A/N: I haven't had any feedback on this story yet. What do you think?
"Take your sniveling elsewhere, you shame our masters."
Breathing hard, Bucky just stared at Lev for a long moment, unable to reconcile this... monster with his Lev; in a way, this side of her was worse than the raging beast, this showed cruel intelligence, a psychopathic streak of callous, sadistic evil.
Bucky turned and fled, fighting to control his racing heart.
Steve found him later, sitting silently in the common room, the TV playing, but Bucky's mind a million miles away. With a sigh the blond man sat beside him, leaning back into the couch.
"I talked to Shuri, she apologizes for not seeing my message sooner, her research's taking off, she said she hardly has the time to sleep anymore." He paused, but Bucky remained silent.
"She said she'd do all she could to help, would drop everything to devote her full time to this."
Bucky finally managed a half-hearted smile, the edges stained with heartache.
"We can go anytime you're ready... if you're coming with us?"
Bucky exhaled, finally turning his haunted gaze to Steve. "I... I don't know. I mean... this is Lev, but it's not. She's so... cruel, and she knows exactly what to say to cut me the deepest. I want to be there for her but... it hurts so bad."
Steve nodded silently then exhaled loudly, rubbing at his scalp. "I understand Buck, whichever you decide, I understand. We'll be flying out as soon as we can figure out the best way to subdue Lev. I mean, right now, you can't trust her, we have to restrain her."
Bucky nodded. "I wouldn't trust her either right now"
"Bruce is thinking a concentrated dose of sedation fog through the vents, it'll have to be a hell of a dose and it won't work for very long, but it'll give us time to restrain her... we might even need the collar." He shuddered.
The collar was an invention of Tony's that he kept locked behind many doors. It was a last resort type of deal, a metal collar that delivered an incapacitating electric shock if the wearer violated the preset limits. Most anything could be input by way of restriction and limitation, but the easiest and most effective was motion detection. If the wearer moved too much, past a certain number of degrees, the collar shocked, anything from the barest tickle to a lethal level. Tony had considered 'uninventing' the collar at one point, but it unfortunately had come in handy a few times for detainees who couldn't be reasoned with any other way.
The thought of using it on Lev was agonizing, but it was going to be necessary; this wasn't Lev they were dealing with right now, they had to remember that.
Steve's phone beeped suddenly, a caustic, grinding tone that instantly set Bucky's nerves on edge. Steve grimaced as he hurried to silence it, his face growing grave as he read the message. Bucky felt the beginnings of anxiety start to pierce his miserable bubble.
"The President's launching one last all-out attack on HYDRA, she's requesting the Avenger's participation."
"I can't-"
"No Buck, not you. Everyone else." Steve cut a quick, knowing glance at him. "She doesn't trust you either, it seems."
A curious mix of relief and disappointment filled Bucky, he'd come back from being the Winter Soldier, he'd fought as an Avenger for this goddamn country, and now suddenly he wasn't to be trusted?
"It's just the timing, man." Steve continued. "She's sore with the attacks and Lev's performance back there, this is our chance to crush those pricks once and for all, and it frees you up to take Lev to Shuri; it wouldn't hurt for you to spend some time decompressing in Wakanda either."
Bucky was about to protest, but Steve continued, correctly interpreting Bucky's reluctance and seeking to head it off. "I know it's far from ideal, but there's no one else. We have to respond to this request, 'cause you and both know it's anything but a friendly invitation. If we succeed, it will secure Lev's safety from prosecution-"
"But, if Shuri can't reverse it, remember that fucktard agent said-"
"It will. Shuri helped her once, she'll do it again. I'm sorry it has to be you taking her there, but maybe it's for the best, you'll be right there when the real Lev wakes up."
"If the real Levi wakes up." Bucky couldn't stop his voice from breaking.
"Shit Buck," Steve murmured. "We can't think like that."
Bucky flexed his hands, regripped the controls with a grimace. He'd been holding onto them so hard his joints popped and protested angrily.
Lev's sedation and capture had been far from pretty. When the sedation fog had first been pumped in; they'd decided, somewhat reluctantly to not ask Lev first if she would be willing to just cooperate, it wasn't worth the potential trouble of giving her a heads-up of what they were planning; she'd fought with an almost desperate edge, as if this were bringing back horrible memories. She'd gasped and struggled, flipping back and forth between vicious, indignant rage at being tricked, and desperate, pleading panic, clawing wilding at her throat as she choked and gasped.
