Welcome back! This chapter is a long one, so strap in. I managed to focus long enough to write it right after the last one, so you have a quick update! Yay!
Do let me know what you think!
(0)
By the time their ride had landed and the Wakandan soldiers aboard had flooded out, energy guns trained upon the compound's solitary entrance, Bucky and Lianka had managed to haul Steve up the stairs and to the front door, where they were greeted by the cautious, heavily armed warriors. Lianka tensed visibly at the sight of them, ready to reach for her holstered gun, but Steve whispered a few reassuring words into her ear, and she calmed down slightly, maintaining a suspicious stance, nonetheless.
The warriors were dressed warmly and in a manner that left their face completely covered from the biting frost. As such, it was only when the frontmost figure spoke up loudly over the howling wind that Steve and Bucky recognized her as Okoye, the king's personal guard.
"Identify yourselves." Her voice was hard and curt and none of the fighters alongside her relented their menacing positions.
Steve struggled slightly to raise himself, grimacing with pain. "It is only in the shadows that the flames of life can grow."
Bucky and Lianka glanced at him with openly confused expression, but the wounded soldier did not return their gazes, staring instead intently at Okoye, who nodded just as curtly as she had spoken, standing down as she pivoted her spear away from their general direction. The warriors behind her followed suit in unison, lowering their weapons and stepping aside to clear a path for them to the ramp that led up and into the ship.
The trio struggled forward slowly and both Bucky and Lianka were assisted as soon as they reached the soldiers, two of which took their stead in supporting Steve to help him up the ramp. They all got onto the ship diligently, grabbing a seat and strapping in gingerly, welcoming the warmth that seemed omnipresent in the large vessel.
"What was that about?" Bucky asked in a low tone when they were seated, glancing at his friend.
Steve grimaced in pain as he shrugged. "Okoye gave me that as a code when she brought me to Wakanda before the mission. I guess she thought…" He paused uneasily, staring apologetically at his old friend.
Bucky's face twisted slightly.
"That you couldn't be turned like I could…" There was an uneasy sort of silence between them, following those words.
The jet lifted off as soon as everyone was safely within, whirling to life on powerful engines that sent them flying rapidly upwards, a cloaking shield generating around them at once to hide them from both human eyes and radars. Lianka shrugged out of her heavy coat as she found the atmosphere almost stifling, and Bucky was quick to follow her example. Okoye had removed her headgear as well and was staring at them intently, twisted back in her seat next to the pilot.
"You're Lianka Zaytzev?" The guardswoman asked after a moment of grueling inspection.
The girl shrugged, a bit awkwardly. "Who else would I be?"
"We checked her identity when we first met." Bucky added, a touch defensively. To prove his saying, Lianka pulled down her lower lip, exposing the tender skin within her mouth, where one could see the unmistakable vibranium tattoo, which seemed to glow a very light shade of blue.
Okoye nodded grimly, apparently satisfied.
As Lianka let go of her lower lip and pouted somewhat, disoriented by the treatment, Bucky could not help but have a fleeting thought at how those lips felt, how soft they were to kiss and touch, to tease and…
He looked away, clearing his throat to ease the tightness that had found its way there, hoping that the excited blush that had creeped onto his face was not too visible under his growing beard. Lianka sent him a coy, sideways glance that he missed entirely, perhaps guessing his thoughts, which made Steve, who sat facing them, smile very discreetly as he noted the exchange.
The flight was uneventful and silent. Okoye seemed to know that barreling them for information was useless: they would have to brief the king either way upon arrival, and she could easily wait until them to get the full report, sparing them the need to repeat themselves. Lianka did mention that she had a USB drive to analyse for further information, to which, grumbling about outdated technology, Okoye supplied that they would be transferred to Shuri's lab upon landing to tend their wounds and would be able to work on that information there as well.
They reached Wakanda rapidly, flying through Earth's upper atmosphere, where air friction did not slow them down nearly as much. Lianka, like Steve and Bucky, marveled at the sight of the world's blue curvature, silently in awe at the immense beauty of this sight few people were ever privileged enough to witness. Their entry into the city's airspace was a task all on its own, as the three unusual passengers uncomfortably braced for impact when they saw the ship lose altitude and approach a forest-covered mountain side, knowing that it was most probably an illusion, but uneasy all the same. As expected, they passed through the lifelike image and flew into the city, which shone brightly in the day's intense, cloudless sky, shimmering like something out of a mirage. They landed near the immense palace at the centre of the large, futuristic metropolis, as close as possible to the entrance, the access ramp lowering with a hiss that allowed a gust of hot, dry air onto into their midst.
