An Agent and An Assassin
Part 3: Windmills Of Your Mind
"I HATE YOU SOOOOO MUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!" Bucky screamed. Well, she had warned him. There they stood in a metal cage together, before it started to spin rapidly around the central point, before all the cages started to slowly lift. They were now parallel to the ground and spinning ever faster, her stomach dropping and rising every time they were at the top and bottom of this hellish rotation. It was like being on a hamster wheel, except, lying down on the hamster wheel. It didn't help with her sliding towards Bucky every time she lost her grip inside the cage. Well anyway, he was now cursing in Russian, she didn't care, she fucking loved this ride.
"Okay, I know where I'm taking you for dinner then!"
"YOU CAN TALK ABOUT DINNER AT A TIME LIKE THIS!?"
"YEAH!" Mary shrugged as best as she could while listening to Bucky sigh in deep relief as the 'hamster wheel of doom' slowly lowered and the ride began to slow down to a halt. They were assisted off and they ran further down the theme-park to find another ride. They'd ridden on the Tango Train together and to avoid Bucky's metal arm slamming into the side of the car and punch a hole, she bravely sat to his left and endured the forming bruises.
"I'm not doing the rotor again, if that's what you're thinking." Bucky had grasped her shoulders begging her as she looked in it's direction. "It was like being put through the spin-cycle."
"Fine. Hmm…" Mary looked around, pointing to a gorgeous carousel.
"Yeah, why not." He shrugged, it was good enough for her and they patiently queued up behind large amounts of couples and small children. It wasn't long before a curious child started tugging on Bucky's shirt.
"Why is your arm shiny?" The small boy asked. She wasn't sure why, but she was surprised to see him kneel to the boy's level, his small friends gathering around to listen.
"Yeah, it's all metal!" Another kid said. Bucky smiled and ruffled the boy's hair.
"I lost it." He explained simply.
"Did it get eaten by a dinosaur?"
"No." a small girl protested. "It got eaten by a dragon, stupid." Mary stifled a laugh.
"That sounds much more interesting than what really happened." Bucky replied kindly. "What do you think happened, dear?"
"Oh, didn't you tell me you lost it because your friend Steve asked you to lend him a hand?" Mary smirked, a couple of the kids laughed, some of the others a little confused but laughed nonetheless.
"You're horrible." Bucky replied, she smiled, watching the scene unfolding before her. There were too many emotions, and children's curiosity was probably the strongest thing she felt. It was difficult for her to hone in on Bucky, but she beamed happily when she sensed the amusement and happiness. The feeling certainly didn't last for long as she felt a blunt force hit the back of her neck.
"But what about all our stuff? I was going to take him to a Japanese restaurant with karaoke!" Mary protested the moment they stepped off the air-strip and were greeted by who he guessed was the Director General of ASIO.
"It's all been taken-care of, including your laundry." The woman coolly replied. Bucky wasn't entirely sure who this woman looked like or reminded him of. "Director General Linda Rose, pleasure to meet you Agent Reyes and Agent Barnes, we've got matters to talk about, so please follow us."
"For a secret organisation, they do get mentioned a lot." Mary nodded in agreement as they were led into multiple labyrinth-like hallways.
"Yeah, well I think it's because they do a bit of everything; intelligence, security and they probably do SHIELD-y things too." Mary shrugged "To be fair, you aren't the first Soviet spy here."
"What?"
"Petrov Affair, 1950's, mid-cold war. Worked wonders for the Liberal party for their election." Bucky glared at the agent who rudely pushed them into the room, the agent looked indifferent and continued his way down the corridor.
The Director stood at one side of the table, pointing to their seats. He grudgingly sat down, crossing his arms with a huff and shuffling down the seat. She faced them with a grim expression, exhaling and taking her seat.
"I do welcome you here, and we apologise for the inconvenience. We would have brought you in on a more civilised basis, but we do have a major problem. Putting it simply… SHIELD has fallen."
