Clint left for his mission the very next day.
December 12, 2014
"Anything, Jarvis?"
"No recognition at all. James Barnes has become, yet again, a ghost."
"Thank you." Bruce sighs.
"What the hell do I do with this now?" Lucy asks, holding a small vial in her hand. She stood and walked over to Bruce before presenting it to him.
"If it took a person of my intellect such a relatively short amount of time to recreate this, then imagine the possibilities. Someone like you, like Tony. Reed Richards. Stephen Strange. Imagine that."
"Any progress on the Iron Legion programming?" Tony asks, stepping off of the elevator with a sharp ding to announce his arrival.
"Some, but more progress on the Immortality Project."
"Tell me."
"We did it."
"She did it." Bruce corrects with a smile. Lucy held up the vial of golden liquid for Tony to see.
"It only took what, a month and a half?"
"Let me bring this to your attention, Tony-what if it was easier for someone else to recreate it? What if it took them only a month, only two weeks? What if they were smarter, more clever, faster than me?" Lucy asks, setting the vial back into the test tube holder where another four sat. "Someone like you, like Bruce. Reed, Dr. Strange, Hank Pym. Even von Doom. Strucker, for crying out loud!"
"They would create immortals."
"More than the Earth can handle."
"You said there were side effects. What are they?"
"It depends on the person. Timothy gained extreme super strength because he had a very fragile personality. Agent Ariadne Pierre was able to phase because she was a very ephemeral being-she's listed as a person who never dwells upon anything for long. Agent Kinsley Snyder became an adapter. She could control minds and become others because of her previous schizophrenia. Everything becomes enhanced or turned the opposite."
"It can turn good men into bad men."
"It's possible," Lucy replies. She gave a weary chuckle. "And we have no idea who has access to this."
"So what do you want us to do with this?" Steve questions as he suddenly makes his way into the scene.
"We're looking at a global catastrophe here." Lucy mutters, letting her eyes glaze over blankly.
"How? Just because we're going to have a few people who are immortals? What are we, then, Lucy?"
"We're dangerous too, don't you see? We're some of the biggest threats to this world. I have no idea what this serum did to people aside from keep them young for the rest of their lives. The world isn't ready for immortality."
"I apologize for the interruption, but I must inform you that Agent Pierre and Snyder are looking to commence your Indexing today, Miss Lucy." Jarvis suddenly says, hoping to stop the argument that was bubbling before them.
"Okay," she says after a moment of hesitation, "I'll be there."
Tony glanced at Bruce and Bruce at Steve as she gathered her stuff into a pile.
Lucy left without another word but merely looked despondent. No one was sure if it had been due to her imminent Indexing or rather the words of the Captain.
"Jarvis, please pull up everything we know about those two agents that are about to Index Lucy." Steve orders quietly.
An abundance of articles come up onto the nearest screen and recordings play from others while scanned documents of files are on another. Bruce flinches at their sudden appearance but steps closer to them and soon stands next to Steve as they stare at the screen.
"Agent Ariadne Pierre and Kinsley Snyder. Electricity manipulator and phaser, and telekinetic schizophrenic, respectively."
"How exactly do they know Lucy? Or why are they-you know what I mean."
"Agent Cipher and Nexus were a part of a team with Miss Lucy. They were under her leadership in '99 through about '01 when they were split. Miss Pierre, Snyder, and Moon were a part of the Les Femmes Mortelles. They were involved with S.H.I.E.L.D cases that were of rising threat under the direction of Director Nick Fury. Due to their extraordinary chemistry and cooperation, they were kept together but a secret to all but Level 8 and 9 agents."
Steve watched as Bruce flipped through the files and gears turned in his head while things began to click for him.
"They encountered Owen Reece in '01 and it became their ultimate, final mission. It states that Miss Lucy suffered trauma and did not recognize them; it is listed as amnesia in the mission file. She escaped and was reverted back to the moment she was released from confines: an adversary of S.H.I.E.L.D."
"That's why she joined HYDRA." Bruce concludes.
A loud buzzing began in Steve's ear as Jarvis continued to explain further the details of the manipulator's past. He felt paralyzed and was overcome with a numbing kind of emotion. How could he have not been so oblivious? Moreover, how dare he be so insensitive?
"And she did administer the serum to them?"
Jarvis responded with an affirmative but Tony responded with a twisted facial expression.
"If she doesn't remember that she gave them the serum, then why is she so adamant that it's so corruptive?"
"Tim," Steve states shortly, "because she loved him and she did it to him. Lucy hates hurting the people she loves-she hates people who hurt her loved ones."
"She's protective," Bruce deduces. "Just like the rest of us."
"So you're saying that she's freaking out over this goddamn serum because she loves us?" Tony asks, finding the matter seemingly farcical.
"It's her vice, Tony."
The chair creaked a bit and she stopped all of her movements with an attempt to keep absolutely still.
"Hello Agent Moon. How are you today?"
"I'm great. Thanks for asking," Lucy responds coolly, "how about yourselves?"
"Same old, same old."
"It's nice to have someone to Index though." Agent Snyder adds.
"What are we starting with?" Lucy questions, wanting desperately to finish the ordeal as quickly as possible.
"Just some questions."