A stretcher had been wheeled in to lay Steve upon it, but the soldier grumbled and refused it, relying instead on a quietly amused Bucky to support his weight as he walked slowly across the hot and shiny landing zone, grimacing and snarling quietly with every step as he tried to hide his suffering. Lianka could not hep but roll her eyes at this very male display of machoism, but she found herself acting slightly alike: she'd taken a beating during their fight and had to admit that she was still in a fair amount of pain, her body not quite healed yet.
She figured that that would all change soon. Squaring her shoulders, she followed the pair of augmented soldiers, walking next to Okoye as she led them into the Wakandan palace and down into its preciously guarded laboratory.
(0)
The elevator released them with a soft ding, and Steve found himself eternally grateful of the cool gust of conditioned air that greeted them: the outdoors had been utterly stifling, especially after their prolonged stay in the great wilderness of the north.
Shuri was upon them at once, glancing critically at Steve, assessing his level of damage, before checking Bucky rapidly and finally reaching Lianka, whom she observed with grave eyes.
"Glad to see you survived those barbarians." The young princess said in a hard tone, nodding at Lianka, who nodded back slowly.
"I would have died, had it not been for these two…"
"Right. What did you learn? Who did this? And why? Wait!" Shuri shook her head, clearing it. "Don't answer that. First thing is first: we need to get you fixed up. Take a seat on this table and I'll run a full diagnostic."
Lianka raised her hands defensively. "Whoa there! Do Steve first: he took a pretty bad beating in our last fight. I patched him up as best I could, but the agents we were up against were… uncommonly strong."
Shuri nodded, agreeing as she immediately turned to the Captain, guiding him and Bucky to one of her examination tables.
"What sort of agents…?" She asked distractedly as the blond captain took a seat on the table and laid down gingerly upon the hard metal surface. Shuri was quick to start attaching sensors to his body as she and two assistants stripped away his heavy clothes, revealing the slowly healing wounds and bruises upon his skin.
"I'll go fetch your brother." Okoye announced softly, vanishing into the elevator with her escort of guards. She was smiling slightly: it was always a pleasure to watch Shuri whirl to life as the excitement of research and discovery took over her. She seemed to truly come alive.
"Hydra agents." Lianka said grimly as she and Bucky glanced ominously at one another, and he nodded, letting her take over the answers.
Shuri's head snapped up from the needle she'd been inserting into Steve's arm, her face suddenly stiff with anger. "Hydra?" It was not disbelief in her voice: it was fury.
Lianka shrugged helplessly. "That's what we understood. Mind if I use a computer? I actually have some data from the base we visited that I still need to check out before we brief the king."
Seeming a tad distraught, Shuri nodded absently, gesturing to a high-tech machine behind her as she continued to analyse Steve, before leaving his treatment to her assistants and turning her attention to Bucky, whom she stared at very critically.
He shook his head and nodded towards Lianka, who had found a port for her drive and was typing rapidly on the keyboard attached to the computer she was using, pulling up some files that she stared gravely at, focused.
"Do Lianka first. She needs it. I'll be fine."
The Russian spy turned her head to him as he spoke, minimizing the window she'd been working on and grimacing. "I'm fine, Bucky. Let her take care of Steve and you."
"Lia, you're the least augmented of us, you should…"
But he froze as he realised what he'd said. A look of disbelief flashed over Lianka's face as her eyes widened to his words.
Shuri was too quick to have missed what had just happened.
She turned on Lianka like a predator, eyes flashing. "What does he mean, augmented?"
"I…" Lianka withered under the alarming look sent at her and shot Bucky a dirty one as he awkwardly tried to avoid her. "What he means… damnit… I… I took injections, okay? Years ago. From the black market in Russia, which was supposed to be like the serum used to make super soldiers…"
Shuri's nostrils flared angrily and she pointed wordlessly to a nearby examining chair, to which Lianka walked slowly, defeated. Bucky sent her an apologetic glance and she sighed at him, unable to remain angry. The young scientist reached for a sterile needle at once and approached the Russian woman, shaking her head.
"They put the worst sort of shit into those injections… you're lucky to be alive, you know that?"
"I do." Lianka answered quietly.
"I'm going to run a full DNA diagnostic to figure out just how much of you has been modified by that… that crap. Luckily, we have a DNA sample of all our agents on file, so if some parts of you have been damaged, we might even find a way to repair them by reversing the mutations. Maybe. I'll cross-reference you with Captain Rogers, who has the original serum's mutations and see how far along you are."
Lianka nodded, not even flinching when Shuri deftly poked her with that needle, before capping a small vial to it, letting blood spurt into it from the artery she'd hit on her first try. She was efficient, if anything. She pulled the needle out and pressed a small cotton swap to the pinprick it left behind, letting Lianka hold it in place, before turning her back and marching off to her computer to run her tests.
Bucky came up to the young woman slowly, his face almost pitiful.
"Sorry." His mouth twisted somewhat as he stood before her, nearly close enough to touch her, but not quite daring to do so: if she was angry, he preferred to stay out of reach.