Bucky'd had to turn away before he'd snapped and ripped the door open to pull Lev free, instinctively rescue her and soothe her, take away the agony making her scream. As she'd finally slowed in her struggles, as the sedation took effect, he'd turned back as she'd convulsively twisted to face the glass, and the look of betrayal in her eyes had cut him to the quick.
She'd already been stirring by the time they'd secured her restraints; specialized lightweight chains rated to withstand even the Hulk's strength and the snap of the collar had woken her up completely. Murder in her eyes, she'd leapt to attack, heedless of the restraints, only to go rigid with a strangled scream as the collar shocked her for moving too far. She'd tried again, snarling like a rabid dog, only to be stopped again. The collar was set to deliver a stronger shock with every additional violation, had already been set to a punishing level, and the second hit actually knocked her semi-conscious for a few seconds.
Bucky was half-hysterical by the time they'd loaded her into the quinjet and the take-off had been delayed for a few extra minutes while Steve calmed him back down.
Then the team had departed, leaving reluctantly to attack HYDRA and Bucky had been alone with Lev in the quinjet. He was the first to admit that this was a bad idea, but there were precious few options available to them. HYDRA needed to be stopped, and this was looking like the best and only chance.
Lev had been silent so far, alternating between glaring daggers at Bucky's back and wracking her brains for a way to escape. She was loathed to admit that she was indeed trapped, the chains unbreakable and, even if she managed to slip them, the collar was another matter entirely. She'd tested it a third time during take-off, when Bucky had been distracted, and the pain had been enough to convince her to stop. Her best chance was waiting, until when they were off-loading her. Maybe everyone would be incompetent, she'd never heard of this Wakanda before, but she could hope they weren't fully prepared for what she was capable of delivering.
Bucky glanced in his mirror, catching sight of Lev staring at him unblinkingly and he looked forward again, unnerved. There was no trace of his Lev in those cold, reptilian eyes. Calculating, cunning eyes that slashed deep down into your very soul and pried loose your deepest fears and secrets.
"Where are we going, Asset?" It was the first time she'd spoken since they'd taken off.
"To someone who can help you."
"No one can help me." There was an edge to Lev's voice and Bucky had to clamp down hard on the sudden impulse to flip the auto-pilot switch and scramble back to Lev's side, pull her to him and comfort her, soothe away the desolation he'd heard in her stark declaration. He flinched involuntarily, this could be... probably was a trick, an attempt to lure Bucky towards her, soften him and distract him further than he already was, capitalize on it in some way. He wouldn't put it past her right now to simply try to incapacitate or hurt him somehow, then let the quinjet drift until it could no longer, and they crashed to their death. It was a morbid, cynical thought, but this was HYDRA at their worst, or best, depending on your viewpoint.
"HYDRA succeeded this time. Your woman is gone. I am all that remains."
Bucky flinched again, harder this time. No, it can't be true, she's just messing with you again.
"It hurt, I remember that," she continued, stubbornly, or perhaps, calculatingly, keeping to Russian despite revealing earlier that she still was capable of English. "The pain was something she'd never felt before, torment without end. But, when the agents all decided to take a turn with her, soon she was moaning like a whore-"
"SHUT UP!" Bucky screamed, the jet jolting as he ripped at the controls. Lev, although secured to a bulk-head, was jerked to the side and went rigid with a screech as the collar activated again. Eyes half-open but unseeing, her unconscious body fell back against the side of the jet and her verbal torture fell silent.
Bucky panted, tears streaming down his cheeks, crying hysterically, only through sheer will did he keep the jet from barrel-rolling while he half-convulsed with agony in the seat, hands gripping the controls hard enough to bite into his flesh and draw blood. He'd hadn't intended to throw Lev around like that, hadn't been thinking of using the collar's restrictions to his advantage, had only been reacting to her horrible words and the anguish they filled him with, but it had worked. The monster in Lev's skin had fallen silent, at least for now, and Bucky could try to regain his sanity.
He trembled as her words replayed in his head, 'when the agents all decided to take a turn'and he dry-heaved, shuddering. God, baby. What did they do to you?"
Lev remained silent throughout the rest of the flight, but she watched Bucky the whole time, a sick little smile on her face as she saw the unending trickle of tears on his pale face.
