hopes up for nothing.
The group of five stands at the single entry door to the bunker, the hot rain beating down on their backs, "Everyone ready for this? Remember: Natasha and Bucky, you disable the security and find the girls, Sam and Wanda, you are with me, clearing the place of any hostiles." Steve briefs the group, raising his shield. "Wanda, you are up." Red energy surrounds the blast door, ripping it from the hinges. And the two units rush in, Steve bouncing his shield off the wall and into the faces of two Hydra agents just past the entryway. "Now split! Keep in radio contact."
"Will do Cap." Natasha responds, turning into a hallway, and putting a bullet into the throat of a nearby agent. Bucky fast on her heels, covering her back with his assault rifle. They fight their way down the hallway, eventually coming to a large room. Natasha and Bucky simultaneously fire at the two agents at the computers. "This is the control room, their guards probably already heard the commotion and went into the hall already." Natasha pushes the bodies of the two men out of the chairs at the command station and begins hacking the system, turning off the alarms, copying any files available onto a flashdrive. Bucky stands at the door, silently watching for any hostile forces. "Okay, I have everything, and I know where the cryo room is." Bucky nods at her, stepping back out into the hallway, and taking out an agent coming towards them. Natasha comes out behind him. "This way." They bust down a locked door near the end of the hall and proceed down another hallway, smaller, darker. No doors until the very end. "This is it." It is a thick blast door with a keypad on the wall. She plugs some sort of device into the pad and the door pops open. There is no one in the room, just a computer and files on a small desk, stationed in front of a large glass divider next to a heavy blast door. They step inside and look through the glass. A single cryo pod is inside.
"There is only one." Bucky states.
Natasha begins flipping through the files on the desk, "Yeah. It mentions in this file that they had to be kept separated after an incident. It doesn't say where the other girl is."
"Which one is this? The telepath or the bomb?"
"The bomb."
"Great." Bucky replies with a sigh.
Natasha begins typing on the computer, "I am defrosting her. Be ready for whatever might happen." She watches the girls vital signs on the monitor, seeing her body temperature raise slowly, and her heartbeat and brainwaves return. Suddenly, her temperature begins rising exponentially, quickly shooting past normal human temperatures. "Shit! She is heating up! Fast! We have to get out of here!" But before she could even finish her warning Bucky was busting through the door of the cryo room, running towards the pod. "That is not a good idea! Dammit!" Natasha calls out, but is ignored. When Bucky gets near the pod, a hot metal fist bursts through the frost covered window, glass flying through the small room.
A moment later a slender woman comes leaping out of the hole, and the fist comes flying at Bucky, He acts on instinct, grabbing her metal fist in his own metal hand, He can feel the heat of her arm transferring into his, and the heat radiating onto his face. "Wait, stop, listen to me, I-" He is interrupted by another fist coming in fast, he grabs it in his other hand, but before he can use the fact that he has both of her arms to overpower her, he is met with a knee to the chest, knocking him to the ground. He lets go of her hands to try to right himself. She snatches the knife from his hip on the way to the ground, and they land. Her right hand holding down his left; metal on metal. Her knee on his flesh arm, and a knife pressed against his throat. Her face hovering over his. His blue eyes looking into her bright green ones, and for a moment he gets a feeling of dejavu, like he knows this girl. But that isn't possible. I have my memories back…Don't I?
She interrupts his thoughts, "You really shouldn't keep your knives in the same place all the time. Makes this even easier for me." She presses the knife harder against his throat.
"I'm not with Hydra. I am not here to hurt you" He chokes out, making the blade of the knife cut into his skin slightly, drawing a bit of blood.
She squints slightly, peering deep into his eyes. "It's…you. The real you…" She pulls the knife away from his throat a few inches, but keeps it at attention.
"Do…do we know each other?" He looks at not just her eyes, but her entire face. He never thought he could find someone holding his own knife to his throat so beautiful. Her tousled blonde hair falling around her face. Her bright green eyes. Her pink lips. Her lips, why do they seem so familiar…?
His thoughts are interrupted by a sound beside them, and they both turn their heads to see someone entering the doorway. Steve, with his hands raised in front of him. "Please, put the knife down. We are not here to hurt you. We are here to rescue you."