Lianka sighed and smiled that tiny, sad smile of hers. She let go of the cotton swab that covered the needle's trace and used that hand to reach for Bucky, grasping him by his metal arm. He shivered with pleasure as he felt her touch upon the cold surface, not quite used to the technology yet.
"Don't be, Bucky." She pulled him closer. "I'm the one that's sorry."
He frowned in confusion, but she pulled him in for a gentle kiss, her lips like silk upon his and his mind temporarily reeled, distracted. She smelled like blood and wilderness, but he found that odor so very soothing, so very familiar… his heart clenched at her touch, his body responded to her like a fire to a gust of wind… the kiss never deepened, but somehow it grew in intensity, sweeping him away in the growing warmth it awoke.
It was she who pulled away first, as he had no desire to do so, his metal hand cupping the side of her face as he found himself staring into those glacier eyes, which were veiled in… sadness? She glanced over his shoulder, at Shuri, who was looking at the screens in front of her, which were running Lianka's blood sample, her head going left to right, staring with unveiled confusion as the hard insecurity of realisation slowly tensed her shoulders, her whole being…
"Forgive me, Bucky."
He had wanted to speak, but she beat him it. Her eyes found his, hard and unwavering in their determination.
"Eto chernyy vorobey, kotoryy vedet krasnyy volk vo t'me."
At her words, he froze.
His last conscious thought was…
"No."
And suddenly Lianka was leaping from her chair, pushing past him as he stood there, stiff and unmoving, his face hardening visibly as all emotions were swept from him. She unsheathed her gun with a speed and precision that were in no apparent way hindered by her wounds and her shot rang true, hissing into the screen just to the right of Shuri's head. The young princess howled in surprised, ducking beneath her desk as her mind flew into overdrive and she tried to gather her bearing, tried to get to the weapons she always kept nearby.
Lianka's gun howled anew and the young scientist was forced to crumble down and stay immobile as the assassin marched towards her, aiming right between her eyes, a look of calculated, cold determination upon her face.
The two assistants that had been tending Steve leapt back as he himself shot up, grimacing in pain, his eyes flying from Lianka to Bucky, who still stood by the observation chair, stock-still and stiff as a board. There had never been a look of purer incomprehension on the Captain's face as he stared at the unrecognizable hardness with which Lianka moved, the boundless, emotionless stare of her icy eyes as she neared Shuri.
"Lia?" He asked, fumbling with the needles that pierced his arms, trying to rip them free.
As if she suddenly remembered he was in the room with them, Lianka glanced quickly at Steve, before training her hard gaze upon Shuri anew, who was sitting awkwardly on the floor where she had fallen, a look of growing hatred appearing on her obtuse face.
"Neutralize Rogers. Keep him alive" Lianka barked loudly, seemingly at no one. However, upon her immediate words, Bucky seemed to come to life, turning upon himself with the soundless grace of a trained killer, marching straight at Steve, who was still fighting to free himself from the examination table.
The two assistants who had been tending him made a motion to run, but Lianka trained her gun rapidly upon them and with two very precise shots, caught each in one knee, sending them sprawling across the surgically clean laboratory floor with howls of agony.
Shuri did not even have the time to blink that the gun was pointed anew upon her.
"The system is designed to go on alarmed lockdown in the case of gunfire or detected violence. You won't get far. And you won't make it out alive." The young scientist snarled hatefully, curling her fists angrily as she stared up at the calculating assassin. She was surprised to find a quick, assured smirk appear upon that dangerous face.
Bucky had reached Steve, who was still not free of the sensors and needles.
"Bucky! Snap out of it!" He yelled out, before coming to the very quick realisation that his friend could obviously not hear him, as the Winter Soldier reached him and lashed out at once with all the strength he could muster, aiming his vibranium fist at his friend's head. Steve pushed himself back as quickly as he could and the blow only grazed his jaw, sending a jolt of pain through it nonetheless as he went tumbling gracelessly off the table. He hit his head roughly enough on the hard ground to see stars and when his vision focused anew, Bucky was upon him.
Lianka was still smirking quietly. "If you're hoping your system will save you, stop." She nodded at the computer she'd been using barely minutes ago, where a program was now running flawlessly, executing a series of fast processes. "That has neutralized it, by now. We're on lockdown, but only for as long as I want to be."
"I have firewalls, overrides…" Shuri began, aghast.
"You do. But by the time they'll stop the program, I plan on being long gone."
Bucky seized Steve by the front of his shirt and slammed him down into the ground with enough force to crush all the air from his lungs. Steve wasn't sure what hurt more: the blows he was receiving, or the terrifying depth of the treachery he had just been subject to, the details of which were not even clear in his mind yet. He tried to raise a hand and stop his friend (foe), to no avail: he was still in pain from his previous fight and Bucky was moving with cold, heartless determination that not even death could stop… Steve was very forcibly reminded of the last time he'd found himself in this situation, when Bucky had nearly killed him during their fight at the Triskelion. As his friend rained slow, precise blows to his head one after another until the stars turned into darkness, he found himself swept away in a torrent of violent emotions, most prominent amongst them being sadness and betrayal.
