The crunch of snow underfoot provided little distraction against their destination, but Lizzy walked languidly forwards regardless. The steel doors ahead of her were almost entirely removed from their hinges, the metal twisted and gnarled in all directions. It was funny, of all her memories of this place, she couldn't remember doing that. If she were honest with herself, she would admit that her escape from this place was something she could only very hazily recall. As though something had taken her over.
The thought was something she had left alone for decades after the fact. She had escaped and that had been all she had cared to know on the subject. Recent events, the feeling of being clouded over by her own power, had brought her hazy escape under a more intense scrutiny.
Was her escape even of her own volition? She could no longer be sure, and the memory certainly escaped her.
Their journey here had been uneventful, Lizzy mostly napping through it, and she had done her best to avoid their worried glances. The two of them were clearly concerned over her, but they had agreed to come to this facility and that was all Lizzy had the energy to care about at that moment.
"Lizzy?" A quiet voice sounded beside her, breaking her from her reverie, Bucky's tone almost nervous. "You okay?"
Stretching her lips into a strained smile, she nodded brusquely. "Sure." He smirked, glancing down to his feet before looking to where Steve was finally exiting the aircraft. "Has he spoken to you?" she murmured to him, hoping to feel a semblance of real communication with Steve. Even if it had to be through a third party.
Bucky's eyes slid back to hers, a subtle frown pulling at his features. "Not…" he kicked at the snow, "properly." A beat of silence passed between them then. "Just talk to him, Lizzy."
Shuffling closer to him, his warmth more than inviting in this frozen tundra, she shrugged. "Now isn't really the time."
The dark walls of the facility were stained with a brownish blood, contrasting sharply with the white sheen of icy frost. Shadows danced upon the walls and the floor as struggling florescent lights flickered harshly throughout the hall. The eerie silence felt thick as they walked through the space, their steps echoing harshly. Her breaths were steady, something she hadn't expected. Coming back into this facility was something she had never wanted to do, something she had actively avoided thinking about. Yet, here she was. Perhaps this was some sort of twisted fate, she had come full circle.
"Which way?" Steve's murmured query broke her from her reflection.
Glancing up she found branching hallways. One veered towards the left, scorch marks trailing along the far wall, and the other to the right. The right side hallway was almost entirely darkened, the bulbs likely shattered or burnt out by now. Russian letters were painted upon the wall, signalling that this hallway led to lab 3.
"This way," as she spoke she moved into the right hallway. Her composure had held until this point, the familiarity of even these darkened hallways pushing fleeting memories back to the forefront of her mind. Her lips were pursed so tightly together she almost couldn't take a breath and her eyes were shifting hastily through the darkness. Relentlessly, she scratched at her wrist, feeling nothing.
A touch on her hand sent a jolt through her. Head snapping to the side, fear curling through her, she relaxed immediately when she found Bucky. Gently, he pulled her scratching hand from her red wrist and gave a weak smile of reassurance.
Feeling braver, if only slightly, than she had before, she moved forwards.
Lab 3 was contrastingly immaculate. The white, blinding walls free from the deep red splotches that marred the walls of the hallway. The intricate instruments were entirely in place, looking as though they hadn't been tainted by the destructive flow of time. The high ceiling almost raised into obscurity and the large window on the far wall shone like a mirror.
Something was off. Lizzy couldn't fathom what but she could feel it in her bones.
Considering the sudden shifting of idle feet behind her, she could tell the others felt the same uncertain unease as she.
"It should be here," her murmured words were barely audible as she pondered over what strangeness was pulling at her. Pushing away the thoughts, or at least attempting to, she moved further into the room. As she moved she trailed a finger along the table, its clean metallic surface unexpected. What had she expected?
"What exactly are we looking for?"
Feeling as though she wanted to leave, and very quickly, she moved faster. "There's a base serum, they can't make it from scratch." Idly she answered Steve, mind still stuck on the surface of the table. Hurriedly, she dropped to a crouch before a large, metallic cupboard. "It should be in here."
"They just replicate it?" He asked, moving to hover behind her.
Nodding, she concentrated on the surprisingly simple locking mechanism of the cupboard. Moving a few stiff pins and sliding a rusted latch was all it took for a click to reverberate through the air. Lizzy hesitated, hand half raised to pull the cupboard open, the surface of the table beneath her finger flashing like a warning through her mind.
