"In the blue skies wanning above
Red swallows the world as I send a wish to you
For a different time, a different place
Oh fly me away from this saltine crust
Above these poisoned waters of white
Hidden from the black shadow's grasp
My limbs grow exhausted
Let me sleep before the light
Lying in grass nearly dead
I send a final wish to you
Escape this end..."
When he first opened his eyes, James Buchanan Barnes otherwise know as "Bucky", expected to see a very different scene than the one that greeted him. What he expected was an excited Steve or a somewhat regal looking T'challa with hands resting behind his back with a slue of Wakanda scientists pittering in the background; instead, after the blindness from a long stay in cryo subsides, he's greeted by what appears to be child sporting silvery-white hair and a black uniform. Even weirder is that a black blindfold covers his eyes.
"Teli simu nesva senos ani chimo na yafare. Tseli senos kimo yafare? No ha korsnor sve sia nesva?"
It takes a moment for Bucky to realize that the strange kid is talking. Something he can't identify. Besides sound swimming around his ears and a buzzing almost ringing sound drowning anything too low; the kid's jibberish in whatever language he thinks he's speaking, is barely understandable. There's a few words and word roots that he catches, but the recognizable is drowned in the flow of unrecognizable words that it leaves his head spinning and the tale-tale signs of a headache coming on.
The kid is quiet for a moment staring intently at Bucky, or as close as you can get with a blindfold on. Even with it on, he's pretty sure he's being studied. He wants to send a unamused glare back but his face fails to cooperate. On the plus side, everything is becoming clearer the more his brain feels less like a giant ice cube.
Like now he can see that the black clothes the kid has on is definitely a black uniform, probably military with how sleek it is. Though he'll admit he's never seen it, a whisper crawling in the back of his mind perceives that as a threat. He shoves it even farther and deeper than it was, but it somehow crawls back like a revengeful ghost.
He ignores it in favor of the floating metal box that seems to be hovering in the kid's direction. "Kusta de eh oh Ikesa ii re" A robotic voice transmit over a tiny speaker. The little rectangles that seem like arms move up and down.
"Iyaka ikare haiyaha ikar." The kid replies before turning back to Bucky. He lifts a finger up signaling the universe 'a moment please' ,before he finally asks "Can you understand me now?"
"Yeah" Bucky manges to scrap out, his throat feeling scratched through with claws and raw.
The kid's lips slightly turn down, he's not sure if its what he says or how he says it that causes it.
He wants to demand to see T'challa or Steve or hell, anyone he even slightly recognizes. The longer he's in this kid's presence the more questions he wants to ask. Something about him seems off. Something a little too perfect? But he keeps his questions to himself at the moment.
"Are you- okay sir?" The kid asks. The annoying sound swimming in Bucky's ears is nearly gone as he catches the strange accent the kid who can't be more than 15. A few red flags go up.
"I've been frozen for a while. What do you think?" He sasses. His throat a bit better, than the first time he talked but still not the best it could be.
The kid, the boy, frowns as if he doesn't get it before smiling; his whole body relaxing as if it all suddenly clicked. "You really are a human aren't you?"
Even more red flags go up.
"Yes? Aren't you human too?" His muscles feel cold-pressed as he shifts around; they screaming in protest as clumsily ejects himself from the cryo chamber.
An ancient tomb like taste lingers in the air as he gulps trying to catch his breath. How long had he been trapped in that thing?
An overly dusty iron crate is offered to him by the kid. He immediately sits down, grateful even though the thick dust makes him cough and sets his throat ablaze again.
"No sir. I am a YoRHa Scanner Android, No. 9 Type S model, designated as 9S for short."
"9S huh? You wouldn't happen to be something Stark made?"
The kid, 9S frowns before turning to glance at an area behind himself, obscured by a half wall. "No sir. I am unsure who 'Stark' is. Though. There is a mention of Stark scratched on the far side of this room."
Bucky studies the direction 9S indicates. He can barely see the deep gorges where something extremely sharp and thin dug into the metal. With a huff he pulls himself back to his feet. They still protest with the short stretch across the room. Beads of sweat trickle down his neck by the time he leans on the metal half wall.
On the other side, glass shards glitter while white grain lays in piles. There's several pieces of metal twisted and bloated scattered about along with thin fragile splinters of wood.
"We had to deactivate the metal shutters to get in." 9S supplies as Bucky approaches what originally used to be a glass and steel wall. Without the hindrance of the half wall, the scratches are more noticeable. Some are deeper than others, almost as if someone desperately clawed the wall. In bold long lines two words fill up a panel of the wall.
'FIND STARK'.
Warning bells ring in his head as he notices a pair of scratch marks leading to under a crumbling desk or cabinet. It's almost indistinguishable with the thin shambling wood. Gently Buckly brushes the debris aside. Inside is a prone form; the black casing lumpy and lacking form in other places. A few lines of silver reflect the dim white lights.
It takes only a few horrifying seconds to realize who it is.
"T'challa?" He tentatively asks as his flesh hand brushes off a layer of dust on what must be T'challa's helmet.
There's no response.
A weight settles in both his throat and stomach as he reaches with both his hands for the bottom of the helmet. He knows what he might see but has to confirm it.
Delicately he unclasps the mask with a click though when he pulls something creaks and cracks. He swallows as a mummified face stares back with no eyes. It's skin tight around the bones. A cheek bone broken in two.
The mask clatters to the ground.
He's seen and done worst but this... There's a sudden need for him to answer his now very pressing questions from earlier. 9S's 'Are you human?' question a pinnacle to his fear.
"9S?" He turns away from the scene not wanting to see what is Wakanda king's tomb. There's too many questions he needs answered.
"Yes sir?" The android responds. He turns to face him, his back to the entrance as if expecting something from the darkness beyond the room.
"Am I the first human you've seen?"
"Yes sir." He responds his voice chiper.
Plowing forward, ignoring the repercussions he fires off " What year is it?"
"It's 11,945 sir."
His still-frozen fingers refuse to stop shaking as he processes the information his oh so kinda companion has supplied him. The kid even has a smile stretched half across his face, the pure excitement entertaining if not for the proverbial icy water dunk he's just received.
His stomach lurges and he has a desperate urge to scream and not stop till he can't any longer.
He was only supposed to be asleep for a few years, ten tops.
Not asleep for thousands of years.
Humankind can't be extinct.
He can't be the last human.
He just- he just can't.
"Queen of beasts holds my heart
Her song sweet as white floats down
She unlocked from her cage
Wings spread far as she takes flight
Oh such a terrible sight
I weep tears of red for choices
Made after her fall
choices; we made
after all ."