As soon as Steve passed out, Bucky released him and stood, turning to Lianka with an emotionless face that somehow still conveyed a cold sort of resolve.
"Soldat?" She questioned cautiously.
"Povinuyas' vorobey." He responded clearly, his eyes finding her.
She nodded. "Bind the girl. Defend me from anyone who comes in here. Ne ubivat' nikogo."
He moved at once, sharp and efficient, grasping a length of thick tubing as he went, which he promptly tied around Shuri's joined wrists several times, tightly enough that she would never be able to break through it or slip out. The deed done, he rose, and his dark eyes swept the room menacingly, searching for any threat.
The female assassin saw as the young scientists eyed the vibranium arm cautiously, enduring her situation soundlessly. "Don't even think about it." She warned, and Shuri's angry eyes snapped up to her. "The arm was the first thing I disconnected from your systems. You can't stop him."
Seeing that her hostage was properly bound, Lianka lowered her gun and stepped over Shuri, headed for the computer that was running her infamous program. She laid the gun beside the keyboard and started typing, launching a download that appeared to be tapping into the system's entire memory, copying everything it could reach.
"How dare you use him?" Shuri hissed, trying to sit up comfortably as she glared at the assassin defiling her workstation. "He's been through enough. Who are you, anyways? You're not Lianka, that's for sure… your DNA does not match the one we have on file… what did you do with the real Lianka?"
The assassin glanced at Shuri, before lifting her eyes to the elevator, from which they could now hear aggressive banging: someone was obviously trying to break through. Bucky had turned to the commotion, squaring his shoulders as he prepared for combat, but the Russian assassin stepped back over Shuri and passed him, headed for the elevator.
She reached it, and without even blinking, raised both hands to the centre of the door, which was moments away from being pulled open by whomever was on the other side. As her hands pressed to the cool metal, they slowly began glowing an angry sort of red, heat radiating from her palms like from the core of the sun. It was not long before the shouts behind the door took on a panicked note as she slowly melted the metal together and made it virtually impossible to break through.
Meanwhile, two scientists had appeared from further within the lab, wielding energy guns. Bucky had responded with speed and efficiency, rapidly reaching the untrained men as their multiple shots went wild, careening over the walls and shattering windows; it took only two very precise blows to send them sprawling, alive but unconscious, into the wall behind them.
The would-be Lianka was done welding the doors shut with her bare hands, so she turned away, making her way back to the workstation, where she resumed her cybernetic takeover. The whole time, Shuri followed her with an astonished, horrified gaze.
"I've seen that technology before." The young princess said at last, as Bucky returned to stand next to her, stoic and alert.
"You have." The assassin agreed, her eyes following her program carefully.
"It isn't stable."
This time, the woman glanced at Shuri. For what might have been the first time since this fiasco began, an actual emotion seemed to flash within the depths of her glacier gaze. It was stormy and complex, but it was there.
"It is not stable." She agreed after a tense moment of silence.
Shuri nodded grimly. "We have technology that delved into stabilizing genetic mutations…"
"You do."
The scientist fell quiet, slumping against the desk behind her, finally piecing everything together as the imposter wrapped up her hack, making sure she had all that she needed, knowing that her time was now truly running out.
The barbaric attacks on their agents in far away countries… this imposter that looked uncannily like one of their agents, who had coincidentally 'survived' one of those attacks… was it also coincidence that she looked so much like Lianka? A twist of fate? The whole staging of attacks by augmented soldiers, the details of which were still unknown to them because they hadn't had full communication with Steve and Bucky until now… the trust she'd built up using a copied tattoo, intimate details she'd probably extracted from the real Lianka through horrid torture… all an act, all to draw them in, lure them into safety and trust… trick them into bringing her back right here, right where she needed to be… the extent of such planning was almost unimaginable. The assassin, and whomever she worked with, had navigated unknown variables with terrifying efficiency… it was a testament to how dangerous, how truly lethal this unknown woman was.
And yet…
Shuri glanced at the assassin and noted the grim twist of her mouth, the uncanny clarity with which she operated… this woman was not brainwashed or beaten into what she was doing… she was working of her own free will, driven by a purpose. Could that be used against her?
The assassin turned to Bucky, tucking her USD drive into a pocket safely. "Grab Rogers. Follow me."
"You won't get out of here alive." Shuri warned anew. This time, her voice was smaller, as if tired. "They'll gun you down on sight."