"No, what!?" Mary stood up. Bucky motioned for her to sit back down, albeit half-heartedly, he couldn't believe it either. "SHIELD as in Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division-"
"Is gone, as hard as it is to believe, but we're all at a knife's edge. You two are now rogue agents who work for no one." Director General Rose said simply. "You are free to continue your mission, after all, we can't have loose ends-"
"List. I need the list." Mary cut her off suddenly. Bucky slowly realised that there was a likelihood that- no, Steven was not an idiot and would not be there, he was on some godforsaken planet drinking himself to death. Director Rose handed over the list and hurriedly they both read through the names, many names he could see she recognised as he could see her lips tremble ever-so slightly. He read the name in his head:
Mia Reyes
Now that didn't make sense. She didn't have a cousin or anything working in SHIELD. Bucky also scanned the list.
"Agent Sam Wilson." She read aloud, she sat back in her seat, looking more shocked than he had ever seen. He too couldn't believe what he'd just read. Sam Wilson, falcon, he couldn't be…
"I'm sorry, I really am, but this is where the party cuts short." Director Rose now stood up, pushing her chair back and motioning for the agents standing at the door.
Director Rose stared through 2 windows, one to her left and another to her right. In one room there stood a small woman, crossing her arms as she calmly answered questions. In another, a man had removed his metal arm, his hand upon the lie detector and answering with indifferent shrugs. It would help if they weren't so bored, honestly, all she wanted to extract was their information on SHIELD, but it appears that all they knew was the basics, things that people in division 1 could tell her. It seemed that Holmes was more calculating and shrewd that she expected.
"Current training?" Agent Kim asked the girl.
"Fire arms and hand-to-hand. Arnis."
"Filipino Martial arts?"
"Yeah." Agent Reyes nodded "Holmes wanted fencing but I sort of went, nah, don't fancy having showdowns like in Die Another Day. Also, is the truth serum really necessary? I mean-" Rose turned and sighed, looking towards the other window where Barnes sat, almost mirroring his partner's position.
She wasn't entirely sure why she even allowed herself to let Barnes into the building. She of all people knew of the Winter Soldier, everyone in her position did. If it weren't for the current situation, she would've gladly had him incarcerated, perhaps even, well, how should she put it… Barnes may have found himself dead in a pool of his own blood. Or not even perhaps, perhaps he would have been left in the desert or the bush. Neat, efficient and easily passed off as an accident. He was a threat, a threat to the general population and to this girl. Sure, she may have known what she was getting into, but she was still an Australian citizen and therefore under her protection. They didn't need another Johannesburg disaster; everyone had their own version of hell to pay for that.
"So, down to this, are we?" Mary asked wryly. "Still feeling the effects of the truth serum?"
"Oh yeah." Bucky moved off his bed to the floor of their hotel room, Mary did too, now sitting opposite him. "Ladies first."
"Truth or dare?"
"I'll start of tame. Truth." Bucky stated, Mary paused for a beat, surprised he took the easy way out first, unable to think of something, she said the first thing that came out of her mouth.
"Do you think I'm pretty? Honestly. And bonus points for reasoning."
"Well, personally as well as a lot of people, I think your eyes are your biggest selling point. They're very-"
"Brown and plain?"
"Doe-eyed and soft. You also do this thing when someone call's you and immediately there's a hair flick and an innocent look, which kills people, really. Your hair's fabulous, I hear agents getting all worked up about how straight it is. Back in my day, you'd hate them all because you would've had to curl it regularly. There's something sparkling and enigmatic about you, you're an intelligent person and you're a kind person to be around-"
"Pfft-"
"Okay, so when you're not making sarcastic comments." He concluded, Mary shrugged, it wasn't too bad of an assessment. "Also, there's a freckle on your lip. Was that always there?" Mary pulled her lower lip down to show him and nodded. "Okay, truth or dare."
"Truth."
"Would you kiss me if I asked?"
"Well you're cute and a nice person underneath that dark and mysterious façade. The only thing that's stopping me is the fact I know nothing about you and Captain Rogers."
"Fair enough." Bucky shrugged, putting a pained expression on his face. "Have you even kissed a guy?"
"Hey, one question only. Truth or dare?"