Shuri, T'Challa and Okoye were waiting as Bucky guided the jet down and he took a deep breath, knowing the royal siblings and their beautifully dangerous head of the Dora Milaje would be able to see right through any façade he could try to put up. He'd spent time with all of them recovering from his own HYDRA indoctrination and again later, the first time Lev had been here and they'd become friends. He trusted Shuri completely, but he wasn't ready for T'Challa's frighteningly accurate observations, his quiet, wise words. Hopefully Okoye, silent and deeply intelligent, would stay silent.
Without meeting Lev's eyes Bucky walked past her and down the ramp, wanting to speak to their hosts out of her range. All three Wakandians were more than capable of handling themselves, and could easily handle anything Lev could currently dish out physically, restrained as she was, but her mouth and cruel cunning were a different matter entirely.
Mingled sympathy and shock flashed in the royal sibling's eyes as they took in Bucky's appearance before pulling him into tight embraces. Okoye nodded to him, gifting him with the tiniest encouraging smile.
"I will not ask how you are feeling; your face and eyes are answer enough" T'Challa rumbled quietly.
Bucky nodded in appreciation then took a deep, steadying breath. "Like we've already said, HYDRA has completely corrupted her, worse than before." He glanced at Shuri, who frowned in concern. "But there's more, she's... cruel, she's going out of her way to... say things, it's like she's trying to..." he broke off, looking away for a minute before gathering the strength to finish his sentence. "It's like her only goal is to drive me crazy with reminders of how much she suffered, how badly I failed her."
T'Challa nodded in grim understanding. "Psychological, go for your basest, most primal emotions; protection and care of your mate. Cruel indeed." He reached suddenly, planting a strong hand on Bucky's shoulder. "You did not fail her."
Bucky inhaled sharply and looked away, blinking rapidly. Giving him a moment, T'Challa glanced to his sister. "You will still be able to help?"
Shuri frowned thoughtfully for a moment. "I can't say for sure without going inside her mind, it will certainly take longer though."
T'Challa nodded. "Take all the time you need," he looked back towards Bucky. "You need to rest as well, for as long as this will take. Your previous quarters are waiting for you."
Bucky hesitated, the thought of familiar surroundings, the quiet peace that permeated the air here was a siren song to his raw nerves; but he needed to help contain Lev first, if only to be the target of her harsh words and save the Wakandians from the brunt of her malice.
T'Challa understood. "Let's get Levka settled first."
Bucky collapsed into the blankets with a pitiful groan. His body ached and throbbed, but that was nothing compared to the raw agony of his emotions.
Understanding what they intended, and not willing to cooperate in the slightest, Lev had been ruthless, realizing quickly that she was currently overwhelmed physically and instead going for Bucky's figurative throat. If she couldn't break away from the restraints, she could at least inflict this damage. She'd learned the spatial limits of the collar, keeping eerily still as the poison had spewed from her mouth; horrible descriptions of the agonies Lev endured as she fought to maintain her own mind and thoughts, the panic in her amethyst eyes as each successive round in the machine eroded her memories and personality more and more, the way she'd whimpered Bucky's name at the end, her eyes unfocused and hazy. There was no way Lev could know what she'd looked like at the time; HYDRA must have either described it or, more likely, shown her footage of her own torture and conversion when she was finally pliant and docile, all traces of Lev gone.
It had taken all of Bucky's strength to not flee, cover his ears and run away and only Okoye's threat of cutting out Lev's traitorous tongue finally silenced her, the warrior swinging her spear-head dangerously close to the corrupted woman who glared daggers in return, her violet, violent eyes promising retribution.
Fury had flared, white hot, in Lev's eyes as the cryo procedure began but, as the arctic cold air had swept up her straining body a different emotion took over and the final tattered remains of Bucky's heart bled anew as Levi looked over at him with wide, panicked eyes. For the briefest second it was truly her, truly Levi, and she was terrified of the cold, the dark, the silence that she realized was coming. Her first cryofreeze at HYDRA's hands had been an abject failure, and the young Levi, known then as Nika, had spent four years in suspended hell, a purgatory that ruined her for any of HYDRA's eventual plans with her. She was reliving that terror now.
As the cold had curled further up her body, licking at her throat Lev had opened her mouth, and the word please had fallen from her lips, a desperate plea to Bucky to save her.
It had crushed what was left of his shattered heart and he'd been unable to listen as Shuri tried to explain what she was about to try, and T'Challa himself had escorted the broken man to his hut, watching with sad, sympathetic eyes as the former HYDRA assassin shuffled like an old man towards his blankets.
Giving into the threatening darkness, Bucky closed his eyes, rigid body sagging into the blankets and, for a long time, he knew no more.\
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