The woman walked up next to Shuri and pulled the young scientist up to her feet by the arm with incalculable strength, making the gesture seem frighteningly effortless. She smiled, albeit a bit sadly. "That's why I have you." She assured softly.
She stood behind Shuri and seized her roughly across the chest with her left arm, pressing her against herself, and maintained her there with little effort. There was no breaking that steel grip, the princess knew, and in this position, she was effectively a human shield, protecting her kidnapper. Not that she needed a shield… when she'd melted the elevator door, her powers unleashing from whatever system had been holding them back and preventing them from healing her and betraying her true nature, all of the woman's wounds had glowed red as well, vanishing in moments. She could now heal from even the deadliest blows… she was essentially indestructible. The assassin raised her other hand to the girl's face and allowed her palm to grow red-hot, holding it close enough to her prisoner that the radiating heat was just barely bearable. Shuri grimaced and squirmed but was firmly held in place.
With a nudge, they set out, Bucky following them with Steve swung over his shoulder, still limp and lifeless.
They neared the door that led to the stairs out of the lab when it burst open before them, T'challa himself powering through, fully armored in his Panther suit as he bared his vibranium claws and slipped into a defensive pose, ready to fight. Okoye slipped up beside him, ever deadly, her spear swinging around as it pointed straight at the assassin and Bucky, neither of which so much as budged as they stopped before this aggressive display. A flock of armored warriors slipped in as well, training everything from spears, to swords, to guns at the infiltrators.
There was a silent, tense moment that seemed to last a lifetime as everyone assessed the situation, Shuri struggling weakly in the blazing assassin's grip, whose blue eyes had begun to glow red as well as her power mounted and she got ready for the worse possible outcome. T'challa's helm slipped away to reveal his face, upon which a mixed look of betrayal and hatred seemed permanently etched, his eyes darting from the woman, to Shuri, to Bucky and Steve.
"Let us pass." The imposter said, her voice unnaturally calm.
"We cannot let you leave." T'challa responded in kind, cautious and calculating.
The assassin neared her burning hand to Shuri's face, who cried out in pain at the growing burn.
"Let us go or she will die. And it won't be pleasant."
"Don't let her leave! Brother, don't let her win!" The feisty scientists howled through her pain as T'challa's eyes darted to and from her, trying to hide their panic, their uncertainty.
His deliberation was taking too long. Losing patience, the assassin turned her head sideways, opened her mouth wide and roared out a powerful jet of fire that literally sent everyone in front of her jumping a step back, shouting in confused horror. Shuri screamed as the air around her seemed to combust.
"Alright!" T'challa cried out, alarmed at this unexpected and ugly turn of events. The woman ceased her display, which had been more to vent her excessive buildup of rage than anything… her eyes were still glowing angrily and the king feared most of all that she could lose control and blow up half the palace along with herself… he'd seen this sort of thing before and he knew about this technology. His priority was to protect his sibling and his people. "Let them pass."
Okoye snarled something unintelligible as she slammed her spear down and the other warriors followed suit, murderous looks upon their faces.
Walking slowly, pushing Shuri in front of her, the assassin moved past the furious group of fighters with Bucky on her heels, who sent them nothing more than a calculated sort of look that implied quite heavily that he would fight them to the death should they show any sign of aggression. When they passed the door into the staircase, the assassin closed it and melted the handle with her free hand, insuring it would take at least some time for the fighters on the other side to break through. The odd little group then reached the steps, which they took two at a time, ascending effortlessly towards the palace's upper levels. Shuri was not a super soldier and she quickly found herself losing breath as she was uncomfortably shoved forward, forced to climb more levels than she dared count… when she began slowing their pace, struggling to keep up, the assassin simply seized her around the ribcage beneath the sternum with one arm and lifted her slightly off the ground to carry her the rest of the way. The ease with which the woman did this, without ever breaking a sweat or barely breathing harder, was terrifying: Shuri knew she was up against something she could not hope to defeat, not on her own…
"You won't be able to get out of here…" She grumbled nonetheless, intent on at least making this trip as unpleasant for her kidnapper as she could. "The jets will have shut down with the lockdown and there's an indestructible shield around the entire city."
The Russian spy did not answer and that was probably what worried Shuri most: she'd infiltrated them with ludicrous ease… who was to say she was not steps ahead of them still?
They burst out into the bright light of the landing zone a few levels later, Bucky slightly out of breath behind them as he still lugged a slowly awakening Steve Rogers over his shoulder. The spy set Shuri back down on her feet and grimly faced the absolute armada of armored fighters that greeted them, weapons out and faces set in snarls. It seemed that representatives of every Wakanda clan were amongst them, outraged and enraged at the kidnapping of their princess and invasion of their city.
The assassin stared at them coldly, calmly.
"You can either stand down, or she can die." Her hand glowed redder still, always a threat as she kept it close to Shuri. "Your king let me pass. You should do the same."