"Dare this time"
"I dare you ask Agent Adil out for coffee tomorrow, while she escorts us back to ASIO." Mary smirked, thinking up of the best way to set up this pretty kick-ass agent with her pretty kick-ass friend. "What? She's lovely and looks like she's got a thing for you."
"Fine, truth or dare?"
"Dare?"
"You know that party tomorrow night at ASIO?"
"Yeah…"
"I dare you to dress up as one of Captain America's chorus girls." Bucky smirked back at her victoriously, probably taking in her face, which previously described as 'bright and sparkling' now resembled a goldfish.
"But you have to go as Captain America." She finally managed to say.
"I was already planning to. Your turn."
"Truth or dare, you motherfucker."
"Truth, can't risk anymore emotional embarrassment from you."
"Why is the word 'wife' so easy for you to say?" Mary asked out of genuine curiosity. For the first couple of hours, Bucky hesitated. But now, whenever they were asked who they were, it was always him introducing her first and the word slipped off his tongue.
"I guess I reminded myself the stakes this charade is really playing on." Mary didn't say anything more, despite the fact she knew he lied and there was a lingering feeling she just couldn't put her finger on. "I choose another truth."
"I don't know… Oh, this is technically one question. Consider it as question 1a and 1b; how many exes and how did you break up with them all." Mary shrugged, she didn't mind question about her exes.
"Well, the first one I went to my year 12 formal with. He and I both worked at the same frozen-yoghurt store, we broke up because we sort of decided it wasn't working. The second one was during my first year at uni, he was great, we were both in the same med-science class, but he let go because he decided he couldn't do a long-distance relationship thing."
"Harsh." Bucky said.
"Not as bad as my last one. That one was the definition of messy. I met him at SHIELD, great guy and everything until his self-entitled sexist arse thought that I was dressing up for him and by that extent, deserving of sex. So I straight-up spat back at him everything wrong with him and that no one could ever love a dick so fake that they're technically a dildo. I walked away at that point and ran into Captain Rogers at Stark Towers. After that I'm not entirely sure what happened…"
"What was his name?"
"Agent Finn O'Conell."
"Oh…" Bucky said simply, letting go of what she supposed was his 'quietly irritated' face.
"What's this 'oh', you're going to say something…"
"Steve may have briefly mentioned that he, Agent Holmes, Stark and Loki had him incriminated as an agent of Hydra and responsible for multiple information leaks, then proceeded to have his memory altered accordingly. Also they may or may not have had him incarcerated for life in a SHIELD facility in the middle of nowhere."
"So that's what they did… I was wondering where he went off to." Mary said before feeling incredibly flattered at the fact they'd go to such lengths for someone they barely saw (save Emma and Tony when filing for him). "You?"
"Truth?"
"Is it true you were a bit of a playboy back in the day?"
"GODDAMNIT STEVEN!" Bucky raged, Mary laughed, clutching her stomach and leaning back on the edge of the bed. "In my own defence, I did whatever I could to score him a date as well."
"It sounded like he was third wheeling more often than not."
"Dates!" Bucky protested, causing her to laugh even more at his frustration. "Truth or dare"
"Truth"
"Who is Mia?"
"I am." Mary breathed getting it out of the way, but something still held her back. Bucky didn't need to know all the details of her past. "I was born Mia Irina Reyes, I took my sister's name in remembrance after she died. Look, Barnes, I'd love to tell you all this it's just I-"
"You can't." Bucky answered simply with a sympathetic smile "I understand. I just can't go on long rants about Hydra either. For both of us it's just too painful. Look, I'm sorry if I bought anything up that I shouldn't have-"
"No, it's okay, you would've found out one way or another. I'm just glad you had the tact not to say anything when you found out… maybe my name was published because this mission doesn't even exist-"
"I'm sorry?"
"Emma, sorry, Agent Holmes said that this was a multiple manhunt, right? But do you remember her dropping something about the infinity gems and the infinity gauntlet? That's why Johannesburg was covered up, because SHIELD got their hands on the gauntlet and that's why we've… we've." She stopped mid-sentence, unable to continue talking.