"Tony-"
"Extremis, I know. I just don't like talking about it. Or using it." Tony replies.
He shut his eyes and the other two Avengers stood idly by and watched as files and folders and articles and videos and recordings flew by their eyes in an instant. Everything halted at once before there was a large encryption glaring at them. Jarvis was nearly complete with the encryptions; he had had a few distractions from Tony and the other Avengers.
Tony sighed.
Steve and Bruce daren't talk but instead allowed him to continue with his explanation.
"I've never seen such a strong, such a complex encryption for something that could be so simple."
"The simplest things in life may be the most important." Bruce murmurs.
"This is everything S.H.I.E.L.D has ever had on The Femme Fatale. She just deleted it from their system." Steve explains. Bruce hadn't been there when Steve and Tony got the update about the file from J.A.R.V.I.S.
"But whatever gets out onto the nexus of the Internet will never fully disappear."
Tony narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "Ariadne Pierre is all over this."
The blood pounds in her ears while pain cracks at her skull at a steady fifty-five beats per minute and she can't help but wonder if this was really her calling.
Her fingertips tingle and she can almost feel the vibranium comply with her will, but it never does and merely sits on the table in all of its cold glory. To the right of it is adamantium but the feel of its molecules are shockingly chilled and more so, sharp. Painful.
Deep in the back of her mind she knew heavy metals such as vibranium never obeyed her wishes, and seeing as though it was sometimes difficult for her to manipulate tungsten, asking her to continue on with vibranium was like asking an infant to read Dante's Divine Comedy. In Italian.
"Okay, Agent Moon. Don't strain yourself."
Lucy let out the breath she was holding and almost felt her chest rattle within her. The water in the air was sparse but she was thankful for its bitterness.
"I think it's time for the External Evaluation."
"Pardon me?"
"Ex-Eval takes place a little ways from here to see how far yours powers extend to."
"Where are we going?"
"New Mexico? Sacramento?"
Agent Snyder hummed. "Your pick, Cipher."
Lucy arrived back at the Tower after the sun had set and the stars had been projected into the night sky. Stars were often sparse in New York, but they were lucky enough to see just a handful.
"How did it go?" Clint asks, a bit tense from the news he had just heard.
Natasha was better at looking calm-normal-but she felt the same, if not more overwhelmed. Tony had, with the help of a handful of Stark Industries' R&D scientists and Jarvis, decrypted the file. Everything that there was to know about the manipulator was disclosed to the Avengers team.
"I guess it went alright. I'm waiting for the results. It's far more extensive than I imagined. I was to go to Sacramento, but they just kept me in the state." Lucy admits, glancing at Bruce who was sitting at the head of the dining table. His hands cradled and mug of tea which was probably warm at one point, but Lucy could see the lack of movement in the drink. His eyes were nearly glazed over and she knew that look. She absolutely knew that look.
"So what's the big news, hmm?" She asks, folding her arms.
"What are you talking about?" Tony asks.
"You look like you just saw a ghost. Or fifty ghosts."
"We're just not sure what to do with the looming press." Natasha explains simply.
"No, that's not it. You learned something. What did you find out?" Lucy inquires further.
Her eyes scrutinized the eyes of her teammates and listened to the beating of their hearts. "I know you're lying about something. You're keeping something from me; I can hear it."
An uncomfortable silence settled upon them as she glanced between everyone carefully. There was a sharp ding of a notification bell before Jarvis spoke.
"Miss Lucy, your Indexing results have come back."
"Can I see them?"
The nearest tablet lit up brightly and instead of walking over to the coffee table to grab it herself, she moved her index finger an inch. The tablet moved slowly over to her. Bruce flinched.
"What does it say?"
Lucy doesn't respond for what feels like the longest time, but soon does, softly. "I… plead the fifth."
"What's your Index? Have they changed the scale?"
"I don't think it matters anymore. I'm on the Index." She says.
The tablet shut off and flew back to where it was originally. Tony looked like he's thinking, and Lucy knew he was searching through the database to find the document. His heart beat at an irregular rhythm and she couldn't decide if it was because of his concentration or if he was still lying to her.
"We have a mission notification. Monday, Serbia." Lucy declares.
"Serbia?"
"Haven't we been there recently?"
"Yes, but apparently we're going."
"Omnipotent..." Tony whispers.
"Tony, stop." Lucy says. Her eyes lost their light and looked dimmer than ever while the dark shadows under her eyes seemed darker.
"You're omnipotent. You know who else is omnipotent?" Tony asks rapidly, "Owen Reece. Owen Reece is omnipotent."
Natasha hummed and let her hand rest on Clint's leg anxiously.
They knew. She had no idea what they knew, but they knew something.
Was it possible that her secrets were spilled? Or rather, what was left of her secrets? What did they know?
"Who is Owen Reece?" Lucy inquires carefully. Her head pounded as if she was trying to manipulate vibranium.
"Oh, you don't know?" Tony replies. His tone was deadly, more so than cyanide, than Death herself.
"No, I don't. Who is he? Should I know him?"
The act that Tony was putting on was the greatest risk they had taken since attempting to reign in The Femme Fatale. He… he was prodding a sleeping lion.
All of the memories that were buried in the history books for The Femme Fatale were within that lion.