The table had been cold and clean and metallic under her touch. No discernible features, nothing immediately dangerous; merely cold and clean.
Clean.
"Why isn't the table dusty?" The moment she voiced the question a panic shot through her and she yanked the cupboard open. It lay empty.
"We gotta go," sharply standing, ready to bolt from the room, Lizzy looked to Bucky. Had she led them into a trap? Had she led him straight back to them?
Nodding with a jerk, Lizzy took pounding steps to the door, almost stumbling in her haste. She slammed against the surface of the steel door, slapping a clumsy palm against the material in frustration. The door hadn't been shut before, had it?
Fingers clasping the handle, she struggled to turn it. Her fingers felt almost numb and she could barely will them to move as she intended.
"Lizzy?" Her clouded brain could barely even piece together which of them had called for her. All she could note was how extended and slurred her name had sounded upon their lips.
Her legs gave way, feeling numb and uncooperative. Slumped against the steel door, darkness encroached upon her vision. The last thing she felt, before slipping entirely into darkness, was the door behind her hefting open and the stab of an electric current pulsing through her.
A commotion roused her. It was muffled, as though she were experiencing it from the bottom of the ocean.
As her eyes fluttered open she expected a harsh light to sting them, instead she found a dark room. Low intensity red light shone softly at her from four bulbs, one nestled into each corner. A blinking, more urgent, red light shone from a camera very noticeably mounted on the wall in front of her. Lizzy doubted she would be able to see at all were it not for the light streaming through the large window on the left hand side. The room beyond the window was familiar, lab 3, and the people even more so. Her friends were bound, hastily it seemed but securely. Steve was still asleep, head lolling uncomfortably to the side, while his body slouched uncharacteristically.
Bucky, on the other hand, was more than awake. Lizzy wasn't sure what they had tied him with but it had to be strong considering the strain he must be putting on it with his struggle. He was shouting too but Lizzy couldn't make out the words; muffled as they still were. His eyes locked with hers through the thick glass, and she watched the fight flee him for a moment. He tried to speak to her, she could tell, his eyes shining with fear.
Straining though she was to hear his words, she couldn't make them out. Raising a hand to the cold glass she realised, with great trepidation, it was too thick for any but the most distinctive sounds to travel through. Feeling a memory bubble to the surface, Lizzy realised she very much did not want to be in this room.
A sharp high tone resonated through the small room and Lizzy winced away, hands raising to her ears. A voice, through pitchy speakers, sounded next. "Good morning, Elizabeth." Beneath his calm words Lizzy could still hear Him shouting. The man speaking was Matthew Turner. How he had survived, she couldn't say; his wounds had seemed enough to end him. His slick, greased hair was sleeked back whilst his posture was one which held a certain contempt for everyone around him. Those dark, cold eyes were piercing in their stare. Fixated upon her, as all his attention seemed, they seemed to freeze her to the spot.
Everything he had done leading to this point, all for her. The case against her, the men in Bratislava, even the cage Tony had placed her in…All to catch her, all to bring her here, and he had finally succeeded it seemed. This knowledge of his undisturbed pursuit of her only served to terrify her more. She had finally been caught in his trap, a butterfly in a glass jar, and it seemed now time to find out what it was he so desired.
She said nothing, mouth dry and body trembling.
"We're going to have a little experiment," he turned a fleeting, agitated glance to the still struggling man behind him. "Well, I do so hope you will be more a success than an experiment." A reflective pause overtook him for a moment, an appraising gaze sweeping over her, "but one can never be certain." Almost wistful, he took a deep sigh. "Unfortunately, Elizabeth, I do require your cooperation."
Despite her fear, she felt a scoff of derision pass her lips. It quickly died as her gaze fell over her friends; captured and vulnerable before her. Panic blaring within her mind, drowning out almost every other coherent thought, she gripped her wrist desperately.
Lizzy doubted her relief was entirely hidden as she felt the twined fabric of the bracelet Thor had gifted her beneath her tight grasp. A mantra chanted through her thoughts, dancing with a rushed desperation through her mind. Her pleas for help appeared to go unheeded, silence abundant in the air of the confined room as she watched the man behind the glass bark orders she couldn't quite make out.