"We've been blown. You're right, I don't think this mission will ever be in the files, Agent Holmes is trying to keep this last case going because she probably thinks there's-"
"No, not thinks, she knows. I know, you know what? SHIELD's gone and fuck all courtesy. If I know Emma Sherlock Holmes-Laufyeson, I know that she's attached to me to the point she wouldn't send me out on a case like this without her on stand-by. This mission was created so that if it was written down, it would probably look like it was never meant to have been followed through with. Why do you think after the gala she kept assigning us?"
"Because this was her evil-villain plan all along…"
"Exactly. Which means she doesn't want us trust ASIO too much and they can't ever get their hands on the gem that's hidden here. But here is a fuck-huge island with massive deserts and not enough time."
"But why is Wilson on that list?" Bucky let go quietly, Mary pulled the metaphorical breaks in her train of thoughts, now feeling the full-blow of Bucky's quiet anguish.
"I don't think he's dead." Mary said finally after a long thinking process, slowly smiling.
"What?"
"I don't think he's dead. Look at that list, do you remember those names? Those names don't add up. They all worked across the board, and according to the details of the attack, there are several places where these people worked that they could've escaped. But Agents Smith and Fuller, they were both on that list, and unless my babies were pulling a Romeo and Juliet, I don't think this is a coincidence. They don't work on the same days.
"What?"
"This is going to sound mad. But if Fury has to stay dead permanently, that means Coulson's Director, which means, he doesn't want to keep quiet like this. If he wants SHIELD to continue, they go underground. These agents aren't dead, they've been given an escape plan out of SHIELD for good. I'm on that list, dunno why. Wilson is on that list because Emma's still Emma and she's a horrible perfectionist and stress-machine, so she'll need someone on our backs and to report to SHIELD."
"Which means-"
"SHIELD just pulled the biggest disappearing trick in history, forget what Hydra did, SHIELD just perfected the art of faking its own death. This gives the enemy time to think we're vulnerable and time for the rest of us to get on with our job. If Emma didn't know there was a gem here for certain, then she wouldn't have only sent us on an oddly specific mission, and if SHIELD was meant to be really gone, my name wouldn't have been on that list." Mary concluded, taking a deep breath.
"You going to need a drink, Einstein?"
"Nah, I'll be fine. What we have to do now is figure out how to get into contact with Wilson."
"But how did you figure that all out?"
"My desk is on the same large table-space as Agents Smith and Fuller. They told me that when they started out they had the same shifts, but they didn't want anyone knowing they were dating, so they changed their days up. Also, the old head of the department was a bit of a homophobe, so they had to keep that hidden."
"Calm down, you don't need to know everything." Bucky joked, Mary shrugged. "Point is, we gotta get your costume made."
"Okay, I am raiding your luggage and calling ASIO for some fabric and a sewing-machine. Can you draw?"
"I'm not Steve, I'm not an artist."
"Can you at least calculate areas of composite shapes and apply my measurements to that?"
"Yes."
"Well thank bloody fuck."
"I-I was wondering…" Bucky started off sheepishly, Mary had to stifle her giggle as she returned from her brief trip to 'go to the toilet'. What she meant was get a safe distance away from Bucky and watch him attempt to ask Agent Fatima Adil out. Seriously, where was she getting such pretty scarves.
"Yes?" She asked, Mary knew that Agent Adil's eyelash bat was irresistible and would probably work.
"If you'd like coffee?" Mary smacked her forehead as silently as she could, he was the worst. Honestly, it was so anticlimactic. Oh well, on the other hand, Adil was now laughing slightly, patting his shoulder sympathetically and telling him that she was alright and she didn't. She now returned, throwing Adil an apologetic look at Bucky's awkwardness. Was Captain Rogers actually lying to her? Rogers couldn't lie, everyone knew that. He couldn't even lie about leaving the toilet seat up, let alone make up a story.
"There you are, now you two have a debrief and then have the rest of the afternoon off before tonight. We're glad you both decided to join us on our party. Also, was the fabric okay?" Adil asked as she escorted them out of the hotel and into a car.