The warriors stomped in unison, letting out an angry battle cry that shook the air. But the assassin did not flinch or budge, her hard eyes unwavering.
It was another tense moment and with no leader to order their surrender, she was momentarily convinced that they would engage in combat nonetheless, as they appeared ready to do anything to prevent them from leaving.
Until one of the frontmost fighters, a member of the female battalion led by Okoye, lowered her spear with a venomous, spitting insult… the rest of the warriors, four dozen at least, followed suit in a disorganised, unsure manner, their faces endlessly hateful.
"No!" Shuri cried out, furious. "Fight her! Forget about me! Stop her!"
But the warriors did not listen, stepping aside slowly to clear a path. A path to what? There was nothing on the landing zone that they could use to flee, no ships or vehicles, yet the assassin pushed onward relentlessly…
Suddenly, the great domed shield above the city, a barely visible shimmer high above their heads, flickered and died out, revealing Wakanda to the world fro the briefest of times.
The warriors looked up, crying out in astonished, horrified awe and the imposter followed their gazes assuredly, hiding her sigh of relief as she spotted three jets rapidly entering the unprotected airspace, which they navigated unperturbed, landing just a few yards in front of her on the palace's tarmac. The centre jet lowered a ramp with a hiss and out came four armored soldiers, one of which was a tall woman, their hands all glowing the same sort of fiery red as the imposter's.
She stared at them with a hard gaze and all four bowed their heads lightly, keeping an eye out of the massed warriors behind the spy, who still dared not attack.
"Sparrow." One of the male fighters greeted her as she passed him without a glance, Bucky following diligently as he struggled slightly with Steve, who was now becoming very conscious and trying to break free with groans and growls.
"Let's go." The assassin's voice was tired. She reached the ramp and let Bucky on before her, the four augmented fighters following him carefully as they kept a cautious eye on the Wakandan warriors, who had slowly moved forward, just in case they could find an opening, an opportunity…
Behind them, the door to the stairs that the kidnapper had taken burst open with a harrowing bang, giving everyone a jump, and T'challa tore through with Okoye, rushing forward towards the three undesired jets that were preparing to take off from the landing zone. Okoye bore a look of disgusted fury, watching in horror as the assassin stood upon the ramp to the centre jet, still holding the princess hostage, staring at them coldly.
"You gun down but a single one of us, and she will die." The imposter warned loudly, her voice emotionless and hard.
Shuri was fighting back tears as she stared at her brother pleadingly, completely at a loss as to what should be done… fight? Pray? Run? She felt helpless and weak and angry in the monster's grasp.
"Leave her here and we will let you go." T'challa promised gently as his mask fell back from his face, revealing the eyes of a man terrified to lose someone he cared for. "There is no need for anyone to get hurt. Leave Shuri and go."
The assassin looked tired. "I can't do that."
The king was not one to beg, but there was nothing he was not prepared to do to save his sister… just as the plea was about to leave his mouth, all three jets took off with a ground-shaking growl, the assassin still standing steadily on the open ramp with a screaming Shuri in her grasp.
Helplessly, he watched as the jet took off effortlessly and careened out of Wakandan airspace unperturbed, the shield protecting the city having been completely deactivated… before the three planes even had the chance to vanish into the distance, the domed protection came back online and cut Wakanda away from the world in the same manner that T'challa felt his sibling had just been cut away from his family.
(0)
The ramp closed behind the imposter as they flew away from the city and she brought Shuri into the jet, throwing her down into a seat without much regard. The princess groaned and sat up as comfortably as she could, her hands still bound, her eyes full of furious hate. Nearby, Bucky had strapped Steve into a free seat and one of the other four augmented soldiers had trapped both his hands in a set of unbreakable, vibranium cuffs before he completely regained consciousness.
The female augmented soldier was circling Bucky coyly, her gaze amused as the controlled Winter Soldier stood in the centre of the jet, staring straight ahead, ignoring her completely, awaiting new orders.
"I could have some fun with this one. He's much more handsome than these three lugs." The woman smirked and came closer to Bucky, running a soft hand over the roughness of his beard.
"Touch him again and I will have you decommissioned, Deva."
The female stepped back at once, her amused demeanor crumbling into one of submission.
"Forgive me, Sparrow."
The assassin sent her an analysing, cold look and turned her eyes to Steve as he woke slowly, fighting to focus his gaze on his surroundings.
"We lost four soldiers, Sparrow. The Supreme is not impressed." One of the male fighters said coolly, while his two friends eyes Shuri dangerously. "Thankfully we have the princess. We might be able to turn her into a spy for us or trade her. It would appease the Supreme."
"Or we could just kill her. Slowly, of course." Another fighter proposed, leering at the snarling princess.