Feeling increasingly despondent as a saviour failed to arrive, Lizzy felt her shoulders slump. Her body felt as though it were caving into itself, defeat pulling at her every muscle. Her figure folded from angered confidence to timidity – fear.
"If you would be so kind, Miss Boscoe, please lie upon the table behind you."
Lizzy didn't look at him, almost afraid to ask; "why would I do that?"
Unsurprisingly, but still distressingly, a cold silver gun was placed to Steve's temple. The threat hanging silently in the air, inescapable. For all her power, she was helpless in this cage of electrified walls.
Strength was draining from her as frustration filled her. She had just recently reduced an entire city into mere dust and now she was trapped in a cage; useless to save the two people she cared most for. That dangerous power, that slipped through her uncontrollably, why could it not appear for her now?
Sullen eyes glanced back to the table, cold steel like so many others she had found herself forced upon. "You're not here for the serum?"
A pause answered her first. "We have garnered everything of use from that outdated serum," the tinge of victory in his voice dampened her already dwindling hope further. How had she fallen for this? "our interests here are far more…ambitious."
Those keen eyes watched her for some time, following each movement with a sick joy that gave away his thrill at finally having her. "I am no cold, unfeeling monster, Elizabeth." Her eyebrows raised with less than enthusiastic dubiousness. He paid her overly outward response no mind, however. "Should this endeavour be a success, it is an unfortunate truth that your body shall…" his lips twisted as though something sour had invaded his senses, "expire."
This would… kill her?
The surprise she felt likely showed on her face, his barely hidden enjoyment of this situation increasing fourfold as he watched her. Everything she had endured…Lizzy had never considered her own demise before. Without realising she seemed to have begun believing herself unkillable, the evidence seemed undisputable. But this, whatever it was, would kill her?
Despite everything, Lizzy suddenly realised – with an intense and sharp clarity – that she resolutely did not want to die.
Tears stung her eyes as she took in the hopelessness of the situation. If she were to resist her two closest allies would surely die before she eventually succumbed to the will of Matthew anyway. If she cooperated with her own death she had no guarantee the others would be kept alive after her demise. Both scenarios played out bleakly in her mind, neither sparking any kind of hope within her, but her choice was clear regardless.
"Can I talk to them?" She asked solemnly, still avoiding eye contact with Matthew.
A wide grin smeared itself upon his lips as he took in her defeat. "Of course." His words dripped with satisfaction. "Whilst Mr Rogers may be slightly…incapacitated still, it seems Mr Barnes is more than aware of his surroundings."
"Bucky, Bucky!" She was forced to speak his name several times just to get him to calm down and look at her. He looked awful, and she was sure she mirrored it. A thousand emotions pulled at his features, each more desperate than the last, and she could feel the hopelessness oozing from him.
"I'm sorry," she began, voice cracking as she spoke. "For this, for everything." Wiping harshly at her obscuring tears, she struggled to think of what to say. What was there to say that could encompass everything? Every feeling she had repressed, every fear she had projected, and everything she had left unsaid. "I love you, I… of course I do. I'm sorry… I wasted so much time." She shrugged her shoulders limply, it all seemed so ridiculous now; why hadn't she been honest? "But I do, love you and… It's-" a hiccoughing breath shuddered from her as she clung to her composure. "It's okay…it's gonna be okay."
It felt as though she were attempting to reassure herself at this point but, considering the tears painting her cheeks, she was not succeeding. "Lizzy, you don't-"
"Bucky," she cut him off with a sad smile, "you know that I do." The silence that pulled from him was confirmation enough that he understood her predicament despite his protests. "I-tell Steve that I love him too…" He didn't seem to be listening anymore, head shaking violently as though his own abject denial of the situation would stop it from happening. She continued regardless. "Tell him that he's my best friend and that knowing him…" her lips pursed tightly to hold back a sob, "that he… that I wish I had made him proud."
With nothing left to say, fearing she would lose her nerve if she continued, she turned to the table before her. The coldness of the table beneath her back stole her breath and her eyes squeezed shut against the blinding reality.
Somewhere, not far the from Elizabeth's raw screams, thunder rumbled through the clouds.