She cocks an eyebrow in disbelief, "Are you Captain-fucking-America?" Bucky chuckles underneath her, and she returns her eyes to him, giving him a look he doesn't recognize.
"Yeah he is, he doesn't like that kind of language though." Bucky replies, smiling. Feeling strangely at ease for a man with a knife inches away from major arteries. She squints again, a smile ghosting across her face. Her eyes are even brighter when she smiles.
She lifts off of Bucky quickly. "Well, I'll be damned." She twirls the knife and slides it into a pocket on her belt, "I am keeping this though." She looks at the man dressed in the stars and stripes, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
Steve lowers his hands feeling like the situation has diffused some. "I was frozen in the arctic for 70 years. It's kind of a long story."
"No, I get being frozen." She extends a thumb over her shoulder to the broken remains of the cryo pod, "So why is Captain America here to save lil' ole' me?"
Steve looks over at Bucky who is on his feet again, and coming to stand beside Steve, in front of the girl. "For him."
"I don't think we got off on the right foot. I'm Bucky. Pleasure to meet you ma'am." Bucky extends his hand to her. She chuckles softly, and lowers her face to look at the floor, shaking her head lightly, "What's so funny?" He asks, half expecting a joke about his name.
She turns back up to look at his face, "It's just…" A smile drifts onto her face, "We have met, for the first time, over fifty times now, and this is the first time we have been able to exchange names." She extends her metal hand to his and shakes it, "I'm Lenore. Nice to meet you…Bucky." She replies slowly, her voice slowly testing out his name. He loves the way it sounds.
Steve pipes up, "I thought your name was Edna?"
Lenore laughs, "Lenore is my middle name. Most people call me Len for short. I never liked being called Edna. I respect the namesake, but it just doesn't suit me."
"Namesake?" Bucky asks.
"Mama was an English teacher. Both me and my sister were named after a female poet and an Edgar Allen Poe poem. Edna St. Vincent Millay and Lenore for me. Emily Dickinson and Annabelle Lee for my sister…" Her voice drifts off at the end. He notices her southern accent got thicker when she started talking about her past.
Bucky knows what she is wondering, "We haven't found your sister yet. We thought you would both be here."
Steve looks at Bucky, thinking about how this is the most he has spoken since he found him. Then directs his gaze back to Lenore, "Do you know where she might be?"
"No…" Lenore pauses, seemingly thinking. "But she is far away, I can't feel her."
"Are you sure she's not…" Steve catches himself before he says the word.
"If she were dead, I would definitely feel it." She pauses, narrowing her eyes "Who the hell is in my head?" She looks through the glass, seeing nothing on the other side, but knowing people are there. She brushes past Steve and Bucky to go into the main room, with Natasha, Sam, and Wanda. Steve and Bucky follow. Lenore looks at Wanda. 'You aren't used to people knowing you are there are you?' Wanda shakes her head. 'I have never met another telepath other than my sister… Anything you want to know, you can just ask.' Wanda nods.
"You mind sharing with the class?" Sam quips. "I thought she was the explosive one not the crazy mind powers one."
The group looks at Sam, worried he upset the nuclear bomb standing in their midst, but to their surprise Lenore laughs. "I like him. He's not scared of me." She smiles at Sam. "To share with the class -as this guy so eloquently put- I am not nearly as good at my sister, but I am very perceptive to things. I can feel when someone is in my head. Sometimes I can pick up on other people's feelings if they are strong enough. But for the most part, I am just strong and 'explosive'" she made air quotes with her fingers. "I am sure you all have a ton of questions, but I would like to get out of this Hydra hell as quickly as I can, so can we go back to your plane or whatever and do the Q&A there? I promise I won't hurt anyone or anything. Ya'll have been nothing but nice to me." She looks at Bucky. "Sorry about your neck. But in my defense, the last time we saw each other, you tried to kill me." He shrugs in response. Wishing he could remember that, or anything about her.
"That sounds like a good plan." Natasha replies, and the six of them make their way out of the Hydra bunker, stepping over the bodies littered through the halls.