The Sparrow's head snapped to him at once. "Back the fuck off, Kiev." He too stood back at once at her sharp words, lowering his head dutifully. She turned to the pilot of their jet. "You. Get me down at the edge of Wakandan territory and open the ramp. Now."
The pilot did as he was told without question and the Sparrow grabbed Shuri roughly by her bound hands, lifting her to her feet without a word. She nearly dragged the struggling princess to the ramp as it slowly lowered, revealing that the jet was now hovering a couple meters above the savannah, billowing the dry grass below.
Shuri's wide eyes found those of her kidnapper and she opened her mouth in surprise, which was only accentuated when the woman seized a knife from her boot and cut into the tubing that held the princess' wrists bound, freeing her.
Their gazes crossed for the briefest moment, during which Shuri saw… what did she see in those glacier eyes, really? There were a thousand emotions swirling there, and none of them explained why she was being set free when they could just as easily keep her, just as easily do all the horrible things they had spoken of… the assassin held their stare for a moment longer than necessary and without any warning or explanation, shoved the young princess out of the jet and down into the grass below.
The fall was short and left Shuri with nothing more than a few bruises. She did not even have the time to raise her head that the jets were all flying off, the feared assassin vanishing within as the ramp closed behind her.
(0)
"Why did you do that?" The man that had proposed they keep Shuri for the Supreme asked, narrowing his eyes. He was the only one of the four that still seemed to unabashedly front the Sparrow.
The assassin sent him a look of cold contempt.
"We wouldn't have had to lose four soldiers during this mission if you hadn't sent four soldiers against me, James. You moron." She answered his initial statement. "We were prepared to take loses, because there was no other way to convince Rogers and Barnes I was on their side, but thanks to your idiotic planning, we lost half the Winter Soldier program. Bet you didn't brag to the Supreme that that was your idea, though."
James finally had the decency to look down, clenching his jaw.
"As for why I let her go… do we really need all of Wakandan forces barreling down on us because we have their princess? Let them keep her, it might mean they will be in less of a rush to come after us. We've given them enough reasons to be pissed."
The third male fighter, who hadn't spoken yet, stood out from the shadows in the back of the jet where he'd been lurking. His eyes were a bright sort of green and sharper than those of his compatriots. "We have a lot of work to do now, Sparrow. Will we have the time to wrap everything up before they strike?"
"I don't know, Roan." She sighed softly. "First thing is first. We get back to the base and analyse the Wakandan tech I got. I managed to get a glance at what it is they worked on and I think it does hold the key to stabilizing the AIM gene."
"No more risk of exploding?" Deva asked, hopeful.
The Sparrow nodded. "No more risk of exploding. We'll be stable." She sighed. "The Supreme will be pleased, no matter our losses. We've recovered the Winter Soldier, and we've acquired Rogers, who will be just as good once he's reset. And if the AIM gene can be stabilized, the Supreme…" She left her sentence unfinished, but all four augmenter soldiers nodded pensively, aware of what she was letting on.
Only Bucky remained quietly stoic, taking a seat next to her and across from Steve when she gestured for him to do so.
Steve was now awake, his face folded into a pained scowl as his head pulsed awfully with each thump of his heart, his entire body an angry mess of wounds. He was staring at his best friend with eyes of unabashed despair, his mouth twisted into a grimace.
"Bucky…" He whispered hoarsely, trying to reach the soundless soldier. "Bucky, snap out of it. Please… those codes don't work anymore… Bucky, damnit, snap out of it…"
The Sparrow looked at him with what might have been akin to sadness. "He's beyond you now, Steve. Those old codes don't work on him anymore, you are right about that… but those are not the ones I've used. There was another code, a sentence known only by two people in this world. Me, and the Supreme Hydra. A code worked into him a long time ago, in his debut as the Winter Soldier. Did you know that I had met him before, that we had worked together?" By the astounded look on Steve's bludgeoned face, she understood his response. "He would not have remembered, even if my face had not been changed to resemble Lianka's. I was wiped from his memory. It was necessary, in case he was compromised. Which he was, in the end… But that code was not wiped away."
"You… Lianka…" Steve closed his eyes painfully, fighting with the immensity of the betrayal he'd endured. "How could you? All this time?"
"You want me to silence him, Sparrow?" Deva offered playfully, pulling a jagged, wicked knife from a sheathe around her muscled thigh.
The Sparrow lifted a hand in dismissal. "No need, Deva. Even if he knows the whole story, it will not matter once they reset him." She sighed as she tilted her head, watching Steve intently. "This is nothing personal, Steve. It was a mission, nothing more. I had a part to play, pieces to move and I did just that. No hard feelings."
"So everything you told us… everything we shared, it was all just a lie? Your past… Liev, your parents… Wakanda… the… the rest… all a lie?"