"Just gorgeous, I'm nearly done, and thanks for sending them over with the take-away." Mary thanked. "I love the scarf you're wearing today, the floral pattern is gorgeous!"
"Thanks, ASIO's very lenient when it comes to hijabs. As long as they stay in place, they don't care. They're also alright with catering for our religious needs, no matter what religion actually." Adil shrugged. Bucky was sitting in the back seat of the limo, obviously still angsting about his failed attempt. Mary couldn't quite pin-point Bucky's emotions in her mind, there was too much interference from other people. Fucking politicians. "So, if you don't mind me asking, I was informed you're a mutant, yes?"
"Yeah. Empath, getting used to it all." Mary replied.
"So, what's it like?"
"Have you ever heard what it's like through a hearing-aid?" Adil shook her head. "Well, we had a colleague whose deaf at SHIELD come in and the doctors played some sounds for us. It was like hearing everything while having a 747's engine being blasted in your ears. They don't have selective hearing. Likewise, my brain doesn't function by selectively choosing who's emotions or lies to feel, so it feels everyone."
"So it's like having white-noise all the time." Adil summarised.
"Basically, sometimes it comes, sometimes it goes. Sometimes I feel everyone's emotions, sometimes I can't even tell my own. Very strange mutation. Now a telepath, that I'd hate to be. I think we all deserve a little suspended belief in our lives."
"Adil, we've got a problem." The driver pointed ahead. Mary's mouth fell into a small 'o' shape, staring at the motorcade in front of them. "Fucking politicans."
"They fund us, we can't really complain." Adil sighed "No matter what they're policies may be. You elect one party, they do nothing and the party that was previously in power that did absolutely nothing sounds like a better alternative now that they're pointing out the other party's flaws."
"Despite the fact it was their flaws too. Remember when they backflipped on Gonski and they were going to cut education funds?" Mary asked Adil. She nodded, they both made pointed faces, that was a horrible. "Does ASIO do anything for Asylum Seekers, by any chance?"
"More than the media would have you think. What do you watch?"
"ABC and sometimes SBS."
"Well at least you're fine. We're in the firing line with all the other tabloids." She winced as the motorcade finally passed and they could continue to headquarters. Meanwhile Bucky Barnes was still angsting in the corner.
"Does this feel awfully wrong to you?" Bucky asked her, she nodded, her brows meeting in the middle slightly as she assessed everyone in the room.
"Damn."
"What?"
"They're all emotionless. They know I'm an empath. I'm only getting feed from you." She said quietly, crossing her arms and playing around on the computer chair she was sitting upon. Bucky continued to observe the agents' movements, until the director general entered.
"Alright, you all know why we're here. We agreed to help them and here we are, giving you help."
"What terms and conditions are you planning?" Mary suddenly stated in a cool tone. Everyone turned to face her, she raised a brow.
"Nothing too hard."
"Liar." She smirked "No, you want something, information is the most likely. Oh, you're wondering why I can suddenly hear your thoughts. I kicked this under the table." Mary held up a small black box, Bucky took it from her, examining the wiring and all the components. "It was a brain-wave scatterer or whatever. Point is, it's not working and I can hear all your guilt. Don't worry, just guilt and feelings and the truth. I'm not a telepath." Bucky stared at them all as if to mentally reiterate her point, but he knew she was bluffing, the device was working perfectly, after all she couldn't sense anything.
"Alright, what we want is SHIELD intel."
"And you honestly though a newbie could give you that?"
"No, we honestly knew that a mutant could give you that."
"She's an empath!" Bucky corrected, exasperated "She knows you murdered someone and why you would, but not how and who and where."
"Thank you." She smiled before turning back to face them. "No, you mean intel on the Avengers, X-men and the executive circle. Even if I did, it's a bit redundant as SHIELD's gone." She played that card, he internally welled up with pride.
"So, that means you're playing to our rules if you don't want to lose what we're here for." Mary finished, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms.
"So, let me repeat the question, and remind yourselves we know the truth; what do you want from SHIELD?" Bucky asked threateningly "Weapons? You don't need intel on SHIELD, you said so yourself, SHIELD is gone."
"No, it's more than weapons. They want some of the 804's. Well, here's the thing, we can't give you them, they've all but been destroyed. But we can perhaps get our hands on other things-"
"No, what are you doing?" Bucky protested, however something told him this was her ploy. "You can't do that-"
"The bloody hell I can! Look, we could easily get you Stark technology and some remaining SHIELD weapons. We can also give you something much more tantalising."
"Like what?" Director General Rose asked, an ascension of murmurs went around the table.
"We could give you one of SHIELD'S most dangerous 804's." Bucky finished for Mary, the pair of them making eye-contact and simultaneously staring down the room.
"Mind you, just one. Pick one." He could see where they could both go with this lie. He'd already encountered multiple misconceptions about Mary's abilities and they also thought she couldn't lie… if he went along with this, they could easily find out what was really going on.
"We want 804 number 70." Rose replied simply.
"I think we're done here." Bucky conceded with a nod, helping Mary out of her chair and silently exiting the room.
"And so I was like-" Mary wasn't even sure why she was listening to these people talk, but she couldn't sense a damn thing and it was brilliant. Also, she may have downed a cocktail or two, but so far her lipstick had stayed all night and her skirt was too fucking short for her liking. Should she mention that ASIO had themed their party superheroes? Because she felt like that needed serious questioning. She spent all afternoon raiding her suitcase and Canberra's boutique stores for components she could recycle and throw into her costume. It worked though, only thing she was missing was a helmet. "And then- OH MY GOD ARE THEY PLAYING ANACONDA!"
"Yeah, you… go have fun or whatever… I'm just gonna sit here and…" Mary flumped forward a little bit on the bar-table, her head resting on her hand, other arm raising her cocktail glass in farewell. She wasn't even sure why Agent Adil thought it was a 'great' idea to invite the pair of the to ASIO's annual party, but at the time it sounded like a fun thing to do. Now Bucky was somewhere on the dance floor dropping it hella low while slightly intoxicated (or at least she hoped he was intoxicated… because that was frankly embarrassing)
Eventually she sort of got off her chair and moved to the dance floor to join a couple of Agents she'd met earlier that evening. It was sort of fun, to be completely honest, you could tell who all the sad emo kids were when they started playing Fall out Boy and Panic! At The Disco. It was also sort of weird as most people turned up as the Justice League (when she meant the Justice League, she meant most people, indiscriminate of gender, were dressed up as Wonder Woman). She also saw some pretty sick Watchmen cosplays, and there she stood, embarrassingly executing her favourite party move; the sprinkler, in a stupid chorus girl outfit. Why the hell did she decide it was a good idea?
"YOOOOOO, BUCKY!" Mary shouted, glad she could ditch her new-found time-wasters, shoving her way past people to where Bucky was sitting, drinking with a few agents.
"BRUUUUUUUUH!" Bucky replied back, evidently drunk. That was a weird thing to see and hear, drunk or sober. "This is Agents… um…. I forget their names…."
"I am so glad you're here. This is like the worst party I have ever been to, and let me tell you I have been to a lot of parties…" Mary rambled on, she wasn't entirely sure if everyone could keep up with her speed right now.
"Wait… ah crap… have you seen my phone?" Bucky searched his pockets "I'm gonna see what Steven's been posting on Instamagram…"
"I got it!" Mary announced, searching through her purse, throwing out tampons and packets of chewing gum in order to look for his phone.
"I love you." Bucky hugged her as she handed him his phone.
"What?"
"As a friend!" Bucky clarified.
"Okay, that's cool, I can roll with that!"
A/N: Sorry, exam block is looming over the horizon, but the next chapter is done and ready to be uploaded exams are over and done with. Next chapters are going to be the most fun, as it's all driving around NSW with stupidly fast changes in speed zones. Also have photos ready to make my fictional instagram post on tumblr, so watch that space. Reviews will be lovely as I'm writing my notes :) ily dears