She shook her head slowly. "Some of it was true, some of it… a lie. Some of what you saw and heard belonged to Lianka, some of it to me. The best lies come with a grain of truth, always. I was born into the life of a Russian spy, and I did go to vorobeynaya shkola… but a very, very long time ago. Coincidentally, so did Lianka. We had much in common, she and I, even though we were born decades apart. Where I was orphaned at such a young age that I cannot remember my parents, she lost hers at an older age, which turned her bitter towards Wakanda. It turned her into an easy prey for us. The fact that we looked alike, that I could take her place… it was an unexpected coincidence, one we decided to exploit. Initially, we had planned to capture and reset one of Wakanda's agents into a sleeper, but thanks to Lianka and her uncanny resemblance to me, it became an incredible opportunity for me to go there myself. All I needed was to take suppressants that stopped my powers, the same suppressants I took when I was with you, and receive the necessary surgery to chance my appearance to match hers. It would allow me to infiltrate Wakanda myself, provided I could convince whomever they sent to help me that the threat we faced was real enough and that I could be trusted."
"Wait… the pills you kept taking… those were…?"
"Suppressants. I had to hide my powers from you, but above all, the AIM gene remains unstable. I cannot guarantee I will not blow up at any given moment. It was… an unfortunate side effect of the procedure I was put through." He gaze darkened imperceptibly. "You barely even questioned them, even though I took them right in front of you… goes to show how easily you trust when given the opportunity." She shrugged. "I last took them when we reached Svalbard. I knew the effects had to wear off if I was to be able to escape Wakanda once we arrived there. Seems I calculated that just right."
Steve looked revolted, scowling deeply. "I can't believe someone, anyone could do so much evil… Lianka was innocent. Just another damned victim of yours…"
"Lianka… She was eager to advance, to find her own place in the world, so it was easy for Liev to approach and manipulate her. It was harder to break her though… she was a hard, ruthless spy and I was sure, for the longest time, that she would die before she revealed what we needed in order to take her place. But she snapped… everyone does, in the end. It just takes the right motivation." The Sparrow's face was emotionless, but her eyes were infinitely cold. "I had what I needed to do my job. All the pieces… all I needed was Wakanda to send someone I could follow back. Imagine my surprise when I saw they sent the very asset Hydra was hoping to recover, the one I knew I had absolute control over, along with the only other soldier that had ever managed to truly piss them off."
Steve was staring at her with a hurt look that was slowly morphing into one of hatred. "So… everything… between us… all of it…"
"A lie." She finished for him without batting an eyelash. "Don't beat yourself up, Steve. I am not like these four goons, or like Bucky. I have not been brainwashed into what I am… no one strapped me to a machine and shocked my mind until it shattered into a thousand pieces…. No, I was built from the ground up into what I am. I was molded, folded and worked into a spy, into an assassin. This is what I am, this is my nature. You could not have seen past me, even if you tried. No one ever has. Not in seventy years. Remember that when the time comes."
Her eyes were laden, and he clenched his jaw, disgusted, furious and wounded beyond words. Beside her, Bucky remained calm and stoic, as if deaf to every word she had just said.
There was a long moment of silence, before Steve decided to speak up, intent on getting answers to all the questions he had.
"And the other soldiers? The Winter Soldiers we fought? Were they not like the four here, were they not your allies?"
She shrugged. "They were assets and I was prepared to lose a few in order to convince you that I was on your side and that the threat was real. I really sold it, didn't I? We could have lost fewer of them, but someone here decided to go all out even though he knew I'd have to kill whomever he sent after me…" She turned a hard gaze to James, seated near the back of the jet, who resolutely fled her eyes, an obtuse grimace painted on his harsh features. "Doesn't matter. We can make more soldiers once the AIM gene is stabilized. And we have you, and Bucky. I'll take that as a win, any day. Hail Hydra."
"Hail Hydra." The four other soldiers repeated vehemently, their voices as one. Bucky made not a sound, obediently silent next to the cool assassin.
Steve had no answer for her, save for a look of cold contempt that she ignored as the jet shot through the sky, taking them gods know where.
(0)
Jesus, almost 8000 words and 17 pages… this must be the longest chapter I've written in all my fanfiction writing history, by far. And I've been working non-stop for two days on it instead of doing homework because I had to get it out of my head, and in order for it to be coherent, I had to write it as quickly as possible.
It might be a moment before I write again as I have exams coming up in a few weeks, so please review!
ABOVE all, I really want to know what you thought of the twist. Did you expect it? I tried to pepper a few details throughout the story that might have led on that Lianka was AIM (allusions to her body heat mostly, you'll notice if you read through a second time), as well as the suppressant pills she was taking that the guys thought were for pain, but I didn't dare do more because I was really hoping to keep this a twist that no one saw coming.
If I succeeded in subverting your expectations, please, please let me know! I want to know if I could have done something differently, or better… this is one of the first times I create such a twist!
Thank you for reading and have a great week!